Vintage Halloween Silhouettes at eBay

Spotted at eBay - Vintage Halloween Black Cat & Witch Silhouettes - sold for $317

Vintage Halloween Inspired Window Silhouette

Find Vintage Halloween Halloween inspiration when styling your Halloween parties! For my annual Nancy Drew Halloween party, the front window silhouette combine Nancy Drew in her infamous silhouette pose with magnifying glass and scarf with the bottom of this witch image on this old Halloween costume box. The witch's skirt and the skeleton marionette were great inspiration for my skeleton decor this year. Want more vintage inspiration, check out my Halloween Pinterest Boards for ideas -- over 80 boards in many different themes.

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:)

Oct. 23 - Day 23: Crafty Halloween Ideas #6

Crafty Halloween Ideas #6 -
Window Silhouettes

Part of any great Halloween celebration is setting the scene! One neat way to do so, is to create a window silhouette. Choose a window that has a great focal point to your house and the party. A front window that isn't obstructed from view from the street is ideal too, so everyone walking and driving by can see how spiffy you are ;) Ha!

I have been doing these for quite a few years now. I've had various themes before--witches, pirates, The Great Pumpkin/Snoopy, Sleepy Hollow/Headless Horseman, and the last several years I've been doing a Nancy Drew Mystery Halloween Party--as is my theme for this year which also includes a haunted house so it works well for Halloween. The above silhouette is my front window for this year and a take off on The Hidden Staircase book and I added a ghost to the side behind Nancy Drew.

Materials:

Silhouette Image
Black Poster Board
Tape
Scissors
Pencil
Tissue Paper

Instructions:

The first thing to do is figure out your design for the window and print it out to use as a guide. I printed mine out, divided it into 4 parts for the 4 areas of my window.

I then taped up my 4 pieces of black poster board into the window and then I used my printed silhouette image as a guide while I drew the outline onto the poster board in pencil.

Keep proportion in mind when doing this! If you happen to have a projector--projecting the silhouette onto a wall where you've taped your paper is much easier and goes quicker. What I do is old school since I don't have a handy projector.

Once you have the desired look, cut out the pieces. Begin taping your silhouette into the window--I try not to use too much tape and tape in areas where it won't show too much like on the backs of strips that are going across the panes, etc.

The key is to layer the tissue and not overlap too much as overlapping shows up darker. Piecing with tissue can be time consuming but it's worth it.

If you want to make a silhouette that you can use again and again without too much wear, you can make it out of felt. I have a red felt banner with black felt silhouette and in a window it glows nicely. If you used yellow or white and then a black silhouette on it, it will look great too and keep nicely.

If you have a lot of time on your hands, fill all your front facing windows with silhouettes for a complete look.

Jenn:)