Halloween Tree

The Tree:

Materials:
*Black wire
*Styrofoam base

Directions:
*Determine the height that you would like your Halloween tree to be.  Cut six lengths of wire about an inch longer than the desired height and twist the wire pieces together.  This will form the trunk of your tree. 
*Note: the trunk may seem rather narrow after the initial step and you can add more wires if you would like a thicker trunk, but once you start wrapping wire around for the branches your trunk will become wider anyway.
*Cut another length of wire about as long as the six lengths of wire you used to form the trunk. 
*Begin wrapping the wire around the trunk and continue wrapping until you reach the height at which you would like the highest up branch to be.  Bend the wire to form a branch.
*Take a second piece of wire and wrap it around the trunk until you reach the location of the branch, then twist the branch and the new piece of wire together.  If you would like the branch to fork, bend the ends away from each other before twisting and make sure not to twist them together.
*Depending on how thick you would like your branches to be, you may want to add a third, fourth, and maybe a fifth piece of wire to the branch.
*Continue creating branches in the manner in which you made the first branch.  As you go, the trunk will become thicker and you may find the need to cut your lengths of wire a bit longer to make branches of the desired length.
*Once you have constructed your tree, stick the end in a piece of styrofoam which will hold the tree up.

Decorating the base of the tree:

Materials:
*Foam
*Gray paint
*Glue
*Dried grass
*Small Philip's head screwdriver, butter knife, or some other implement that can be used for carving letters.

Directions:
*Glue dried grass all around the base of the tree.
*To make the gravestones, cut a thin piece of foam board into the shape of a tombstone.
*Use the Philip's head screwdriver to engrave the stone and add cracks and other marks to it.
*Paint the stone gray and let dry.   
*Once it has finished drying, glue it to the styrofoam base.

Ornament ideas
Bat:
Materials:
*Black pom pom
*Black felt
*Googly eyes
*Chalk
*Scissors
*Thread
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:
*Find a template for bat wings such as this one and resize the wings so that they are about 1 1/2" wide.
*Trace the wing pattern onto a piece of black felt and cut out the wings.
*Glue a pom pom to the center of the wings to make the bat's body.
*Glue two googly eyes to the pom pom to make the bat's eyes.
*Attach a piece of string to the bat so that you can hang it from your tree.

Ball ornament:
Materials:
*Round bead of your choice
*Head pin
*Thin wire
*Pliers
*Wire cutters

Directions:
*Loop a piece of wire and slide it onto the head pin.
*Slide the round bead onto the head pin.
*Wrap the piece of wire around the round bead.  When you reach the top of the bead, wrap the wire around the head pin just above the top of the bead a few times, then trim off any excess wire.
*Use pliers to bend the head pin into an angular shape.

Cat:
Materials:
*Black clay
*Gold glitter glue
*Glue
*Thread

Directions:
*Mold clay into the shape of a cat, then bake in the oven according to the directions on the clay package.  Remove the finished clay from the oven and let cool.
*Once the clay has cooled, give the cat glittery eyes using gold glitter glue.
*Attach a piece of string to the cat so that you can hang it from your tree.

Candy ornament:
Materials:
*Aluminum foil
*Permanent marker in a Halloween color
*Small round bead
*Scissors
*Glue
*Thread

Directions:
*Color a rectangle of aluminum foil using your permanent marker.
*Glue your round bead into the center of the aluminum foil rectangle on the uncolored side.
*Take two opposite sides of the aluminum foil and slide one piece over the other, closing the bead inside.
*Twist the ends of the aluminum foil.
*Attach a piece of thread to the candy so you can hang it from your tree.

*Looking for some more cool Halloween decorating ideas?  Check out my creepy doll Halloween decoration, fuse bead Halloween magnets, and Halloween curtain blog posts from last year. 

*Also, here's a cute printable Halloween door hanger that I hang up on my front door every Halloween.  To make it more durable than the standard printable craft, cut out a piece of a cardboard cereal box to insert between the two sides of the hanger and adhere in place using double sided tape.  Then laminate either using a laminating machine or by covering the hanger in packing tape.