Mod Podge Halloween Plate and Halloween Party Ideas

     This past weekend my partner Brian and I invited some family members over for a Halloween party.  I've wanted to have a Halloween party for some time now, but never have been able to, so I was glad to finally host one.  This post includes instructions on how to make one of the crafts I made for my party, the Halloween egg platter, but also some ideas for party snacks, food related crafts, indoor and outdoor decor, and activities for your party.

Halloween Plate

Materials:

*Plate

*Halloween paper napkin

*Mod Podge

*Paintbrush

*Scissors

Directions:

*Trim napkin to fit the bottom of the plate.

*Apply a thin coat of Mod Podge to the backside of the plate and then stick on the napkin.  Let dry.

*Once dry, apply a thin coat of Mod Podge over the napkin to seal it.  Let dry.  The plate should be hand washable, but I wouldn't recommend submerging it in water if possible and I also doubt it would fare well in a dishwasher.

Halloween Party Snacks and Food Related Crafts

     Serve your guests these deviled eggs that will keep an eye on them.  Just make deviled eggs as you usually would (or use Brian's recipe, given below) and then cut up a few olives into thin slices and use those for the pupils of the eyes.  Also, if you're interested in making your own witch costume, here's how I made the one I'm wearing in the photo.

Brian's Deviled Eggs

Ingredients:

*1 dozen eggs

*5 tbsp mayonnaise

*1 tsp mustard

*Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

*Place eggs in a pot of water and bring to a roaring boil.

*Once boiling, turn the heat down some and cook for 20 minutes.

*Take eggs off the stove and drain the water.  Set aside to cool.

*Once cool, cut the eggs in half and scoop the yolks out into a blender.  Add the mayo, mustard, salt, and pepper and blend until smooth.

*Scrape the yolk mixture into a sealable plastic bag and cut off one of the corners.  Squeeze the mix into the egg whites through the hole in the corner.

     These cemetery cupcakes/cake are easy to make and delicious.  Brian used a devil's food cake mix and his vanilla icing recipe (can be found in this blog post) with some added green food coloring to make it look like grass.  Mys sister Katie and I used ground up Newman's O's (which Brian ground in the blender) for the dirt and chocolate orange Milano cookies for the tombstones.  Like the cupcake stand?  Here are the directions for how to make it.

     Here's the snack table setup we had at the party.  Brian's mom made the witch's brooms by poking pretzels into peanut butter cups.  The gray thing in the very back, which is mostly hidden behind the food, is holding food picks, which we used to skewer cheese cubes.  The directions are here.  Also, if you like the tablecloth, here's how I made it.

     This is what I did for the table setup.  Here's how to make the goblets.  I plan to write about the coasters (which you can't see very well here) in a forthcoming post.

Indoor Decor

     Here are some simple DIY decorations.  Directions for the Halloween curtain are here.  Here's how to make the creepy dolls.  I made the tablecloth using basic tie dyeing techniques described here.  The morphing holographic photos came from Dollar Tree and Rite Aid, but I wrote about how you can make them look nicer here (even though it isn't mentioned in the post title).

     Some more decorations.  The little figurines and light up haunted grove my mom gave me years ago.  The Halloween tree with the ornaments I made and I also made the potion bottles.  Although I didn't include photos here, for the party I also put up my felt sleepy bat, my Halloween fuse bead magnets, and my Halloween banner.

Outdoor Decor

     Now for some outdoor decorating ideas.  I got the eyeball path markers from Kmart.  They light up and play spooky sounds when someone walks near them.  Two of the foam tombstones I made, and you can find directions for them here, while two came from Dollar Tree and I forget where the two little ones came from.

     And a few more outdoor decorations.  This spooky eyeball wreath I made also glows in the dark (directions here).  I printed the door hanger from Family Fun's website years ago, but I can't seem to find the link for it anymore.

Activities

     Looking for some ideas for activities for your party?  We had a Yankee swap at ours.  I used the mini paper witch hats I made a few weeks ago and either hid a little gift under them or adhered a piece of painter's tape to the bottom with a number on it.  Each number corresponded to a particular gift that was too large to fit under one of the hats.  Brian's mom got a bookmark that I made from the swap, as did Brian's sister Alissa.  It wasn't one of these monster ones, but these are pretty popular and they're Halloween related, so I figured I would link to it to give an idea of a possible bookmark you could make.

     My brother Adam got a photo of a giant pink dinosaur skeleton (the one by Perry's Nut House in Belfast),  It can be fun to have some gag gifts, as long as your participants are good sports.

     My dad got a pom pom pal I made.  I also got one, but I gave it to Katie because she had to miss the party for work.

     Brian (who is wearing the vampire cape I made for Halloween last year) ended up with some plastic Halloween rings.  Alissa's boyfriend Kyle ended up with some Halloween earrings and mom got some fall leaf ones that I made by punching leaf shapes out of patterned cardstock and adding ear wires to them.  We had two additional gifts left over at the end, a bookmark that mom got and some googly eyed thumbtacks (just take thumbtacks and glue googly eyes to them) that Alissa received.

     For our other activity, we made caramel apples.  Not exactly picturesque, but they're tasty nonetheless.  Well, that's all for now.  I hope you've enjoyed this blog post and I hope that it has given you plenty of ideas for your own Halloween party!  If you are hosting a party of your own, I'd love to hear what your ideas are/how it goes in the comments below.

Scrap Cardstock Halloween Earrings

     Have some cardstock left over after making mini paper witch hats or other Halloween crafts?  Here's an easy and attractive craft that uses up some of the tiniest of paper scraps.

Materials:
*Scrap Halloween cardstock in 4 different patterns
*2 ear wires
*6 jump rings
*Scissors
*Needle
*2 pairs of pliers

Directions:
*Cut out 2 small pieces of cardstock from each of the 4 different patterns of paper.  My paper was already diamond shaped, so I used that, but you could also try other shapes like circles or stars or even Halloween shapes.
*Arrange the pieces of cardstock in the order in which you would like them to hang from the ear wire.  Using the needle, poke holes in the top and bottom of all of them except for the one that will hang the lowest.  With that one you need only poke a hole in the top.
*Link the pieces of cardstock together in two sets of 4 using jump rings.
*Attach the chains of cardstock to ear wires.

Halloween Mini Paper Witch Hats

     I decided to try a video tutorial for this craft project.  I have a poll on the right hand side of the page in which you can tell me what type of craft tutorial you like best, be it video, written, or pictorial.  I'd like to be able to make this blog as helpful to you as possible, so let me know what you think, either in the poll or in the comments.
     For written directions and the required template, visit Joann.com.  Note that I made these hats for decorative purposes, but if you'd like to make it wearable, just glue the hat to a headband and you're all set.

Halloween Tablecloth

Materials:

*Enough fabric to cover your table (I used a 43" x 43" square of fabric for my little table)

*Sewing machine or needle and thread

*Scissors

*Pins

Directions:
*Cut fabric to the appropriate dimensions.

*Fold over an edge of the fabric about 1/4" and pin in place, then sew down.

*Repeat with the remaining edges to prevent the tablecloth from fraying.

Make sure to check out my other Halloween crafts for some decoration and costume ideas.

Glitter Drip Wine Glasses

Materials:
*Wine glass
*Glitter
*Mod Podge
*Squirt bottle of some form (I used an empty shampoo bottle)
*Funnel (optional, but makes getting the Mod Podge into the squirt bottle much easier)
*Acrylic sealer
*Painter's tape
*Cling wrap

Directions:
*Cover the rim of the glass with painter's tape.
*Pour some Mod Podge into the squirt bottle.
*Squeeze Mod Podge along the bottom of the tape line.  The more you squeeze out in one spot, the longer the drip will be.  You should end up with something like this:

*Let the Mod Podge dry for five minutes and then pour glitter over the Mod Podge.  Set aside to dry for 24 hours.
*After it has finished drying, cover the top of the glass with cling wrap and tape so that the acrylic sealer cannot get inside the glass.
*Spray with acrylic sealer and let dry for the required amount of time given on the bottle.
*Once dry, carefully peel off the painter's tape and cling wrap.

Clay Halloween Cocktail Picks and Spidery "Stone" Holder

     These cute little food picks and holder serve a dual purpose: they are both a decoration and something you can use to skewer cheese cubes.

Cocktail picks
Materials:
*Metal cocktail picks (could also use bamboo probably)
*Clay in various colors
*Red permanent marker (to draw blood veins on the eyeball)

Directions:
*Mold clay into Halloween shapes around the tops of the cocktail picks.
*Bake in the oven following the directions on the clay packets.  Let cool.
*Once the clay is cool enough to touch, add any needed details (such as blood veins on the eyeball) using a permanent marker.

Holder
Materials:
*Styrofoam
*Gray paint
*Paintbrush
*Spider rings
*Webbing
*Scissors

Directions:
*Paint the Styrofoam gray.  Set it aside to dry.
*Once the paint has dried, pull spider webbing across it.
*Snip the ring base off a couple of spider rings and place the spiders on the webbing.
*Poke the cocktail picks into the top of the Styrofoam.

An Introduction to Refinishing Furniture

     Last summer I came across this gorgeous wooden table at Goodwill.  The paint had worn off in places and it was missing some hardware (see below), but it only cost $3, so I figured there was no reason not to buy it and try fixing it up.  My original plan was to give it a coat of glittery spray paint, but Brian pointed out that this table was actually really nice and perhaps we should fix it up properly.  So I looked up how to refinish furniture online and decided to give it a try.  After all, how difficult could it be?  Cue foreboding horror movie music.
     It might not have been so bad had I selected a nice, flat, rectangular table, but this table was full of curves and indentations that required lots of hand sanding.  If your intended DIY project sounds anything like mine, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Are you a seasoned refinisher with years of experience refinishing tricky furniture items?
2. Are you a masochist?
3. Do you enjoy monotony and do you have endless wells of patience?

If you answered yes to 1, you should probably be writing this post instead of me because I know nothing about refinishing furniture aside from this one experience with my (evil) table.  If you answered yes to 2 or 3, congratulations!  Try refinishing your furniture item at your own risk.  If you answered no to all 3, put down the sandpaper, take three steps back from the furniture item (slowly, and with your eyes fixed on the object so that it cannot sneak up on you), and get out while you still can.
     If you have a more manageable furniture item or choose to proceed in spite of my warnings, here are some tips to help you along with your project.  For more detailed instructions on refinishing furniture, see e.g. HowStuffWorks.

Materials:
*100 grit medium sandpaper
*220 grit very fine sandpaper
*Stain and polyurethane coating (can be a 2 in 1 combo, like I used, or separate)
*Paintbrush
*Sander (optional, but highly recommended)
*Protective goggles
*Ventilation mask
*Ear muffs (if you're using a sander)

Tips:
*Do not use any sandpaper of lower quality than 100 grit.  Brian and I got some 80 grit paper in hopes that it would speed up the sanding process and it did, but it left scratches in the wood.
*If you have access to a sander (and if it is an appropriate tool for your project), I recommend using it.  Hand sanding is no fun.
*If you're not looking for perfection (which, if you are, you should probably find an article written by someone with more experience refinishing furniture), you don't have to scrape the paint off all the way.  You just need to rough it up enough that the new coat of paint will adhere.  Choose a paint color a few shades darker than the furniture item's original color and no one will be able to see the old paint underneath.

The table in the state in which we bought it.

Me sanding down the table