Halloween Indoor Decoration Inspiration

Since my front yard is taken over every year as an over-the-top fun filled fake cemetery,

I keep my indoor decor pretty minimal.  Last year, we added the googly eye framed skeleton.  This year I have two more items to show you.  Both were pretty quick and made with supplies I had on hand making them free projects!!  If these inspire you to create your own decor and you do not have supplies on hand, they can be made for under $15 for both.  While these are not tutorials per se, I hope they will give you some ideas to make your home hauntingly happy.

The Nevermore art.

I found a plaque many months ago for seventy-five cents at my local Goodwill similar to this one from Casey's Wood.  I painted over the faded floral image with orange acrylic craft paint and let it dry overnight.  Then, I found a photo online of a raven silhouette and freehand painted this on as best as I could.  I added the "Nevermore" based on a font I found it Word, but it just looked too clean, so I mussed it and the sides up a bit.  Done and done!

The Spiderweb frame.

While waiting for the orange paint to dry in the Nevermore art, I spotted an open wooden frame I bought a long long loooong time ago for some project.  I slapped a coat of black acrylic paint on that and glittered it up.  Next, I found a free pattern for a spiderweb on the Crochet N More website and modified it to fit my frame.  Ravelry notes here.  Then, I soaked the finished web and stretched it to the edges of the frame, stapling it to the back of the frame while the web was still wet.  For a finishing touch, I placed a rubber spider that I glittered last year on the web and called it a success.

What fun projects have you done for Halloween this season?  If you link to your photos or blog, I promise to pop by for a peek.

Have a great weekend!

Tutorial: How to make Nightmare Before Christmas Pumpkins

Having long been a fan of the movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas", we have made pumpkins in tribute to many characters over the Halloween years.  (See here    and a few here )  But, each year, our pretty pumpkins decay and are composted.  So this year we decided to add a few details to our annual front yard cemetery using pumpkins that will last a lot longer!

Supplies Needed:
A Funkin, or any other carveable fake pumpkin from your local hobby shoppe
X-acto knife
Template for carving (easy Google image search)
Black acrylic paint and small paintbrush
A push pin

Directions:
1-  Tape your template of choice to the Funkin and dot the outline using the push pin.
2-  Using your X-acto knife, carve around the outline.  As this was my first experience with fake pumpkins, I will tell you, they are inconsistently thick and thin, so watch where your fingers are so that you do not cut yourself.  Remove all carved pieces.
3-  Make a 1 inch diameter hole in the bottom of the pumpkin.  If you plan to light your pumpkin with a battery operated light, this hole will need to be bigger.  I am not lighting them, but placing on our fake fences, so I only made the hole wide enough for the paint in Step 4 and to fit on my fence as you see in the top photo.
4-  The messy step!  I recommend doing this over your sink with paper towels nearby.  Using the acrylic paint, squeeze generous amount into bottom of pumpkin, first coating the uncut back by rolling the pumpkin around slowly.  I tried watering down the paint but it just rolled around in the pumpkin and made a big mess.  Keeping the paint thick helped it to coat the Funkin nicely.  Use the brush to accent the creamy part of the cut pumpkin as you see in the below photo.  Try not to get too much black paint on the outside, but it will wipe away with a damp sponge if needed.

5-  The bonus of making a mess on the outside of the pumpkin is that you can accent it as you see fit.
6-  Once the inside is thoroughly coated, set upright on a container (like a clean yogurt cup) to drain and dry for a day or so.

When you're done, you will have a Jack Skellington (or other image you chose) pumpkin to last through years of trick or treating.

Happy Halloween!

Tutorial Tomorrow

Our October weekends have been full of family and Halloween preparation.  I've greatly missed this space, but have plans for a few goodies coming up!  I finally bought my first fake pumpkins at a 50% off sale a few weeks ago and will be posting a tutorial tomorrow on how to make them look similar to the ones in the classic The Nightmare Before Christmas movie.  If I have time, I also have an autumnal afternoon snack in the works.

Also coming up:  In November, I have a free TARDIS hat pattern to crochet in honor of Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary.  If you are a Whovian and a crocheter, this is the perfect hat to make and wear for the November 23rd episode!

I hope you are having a great weekend!

Googly Eye Skull Tutorial

If any of you follow my Pinterest boards, you may have seen my pin of the very very cool Googly Eye Skeleton.  Well, it was just too cool to leave as a pin on my Halloween board, I had to make one!

First, I found the photo that I think inspired the original googly eye creation and printed that out.  At my local hobby store, I grabbed several packets of adhesive googly eyes in various sizes and large black construction paper.

Using a sharp pencil (or pen), I traced around the skull printout, pressing hard to make an imprint onto the construction paper below.  From there, I laid out small, medium, large and xlarge googly eyes, shaping the outline and details like the sockets, jawline and teeth as I went along using the photo to refer back to.  One note of warning, getting the googly eyes off of the adhesive backing took a toll on my thin nails-- don't do this project with a pretty new manicure.  This video shows how I did it.  No music, but it's fun to watch!

When I was done, I put my googly eyed skull in a frame I had on hand.  Take care not to smoosh the googly eyes against the glass when securing the frame backing.  The whole project cost about $18 -- mostly for googly eyes.  How many times can I type those two words in one tutorial?!

In the rush of the season, I did not get many "done" photos, but here is one of the skull in the background of a photo I took of my zombie husband so you can see the size I made... just to the left of his reaching arm.

Happy Halloween!!

Handmade Halloween in Progress

Happy Saturday Everyone!

We've been busy here prepping for Halloween (see YouTube timelapse video) and I wanted to show you a few pics of what we have been working on.  I plan to have a tutorial up for several of these.

Glittery black spiders for the cemetery

The new gateway to the cemetery.  If you look closely you can see that it is ripped down 2x4s, plastic finnials and plastic plumbers pipes.  Cheap, effective and fun to craft!

Glittery green spiders for the front door.

Tierra Rejada pumpkin picking

Silhouettes of the boys... fun and easy to make!

Detail on the Jack the Ripper tombstone

 

Zombie clothes in progress.

That's it for now!  I hope you are all having a spooky Saturday!!

Setting up the Cemetery

My hubby had fun doing a little time-lapse video of the setup of our front yard cemetery and I thought you might all enjoy it.  Everything you see was made by us over the past fourteen years.  We still have the extras and the fragile items to add (i.e. fog, feathered crows, pumpkins, cobwebs) so it will get a bit more elaborate as Halloween comes closer.

A handmade Halloween

I apologize for being MIA, but Halloween has sorta taken over our house!!

Here's a few quick pics of what we've been up to.  I promise a fence tutorial among other things next week.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Spideriffic Welcome Banner

While wandering around Michael's a few weeks ago, I came across some cute, thin wood spiders.  I thought they would be perfect for making a little welcome sign to put on the front door.  And, at $ .20 a spider, it's economical too!  So, here's how I did it in an afternoon.

I took the wood spiders and painted both sides with a flat black acrylic paint I had on hand and let them dry for about 30 minutes.  The thin wood soaked the paint up quickly.

Using a green paint I also had in the house, I started to paint the letters on, but it looked a little boring.  Glitter to the rescue!  While the paint was still wet, I applied the glitter directly on top and let the spiders dry.

Once all the letters were done, I lined them up on a piece of plastic wrap and glued each spider to a long strip of ribbon.  Since the spiders are so light, I put a little rock on top of each spider to weight it down while the glue dried.  Once dry, I looped the top section of ribbon so I could hang it on a nail.  An hour later, it was on my front door!  A fun and fast decoration for the cost of just the seven spiders:  $1.40!!  Everything else I had on hand.  We also bought a bunch of wooden pumpkins, ghosties and witches hats, but that's a craft for another day.

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!
Hettie

Crafty Work in Progress

Utterly not ready... but still, it is a craft in progress.

I always try to have many tests of many kinds before I put a tutorial up, so I thought I would show you one of our first mom & kiddo attempts.  We all learn and improve from our trials and errors, right?  Right!

So, what is it?  Right now, it's just an idea stemming from another idea I saw about using glue to create raised surfaces.  The materials used are recycled USPS boxes (see the fold edges?), glue, acrylic paint and shoe polish.  When I am done and the tutorial is up, I will probably have omitted the shoe polish for glitter or luster dust.  While the shoe polish is effective, it is pretty smelly!  We'll see...

Not much for today as I going back and forth between an unhappy sick kiddo, the kitchen and the computer.  More tomorrow I hope.

Happy Tuesday,
Hettie

Halloween Fences in Progess

Happy Saturday!!

Did you know that Halloween is only 50 days away?!  I know... don't laugh too hard!

We've been working on our Halloween craft to-do list for the past week or so and plan to have a new tutorial up soon on our latest cemetery addition.  Fences!

Here's a photo sneak peek of what the fences look like in progress.  A full tutorial will be up sometime this coming week.

Lightweight and cheap with great effect... what more could we ask for?!

Crafting the weekend away

We are one of those families who go bonkers for holiday decorating...

We do it

A little bit more

Each year

... this year, our Halloween craft to-do list is a bit large.  New cemetery fences, 

new interior banners and decorations.  

So, this lovely, long, Labor day weekend is being devoted to Halloween and all the fun it brings to us... we love to share the day!  (Plus... um, did you see the name of the blog--CelticMommy.  Our families are descended from one of the originating celebrators of the holiday.)

We hope you are enjoying your Labor Day Weekend doing what you love as well!

97 cent soda can lights!

First off:  I cannot take credit for this super cool project... my sweet hubby came up with this genius idea.

Okay, here is the tutorial for individually lighting up your tombstones or other creepy crawlies for Halloween!

You will need: 

• A cheap can of flat black spray paint.  We purchased ours at Home Depot for $0.97!  This covered about 36 soda cans.
• Clear holiday lights, size C9... they are usually a set of 25 lights per strand placed 1 foot apart.
• Clean soda cans, at least one per tombstone or whatever you want to highlight. 
• A utility knife
• A unibit (this one is similar to ours) for your drill, we used a 3/16 to 7/8" to be able to get the socket of the lights to fit.

What to do:

• Drill the circle out of the bottom of the soda cans
• Cut the soda cans on the top with your utility knife, right where they are beginning to taper-- the edges will be sharp so lightly bend them inward if you wish.
• Spray the soda cans with the flat black paint and wait 1-2 hours to dry completely.
• Check that your strand of holiday lights works. 
• If the things you would like to highlight are already set up, take the lights and the soda cans out to your display and figure out proper spacing. 
• Do not plug in the light set yet.
• Take the bulbs out of the sockets you will not be using and set aside.
• Take the bulbs off the sockets you will be using.  Place the soda can over the socket and replace the bulb.  The size of the hole is such that the metal of the soda can will not touch any metal on the lights.
• Position lights and test. 
• Wait for dark and enjoy the fruits of your labor!  :-)

 I would love to hear if you use this for your own Halloween setup!  Please feel free to drop me a note with a link to your photos.

Only 25 days left until Halloween... do you know what you're going as??!? 

Happy Crafting!

97 cents

There is something, actually several somethings in this photo, that only cost us $0.97 to significantly change the look of our graveyard...

The tutorial for "it" will be up later today!
Link to the tutorial.

Saturday Night

I am currently voiceless due to a silly cold and require an evening of not talking... since my hubby can't hear me anyway!  Ha ha!

So, my Saturday night consists of wood, paint, brushes and flames.

A new tombstone in the making.

Happy Weekend All!

Countdown: 43 days 'til Halloween!

Since I have recently received a few questions and requests about our Halloween preparations and plans, I thought I would give a few clues about the 2010 Cemetery.

My most wonderful hubby has been working on designs for a few new tombstones.  Our graveyard, I feel is almost complete... almost!  I think this year I will re-finish a few of the older tombstones as well.  The theme has not yet been finalized, but I believe that the *ahem* current spider infestation, might play well into it.

Rob has been drawing, researching and creating tombstones for our newly deceased.  I only hope I can do his ideas justice when it come to bringing them to life!

On the food front, arachnids will play their part!  The hand-shaped turkey meatloaf may make another appearance this year... traditional loaf shaped recipe available as well!  Spiders nests, an acromantula cake and a venom juice concoction perhaps? 

That's about all I can say for now... I hear the pest control man at the front door.
Happy Weekend!

Halloween Done Up Good!

I'm just now thinking to post these!

One of the new tombstones this year

Dinner on Halloween:  turkey meatloaf with smashed potatoes

East side, during the day it's not too scary...

West side at night, complete with ghostie!

Candy Corn Candy Holder Tutorial

These are a fun and fast project, taking about 30 minutes to complete.

Step One: Do a Google Image Search on: Candy Corn ...You'll see a drawing that you can print and use as your pattern in the first two rows. You can enlarge as you prefer... my finished candy corns are about 8-9 inches high by 4-5 inches wide.

Step Two. Cut the front pieces out of white, orange and yellow felt. Pin and sew as shown.
Step Three. Iron flat. Step Four. Take the candy corn front piece and trace the shape onto an orange piece of felt for the backing. As seen in this step, to make the pieces overlap for candy to be put inside, I traced the white/orange at the top of the felt and then traced the orange/yellow at the bottom of the felt. When I cut them out, they will overlap. (Two front pieces shown in example) Step Five. Cut pieces and pin together. See how they overlap similar to the back of a pillowcase? That is how you'll get the candy inside when completed. Step Six. Sew all the way around either on the inside or the outside as you prefer. See final photo at top of tutorial for examples of both ways.

Step Seven. Using a Sharpie marker or craft paint, draw silly faces on the front.
Stuff with candy and give as gifts.

H A P P Y H A L L O W E E N E V E R Y B O D Y ! ! !

Graveyard Progress

We're gettin' ready!! This is a work in progress... not done yet. Many of the components will not be put out until Halloween morning (i.e. sound effects, lighting, raven lamppost, fog machines, pumpkins, more birds, etc.)

Left Side of the Cemetery

Right Side of the Cemetery

The pumpkin patch & musings

Ro choosing pumpkins.

Em counting our haul... 11 I believe. And 4 dried gourds.

Me and my man. We had the 'patch all to ourselves!

Costumes are coming along nicely and our cemetery will have 20 new grave stones this year! More pics later.

Halloween Prep

A typical October weekend... preparing our "local cemetery" for Halloween.

Rob, cutting out a new tombstone.

All ready for priming and painting.