Halloween Decor

Happy Halloween!  Well, almost.  Halloween isn’t exactly my favorite holiday.  I hate being scared and since I’m a big scaredy cat, a lot of things scare me.  I don’t like the nasty part of Halloween so I try to focus on the cute spiders (which are obviously fictional because spiders in real life scare the crap out of me), happy ghosts, pumpkins, and the colors of the holiday.  Our Disney Halloween tree sums it up perfectly.

I’m one of those people who has pinned over 200 craft projects and can count the ones I've actually done on one hand.  I can count them on half a hand actually.  I'm also one of those people who likes to start projects and not always finish them (remember how I mentioned I was still working on the last pillow for the living room?  I've been working on it for months....).  Anyhow, with that in mind I'd like to share with you the Halloween wreath I made and finished within a couple days of purchasing the supplies. It's a miracle really.

I found some inspiration online through the many fabric wreaths, some feathery ones, and a bunch with cute painted letters. I headed to Jo-Anne's with my stack of coupons and began gathering my supplies.   While doing this, Mr. C pointed to a black feather wreath that was on sale for $20 and asked if we couldn't just buy that instead.   No doubt he was worried about me buying everything and not actually using them.  I was temped to save some time and just buy the wreath but I knew I'd be happier with a homemade one.  Lucky for me I was right :)

I used an 18” wire wreath base.  I thought this would give me a fuller effect than using a foam base and in the end I think it did.  It also was cheaper and I think it’ll stand up over the years better than a foam base.

I cut a yard of black burlap into various strips using a rotary tool and cutting mat.  I had never really worked with burlap before and had no idea how horribly messy it would be.  I love the way the burlap turned out but I had little black furry things all over my arms, clothes, chair, and floor.  I had to lint roll my skin at one point it was so bad.  Based on that, I’d suggest maybe using a black fabric instead of burlap.  I really do love it, but it was quite messy and not the easiest thing to cut.  Knowing what I know now, I think I’ll be staying away from burlap for a very long time.

After tying the burlap in knots on alternating spots throughout the wire base I painted some thin wood letters orange to spell B-O-O.  When they were finished they didn’t really have the look I wanted so I covered them in orange glitter which helped them really stand out against all that black.

I tied the letters onto the wreath using a combo of black, purple, and orange ribbons I had purchased by the yard.  I also used a yard of thick black ribbon to hang the wreath (you could probably skip this but we have a very tall door).  I was able to find a sparkly purple spider at Michael’s to finish off the project.

I really love it and love that it’s unique.  And, with my coupons I came in at about $15 for the whole project.  Not too shabby.

I love seeing the wreath every time I come in the front door.

I also decked out our mantle for the holiday.  The tree was purchased from Hobby Lobby a year or two ago but I think I saw a few for sale there recently.  The spiders and bats were new this year from Pier One.  The BOO sign was made for under $5 by painting some wooden letters orange.  I finished the area off with a black and purple boa on the mantle and some cobwebs on the mirror.

Did you do any Halloween decorating this year?  I’m so excited to see the kids out Wednesday all dressed up in their costumes!