Introduction: How to Enter the Halloween Contest

Halloween is our favorite holiday!   It's an excuse to make cat costumes and edible eyeballs, carve jack-o-lanterns, and build a model guillotine or motion-activated bats.  It's the one holiday where everyone agrees that doing it yourself is best, so what are YOU making, baking, or creating to celebrate?  The world needs to know!

This year we've teamed up with the folks at SINGER, Dremel, Ponoko, Monkeylectric, and Photojojo to bring you the best Halloween contest ever.  Show us what delightfully frightful things you can make, and win the tools to create something even more amazing!  Every winner will also receive the Instructables Prize Pack: a one-year Pro membership, and an Instructables Robot t-shirt, patch, and stickers.

*You do not have to choose a category. Our judges will select the best fit among the Costume, Gadgets & Gizmos, Decorations, Food, Green, and Slideshow categories. 
*Every Halloween-themed Instructable or slideshow posted since November 10, 2008 is eligible.  Just click here enter your previously-published project.
*Multiple entries are allowed.  Limit to one prize per entrant.
*International entries are allowed.

So get to it!  Put your imagination and skills to good use making the world  creepier place.  We can't wait to see what you'll make!

Grand Prizes


SINGER Curvy 8780 - 225 Stitch Patterns, 7 Fully Automatic Buttonholes, Drop & Sew Bobbin, Fastest Threading yet!Dremel 4000 kit and a set of four Monkeylectric bike wheel lights so that your bike will become an instant light show!

Categories and Prizes


SINGER Costume Category

Show off your best homemade costumes! Whether you made it for you kids, your hamster, or even the office party, we want to see how you made it.

1st Prize (1 winner) - SINGER 7442sewing machine from SINGER, a Dremel 4000, and Instructables Prize Pack.
2nd Prize (3 winners) - Sewing basket from SINGER, Dremel Minimite Rotary Tool, and Instructables Prize Pack.
3rd Prize (5 winners) - Instructables Prize Pack.

Ponoko Decorations Category

Show us how you made your surroundings spooky enough to make all the neighborhood kids think twice about trick or treating.

1st Prize (1 winner) - $100 voucher for Ponoko, a Dremel 4000, and Instructables Prize Pack.
2nd Prize (3 winners) - $50 voucher for Ponoko, Dremel Minimite Rotary Tool, and Instructables Prize Pack.
3rd Prize (5 winners) - $10 voucher for Ponoko and Instructables Prize Pack.

Gagdets and Gizmos Category

Share the mechanics behind the spooky shapes, creepy noises, and sudden movements you've created to scare us senseless!

1st Prize (1 winner) - Coolneon Artist's Kit, a Dremel 4000, and Instructables Prize Pack.
2nd Prize (3 winners) - Engraved Leatherman Juice, Dremel Minimite Rotary Tool, and Instructables Prize Pack.
3rd Prize (5 winners) - Instructables Prize Pack.

Food Category

The grosser the better! What if you served this at your Halloween party and nobody ate it? Well, we'd probably give you a prize!

1st Prize (1 winner) - 7-Cup Cuisinart food processor, a Dremel 4000, and Instructables Prize Pack.
2nd Prize (3 winners) - Paring knife, Dremel Minimite Rotary Tool, and Instructables Prize Pack.
3rd Prize (5 winners) - Instructables Prize Pack.

Green Halloween Category

Did you manage to provide a spoooky haunted house with recycled goods? Is your costume a clever use of materials destined for the dump? Tell us all about it!

1st Prize (1 winner) - Voltaic's solar-powered Converter backpack, a Dremel 4000, and Instructables Prize Pack.
2nd Prize (3 winners) - Kill-a-Watt, Dremel Minimite Rotary Tool, and Instructables Prize Pack.
3rd Prize (5 winners) - Instructables Prize Pack.

Photojojo Slideshow Category

Provide photos of both the whole item and detail shots to show us what you've made!

1st Prize(1 winner): Eye-Fi Share card and Photojojo! The Book from Photojojo. and Instructables Prize Pack.
2nd Prize (3 winners) - Magnetic Photo Rope and Photojojo! The Book from Photojojo, and Instructables Prize Pack.
3rd Prize (5 winners) - Photojojo! The Book from Photojojoand Instructables Prize Pack.


Open to enter: Nov 10, 2008 12:01 AM PST
Deadline for entries: Nov 9, 2009 11:59 PM PST

View Contest now!

Step 1: Official Rules

 1. All federal, state, and local taxes on prize are the sole responsibility of the winner. No purchases are necessary; void where prohibited by law.

2. Participants agree to abide by all decisions of Instructables, contest co-sponsors, and judges, which shall be final and binding with respect to all issues relating to this contest.

3. Prize is not transferable and no cash alternative or prize substitution is available. Instructables and contest co-sponsors reserve the right to substitute a similar prize of equal or greater value if the prize listed is unavailable for any reason. All potential winners are subject to verification at the discretion of Instructables and contest co-sponsors.

4. Winner agrees that prizes are being provided "as is", and Instructables and contest co-sponsors make no warranty, representation or guarantee regarding the prize, including but not limited to its quality, condition, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

5. Instructables and contest co-sponsors are not responsible for problems including (but not limited to) damaged, incorrect, inaccurate, lost, delayed, or defective entries, or for injury or damage to any computer resulting from participation in this contest. Entries that have been tampered with or altered are void.

6. Instructables reserves the right to modify, cancel, postpone or end the contest at any time as necessary, at its sole discretion, or to disqualify any participant or winner, at its sole discretion, deemed to have cheated, destroyed, obstructed, or otherwise acted illegally or in bad faith in relation to this contest.

7. Instructables reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual it finds, in its sole discretion, to be in violation of the Terms of Service; to be acting in violation of these Official Rules; to be acting in a unethical or disruptive manner, or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other person.

8. By submitting an entry and entering this contest, you represent and warrant that: you are over the age of 18, or entering with the knowledge and permission of your parent or guardian (subject to verification), and that the entry does not contain or incorporate the intellectual property and/or confidential information of any third party.

9. By submitting an entry and entering this contest, you hereby grant Instructables a perpetual, irrevocable, sublicenseable, worldwide, royalty free right to publish and distribute your entry for their promotional purposes.

10. Governing Law: All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of the official rules, or the rights of entrants, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with, the substance laws of the State of California and any applicable laws and regulations of the United States.