Are You Ready To Get Your Halloween On?

The Halloween decor has been out in stores around here since August. 
I just got my summer decor out. 
Where has the time gone?

(This is an edited re-post from back in 2010.  It has some tried and true Halloween party and decor ideas so I'm re-posting it.)
To see my 2011 Halloween post go here.

In the past my house is decorated for Halloween by the second week of September. 
I can't help the compulsion to pull out my skulls and skeletons as soon as I start seeing the stuff in the stores. 
The last couple of years I have only put out about a third of my Halloween decorations. 
We used to have a huge Halloween party and I still have a lot of creepy decor stored away in boxes from those party days.
We always included kids at our party, so I didn't ever go over the top with scary or gory decor.

Here are some cost saving tips that have helped me get my Halloween on.

1) Use what you have in new ways. 

I added costume jewelry that I already had to Halloween skulls.
 

I like to embellish my skulls with costume jewelry, feather boas, and snakes.
The cloche keeps the snakes from slithering off.
Cloche and pedestal- already had
Ceramic skull- Big Lots
Rubber snake- Big Lots
Costume Jewelry- I already had from Grandma

2)   There is no reason to spend a ton of money.
Most of my decor was picked up on sale at places like Marshall's, Big Lots, the dollar store, and Target.
This candle holder is a cheap foam skull with a hole cut out in the top for a candle. I embellished it with some costume jewelry and dripped red candle wax down the sides.  The eye sockets are embellished with post earrings just pushed into the foam.  The right eye looks like it's crying jewels.
Foam skull- Big Lots

 

My pumpkins gets a dose of glam with grandma's costume jewelry, ribbon, and feathers from the dollar store.

 

 

 

     3)  Think multiples for a bigger impact.
   Sometimes it's better to buy 20 of the same thing than 3 of this and 2 of that.
I usually buy 2-3 crows each year to add to the flock. 

I like the impact of a hole flock of crows instead of one or two.

The flock gives visitors the evil eye when they enter the house.

They are all facing the front door. 

It gives the illusion they are all eyeballing the same thing.

 

4)  If you are having a Halloween party, think BIG.
Decor doesn't show up outside at night unless it's slightly "gaudy" by day. 

This is a picture of our bar table for our 2006 party.
The chandelier is dolled up with orange and black tulle, zebra stripe ribbon bows, and purple and orange painted light bulbs.  The ceiling is draped in more tulle and old curtains. 
Totally tacky, but it really worked at night to create a festive mood.



5) Lighting can make or break the party atmosphere.
It's one of the most important elements of a nighttime party.

Make sure you try out all your plugged in electrical lighting, your landscape lighting, and any other outdoor electrical devices that will be used on the night of the party way in advance of the real thing. Do a dry run to make sure you don't blow any fuses.
You might need to get a generator or try different outlets to avoid having a "dark" party.
Duct tape any extension cords down that go across walkways to prevent tripping.
Your guest might already be sight impaired due to elaborate costumes. 
Make sure pathways are well lit for walking, but not so bright and glaring that the creepy mood is ruined.
I used dollar store white plastic pumpkins and drilled holes all over them to create lanterns. I added paper lanterns to light this dark pathway down the side of the house.




I used battery operated candles for safety.



My cheese cloth ghost light up too. 
I bought inexpensive white paper lanterns and covered them in cheese cloth.
 The heads illuminate at night with battery operated tea lights.
I made the faces with glued on felt. 




   6) Embellish your existing lighting.

My chandeliers get blinged out with skeletons.
To see how to make these go here.



More magnetic skulls for a quick change to my metal hanging light.

This light fixture gets a twig, spider web, and crow makeover.
Twigs are free and spider webs are cheap.



Hanging skulls add to the creepy effect.
I picked this one up at Big Lots.





7)  Get creative with elements you can't move out of your yard for your party.

 What do you do when you've got an unattractive basketball hoop smack dab in the middle of your patio?  You make it part of the decor.  I took a metal curtain rod and duct tapped it to the top of the hoop to make the curve of the ghost head.  I slip covered the hoop in two white sheets sewn together.  I spray painted a happy face on the sheets.  The hoop is covered with ghost arms made from another sheet and stuffed with plastic grocery bags.  I set a large pumpkin on top of the basketball hoop to make it appear as if the ghost is carrying the pumpkin.   Then I hung a chandelier on the hoop for an added light source for the table below.  Sorry I don't have any good night shots, but he was the hit of  the party.  This is obviously a daytime shoot. 
Remember your guest will not see all the imperfections at night.
The basketball hoop was completely disguised at night.

    8)  Create an entrance to set the mood.
There is little doubt you are entering a Halloween themed party when you come to our front door.
One year I glued spiders on the door to spell out "Boo."
I used the wrong kind of glue because it took the paint off when I removed the spiders.
Oh well, the front door needed to be re-painted anyway.
This is not my idea, I think I saw it on Martha Stewart?

I used an inexpensive plastic skull from Big Lots and some spray painted branches to great the guest.
"Good Evening"

 

    9)   Don't forget the garden and landscaping.

My garden becomes a graveyard. 

I re-purposed my urns and columns for a make shift graveyard. 

Again, I'm using what I already have in a new way. 

I must admit I stole this idea from the Haunted House at Disneyland.

All the pumpkins light up at night to enhance the party atmosphere.

The columns and cross are from Target when they used to have a garden center.

I covered this garden arch with purple lights and orange tulle.
Again, gaudy and tacky by day, but totally cool at night.



I painted my plastic skeletons with glow in the dark paint for a creepy nighttime effect.
This is a cheap plastic skeleton, but at night he looks great floating next to the pond.

 

The gargoyles always show up at Halloween.
This one is from Target.
 

 

Annuals are removed from my urns and replaced with more ghoulish landscaping.

Here is another version of the birdbath next to the front door.
Succulents and a faux white pumpkin.

The kids liked the card playing skeletons that I put in the planter next to the front door.  They are flanked by foam grave stones.
  After one of our parties, our skeleton "grew" a mustache?
I think it was a parting gift from one of our guests.

I liked the mustache and let my skeleton wear him the following year.
The Fleur De Ly's are fence toppers that I attached to more faux pumpkins.

                        10) Decorate hallways and transitional spaces.

A small hallway is a great space to add hanging elements like this caged skeleton and spider webs.
Just make sure it's high enough so tall people don't get bonked in the head walking under it.

Here is the rotunda that leads from our family room into our Master Bedroom.
Spider webs and plastic spiders give a big impact for little money.
Although my house has been painted a different color since I took this picture back in 2006, I still like the Halloween decor I used back then.

   11)  Add stick on decals to existing mirrors and pictures.
Our family photos get stick on eye ball decals.

I added a removable vinyl sticker to the mirror behind the twigs.
My skeleton looks scared.

More glued on spiders. 
These pop right off the ironstone.

 Don't forget your costume.

This is my home made version of Medusa from a few years back.

It's sad when one of the better pictures I have taken involves having snakes in my hair.

Oh well.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Have you started decorating yet?
I haven't, but I'm getting excited about it.
I know yesterday was Labor Day, but it's never to early to start thinking about Halloween.

Thanks for checking it out.

 

Where Do You Find Inspiration?

I made this flower arrangement recently for a 50th Birthday Party for my husband.  I thought I would show you my inspiration and how simple this was to make.

Every summer I take the kids to the Del Mar Fair, now called the San Diego County Fair, but we still call it the Del Mar Fair. Kind of like Costco used to be named Price Club and for years I still called it Price Club.   Anyway, while the kids enjoyed the rides I did a quick run through the flower exhibits to take in the beauty. This is the first year I let the kids go off by themselves for an hour while I enjoyed the exhibits.

 

 I am always amazed and delighted with the creativity of the arrangements.  I thought you like to see some of them.  These are just pictures of the inside exhibits.  I'll show you the pictures of the outdoor landscaping exhibits in another post.

There was a Steam Punk vibe in many of the exhibits. 

They used old rusted objects combined with delicate flowers.  

Ultra modern.

New metal, Artichoke flowers (I think?) and trimmed Philodendron leaves.

Who would think to put these two together, but I like it.

Re purposed chair and succulents. 

Succulents were bigger than ever this year.

More succulents

Cactus skeleton and faux succulents. 

 I thought using plastic succulents at a flower show was a big no no?

I have to admit I have some plastic succulents that I use indoors.  I love the simpleness of this arrangement.

Who knew plastic lawn edging could look so good?

Maiden Hair Ferns and String of Pearls in mass. 

I love all the green and this is such a simple doable idea.

I like the white sticks.  This is great for a table setting center piece because the clear glass doesn't block the view of the guest sitting across from each other.  Don't you hate when you can't see the people across from you at a dinner party?

I took a picture of this Dahlia next to my fist so you could get an idea of how big it was.  Nice age spots.  Let this be a lesson out there to all you youngsters to wear sunscreen on your hands! 

This one was even bigger.

This was the inspiration for my much smaller and less grand arrangement. 

This orchid and Bromeliad display stopped traffic. 

Everyone that passed by couldn't help but admire the beauty.  I even saw some husbands that had been dragged in there with their wives stop to check it out. 

Ladies, don't make your husbands go look at flowers, they don't want to, they're just being nice.

Be nice back and don't make them go. 

They used about a dozen orchids in this arrangement and attached the Bromeliads to the branches with fishing line. 

This arrangement was huge, about three and a half feet tall.

My arrangement is about two feet tall and because I had limited time and a very limited budget, mine is not grand, but it works for me.  It reminds me a little of a Dr. Seuss tree?  This is a party for a guy, so I didn't want the flowers to be too feminine.  It was inexpensive to make, really easy, AND it will last a very long time. 

I used a $5 glass container and added sand and rocks to the bottom.  Next I stuck in a sandblasted Mansanita branch and a potted orchid.  The orchid was $8 at Home Depot.  I left the orchid in it's original plastic pot.  Then I covered up the pot with clumps of moss.  I added three succulent cuttings from my yard and hid the stems in the moss.  After the party I stuck the cuttings back in the ground to make a whole new plant.  I added a candle.

I hot glued some Tillandsias, moss, and bird's nests to the branches.

I placed it up against a black wall for the pictures.

I placed it outside on a large stump on my appetizer table.  It doesn't photograph well here that's why I took some pics. of it up against the black wall.  You can see a little bit of the beginning of a living room I created outside for the party.  I also added a whole other dinning room this side of the back of the chair.  My poor husband is surrounded by estrogen.  He has a wife, two daughters, a girl dog, and a girl bunny.  He doesn't have a "man" space in the house so for his birthday I created an outdoor cigar smoking living room for him.  I pulled the two chandeliers out of our bedroom and hung them above the fire pit.  They gave off great light at night.
I pulled furniture from inside the house to create the outdoor room.

I made lasagna for about 60 people and some of them ate here by the fire pit.  My friend Kristy recommended using this recipe from Pioneer Woman. 

I have a great lasagna recipe, but mine's not quick and easy. 

This one was simple to make and delicious. 

More people ate out here in our front courtyard.

A good time was had by all and my arrangement still looks great a week later. 

Where do you get inspiration?

Thanks for checking it out.

To see more of my simple, cost effective arrangements click on the links below.
Bubblicious
Rope Plant Hanger
House Warming Gift
Succulents
New Urns
Terrariums