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Every fall, I pick a handful of crafts to add to my growing collection of decor for my FAVORITE holiday.Some family friendly for the kiddos, and some all me. This year, adding a training schedule, a new duty station and the Rangers making the playoffs AND into the World Series has really put a damper on me getting this blog posted sooner. Needless to say, my priorities are a little wack.Usually I have a theme for our crafting, but this year it was kind of willy-nilly, picking and choosing things I thought looked cool. Last year, we went in a Day of the Dead direction (Check out the archives section --->) and those cool crafts made a cameo in this years decorating.
With just a week to go 'till trick-or-treater's grace my doorstep, I have finally had to stop myself and just be happy with whats been done thus far. After all, I don't need to add to my too-many-storage-bins, and this post is temporary.
So one of my favorite crafts this year was this Craft Pumpkin OWL
Isn't this adorable?? I started with a black craft pumpkin, found at most craft stores (like Micheal's, Hobby Lobby).
I used fake flowers I had for the eyes,first piercing the craft pumpkin with a nail, and pushing the stem through. You may need to glue the flowers in place.
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For the beak and ears, I used the leaves that were on the flower bunches. I folded a larger leave almost in half, and glue-gunned it into place. I then glued the "ears" to a toothpick, folding the bottom point up, so the bottom was flat. I pierced the craft pumpkin with a nail and pushed the toothpicks into place. SUPER EASY AND SO FREAKING CUTE!!! I wanted to make more, but the kids stole the other two craft pumpkin from me :(
Decoupaged TV Trays
I had two crappy TV Trays I picked up from a thrift store that I had high hopes for, but alas, they just sat in a corner, in all their ugliness. Once we got settled in the new house, i thought, " this is the perfect time to make these TV trays less ugly". The original idea was to decoupage them with pin-up pictures, but after spraying them with a black primer, I thought they would make a great Halloween prop.
Finished product after about 6 layers of Modge-Podge.I think I did this during a play off game that went into extra innings, giving me plenty of time between coats to let it dry. Since I only used one tray, the other will be something spectacular soon (she says with determination).
Bottles of Potions and Poisons
I'm sure you've seen this done a hundred times in all the Halloween magazines, or October issues of whatever you subscribe too. We HAD to make this one to compliment our new computer-cabinet-turned-bar.
I found the two decorative bottles at a local thrift store, cleaned them out and added some stickers the kids picked out. We filled them with Good'N Plenty candy for the "pills". The smaller jar is actually an old spice jar we filled with gummy worms (that keep disappearing!)The goblet is an old decoration we've had for years, with (plastic) spiders and snakes crawling out of it, and in the far back, I have an older Partylites vase with votive holder filled with one of our favorite treats:candy corns.It's all resting on a shiny silver charger (from the Goodwill) This is not a very good picture, but it serves it purpose.
Banister craft as seen in Halloween Trick and Treats 2011 magazine (Better Homes and Gardens special interest magazine, couldn't find a link)
These were supposed to come out much fluffier, but, I did let the kids do this one after experimenting with what worked best for us. I really tried to use what I already had, but found the original idea was a bit too involved for little hands, so we changed it up a bit and came up with this:
I meant to take pics of the step-by-step process, but I can break it down for you here
We used paper doilies and coffee filters. I spray painted the smaller doilies black for added detail. We layered the items as seen,experiment to find a looks you like. I suggest using way more filters for a fuller look. We secured them all together with a large embellished brad for ease and to finish the look, and I affixed them to our small banister with double sided heavy duty tape. The kids LOVED doing this. They really took their time and it was cool to watch them problem solve, and get creative with their pieces.
TIP** I would use a hole bunch or scissors to punch/cut a small hole in the middle of each layer to make it easier to get the brad through.
Poison Apples
This is less a craft and more of me stealing something I saw in a catalog and LOOOOOOOOVED. My kids love apples. It seems we always have them in the house, so i thought this was just too cute to pass up.
So, basically this is my trifle dish, without the stand and some fancy font in word, cut out and taped on to make the kids "treat" a "trick"! More goulish paper would have been cooler, but all that craps still packed away and I wasn't about to go digging in piles of boxes for one piece of paper.
Also, in this picture is a beautiful old lace tablecloth I picked up at the post thrift store, and added 4 sheets of laminated scrapbook pages ($1.99 at Micheal's) to set our table. My tab;e is rectangular, but the tablecloth is more oblong, which gives the set up an old, vintage look.
Stuff not seen are the really cool lace curtains I used as swags ($3 at the post thrift), some random decorations, and my porch, but nothing really very crafty. I had to put the curtains up, since we don't actually have any window treatments. Derek gave me the "no-go" on that since our time here is limited. I affixed the swags with reusable adhesive tabs and some old plastic shower curtain hooks. So, take THAT "minimal decorating".
If you're crafty, leave a comment with your favorite craft this (or any) year, and if you just love to decorate with all the cool stuff in the stores, post what your favorite purchase is/has been! I love getting new ideas!! It's never to early to start thinking about NEXT year .... (maniacal laughter...)
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