It’s October 23rd, so you’ve got just barely over a week to put together an awesome costume for The Big Day. Never fear, you’re not destined to wear an ill-fitting, cheaply constructed, store bought monstrosity this year! Through the magic of flickr, we’ve put together a list of creative costumes that you can whip together within a week, or just one night if you’re that much of a procrastinator.

Creepy Mask: Make an unsettling mask from ripped up magazine photos. The rest of the costume doesn’t really matter, since your freaky face will be the focal point.

Crash Victim: A little gore makeup, a lot of CAUTION tape, and a faux tire tread mark makes for smashing costume. Zing!

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You’ve been toiling away on your costume (or pumpkin, prop, spooky art, whatever the case may be) to freak out the impending trick-or-treaters. Your creation can win you a handful of treats, too! Some of these contests are frightfully simple to enter, while the rest require varying degrees of participation. Whether you only have a moment to join a mailing list, or have set aside months to create a fantastic costume or prop, you’ll find a contest perfect for you.

MAKE/CRAFT DIY Halloween Contest: Submit images of your homemade Halloween creations to the flickr pool. Categories include pumpkins, costumes, decorations or gadgets, and food.
Prizes: A trip to Maker Faire San Francisco and a bunch of other TBA prizes
Deadline: November 4, 2007

Curbly Candy Corn Challenge: To enter, transform these syrupy wedges into something seasonally superior for your home. Or, take …

Welcome to October! Less than 30 days to get all your Halloween plans together, including choosing a killer costume. If you’re still unsure what to dress up as, I’ve got a roundup of links that are sure to get your creative juices flowing.

Not sure where to start? The best tip I know of is to choose a Halloween costume that you’re genuinely interested in becoming. If you spend your days dreaming about how badass ninjas are, then be a ninja! If you really like a character from a movie or comic, become him or her for Halloween. For all you mavericks out there who want to do something truly original, dream up your own character. Feel free to borrow from any themes that appeal to you, whether they will “make sense” to other people or not. Grab a wig, a loud jacket, some face …

Halloween is a time for creativity; letting your imagination wander into the unexplored corners of your mind, the birth of new monsters, unleashing of ideas long since bottled… Sometimes the end result is reward enough, but you know what makes it even sweeter? Recognition. When you finally get to wear the costume that took you 8 weeks to make, the cries of “What an amazing costume!” make it so worth it. And when your neighbors do a double take and have to peer closer at your handmade yard prop: that’s one satisfying moment.

So if you haven’t already started, now’s the time to get cracking on your Halloween creations. When you’ve finally finished, enter them into the MAKE/CRAFT DIY Halloween Contest. Just upload your pictures to their DIY HALLOWEEN photo pool at Flickr by November 4th and your …

There are many milestones that usher in the Halloween season, and depending on your interests, some will be decidedly more exciting than others. The changing colors of the leaves and new flavors of candy corn are nice, but one sure sign that October 31st is nigh is the X-Entertainment Halloween Countdown. Its kickoff means a near daily dose of the unadulterated celebration of our beloved holiday. Every weekday Matt, the Man Behind the Curtain at X-E, writes about “new-for-2007 Halloween stuff and tons of ghoulish goodies from yesteryear.” Some highlights from last year include a review of the new Jones Soda Halloween flavors, The 3D effects of Friday the 13th: Part 3, the tale of his best Halloween costume ever, and a 3 part series on the best new candy of the season. Matt is …

As you woke up this morning, rubbing sleep from your eyes and candy corn from around your mouth, what was your first thought? For many of us, it was something along the lines of “Halloween couldn’t be any further away”. That may be true, but take heart, Halloweenies: that’s why 365 Halloween exists! The neighbors may not reward you with candy if you try trick-or-treating in February, and they might actually complain if you leave your spooky decorations up all year, but at 365Halloween.com, we’ll feed your habit all year long. The Big Day itself may be over for 2006, but the spirit of Halloween is always alive (except in France).

Not only can we celebrate Dia De Los Muertos on November 1st and 2nd, but we can relive our memories by sharing photos, stories, and other …