Happy Halloween!

 

I have always done a Fall wreath for our front door, but this year I wanted to do one for our kitchen.  This wreath cost only a few dollars and was super simple to make.

 

I got the idea when Fender and I were at the dollar store and he fell in love with the black crows.  I grabbed a few crows, a straw wreath and came home to get to work.

 

 

First I spray painted the wreath black.  It doesn't absorb completely, but it's hardly noticeable.  I pulled a few strands of the straw out to make the wreath more jagged.

 

Then I tried to attach 3 different crows, but it was too much and I ended up with one.  The dollar store crows have wires coming out of their feet, so dC helped me shove him on!  Fender named him "Headward."   I don't know why. but that's his name!

 

 

Can you spot a little bit of last year's Halloween crafts?

 

Happy Halloween everyone!!!

Caramel Apples

We haven't made caramel apples in quite a while.  The kids were begging for them and of course dC and I are the ones who ended up unwrapping all of the little caramel candies!  Too bad they missed out on eating a few along the way!

Fender and I started the morning off in the rain looking for the perfect branches to use for sticks in the apples.  It was dumping pretty hard, but he liked jumping in the puddles!  I trimmed them back and then we stuck them in our apples.  I liked using the branches because they were so sturdy for such heavy sticky apples!

before...

 

 

after...

 



Then I just followed the microwave instructions on the caramel package and we were eating them in no time at all!

Welcome...

 

...my newest addition to the Halloween head family!  I've been dreaming him up for about a year now after buying a bag of putka pods.  I was just baffled the first time I saw them!  They looked exactly like a pumpkin, but small enough to add to Fall crafts.  I just had to put them on a skeleton's hat...so here we are!  I thought I would also show you step by step how I did it, in case you'd like to create your own! 

 

You'll need:

 

aluminum foil

air dry clay (I like Papercraft)

toothpicks

black felt

scissors

paintbrushes

acrylic paints in black and brown

paper towel

craft glue

putka pods

 

Check out last year's post to see the basic construction of the head.

The skeleton head is very similar to the pumpkin except for the extra clay used for his chin.  Again, I used a toothpick to carve out his teeth and nose and a sharpie cap for the eyes.  Then I began the very simple painting process.

Since he will remain mostly white, I really only painted in his eyes, nose, and outlined his teeth.  I used a small paintbrush for the nose and eyes and a toothpick to drag paint between his teeth.  It looks sloppy I know, but it's all part of his "vintage" charm! 

 

 

Just like all of the other's in the past, he got a light coat of brown paint mixed with water to make him look old. Since I still wanted him to be mainly white, I quickly wiped off any paint with a paper towel, leaving only a fine layer of brown behind.

 

 

 

I hand sewed a top hat out of felt, glued it on his head, and added the putka pods to the hat! I haven't told the others, but I think he is my favorite!

Happy Halloween!!!

Of course I procrastinated making the Cake a Month until the last day...and boy was it a doozey!  While I was making my 30th crepe, I definitely thought to myself - "self, what the heck are you doing?"  But thankfully the results of this crazy tower of power were worth it!  You can get the recipe here.

The best part was making the candied hazelnuts for the topping.  They turned out so well and were so easy that I'm sure I'll use this technique again for another cake topping!



Countdown to Halloween...1

I saw this in the background of a magazine and thought it was a great idea - making bat specimens out of craft paper and framing it as Halloween art for your wall!

 

I found an old frame and quickly painted it black, letting some of the old white paint show through.

Then my hubby dC made a bat stencil for me to trace.  I traced it onto Halloween colored paper scraps.

For the printed paper, I typed Halloween words over and over and printed it on plain white paper.

Once the paper bats were cut out, I glued flat tacks on their backs.

Then I covered a piece of cardboard almost the same size as the frame with burlap.

 I then tacked the bats in place and slightly bent their wings forward.

To let the bats have room for their wings, I glued the cardboard to the outside of the frame's back.

Lastly I glued a satin black ribbon in place to hang it from!



Countdown to Halloween...2

The number one easiest craft that I discovered this year is the cheesecloth spiderweb.  It couldn't get any easier and I'm sure most of you have one laying around somewhere!  You can use it for a table covering, cover it with spiders and use it as a shawl...then wash it and use it as a cheesecloth come Thanksgiving!

Countdown to Halloween...4

The blogger world is covered with homemade cake stands these days...since going out and buying them anymore will cost you an arm and a leg, people are trying to find ways to create the same look for cheap!  So for about $3 I made a black cake stand that has become a staple in my Halloween decor.

All I did was take a wooden candle stick and a round wooden plaque, glue them together using wood glue and then spray painted them back!  Super easy!  Though it's a cake stand it's not food safe, due to the paint, but a piece of parchment will do the trick.

Thanks to my hubby for the Photoshop work on my pics!!!

Countdown to Halloween...5

Today's project is one that I've wanted to do for many years.  I saw it in a Martha Stewart magazine back in October of 2004, but wasn't much of a thrift store sifter, until more recently when my husband dC turned me on to finding all kinds of cool stuff for cheap!  Thus began my hunt for box cheese graters to make what I call Kitchen Nightmare!

You can use tea lights, or as I did here a small string of Christmas lights to illuminate all of the fun shapes that the graters can cast on your walls!  Some of the box graters I found were pretty new looking, so I painted them black with chalkboard paint to keep them in silhouette.  I even found a black collinder that looked great with my collection!

Countdown to Halloween...6

There is less than a week left until Halloween so I will be counting down each day by sharing one of my favorite Halloween projects from this year!

Today's craft is the Electrical Tape spider web!  I saw this over at The Party Dress and just knew I had to try it our on one of the many white pitchers I had been collecting for my kitchen.

It's very simple, costs nothing, and will transform any plain white (or clear) object you have into a fun Halloween decoration!

Take black electrical tape and cut it into thin long and short strips - sticking the long for the vertical stripes and the short for the horizontal ones, following the basic shape of a spider web.  That's it!!!  I've used this as a punch pitcher at parties as well as a flower pot this year and can't wait to cover more objects to make a set!



DIY Halloween Placecards

After Christmas, Halloween is my next favorite holiday.  I've been coveting the vintage Halloween look for years and decided this time to create some of my own.  I got the inspiration for the pumpkin in the 2011 Holiday Crafts magazine from Better Homes and Gardens, but used my imagination to create the others!  I'm by no means a sculptor, but it gives me an adult version of Play-Do when Fender and I play!

Here's what you'll need:

aluminum foil

air dry clay (I like Papercraft)

toothpicks

24 gauge wire in black
18 gauge wire in silver

acrylic paints in orange, brown, black and white



Roll the foil into a ball - you can do any size you want, but I did about a golf-ball size since it needs to be small enough for table decor.



Then cover the foil in a thin layer of clay.  You need to roll it around in your hands a lot to make it smooth.  If any foil starts showing, you can just cover it up with a bit more clay.

For the pumpkin add a stem at the top

Using the cap of a sharpie make two eyes

Then with a toothpick carve out a nose.  After you've carved it, you can use your toothpick to smooth it down by pressing the side of the toothpick into the lines you've dug out.

Carve out the mouth, making large teeth.  Press down the lines with the side of your tooth pick to smooth them out.  But the more rustic looking now the more vintage looking it will be in the end.

Add details to the eyes and stem.  I used a Bic pen end to make the smaller circle inside the larger one.

Add a curl of black 24 gauge wire to the stem and make a hole in the top for your 24 gauge place-card wire  Now let it dry for a few days depending on your weather!

Once dry you can paint the pumpkin orange, his eyes and teeth white, stem brown and nose black.

At this point the pumpkin looks brand new and needs to be aged a bit!  Mix 1 part brown paint with 1 part water to make a really loose solution to paint the entire pumpkin with.  Before it completely dries, wipe it mostly off, making sure that the brown color stays in the grooves, giving it a weathered, vintage look! 

My favorite is this witch with a spider hanging from her hat!