Halloween Decorating Inspired by Pinterest

Have you heard of Pinterest yet?  Wowza... I'm pretty new to 'pinning' but I'm already addicted!  It's a great 'time filler' at 3:00 AM when you've just fed a newborn but they're not quite asleep.  My little girl has gotten used to me holding her in one arm and clicking the mouse with the other!  I found so many great and amazing ideas for Fall & Halloween decorating this year.... here's a little peek in our house at what I did:

As I've written about countless times - I have a really hard time with our mantle - the big gaping holes to each side are huge and require some height but unless I want to shell out some big bucks for some huge vases.... they're going to look a bit empty.  I'm just going to have to live with it.  :)

I made the bunting using halloween scrapbook paper found in the dollar section at Target and a great scallop circle punch and ribbon already on hand... I just sewed it all together.

The weathered pumpkins are ones I wrote about awhile back (read the story here) and the fake birds, glittered haunted houses, die cut birds and bats are all dollar store purchases.  (There were some FANTASTIC finds at the dollar store!)  Mason jars with candy corn and votives flank a cute pumpkin decoration that I found at TJMaxx.

Do you spy my 'craft fail' that I wrote about last post?  Yep - the spray painted glassware/vases... looks cute here though!  More about my 'fail' here

Now for a look at the rest of the house....

In our entryway is this Ikea credenza that stores a bunch of my sewing stuff.  I made the zebra print runner using indoor/outdoor fabric from JoAnne's, then added the 'vintage' looking items - lantern, buckets and postcard decor.

Near our dining room is this great buffet/credenza.  I love how these die cut bats look flying across the wall!  I got inspiration for this from here 

The 'boo' sign is another great idea I found on-line through a great blog called "eighteen25": 

Source & Tutorial

My version:

I used scrapbook paper and then just outlined the lettering and added glitter... the frames were ones I already had.  I sewed this runner as well - more fantastic indoor/outdoor fabric.  I love me a good lattice print!

This bookshelf is near our dining table - I added the skeleton garland on each end, the cute glitter skeleton decor (found in the Target dollar section - love that spot!) and the fun 'tissue box' monsters!

My inspiration:

Inspiration:  gigglesgalorenmore.blogspot.com

I love how fun and festive our house looks!  My oldest daughter is only two so I know she's not as into it as she will be in years to come but it's fun to 'build' up my stash of fun decor!  Happy Halloween everyone!  

I'm linking this post up to: 

A Blog Post About A Blog Post

Wow - how cool is this?  I was contacted a couple months ago from Luna Bazaar - a great online company that sells great lanterns and other decor items.  I had purchased and used some of their paper lanterns to make a mobile in baby #2's nursery, they got wind of it and asked if they could feature my post as a 'guest spot' on their blog!  Well, time went by but yesterday I got word that they had it posted:

Luna Bazaar Guest Post

Luna Bazaar reallly is awesome - you can find ALL SORTS of great things for a great price:

paper lanterns in every size and color

glass vases

      

amazing pillow covers

sauce dishes - how cute to put jewelry in?

(ALL pictures sourced from Luna Bazaar's website)

Custom Owl & Wreath

Recently a friend asked me to make her both a custom owl as well as a Fall wreath for her own door.  The owl she said was for a friend who recently had a baby and had a pink/pastel themed nursery - I found some of these cute materials mainly from my stash that I used for baby #2's nursery... it turned out adorable!  

My friend's front door is a rust/maroon color so to stand out I used a marled khaki yarn - it has hints of rust and gray in it so I used those colors as accents.  I added a gray stripe and then some maroon and gold flowers.  A khaki satin ribbon finishes it off - perfect for Fall!

Fall Decorating - A Series: The Front 'Porch'

To dress up the front porch area for Fall I made a lovely grapevine wreath adorned with felt roses in gold and rust.  It really pops against the black front door that we have.  I think it's an 18 inch wreath which works really well since our front door is so large.

In addition to the fall wreath I used indoor/outdoor fabric in a 'fall-ish' print to create a slipcover for the outdoor pillow that sits on our adirondack chair.  I can't take credit for the design - my Mom came up with the idea for the envelope style and twig closure.  Isn't it adorable?  Thanks Mom!

A Crafty Failure

I found a fantastic tutorial/idea on Pinterest recently that I just knew I had to try.... how cool do these look? 

Source:Pure and Noble

In her tutorial/explanation she decided to use a hot glue gun vs. puffy paint as the original blogger did... I figured  - yeah, let's try it.  Unfortunately I was sloppy - all those little strings that happen when you use a glue gun?  They are VERY noticeable when you spray paint over the top of them.  Boo!  This craft project was a MAJOR FAIL!  Grade:  D-

Here's a better picture - see all the little strings?  Yuck.  This went into the recycle bin.

This vase was salvageable - I have it as part of my Halloween decor on my mantle but I don't 'love' it

Here are the black versions I did.... the first was a glass vase - I initially tried writing some words on it but that didn't work at all so instead I chipped that glue off and just tried putting on stripes.  Thankfully I only did one side!    The second version was just a soup can!  It turned out much better but only because I didn't use any glue on it!  ;)

Next time I'm trying the puffy paint.....

Do you have any 'craft projects gone wrong' stories to share?