Haunt Your House for Halloween

Here are some great ideas for "haunting your house" this Halloween. Check out these and many more fun ideas at our Halloween Haunted House Theme Party Board at Pinterest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween Owl Theme Party

 Have a Spooky Owl theme party for Halloween! Check out these ideas and much more at our Halloween Owl Party Pinterest Board.

 

 

 

 

 

Vintage Halloween Party Planning Ideas

Check out these vintage Halloween party ideas from an old Dennison advertisement - they're great to use for your party planning for vintage style flair.

Weeny-Witch Party Book - Vintage Halloween

Weeny-Witch Party Book - I saved screen captures from a recent eBay auction of the Weeny-Witch Party Book--if you like these old party books,  you can find this one fairly regularly on eBay. Click on the images for larger views.

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Vintage Halloween Party Ideas

I took screen grabs of these scans of some old Dennison party ideas--click on the images for a larger view. These are fun and provide some good old-time ideas for your parties.

 

 

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 13 - Spooky Scarecrows

Spooky Scarecrow Project

Today I worked on craft project #3 for the annual Nancy Drew Halloween party - putting together 2 spooky scarecrows to put outside the front of the house - they will be really tall too--close to 7+ feet. I purchased 2 pumpkins that light up that have particularly spooky features and at night they look so neat all lit up! I took 2 x 2 boards and painted them black and have 2 black buckets to put these into with sand to keep them in place.

At JoAnn, I purchased some filmy black fabric to attach to the cross bar--which was just some garden stakes zip-tied onto the 2 x 2s.

I slit jagged cuts into the fabric to make it look tattered. With a little more fine tuning to go and setting them out later this week, they'll look great. I also have some crows to attach to the arms.

 

 

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 8 - Spooky Ghost Window Silhouettes

Ghostly Window Silhouettes

Another project I worked on today for my upcoming Halloween party was putting ghost silhouettes into the front 3 arch windows on one side of the house that's a studio. I was going to do my usual black window silhouettes backed with a yellow tissue and then immediately ruled that out--ghosts should be white I think, they're more effective that way, so I decided to cover the window with the black and cut out the ghosts and back the cutout area with the white tissue paper. I think this effect is much more spooky, after all I'm trying to "haunt" the house!

I had 3 windows and used 4 poster board sheets for these - One solid piece and then a part of one to make it taller. This is a very inexpensive project to do and has such a great effect. The poster board was .99 cents at Michaels and a little less with a discount I had on my total purchase and the white tissue I had on hand in the Christmas wrap drawers, but a package is generally around a dollar or more at most stores. 

I put the 2 pieces of poster board together and taped along the seam--I didn't worry about removing the sticker on the back since I kept that side as the backside which no one will see. Then, I drew on my ghosts with a pencil and then cut them out--I cut them out within the poster board, leaving borders all the way around to keep it one sturdy piece, then taped white tissue on the back, flipped it over and added some tape underneath various areas onto the tissue to stabilize it. Then I cut out features and taped those on. Luckily the windows were as wide as the poster board so I didn't have to trim up and down on those. Now I need to do several of the upstairs windows and the front window to go along with the theme. This was a method that was much quicker than my usual black silhouettes and then taping loads of tissue all over the window.

Here's how the windows turned out:

 

 

Jenn:)

Halloween Skeletal Wreath How To

My first Halloween Craft Project this year was to make a creepy yet elegant Skeletal Wreath for the door - both for decoration for Halloween and to go along with my annual Nancy Drew Halloween party. It was very simple and easy to do and I used supplies from Michael's to do it:

A wreath form, hot glue gun and glue sticks, some rolls of ribbon, and a bag of skeleton hands plus I added a glittered black crow to the ribbon hanger.

Begin by wrapping the wreath form with your ribbon and use a small dab of hot glue to keep it in place--at the beginning and several more times throughout the wrapping process and at the end.  I chose a ribbon about 1/2" wide in the Halloween section that is slightly transparent and edged with glittery fluff which looked really nice on the wreath form. The ribbon was in 3 yard rolls and I took 2 plus a tiny bit of a 3rd.

Once you have the wreath form covered, it's time to glue on the skeleton hands. I purchased 2 bags and used one and about half of the second bag. Each bag has 12 skeleton hands in it. 

Position the hands around and get a pattern you like - I matched up short finger ends and long finger ends to keep it in aligned visually all the way around.

Some hot glue on one side and press and hold for a few seconds to set. If you end up using too much glue and it bleeds out around the edges, which I had happen on some of mine, best to take some black paint and cover the glue once cooled so it blends in with the background and doesn't distract visually.

Once you have them all glued on, you can add a ribbon hanger. I had a small gap between the last 2 I glued where I added my ribbon hanger but felt it seemed too bare, so I added one more skeleton hand coming downward which I think gave it more character--see picture at top.

Jenn:)

Better Homes & Gardens Tricks & Treats Halloween Magazine #2

Better Homes & Gardens Tricks & Treats Magazine #2

Here are a couple of other ideas I enjoyed from this year's BH&G Halloween issue--the serving set up using a cute witch hat as a topper along with the hands and crackers. We sell a set of spooky crackers at The Vintage Halloween Store if you're looking for a festive and "noise making" favor for this year's party.

And this page has some cute ideas for decorating and favors:

Jenn:)

Spooktacular Halloween Party Invites

Calling All Spooky Party Guests!

Getting people to your Halloween party might be easy if you're know for throwing a fabulous affair :) Sometimes it doesn't hurt to pamper them a little with a fun and festive invite! We've got several festive invites at The Vintage Halloween Store. These 2 invitation kits from Martha Stewart are clever! The Spinner Invites shown above have a real working spinner and the striped envelopes lined with orange paper are so clever.

The Specimin Box Invites are a sweetly sinister way to entice some spooksters to join you as well!

Whatever you do this Halloween, make sure your invitations are memorable and Spooktacular!

Jenn:)

Halloween Beverage Clings

Martha Stewart Halloween Beverage Clings

Can't wait to use my Martha Stewart beverage clings at this year's party! You can get them in The Vintage Halloween Store. I especially like the spooky ghostly face.

Jenn:)

Oct. 30 - Day 30: Halloween Party Sneak Peek

Halloween 2011 Party

Had my annual Nancy Drew Halloween party last night. The theme was The Hidden Staircase and so the house was a "haunted house." I went with a mostly black and white theme and here's a few images from the party--will post more tomorrow.

A great way to cover up your existing paintings is to "haunt" them with covers like these I created using white poster board and black construction paper for the ghostly faces.

The overturned vase was perfect for some dried Spanish moss and skulls.

Some of my noisemakers graced an old desk covered with filmy white material.

Outside sat some faux stone steps and a lantern I made using vellum I printed with silhouettes.

Jenn:)