Glittery Gourds

Materials:
*Foam gourds
*Paint in colors of your choice
*Paintbrush
*Glitter in colors of your choice
*Acrylic sealer or Mod Podge (optional)

Directions:
*Apply a coat of paint to your gourd in the color of your choice.
*While the paint is still wet, throw on some glitter.  Set aside to dry.
*To keep the paint from flaking off and hold the glitter in place, apply a coat of an acrylic sealer or Mod Podge, if desired.

Geometric Leaf Thanksgiving Scrapbooking Layout

Materials:
*Cardstock or scrapbooking paper for leaf
*Photos
*Scrapbooking paper in the color/pattern of your choice for the background
*Embellishments of your choice
*Scissors
*Acid free pen/marker
*All purpose adhesive
*X-acto knife or Silhouette CAMEO

Directions:
*If using the Silhouette CAMEO, download the below template and import it into your library.  You can use the tips outlined in this post if you're not sure how to cut it out with your machine.

*If doing by hand, print out the template and cut it out using scissors and, when necessary, an X-acto knife.  Trace the template onto the cardstock you've chosen for your leaf and then cut out the leaf shape.
*Once you've cut out your leaf shape (by either method), carefully trace the inside pieces of the leaves onto the backs of the photos.  Add a border around each trace line about 1/8" thick.  This way, when you cut out your photos, the leaf shape will overlap the edges of the photos.
*Crop your photos following the border you drew and glue to the leaf.
*Arrange the leaf on the scrapbooking paper you've chosen and then glue down.
*Add embellishments of your choice.
*If you're looking for an inexpensive way to display your page, you could place it inside a page protector and then prop it against some object, such as a weighted down box, which is what I did.

"Turkey Safe Zone" Thanksgiving Sign

     No turkey on your Thanksgiving menu?  Add this cute sign to your decor!

Materials:
*Red, yellow, orange, and brown cardstock
*Googly eyes
*All purpose adhesive
*Pen (or black cardstock)
*Laminating sheets (optional)

Directions:
*Note: I designed the below templates to work with my Silhouette CAMEO.  If you have a CAMEO of your own, you can cut out all of the pieces using that (for more instructions on using my templates with the CAMEO, see this post).  Otherwise, I'd recommend skipping the lettering part of the template and hand lettering using a black pen, although you could still use an X-acto knife to cut out the letters if you felt inclined to do so.

*Size the above templates to the desired size and cut out all of the pieces, with perhaps the exception of the lettering on the sign (if you do cut out the letters, you'll have to trace another copy of the sign shape onto black cardstock and put that in behind the constructed sign).
*Trace the sign shape onto yellow cardstock, the turkey body onto brown cardstock, four feathers onto red cardstock, three feathers onto orange cardstock, and the little triangular beak shape onto orange cardstock (the circular shapes are for making eyes, but if you're using googly eyes, you won't need them).  Cut out all of the pieces.
*Arrange the feathers out on the yellow sign and glue down.
*Add the turkey body and the beak, gluing those down as well.
*Write out "this house is a turkey safe zone" across the sign.  Try lettering it in pencil and then going over it with a black pen.
*For added durability, laminate the sign.
*Glue on some googly eyes and you're done!

Halloween Photo Booth Props

     The time has come for me to post my final Halloween post of the year.  Right now things feel bittersweet.  Halloween's not over yet, but I feel it rapidly drawing to a close.  The stores have slimmed down their Halloween picks to a couple of clearance aisles plus some candy.  The "Halloween Shop" at Target is illuminated by Christmas lights and all of my favorite props have long since vanished, not only from the shelves, but from the online inventory as well.  I've done a little bit of Halloween crafting this week, playing with pendant ideas for my witch costume, but I know that my time for Halloween crafting this season is limited and I won't be able to do much more than touch up existing props that are starting to age.
     But it's not over, not yet.  Yesterday was like a mini Christmas when my new spiderweb leggings, witchy top, and bat pajamas arrived in the mail, along with Brian's surprise for me: a fog machine.  I can't wait to set it up in my little Halloween cemetery on  Monday.  I'm also pumped to have an actual witch costume, instead of just throwing my hat and cape over regular clothes like I usually do.  This weekend I'll set aside time to watch a horror movie or two and prepare some Halloween treats.  I've started a list of the crafts/decorations I want to add to my Halloween setup next year.  There's still time to squeeze in a little more Halloween fun.
     Planning a Halloween celebration of your own this weekend?  Add some whimsy to your Halloween soiree with these fun photo booth props.  Here are some pics of the props in action from my party.  As you can see, for the photo booth itself I draped some black and purple streamers over the entryway between the living room area and the "foyer" and then added my Halloween plushie garland at the top.

Katie and Jacob with photo booth props.

Brian and me with props.

You may recognize this pic from my Halloween Party 2016 post.  I couldn't resist the chance to share it again.  Plus, it was the only picture I had of someone using the knife prop.

Materials:
*Cardstock in orange, black, white, and crimson
*Glitter cardstock in silver and red
*Thin dowels
*Paint in color(s) of your choice
*Paintbrush
*Duct tape
*Scissors
*All purpose adhesive
*X-acto knife

Directions:
*Size the below template to your desired size and print out.

*Cut out the various pieces of the template, using an X-acto knife for the jack o'lantern faces, the inside of the lips, and perhaps the lens area of the bat glasses.
*To make the pumpkin glasses, trace the pumpkin glasses template onto orange cardstock and cut out.
*To make the bat glasses, trace the bat glasses onto black cardstock and cut out.
*To make the vampire lips, trace the filled in lips shape onto black cardstock, the parted lips onto the red glitter paper, and the teeth onto white cardstock.  Cut out each of these pieces.  Glue the teeth behind the red lips, but such that the pointed part pokes down over the bottom lip and then glue the teeth-lips to the black cardstock cutout.
*To make the knife, trace the knife piece with the partial blade onto the glittery silver paper, the handle onto black cardstock, and the blood drip onto crimson cardstock.  Cut out each of these pieces.  Glue the handle over the handle part of the silver cutout and attach the blood drip to the end of the blade part.
*Cut dowels to size if they are not already the appropriate size.  Mine I cut to about a foot in length.
*Paint dowels in the color of your choice.  Set aside to dry.
*Once dry, tape dowels to the back of the props using duct tape.

Halloween Contest Skeleton Trophies

     This year when I was browsing for ideas for new Halloween crafts to make, I stumbled upon these adorable skeleton trophies and decided that I needed to make some for my party.  This meant that I had to come up with reasons to dole out trophies, so I ended up initiating the first ever costume contest at my Halloween party.  I also gave out a trophy to the winner of my jack o'lantern game.  Here are our award winners:

Best Costume:

By a 5:1 vote, Katie won best costume for her look as Sandy from Grease.  The other vote was for Brian's dark sorcerer costume.  In this picture, I'm supposed to be awarding Katie her trophy, but it kind of looks like I'm trying to take it from her it :P.

Best Couples Costume:

By a 5:1 vote, Brian and I won best couples costume (largely by default, as we were the only couples-ish costume) for our witch/dark sorcerer combo.  The other vote was for Katie and Katie.

Jack O'lantern Champ:

Although dad won the jack o'lantern game the first time around (see this post for the picture), he did not want his trophy, so we held a rematch when some more guests arrived.  Ayesha won and became the jack o'lantern champ.

     On the whole, I was pleased with how the trophies came out and people seemed to like them.  I'd like to do this again in future years, but each time come up with different costumes/decorations for the skellies.  Looking to make some trophies of your own?  Here's how I made mine.

Materials:

*Dollar store skeleton garland

*Scissors

*Wooden plaques

*Hot glue

*Gold spray paint

*Paper and printer or paper and pen

*Scraps of fabric, ribbon, pom poms, clay, etc. to create costumes for your skeletons

Directions:

*Remove skeletons from garland and cut the loop off of the top of each skeleton's head.

*Position skeletons as you would like them to appear (some people have cut apart skeletons at the joints and then reassembled them so they could alter the poses and have gotten some neat results, but this seemed like it would make the trophies even more fragile, so I didn't try it).  Glue stationary any parts that move.

*Glue skeleton's feet to its plaque.

*Once the glue has set, spray paint the trophy in accordance with the directions given on the spray paint packaging.  Let dry.

*Make paper sashes for the awards by either printing the text onto paper which you would then cut into strips (I hit 'enter' until I reached about halfway down the page and then wrote out the awards vertically, one letter per sash per line, using 'tab' between sash lines) or cut strips and hand letter.

*When the paint has dried, decorate your skeletons as you'd like.  See what costumes you can come up with using odds and ends.  Here's how I made mine:

*For the jack o'lantern champ, I made a clay pumpkin and glued it to the plaque.

*For the couples costume, I made one skeleton's Ouija board costume by designing an Ouija board in Publisher, printed it onto cardstock, and hung it around its neck using some of the twine from the skeleton garland.

*For the medium of the couples costume, I used some doll hair which I had gotten in a bulk craft pack from the Orono Thrift Shop and some scrap fabric.

*For the individual costume trophy, I pulled out my Valentine's craft stuff and used peace sign hearts to make wings and some wire, felt, and pop poms to make an antenna headband.  I intended for it to be a 'love bug,' but Brian thought it looked like a butterfly, so I went with that.

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.