My Halloween 2016 Party

My favorite photo from the party.  It's a very accurate depiction of my family.

     This past Sunday I hosted my annual Halloween party.  It took a lot of work putting it all together; Brian and I spent most of the day Saturday and right up until the morning on Sunday cleaning, digging out and putting up decorations, finishing the last minute prop additions, and making and decorating the food.  If it wasn't for fall break, I wouldn't have had the time for this (and really I didn't; the rest of the semester is going to be a bit more hectic because I took the time out, but I needed a break), but it's something I'd been looking forward to for weeks and it definitely lived up to my expectations. Here's a recap of the party with plenty of food, games, and snack ideas.

Halloween Snacks

     Brian and I made our cemetery cupcakes (recipe in this post, although you'll have to scroll a little to find it) and eyeball deviled eggs (recipe in this post, although you'll have to scroll here too) again this year.  We had some bananas on the verge of spoiling, so Brian decided to make some banana bread too.  My family is all about cheese, but instead of going with just a cheese platter, as per usual, I decided to make these "witch's broomsticks" which are fast and easy to create.  I threw in some extra cheese cubes on the side, though, because you can never have too much cheese.

Witch's Broomsticks

Ingredients:
*String cheese sticks (each stick makes three "brooms")
*Pretzel sticks

Supplies:
*Knife

Directions:
*Cut string cheese in thirds lengthwise.
*Cut slits in the cheese pieces, going about halfway up.
*Carefully pull up on the thin sections you've created.  These will form the "bristles" of the broom.
*Place a pretzel stick in the other end, being careful not to push it in too deep, or else the broom might break.

The Tablescapes

     We had two tables at the party, the snack table and the main table.  On the snack table, the deviled egg eyes are on top of the Halloween platter I made a couple of years back.  The cupcakes are balanced on this spider web cupcake stand.  I included the appetizer picks in their spooky stone holder, although they ended up being more decorative than functional (we were supposed to have some green olives too, but forgot to pick them up when we were out on Saturday).  Here's how I made the tablecloth.  I ended up going with plain black paper plates and napkins because they were cheaper and there weren't any plates at Target that were must haves.  I think they worked out really well.

     For the big table, I went with a very similar setup to the one I've done for the past couple of years.  The tablecloth I picked up on clearance from Joann ages ago and the bat salt and pepper shakers came from the Target dollar aisle, also years ago.  I think the tealights might also have been from Target.  Here's how to make the glitter drip glasses.  I also swapped out my spiderweb candle from Kohl's for the spooky faced candle Brian and I made this year.

Outdoor Decor

     Here's the whole outdoor setup.  If you've seen my post from last year, you'll notice there's a new display, which I'm super excited about!  But first up, the old stuff.  The eyeball path markers I got from Kmart several years back and the jack o'lantern lights on the door Brian surprised me with a couple of years ago for Halloween.  He got them from Rite Aid.  Those zombie lawn gnomes lurking at the edge of the house Brian's mom gave me for Christmas.  She got them from Oriental Trading.

     Here's the doorway.  In addition to the jack o'lantern lights, you can see my glow in the dark eyeball wreath and my "knock if you dare" door hanger, which used to be available for free online, but I can no longer find a link to it.  Also, see that thing hanging off the bottom of the rusted old mailbox?  That's our new doorbell, which we picked up from Target.  The top part opens up when you push the button to reveal a glowing eyeball that moves as the doorbell says spooky stuff.  It's pretty neat.

     This is what my cemetery ended up looking like this year.  My little cemetery is my favorite Halloween display, so this year I did not let the threat of rain stop me.  Farthest to the left you'll see my tombstone with plaque accompanied by my eerie graveyard bouquet.  The bouquet was the only part of the display that seemed like it would get ruined by the slightest bit of rain, so I brought it inside as soon as I finished taking pictures.  The next stone over is my original insulation foam tombstones accompanied by one of my Styrofoam tombstones, with my Barbie "stone" angel statue propped against them,  Since Barbie's wings are cardboard, I'd caution against putting her outside in the rain, although my statue seemed to hold up just fine.  The other tombstones came from Target (they were part of a kit along with some of the skeletal remains and fencing), Dollar Tree, and some sort of yard sale/flea market.  If you look closely, you can see my haunted hedge eyes peeking out from behind one of the stones.  I got the hedge eyes from Target at the end of the season a couple of years ago.  The fence that came with the kit you saw in last year's post.  The "haunted: keep out" tape I used to string the fence pieces together I got on sale at A.C. Moore last year.  I didn't have a chance to use it for my party (not sure if I'd even bought it then), but I did use it for Halloween night, so that wasn't new to this party.

     Notice the bat gate posts in the cemetery picture?  Those came from Dollar Tree, but they had this ugly, peeling accent paint on them.  You can't really tell from the picture above, but the bats had poorly done red eyes and peeling purple wings.  I quickly brushed some black acrylic paint over them (spray paint would probably have worked really well for this, but I didn't have any on hand and forgot that I had to paint these until the morning of the party) and they looked so much better.

     Here's the new display.  I'm hoping to devote an entire blog post to it next year, so I'm not going to say too much about it here, but it's basically a modification of the "beware of dog" idea for your pet werewolf.  In the original display, the werewolf is gone, the leash just hangs limply over the sign.  The scare factor is in what's not there rather than what is there.  However, when my friend Ken showed up dressed as a (were)wolf, I couldn't resist getting some pics of him in our werewolf display.  Yes, that's Brian the dark sorcerer in the background.  No, I don't know what he's doing.

Indoor Decor

     This year I again had to have multiple Halloween "mantles" to display all of my decorations.  I threw some cloth over the printer and then added my spooky display items.  The setup is similar to the layout I had last year.  At the top there's one of my creepy dolls.  My spellbook moved up to the top as well.  I made the spellbook using my Silhouette CAMEO for Halloween last year (see last year's party post for details).  There's my haunted mirror and at the opposite side, one of my Halloween lenticulars which came from Rite Aid a few years back that I reframed.  In between the two are some new additions to my Halloween decor.  That tiny blue bottle is an antique poison bottle that my dad gave me.  I knew I wanted to incorporate it into my Halloween decor somehow and this seemed like a good spot for it.  Beside it is my new spooky telephone, which I got from Target.  You pick it up and it says creepy things.  I adore it.

     Here's the other "mantle," a pile of storage boxes covered in my tie dyed sheet with some Dollar Tree gauzy cloth thrown over top.  In addition to the lenticulars, the creepy dolls, and the bouquet, which I decided to put up there after I brought it inside so it wouldn't get rained on, you'll see my felt gingerbread zombie.  This little critter almost didn't make it into my Halloween display this year.  When I was setting up the decorations, I could not find it anywhere and eventually gave up.  However, my mom came to my party early and I was showing her my spellbook.  I opened it up to show her that it had a space for storage inside and there was my zombie.
     Below the "mantle" is a shelf of spookiness.  Previously, I had put a lot of these items on one of the counters in the kitchen, but when Brian bought the bread machine, that ended up taking up that bit of counter space that I had used in previous years.  We have a "junk" shelf of assorted trinkets and I had cleared it off so I could move it down the hall without spilling everything everywhere.  I realized that I could use that shelf for my Halloween display.  On the top shelf are my Halloween tree and my potion bottles.  I added a couple of vintage glass bottles I got from dad, one to the middle shelf and one to the bottom, because I thought they fit with the aesthetic.  On the other shelves you'll see some little Halloween figurines I've accumulated years ago from A.C. Moore and a yard sale, my "beware" sign from ages ago from Target, my old centerpiece candle, my pom pom pals, and a plush bat I got from Target a couple of years ago.

     This was the last indoor setup.  I needed a spot near an outlet for my haunted grove and the other printer seemed like the ideal location, so I threw some fabric over the printer and set the grove up there.  There was a lot of extra space on top of the printer and I'd been needing a place to put my spooky sign, so that's where it ended up.  I usually hang up my felt sleepy bat along the wall toward the end of the kitchen, but this year it was going to be so far removed from everything else that I decided to move it in closer.

Games and Activities

     We did not have the Yankee swap (scroll to the activities section of this post for details) this year because I didn't have a chance to gather prizes, but if you're looking for an activity for your party, that's always a fun one.  What we did instead was we played my jack o'lantern game.  We had six people for the first round and that seemed like a good amount; any more and it would have been too many.  Dad won and got the first trophy (DIY post to come) of the day for his prowess at the jack o'lantern game.  We also had a costume contest and awarded trophies for best individual costume and best couples costume.

     I set up a photo booth for my guests.  I'll have instructions for how to DIY your own in a future post, but this picture was too awesome to wait to share.

     Finally, Brian did his annual Tarot readings.

Costumes

     Looking for some costume ideas?  Here are a few from my party.  Katie dressed up as Sandy from Grease, while Jacob went as a ghost.

     Brian went as a dark sorcerer and I dressed as a witch (for "magic" wand instructions, see this post).

     My friends Ayesha, Ken, and Stephanie went as characters from Little Red Riding Hood, which made for an awesome group costume.

Pokemon GO Trainer Costume (with Belt Tutorial)

    Here's the finished costume!  I've written about where I found the shorts, cami, leggings, and cap in this earlier post and how to decorate the cap in this post.  The shirt was one I found at Goodwill.  It's not a perfect match to the trainer jacket, but I didn't have the time or sewing skills to make one and so I just grabbed something that was close enough in color and in cut.  I rolled up the bottom of the shirt to make it look more like the trainer costume.  The sneakers my sister gave me as a souvenir from her trip to England, but you can find black sneakers from most clothing stores.  For the choker, I safety pinned some blue ribbon around my neck.  The costume would not be complete without a buddy Pokemon.  If you're looking to make your own Meowth, Snorlax, or Zubat buddy, I've got you covered.  If you're wondering how to make the belt, keep reading.

For reference, here's what my in game trainer looks like.

Materials:
*Blue ribbon
*Black ribbon
*Blue felt
*Black felt
*Sewing machine
*All purpose adhesive
*Scissors
*Chalk or metallic marker

Directions:
*Cut off two lengths of ribbon, one blue and the other black, that are about as long as your hips are wide.

*Place the two ribbons together shiny side in and stitch together along one of the edges.
*Unfold the ribbon.  You may need to iron it or press it under a heavy weight for a while to get it to stay flat.

*Cut out a circle from black felt.  I traced around a drinking glass to make the circular shape.
*Cut out a shield shape from blue felt.  I just freehanded it.

*Glue the shield onto the circle and set aside to dry.

*When it has finished drying, place the belt around your hips and overlap the ends until you have a comfortable fit that sits on your hips but will not slide off.  Mark where this position is and then take the belt off and glue the ends together.  Note: this step works best if your hips are relatively wide in comparison to your shoulders.  If this is not the case, you may have to use some sort of fastener, like Velcro, so that you can actually open it up to get it on and off.

*Glue the felt shield/circle over the part of the ribbon where the two ends meet.  If you need to open it up to get it on, make sure to glue it to one side of the closure or the other, but not both.

DIY Stencil Cap

     Want to add a design of your choosing to a plain baseball cap?  Here's an easy and relatively cheap method for doing so.  I've been making a Pokemon GO trainer costume for Halloween and made this cap as part of it.  If you're working on a Pokemon GO trainer costume of your own, check out this earlier post for ideas about how to get started on the costume with basic pieces from your wardrobe, and tune in next week to see how I piece mine all together.

Materials:
*Baseball cap
*Fabric paint in a color of your choice
*Waxed paper
*X-acto knife
*Painter's tape
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:
*Size the below Pokeball template (or whatever template you are using) to the size you would like it to be on your cap and print out.

*Glue the white space around the outside edge of the Pokeball shape to a sheet of waxed paper.

*Using your X-acto knife, carefully cut out the Pokeball shape, cutting through both the waxed paper and the paper.  Cut off some of the excess paper around the shape as well, making sure not to cut through the glued part.

*Tape the waxed paper with the Pokeball shape cut out of it to the cap using painter's tape.

*Fill in the Pokeball shape with fabric paint.

*Once you are done painting, carefully peel off the waxed paper.  Fill in any uneven areas or areas you missed with some fabric paint.  Let dry, following the directions given on the paint packaging.

Spooky Faced Halloween Prop Candle

Materials:
*Dollar store LED color changing candle
*Dollar store LED tealight candle
*Toilet paper tube
*Pencil
*X-acto knife
*Hot glue
*Black paint
*Paintbrush
*Soldering iron (optional)
*Solder (optional)

Directions:
*Draw a spooky face on your toilet paper tube.

*Carefully cut out the face using an X-acto knife.

*If you don't want to solder on extra length, you'll want to trim about half an inch or so off the toilet paper tube.

*Drip hot glue across your toilet paper tube, making sure not to cover up the face.

*Once the glue has dried completely, paint the inside and outside of the tube black.

*Carefully disassemble your two candles.  You'll need the part with the LEDs from the big candle and the white top part from the tealight candle.

*Paint the white cords connecting one of the LEDs to the base black.

*Solder on some extra length if you'd like.  I can't really explain this step in detail because Brian took care of the soldering.

*Glue the top LED bulb to the top part of the tealight candle.

*Slide the toilet paper tube over the tealight candle until the candle is at the top of the tube.  Hot glue the tealight candle to the toilet paper tube.  Layer on more and more glue until your candle is well secured.  Make sure the rings of hot glue are fairly level.

*Glue the bottom of the toilet paper tube to the base of the candle.

*Once all the glue has dried, paint the top part of the candle black.  Let dry.

Here's a pic of the candle in a dark room.

A video clip of the candle glowing in a dark room.

Barbie Halloween Cemetery Angel Statue

     My favorite Halloween crafts involve sprucing up my Halloween cemetery.  I love searching for new details I can add to it.  I wanted to add a statue to it this year and this doll stone angel was seemed like an easy and relatively inexpensive option.

Materials:
*Barbie or similar doll (I used one of the $1.00 ones from Dollar Tree)
*Long, flowy doll dress (another Dollar Tree purchase)
*Hot glue
*Cereal box
*Felt
*Gray paint
*Paintbrush
*Granite spray paint

Directions:
*Gather your doll and her dress.

*Dress doll in the dress.  If her hair is in a ponytail, remove the elastic and smooth out.  If you're using one of these Dollar Tree dolls, you may be surprised to find that they have bald rings on their heads.  This actually won't end up mattering, as you'll see in a moment.

*Draw a line of hot glue from the doll's roots down to the ends of her hair.  Repeat this until you've covered her hair in hot glue.  This will give her hair a more statuesque look and will cover any bald patches.

*Draw and cut out angel wing shapes from your cereal box or similarly weighted cardboard.

*Cut feathers from felt and glue them to the cardboard, starting from the bottom of the wings and working your way up.

*Glue the wings to the doll.
*Paint the doll and wings using gray paint.  You don't have to cover up the colors completely, but the less colorful your doll is, the less spray paint you'll have to use.

*Spray paint your doll using granite spray paint.  You may need to use multiple coats to mask the colors.  Once you've done enough coatings for your liking and your doll is dry, it'll be ready to add to your Halloween cemetery.

Halloween Foam Tombstone with Plaque

     I got the idea for this stone from Dave Lowe's excellent blog post.  (If you love Halloween props and haven't seen his Halloween posts, you should definitely give them a look.)  Originally I was planning on doing something that more closely approximates his design, but halfway through I decided that I didn't like the way mine was coming out and switched things up.  Unfortunately, this means that I don't have photos for all steps of the process, but I've included pictures when possible.  For other Halloween tombstone ideas from yours truly, check out these posts.

Materials:
*Thin sheet of craft foam
*Pencil
*2' x 2' sheet of insulation foam
*Hand saw or similar implement (I used a bread knife)
*Sandpaper
*Protective goggles
*Ventilation mask
*X-acto knife
*Pen
*Gray paint
*Black paint
*Granite spray paint (optional)
*Bronze colored paint
*Wood glue
*Paintbrush
*Toothpick

Directions:
*Print out or sketch the design you would like your plaque to have.
*Place the design on top of the craft foam and trace to imprint your design onto the foam.  This step was actually trickier than I anticipated.  The craft foam is very soft, so I found that the pencil kept breaking through the paper.

*Trace over the imprint of the design in pencil.

*Carefully cut out your design using your X-acto knife.  As you're cutting, aim your X-acto knife at about a 45 degree angle toward the inside of the letter.  This will ideally make it so that when you cut the opposite side of the letter at a 45 degree angle, the two cuts will meet in a triangular shape and the excess foam will pop right out.  In practice, however, you may have to scrape at the foam a little to get it to come out completely.

*Carefully paint the insides of the lettering and designs black.  I used a toothpick for most of this to make sure I got the paint into the crevices of the foam.  Set aside to dry.
*Paint the raised portion of the plaque with bronze colored paint (I mixed gold, black, and brown paint to achieve the bronze color of my plaque).  Set aside to dry.  If you get some of the bronze colored paint inside the letters, then cover it up with some black once the bronze paint has finished drying.
*Using a pencil or pen, sketch out your desired tombstone shape onto the insulation foam, making sure that your stone design is wide enough to fit your plaque.
*Cut out your tombstone to size using a saw or a similar implement.  I found that a bread knife worked better than the hand saw I'd been planning on using.
*Sand down any rough edges of the stone.
*Paint the stone with gray paint.  Additionally, you can add some granite spray paint to give it a more stonelike appearance.  Set aside to dry.
*Once both the stone and the plaque are dry, glue the plaque to the stone.  I used wood glue for this because that was what I had on hand that would provide a strong bond, but I'm sure there are more appropriate glues out there you could use.  Do not use a glue with acetone in it, as the acetone will eat the foam.
*Once the glue has dried, your headstone is ready!