Creepy Decor Galore!

Hi there! It is finally the fall season- my favorite time of the year! I have been busy doing some projects around the house preparing for a Halloween party (that I probably won't have but want to pretend I will).

My family has always gone way above and beyond for Halloween decorations and I've always enjoyed coming up with new, fun, creepy decor to put around the house. Traditionally most Halloween decorations have been outside but with the rapid popularity increase in Pinterest I assume many more people are now starting to deck out every flat surface with some pintresty project :)

Here is a look at what I've been doing so far! Some tutorials are written out, others are just photos. If you want to know how I did anything specifically just let me know!

Here is a view of the entire mantle. I draped the "creepy cloth" from the dollar store to give it something different. (yes, my fireplace is always orange, we painted that awhile back and LOVE it)

Here are some closeups of the actual items:

I got an old dictionary from goodwill and am using it just for paper. I tore some out, burned the edges and crinkled it up to stack it up to look like spells or potion recipes!

Also, these labels were hand-drawn on the inside sleeves of the old book's covers (it was a perfect aged, discolored look that is the perfect setting for creepy things!) I drew in pencil and modge-podged over to seal it up. 

Here's where the twine-wrapped vase came from--

I took a cheap cylinder vase I had from my wedding and decided to wrap it in some twine I had on hand. I know I can use this for far more than just Halloween so I hot glued it going up. After doing glue all the way around I realized I really only needed a few dots here and there and it stayed pretty well. Just make sure you keep it tight going up!

Here is the finished vase before filling it

I went out back and collected some branches. I cleaned them off a bit and just put them in to create some height to the mantle. I played around with different ones in order to not completely take over my TV but also keep the volume.

Besides the mantle I did a few other things around the house!

Here I took some of those pages from the dictionary again and glued them on cardboard. I took a sharpie and drew out a spider. I started drawing a skull but realized I just can't make those look good... so I went for the easier option :)

I am so excited to have collected some stuff for this table! I have the candle stands from wedding gifts and added the other stuff to them. I found the skill, bat cutouts and crows from the dollar store. My mom found the cool skeleton candelabra, spider vase and pumpkin from Kirklands.  The only other thing I might add eventually is more creepy cloth or black lace underneath it all.

Here are more closeups of the cool potion bottles. I simply spray painted them all matted black and added the paper afterwards. Some labels were printed from sites I found on Pinterest- just search halloween labels and there are TONS of ideas!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Burlap Christmas Stockings

3. Christmas stockings for the door

I was given one of those door stockings as a wedding gift (3) years ago. I thought to myself...as I usually do with these kinds of gifts.. "I could totally make that myself!" Well, I tried it out that year, made 2 for some friends for Christmas, then this past Christmas I decided to finish up the burlap and paint that I already had and make more for the entire family!

Here is how to make them:

1. trace out a large stocking pattern with newspaper or poster board.
2. trace with sharpie onto the burlap, make sure to do 2 per stocking you want to make!
3. lay them out and paint...I did red spray paint for the body, and white paint (a bucket of oops paint from Home Depot in just flat white). I found that painting with actual paint was A LOT easier than spray painting the white on. Also, for the polka dots (if desired), just spin a cheap paint brush in one spot to create the perfect circle.

   

make sure you paint the backside as well, and that you do the flip side. I just do solid red and white, no polka dots

   4.   After all of the paint is dry, bring inside and pair them up!

   5.   Take a small bottle of black acrylic paint with the fine tip and draw a messy line all the way around.     

         outline the white areas as well, and add some "stitch" marks in there!

   6.   Once the black paint is dry, hot glue the bottom toe area and heel and start to stuff with whatever you

          have on hand. I used old grocery bags since I always have a million of them...

   7.   After you stuff it all the way, finish up the edges with more hot glue

   8.   After everything is set, grab some thick, but bendable wire. Poke holes through in the top corners

         leaving excess on both ends. Then just take pliers and twist into a random bundle to "tie" off the ends

Voila!

(Sorry there aren't more pictures, that was the husband's job and he kinda slacked...)

Total project cost: $10  would be more if I had to go get all new materials. 

Painting the time away...

So I've been working on something a friend asked me to do for her wedding in September. 

She gave me a HUGE letter 'R' like this:

She wanted it to be painted with paisley-ish designs.

I cut out a few pieces from a piece of paper she gave me, but decided it was much easier to free hand the whole thing and add in my own designs.

using the colors from her "fall" inspired wedding, it turned into this!

I kind of like the crafty brown paper texture as the background instead of painting the entire thing. some of the inside edges are also painted up and fancy-fied.

hope you like it!