Halloween Party

This is my fireplace (obviously, duh).  The bats flying out were from an idea I got on pinterest.  I got the bat idea from so many places; saw it all over pinterest, on some of the magazine websites (CountryLiving.com) and a similar version at thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com .  I just drew my own bats and cut them out, but there were several places to print out templates if you need to.  The BEWARE sign was an old board that belonged under a bed at one time.  I just painted it and drew the letters on with a Sharpie.  I think in this picture I am most proud of my pumpkins;  The three on the picnic basket.  I made them from paper mache.

Here they are close up.  I think they're my favorite because of how easy they were.  It made me want to make tons of paper mache things....  Anyway, all I did was wad up a bunch of newspapers until I had the size I wanted, then I whipped up some flour and water, ripped some newspapers into strips and went at it.  Super easy as far as crafts go, just a little time consuming.  When they had dried for a day, I put another layer of paper mache on to make them thicker, more durable.  When that dried I painted them with acrylics.  I wanted one Jack O Lantern, so that was easy.  I think I saw the zigzag pattern somewhere on the web, and I asked my daughter what to do with the third one and glitter it was!  I think they turned out awesome for how little they cost me.

  I bought the crows somewhere last year,...I think they were Martha Stewart decor.  There is a little black tree in there, it use to be an "Easter Tree."  I never really liked it.  So, I spray painted it black and put some web and spiders on it.  I used a black sheet and some white lace to cover the table on the right.  It was used for the drinks and plates.
  The little hanging skeleton was a sticker set that I bought at the craft store, stuck it to black craft paper, cut it out and put together with brads.

I love this double frame.  A friend gave it to me years ago.  I drew on some black cardstock with whiteout and put it into the frames.  The phrase on the left I got from pinterest....khpinson.blogspot.com.  And the 31 I drew and then wrote spooky words inside the numbers. 

Lighting was bad, yikes. Sorry, it's the only pic.  The little cat and rat cut outs came from an idea I got while looking at MarthaStewart.com.  The specimen jars were on CountryLiving.com....I put gauze inside the doors of the buffet and stuck spiders on it.  I made a couple banners...they're always a great way to give a festive look. 

 Specimen jars, the one in the green goo is one of those animals you can buy at the dollar store that "grows" once in water.  I colored the water green with food coloring.  The tiny cloche in the front is a broken candle holder (top) setting on an upside down candle holder. 

More specimen jars. 

Center of the buffet.  The Trick or Treat sign came from: graphicsfairy.blogspot.com.  Instead of framing it, I matted it on some Halloween paper and put it on the front of a book (after I turned the jacket inside out).

Aww, ain't Charlie cute?  Our Bassett Hound was enjoying the decorations too.

I found this chandelier at a thrift store for $12.  Spray painted it black and hung it above the table.

My daughter added the spider webs for me....she's pretty good at spinning webs!!

I really have fun planning, crafting and decorating for a party...it takes my mind off of all my problems and worries for a little while and gives me a fun goal.

I got the idea of using a dry erase marker to write on glass/mirror.  On this picture I drew horns, masks and other oddities.  I liked the idea so much I wrote messages on all the mirrors in the house.  The first message was REDRUM, but I had to change that one because it freaked my husband out.  So, I picked out some other cute phrases from the internet and wrote them on our two big house mirrors.  On one I wrote: "TRICK OR TREAT is not a greeting, it's an ultimatum" from a picture made on landeeseelandeedo.com.

This was a fun last minute addition.

 I mixed two different colors soap.

My daughter said that it didn't look right because the label says, "Toad Bladders" and there was nothing in it that looked like toad bladders. SO.... I looked around the house and found some peanut shells and dropped them in.  Looks gross, right?  Got the labels from:  https://docs.google.com  They looked so good that I took some old glass jars and spray painted them black, then added some more of these labels. 

Here they are displayed in an old drawer that  I covered the back (bottom) with book pages and painted  black.  This was fun!  Thanks for joining me.