Need More Ghosts!

I totally stole this idea off another blog.  I loved it so much, I wanted to share it with you.  In case you didn’t read the link on my facebook page for the other blog, I will show you how easy it is to add some spooktacular fun to your front yard for Halloween! 
I’m not even going to show you step by step instructions on this one because it will insult your intelligence.  Here’s what you need:

1. Old Christmas ball ornaments.  They can be as big or as small as you want, mine were small.
2. Squares of white fabric (you can cut an old sheet).
3. Halloween ribbon or yarn.
4. Fishing line.
5. If you choose to add a face, you will need a fabric marker and googly eyes.

All you do is cut a tiny slit in the middle of the white fabric to push the top of your ornament through.  Next you tie a ribbon under the ball.  If you want a face you can hot glue your eyes and then then add a mouth.  Lastly, you add fishing line and hang from a tree or your porch.
This project would be a fun one to do with your kids, nieces, or nephews.
I made 10, because that is all the fabric I had.  I would like about 5 more.  We have 4 dogwood trees in the front yard and that is where I hung mine.

Also, here is our front porch all decorated for the fall:

We haven’t carved our punkins yet.  I don’t own any Halloween decorations, so it’s pretty simple.  I’m slowly making and gathering Halloween stuff, so I can keep it for the years to come.  I think we might hang some lights on the porch to make it a little more fun.  We still haven’t gotten a new door, because I’ve been working so much.  
I also made this little rug for our front door:

I bought the rug for $7 at Wal-Mart and then made a stencil by printing a font that I liked on regular paper and then cutting it out with sharp scissors.  I taped it down and then spray painted in the cut out.  I had some over spray from the wind and so I sprayed carpet cleaner and tried to scrub it out.  That’s why there is a white semi-circle.  I think it’s mostly left over paper towel.  lol Real professional, I know.  It’s just something you wipe your feet on, so it doesn’t really bother me.  Plus, I’m not a perfectionist by any means.

Cheers!

Make Your own Halloween Wreath

Happy October!

I made my first, ever wreath. I love it! October is probably one of my favorite months out of the year. I’ve always loved the cool crisp air, the autumn smells, and Halloween is probably my favorite holiday. When else can you put on crazy clothes and run around asking complete strangers for candy, “Come On”! (Sorry about that. Kinda addicted to Arrested Development. It’s hard not to quote the Bluth family).

Okay, so if you want a quick and easy Halloween wreath, this one probably isn’t for you, but it is OH so cute. I’ve been away for quite a while (I actually have a job now) so I figured I owed you one.

First things first, you might want to take a look at the finished product to see if you even want to make it. My command hook said to wait an hour, so it’s not yet hanging.

Step 1: Buy a round foam or straw wreath form.

Step 2: Buy yarn in your favorite Halloween color.

Step 3: Start wrapping, I would try to get all the straw covered, but don’t waste your time or yarn making it perfect, like I did. I ran out, so had to improvise with another color. When you get to the start of your wreath, just thread your yarn on a fat eyed needle and loop it under some of the yarn and tie it off. Cut the tail. Be warned this takes a LONG time. hours. Sit back and watch a few episodes of Arrested Development, or Community. Ahhhh…good shows.

Step 4: Start making your garnishes, I don’t know why I just called them that. Better names aren’t coming to me. The stuff to make your wreath pretty. How about flowers?

Step 5: Buy fabric and make roses. If you don’t know how to do this, just google, fabric rosettes or something. This post is already going to be too long to teach you this. Sorry.

Step 6: Oh wait I forgot to tell you everything you need to buy for this project. I will do this now. You’re a smart cookie, just move this up to step one (in your head).

I didn’t use the felt, but you can make felt flowers or whatever with it. I bought sheer purple ribbon with wire, black feathers (out of Hobby Lobby’s floral dept. 50 cents a piece), fabric of your choice, chip board letters (you can spell out whatever you want, and craft paint in your color choice (not pictured).

Step 7: Go ahead and paint your chip board so it can be drying.

Step 8: I made my spider. Really none of this has an order, incase you couldn’t tell. If you don’t know how to crochet or knit you can skip this step and just buy a plastic spider from a dollar store. I just knitted a circle, stuffed it with two cotton balls, tied it up. Here is how I made the legs. Just click to enlarge pics if you need to.

Pull tight and repeat three more times, until you have eight legs. Also, you can add googly eyes, but I just didn’t have them.

Step 9: Make your bow. I just wrapped mine loosely around my hand until I thought I had enough, then tied it real tight in the middle with yarn. Lastly you spread it out.

Now would also be a good time to make your loop that you will hang your wreath up by. I just double knotted my ribbon and hot glued it.

Step 10: Hot glue ribbon and attach feathers.

You can stick your feathers anywhere on your wreath, but I chose to stick them in the middle of my bow. Just used wire cutters and trim the ends off. The feathers will not stick THROUGH the ribbon, so just adjust the best you can and push them through the yarn and straw.

Step 11: Attach your spider. I took a piece of embroidery floss and hot glued him to the back of the wreath.

Step 12: Hot glue your flowers.

I glued them over the black yarn to hide it some.

Step 13: Hot glue your letters, aaaaaaaannnddd then you are done! Finally, right? I’m going to hang mine on my front door by a silver command hook. I’m so happy to have something to make my ugly door pretty! Btw, we should be getting a new door soon. Stay tuned.

This project cost around $15 and oodles of time (I got it all done in one night), but it was really fun!

Cheers!