Halloween Home Tour

My ten year old daughter says yesterday, "It hurt so bad! It's like a ghost came up and tased me!" 

Hmmmm. I can totally relate. 

No, I can't. 

She was referring to...a paper cut.

Not even sure how she knows what a taser is. Probably listening in the car to the Walton and Johnson Taser Report with her Dad, which is probably not appropriate for kids.

But it is pretty funny.

Now on to the Home Tour. Where you won't find any ghosts. Or tasers. 

As much as I hate the TV above the fireplace, it just had to be placed there. I decided to opt for more seating, so the only blank wall has a chair and cobbler's bench. You can see the post for how to make the BOO banner here.

I got the old books from the FREE bins outside the new store in town called 2nd and Main and just tore off the covers. They are vampire books, which is cool for Halloween, but no one will ever notice. Mwah mwah. On the candlestick, I layered more copper scrubber from Dollar Tree over the black netting that was formerly packaging for mini skulls and added a silvery pumpkin on top.

                  

Here is a secret I learned from my days as a Display Designer for Stage Department Store. (Yea, I got to dress the mannequins, too. Pretty fun job. Except the part where you have to carry a REALLY tall ladder around the store without taking out any customers.) 

Your items should form a triangle. 

                                       

If your display seems a little blah, it may be that all of your objects are too similar in height and you can't place them in a triangle formation. It they are all tall, or all small, it just isn't as pleasing to the eye.

My daughter loves this witchy Halloween vignette on the cobbler's bench my husband's grandfather made. She read the potion book and added her own touches like the poison apple that she took a bite of , mummy dust in the vintage vials from my father-in-law's days as a Chemistry teacher, and old hag's cackle (aka red kool-aid.)  Of course, every good witch needs apothecary jars and drawers full of creepy things like skulls, scorpions, and centipedes (also from Dollar Tree). EEK!

I found an old book with an orange cover and black spine at Goodwill to make the witch's potion book. Tim Holtz distress ink was used to make it look old after spray gluing the printed spell pages over the book pages. This idea came from g*rated with a printable.

It's not Halloween without pumpkins and big ole spiders. Especially glittery and gold leaf pumpkins.

These metal spiders look like the ones in the Pottery Barn catalog, except I only had to pay $4 for these because I found them at Ross. Preeeetttty excited about that.

Here is where the chalkboard lives from an earlier post and even earlier post. And you can see the tutorial for the skull centerpiece here.

This display is a little bit of lagniappe (a little something extra.) I had a small brass tray that I found at Goodwill for $3, another pewter goblet from Goodwill stuffed with old dictionary crinkle paper topped with a Dollar Tree pumpkin, a raven also from Dollar Tree, and miniature flags that I made years ago.

Don't tase me, Bro!!

Linked up at snapcreativity.com and 3boysandadog.com and knickoftime.com and www.wecallitjunkin.com.

Glittery BOO Banner Party

One of my friends had the idea to have a "Pinterest Party" and it sounded like fun, so I did. Inspiration for this DIY banner came from creative chaos. That girl is good with glitter.  

Each guest found her seat by looking for her initial in the glitter tray.  I made little bags to put all of the ingredients in.  

What's a craft party without lots of candy?? In fall colors, of course!

I even wrote the steps to make the banner on my ginormous Ballard Designs Knockoff chalkboard.  If you don't know why the first two steps are crossed out, you may need to check out Youtube more often. 

For some reason, I have made a new banner for Halloween every year.  I don't have banners for every holiday, but Halloween always gets one. I guess Halloween is the only holiday I am not too busy with other things to make crafts. Here is the 2012 version.  I used old book paper, orange crepe paper streamers, scrapbook paper, silver  white gold glitter and letters cut with my Slice machine. I love all of the fonts you can get with Slice Machine cartridges.
This would be cute to have kids hold up for Halloween costume pictures.  Especially ghost costumes.
Check out last year's banner here.

We had a blast! Much more fun than bunco!

 

Halloween Apothecary

You have probably seen these all over the internet, but this is my version of DIY apothecary jars.

I had everything but the candy corn for filler.  (No, I am not going to eat that after sitting in open air.  But don't trust me not to offer you some.)

I used the same Goodwill candlesticks and glass from the Easter Apothecary that I made here.  The fuzzy trim was in a box of remnants that I have had forever.  I've used it in a mini album and a Halloween banner and STILL have some left.  I cut the letters out of paper from DCWV with my Cricut machine and glued them onto black cardstock.

 

Butterfly Dessert Table

Still more to come, but here are the desserts from the butterfly birthday party!

When I was 7 or 8, I had a Barbie cake for my birthday party.  I loved that cake.  (I was just a little disappointed when we pulled the doll out, and it had no legs.  Just a little pick.)  So, I thought how cute would it be to add wings for my seven year old's butterfly party.  My mom made the cake and decorated it.  She outdid herself with this one, I think.  We even added a sparkly butterfly to her updo and rhinestone earrings. 

We bought the butterfly from Ellis Pottery for the wings.  It already had wire picks on it, so we just stuck it into the cake.  Edible fowers from Michael's.  I think this cake would be perfect for a fairy party as well.

With all the fluttering going on, we needed some nectar for refreshment.  It is actually Hawaiian punch and pineapple juice in case you thought we really went out and squeezed some flowers or something crazy like that.  You can admit it.  It's OK.

We put green grapes on skewers to make caterpillars.  The kids had fun eating grapes on a stick.  Cause anything on a stick tastes better right?  I personally think there ought to be more meats on a stick.  (Not really, I just remember that line from one of my favorite movies, "There's Something About Mary.")

Just so you know, these are not really caterpillar eggs.  My mom found a bag of all white Sixlets at Party City.  How cool is that!!  I thought I was going to have to use edible pearls which no one really wants to eat.  But the kids enjoyed these.  After they watched me eat them to make sure they were chocolate for real.  Oh, and the "grass" at the bottom of the jar was edible too.  I wish I could remember where my sister Jackie found that.  It tasted like green apple communion host from church. Just sayin'.

These butterflies were seriously the best gummies I've ever had.  My sister Jena found them at Cracker Barrel.  Don't you LOVE their gift shop??  That may be where Jackie found the host grass.

Maybe it's because I am a science teacher by day, but I thought it was common knowledge that butterflies emerge from a chrysalis.  Apparently not.  I should have labeled the Bugles "cocoons." Cause everyone thought they were crystals and I can't spell.  Seriously?  If you know me, you know I can spell like the dickens.  (I don't really know what that means.  I just know my husband likes to say it for some reason.)  If you've never had Bugles, they are way more salty than a real chrysalis cocoon.

Oh, look.  A butterfly landed on the pixie stick grass.  Also from Cracker Barrel.  Have I mentioned I love their gift shop?  The teeny tiny watering can is from Michael's dollar bins.  I also love all things tiny. Wouldn't these be cute for a garden party??

Easter Apothecary

Do you see what I see???

I found all of this in one trip to Goodwill-3 ugly candlesticks, 2 real pewter cordial cups, and a milk glass vase. (Plus one 50 year old Standard rubber stamp holder with no rust!-not pictured) Score! That ugly orangish brown candlestick is like plastic.  The other two are ceramic.  Look what I made with them:

Recognize those candlesticks?  No?  That's cause I spraypainted 'em.  Just a little trick I learned from my blog buddies: here.  I guess it is hard to tell from the pictures, but there are glass hurricanes on top of the candlesticks.  Inside are cards that spell out "HOP" (only three-letter Easter word I could think of-not cause I love the movie-haven't even seen it) and some crinkled up vintage dictionary paper. 

More to come...

**editor's note (he-he that's me!):  Sorry-you caught me-I forgot to say the letters were not stickers.  At least not until I ran them through my Xyron sticker maker.  I cut them out with my Making Memories Slice machine.  The cardstock is also Making Memories-Passport collection (it is printed with postcards, but I liked the color scheme for Easter.)  I already had the little feather boa.  I think it came from Dollar Tree.

Halloween teacher gifts

I like to get unexpected gifts. So I like to give unexpected gifts.

Just a little something, to brighten someone's day. These Halloween treats went to my coworkers and my daughter's teacher. I took the label off a Frapuccino and called it Spooky Serum. 

Fall candy corn looked like Crow's Feet. Sort of.

A jar of lemonheads was labelled Poison No. 94. I found jars at the dollar store.

Target had these little eyeball bubbles which were perfect for Eye of Newt.

Green tomato salsa became Ghoul Drool. I found these labels at Target several years in a row. 

Make someone's day today!