Thursday, November 1, 2012

Happy Halloween!


 
Happy Halloween everyone! This is a picture of my mantle, some of the decorations were Pinterest inspired, others I thought of myself (I'm sure other's have thought of them, but I'm taking credit for my own creativity since I never saw them on Pinterest myself. *wink, wink*).

The ghost in the mirror is just a piece of frosted vinyl I got from JoAnn's, cut into a ghosty shape and adhered to the mirror with a little scrapbooking tape. This I found on Pinterest, and some have used Ziploc Press N' Seal to make their ghost, others used window vinyl to stick to the mirror. I like the look of the frosted vinyl, and while you can sort of see the scrapbooking tape through the vinyl, it isn't so noticeable that it looks bad. The Bats are just window clings that I got at JoAnn's, but of course those you can get anywhere.

The pumpkins are just those craft funkin pumpkins that you can get at any craft store (I think the black one came from Target). Same goes for the candle sticks. I think you could probably find something suitable at a second hand store, but I didn't have time to search through all the thrift stores for suitable candlesticks, so I got these at Hobby Lobby while they were on sale for 50% off.

The crows came from the Dollar Tree, and the skull was $5 at Target. The mantle runner is from JoAnn's that was also on sale for 50% off (plus my discount) which made that pretty cheap.

Now, what I made were the spell books and the potion bottles. They were both super easy to do, just so long as you've got a little time and effort to put into it.

 


For the witchcraft books you'll need:
* Black spray paint
* Antique White acrylic paint
* White Sharpie paint pen
* Craft books (can be found at any craft store)






















Basically, all you need to do is spray paint your books black (or whichever color you prefer).  Once the paint is dry, I used a sponge brush to paint my antique white acrylic paint onto the part of the book that would be the pages.  I thought the sponge brush did a nice job of creating lines as if they were actually pages.  I only used one coat, to keep the page-like feel, more coats and the black lines wouldn't be there.  Then I used my paint pen to write the titles onto my books.  I wish I had better handwritting, I don't think the titles look to "witchy" but they'll do.  And that's it!




The potion bottles were essentially the same thing as the books.  This is what you'll need:
* Glass bottles (I found mine at JoAnn's and Michael's for $1 apiece)
* Acrylic paint
* Glass writer pen


















First off, I squeezed some paint inside the bottle, then swirled it around to cover the entire inside of the bottle.  Next, I took my glass pen and wrote on the outside of the bottle various witchcraft ingredients (eye of newt, aconite, gall of goat, hemlock, etc.)  Once the glass paint was dry I put the cork back on top and there you go, easy as pie!

I really liked how my mantle turned out, and I got a lot of compliments during our Halloween party as well.  So not only did I like my decorations, but others did as well and that's all I can really ask for.  I hope you all had a happy and safe Halloween!