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:)

Collecting Vintage Halloween - Vintage Candy Containers

This neat vintage Halloween German composition witch candy container recently sold at eBay for $1138! These aren't that easy to find and this one appeared to be in pretty good shape for its age. I especially like the cat on the front.

Jenn:)

2013 Halloween at Hobby Lobby #3

Here's another sampling of the items I spotted at Hobby Lobby recently - above are lace pumpkins and below a mixture of new and vintage-style plus a neat wooden coffin box that you could decorate and add treats inside.

 

 

 

 

 

Jenn:)

Collecting Vintage Halloween - Postcards

Vintage Halloween postcards are one of my favorite items - they're fairly plentiful to collect, though some can be quite spendy! But, the imagery is so much fun--featuring festive scenes and celebratory frolic that is very evocative of vintage Halloween celebrations, fortunes and romance and pranks. Ellen Clapsaddle was a prolific artist whose postcard imagery is quite collectible and often reproduced. The above postcard has an element of Steampunk as well with the "blimp" basket with the two jack o' lanterns for anyone wanting a crossover item. This postcard recently sold at eBay for $36.00.

Jenn:)

Keen Halloween in Phoenix Arizona - Sept. 28 & 29, 2013

Halloween in Phoenix comes a bit early this year with a Super Spooktacular Halloween show, Keen Halloween! It takes place this coming weekend on September 28 and 29, 2013 and will feature retro and vintage stylings, some steam punk themes, and more! We will be set up at Keen Halloween in Booth 24 with all of our great Vintage Halloween Store items including Bethany Lowe, Johanna Parker, Primitives by Kathy, Martha Stewart, Animalia Pottery, Beistle and more! Lots of charm jewelry with vintage style inspiration too.

Visit their website for more details and to purchase tickets ahead of time.

Jenn:)

2013 Halloween at Hobby Lobby #2

Here's a few images of some of the orange/black I spotted at Hobby Lobby recently - lots of vintage-style pumpkins and cats with the paper hats and trims - I've seen these before in recent years. They also had chalk-board white pumpkins.

 

 

 

Jenn:)

Collecting Vintage Halloween - Beistle Lantern

The vintage Halloween Beistle Lantern (Made in the USA) is quite iconic for the brand--it's sought after by collectors and commands quite a price when in very good condition. But it wasn't the first - the image below is another styling that pre-dates the one above. The one below was made in Germany. The difference between the two visually is quite striking. These are both listed in Mark Ledenbach's Halloween Collectibles Guide. The one below is valued in the 1st guide edition at $475. The one above is valued at $800. The one above recently sold at eBay for $1613.00 - it was in excellent shape. I love watching these lanterns when listed to see how high they go.

Jenn:)

2013 Halloween at JoAnn #3

More fun stuff from JoAnn - the apron above is fun and I like the felted ornament below--but I really like the lollipop sticks below for making cake pops or cupcake picks! They have black glittered skeletons and some Martha stuff--including this window silhouette--creepy! The tube is like those tubes with toy animals/dinos/etc.. but for Halloween so it has plastic Halloween characters--the usual suspects, pumpkin, witch, etc..

 

 

 

 

Jenn:)

Real Simple October 2013 Issue

I picked up the October 2013 issue of Real Simple magazine and especially liked that the cover is very Halloween!  There's not a ton of Halloween content inside, but I did take some snaps of some of the content that I liked. It's worth checking out. The interesting mix of Halloween dishes was fun. And notice the vintage blow molds featured on one page--nice to see some vintage!

 

 

 

 

Jenn:)

Food Network October 2013 Issue

Food Network's October 2013 issue is on stands now--features a bit of Halloween fun - mostly food recipes. I enjoyed seeing the dark pairing of treats and candies below for something sweet and sinister and the candy corn popcorn balls look yummy. I'm a bit of a popcorn ball fan ;) Here's some snaps of some of the items in the issue:

 

 

 

Jenn:)

Martha Stewart Living Halloween

In addition to the Martha Stewart Halloween special issue, there's always a bit of Halloween in the October issue different from the Halloween issue. While the cover isn't overtly a spooky Halloween cover, it does have a spooky darkness to the photography and the cover background. I enjoyed the issue on it's own, but the Halloween content was nice too. From tattoo art inspired projects (unusual!) to decorating ideas and some very nicely done pumpkin carving ideas you don't see elsewhere to the super fun Haunted House loot bags - and one of my favorites the decoupage and balloon craft ideas for Halloween--haven't seen that done like this. I didn't include the jack o' lantern balloon crafts but it involves string being tied around to create a pumpkin shape and it's pretty clever. Check out this issue--it's on stands now.

 

 

 

 

 

Jenn:)

Collecting Vintage Halloween - Dennison Diecuts

Vintage Halloween diecuts from Dennison like these above can command decent prices in the market -- some more than others. This entire lot recently sold at eBay for $262.77. I especially like the pumpkin image with the cats for eyes and the bat mouth. Clever!

Jenn:)