Halloween Crafts

When I was little, I LOVED LOVED LOVED doing arts and crafts with my mom. We made crafts for everything possible and now that I have some extra free time on my hands, I've decided to try my had at creating some festive holiday decor for our house!

We don't have a lot of Halloween decorations at our house, given that Halloween isn't one of my favorite holidays. It has something to do with the fact that growing up trashy folks would drive into our newly built neighborhood to trick-or-treat with their infant children and would stand on our stoop drinking and smoking. Coupled with the fact that they wouldn't even tell jokes (um, hello, you have to work for your candy folks), it made me disdain Halloween.

So a few Halloween decorations are in order! I had a few Michael's coupons (love that place) so I headed off to the store to find some supplies.

Supplies:

Two wooden pumpkins

One wooden Skull and Cross Bones Door Hanger

Orange Craft Paint

Black Craft Paint

Green Craft Paint

White Craft Paint

Paint Brushes

Glitter Letters

Fishing Line

Martha Stewart Craft Glue in Halloween colors (Black, Orange, Green, Silver)

Craft Paint Sealer

I started painting the pumpkins orange, with green stems. It took a few coats to get the wood adequately covered. Then I also had to paint the flip sides. I did make the mistake of not fully letting the paint dry when I flipped them, so I had to pick off little pieces of newspaper (or lazily cover with paint repeatedly until you couldn't tell that there had been paper there). Damn being so impatient! Grrrrrr. I also experimented with outlining the eyes in black paint on one of the pumpkins. Next up was glitter time! Orange glitter on the orange paint, green glitter on the green paint and black glitter on black paint (duh!).

On another I outlined the eyes in silver glitter to change it up a little!

After much drying time, I did a quick coat of sealer on both sides and ran a piece of fishing line through the pre-existing hole. Then I hung them up in our front windows. They spin slightly, but look pretty great!

Another festive item is the make your own door hanger. I painted the skull and crossbones with white and painted the hanging sign with black. Actually I painted the hanging sign in black, then orange, then white, then back to black. I tried to get fancy but can't paint a straight line even with a ruler to save my life. Then I super glued some sparkly letters spelling out CAUTION and covered the skull and cross bones with a blend of black and silver glitter glue. A quick seal with the spray sealer and it was hung on the door and ready to roll!