Halloween Decor: Hits and Misses

Generally, I don't decorate a lot for Halloween. It's not my favorite holiday, frankly, it doesn't even make Top 3. So the last few years, without a Hobby Lobby nearby or really any desire to decorate for Halloween, I've just relied on my old decorations.

However, this year, being back in the land of Hobby Lobby and cheap craft supplies, plus armed with inspiration from Pintrest and the Better Homes and Gardens Halloween decor issue, I decided to add a few new decor items to my home.

Well, let's just say that after I made these items, my husband told me that he didn't think Martha Stewart should be worried about me taking over her job. Gee...thanks honey.

Anyway, if you're already following me on Instagram, you've probably seen most of what I'm about to show you.  If you don't, then you can see my Halloween decor now.

Let's start off at the front door.  These white pumpkins that spell out "Boo" were seriously the most difficult craft I did.  You'd think spray painting three pumpkins white wouldn't be hard. WRONG. I don't often spray paint, so I think what happened is that I didn't wait long enough between coats. I'd wait about 30  minutes max and paint again. Also the paint was flat, which is what was recommended in the magazine, but I had better results with glossy paint.  Here's the pumpkin fail after the white paint.

Once the pumpkins were sprayed with the white glossy paint, I taped the stencil on them so I could paint the letters in black.  All went well until I peeled the stencil off, which took part of the paint with it.  So...I painted back over the pumpkin with the white glossy paint, and applied the stencil letters with Sharpie.  At least it worked.

Zoomed out view of our front door.

Close-up of the pumpkins and our Jack O' Lantern.

Speaking of the Jack O' Lantern. It was probably the easiest craft I did. Although cutting out his teeth, was quite time consuming. I think he looks quite scary in this night pic.

These next few photos are some of my Halloween photos and decorations on the shelves in my living room. I had several Halloween themed photos in my archive, plus a printable I downloaded from Pinterest and sent them off to my printing company.  I think it adds a little something extra to the overall decor.

 

 



These fabric pumpkins were another inspiration from the BHG Halloween decor magazine.  Not too hard to make, just choose three different fabrics, paint some toilet paper rolls black and run two gathering stitches through the fabric to gather it up, stuff it with plastic bags and tie the rolls inside. Two of the pumpkins went easily. The thread on the third kept breaking and I had to keep redoing it. Finally they were all done and out to display.

Last, but not least is my spider wreath. It's my favorite item I made this year. Finding three different sized spiders proved to be tricky. I had to visit OrientalTrading.com, Wal-Mart and a local Halloween store to get them all. Hot-gluing them proved to be a bit tedious, but it really turned out great. I hung it outside on our door. Next morning, I opened the door and half the spiders had fallen off. Evidently the cold temps overnight combined with the warm temps during the day did this.  I haven't even fixed the wreath yet. I was too heartbroken all my hard work ended up for naught. So, the wreath is now sitting dejectedly in our front hallway floor.

I told Sean that I hope my Christmas crafts/attempts at decor go better than this. Or else I'm throwing in the towel.