Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 26 - Vintage Halloween Collectibles

Whether it's blow molds, noisemakers, games or other party decor and ephemera, collecting Vintage Halloween is a treat :) But it can be tricky too! Here's some fun items I've seen at eBay this season.

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 25 - Vintage Halloween Postcard?

My cousin Amber and I used to make fun of what we called "tacky" postcards - when we were kids going on summer trips with the family, we stopped in at a place in Amarillo that had a book of "Tacky Postcards" and they were hilarious. Does this one qualify? Probably so. Is it a Halloween one though? It does have an owl and mentions a ghost, so, maybe.....

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 24 - Carving Faux Pumpkins

Bruce sent me some photos of his pumpkin carving on faux pumpkins--from Funkins to those he has purchased at Michael's. The key he says to carving, is to use a hot knife as it will carve like slicing through butter! 

 

 

 

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 23 - Vintage Halloween Collections

Sharing Marti's collection displayed for Halloween - so festive and lots of orange! I love the old games, as those are one of my favorite things to collect.

Share your collection with us, send me photos at webmaster@vintagehalloween.com.

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 22 - Dennison Halloween Clip Art Sheet

Here's a fun sticker/decorations clip art sheet - use for creating seals, place cards, treat bag or favor embellishments, etc. Click here for the file. This is a Vintage Halloween Dennison image.

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 21- Pumpkin Bucket Lanterns

Hanging Lanterns are a great way to decorate for Halloween be it vintage lanterns of metal or paper or plastic buckets! A very inexpensive way to create lanterns which I stole from Ronda at Old Fashion Halloween several years ago after seeing it on her blog, is to take the $1 plastic orange pumpkins and add battery operated tea lights or you could also use bundled string lights for a much brighter effect. I add about 3 or 4 of the tea lights to each one. In the image below from my Sleepy Hollow party several years ago, I set them out around the walkway and you can see them glowing in the background. This year I'm hanging them from garden stake hooks which line the curving driveway on up to the porch and also I've hung them in the trees out front--they look so festive swaying in the breeze and add a great pop of color during the day. I have 2 taller garden shepherd's hooks in the yard that I'm hanging my gigantic orange pumpkins buckets I got at Target this year.

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 20 - Collecting Vintage Halloween Photos

Vintage Halloween photos are timeless! Very collectible too. Whether it was costumed kids or celebrity pinups, they're a window to imagine what Halloween was like back in the day. Here are some images I have seen recently on Pinterest - also check out a new book out featuring tons of vintage Halloween photos by Ossian Brown called Haunted Air.

 

 

 

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 19 - Hallowe'en Tales by Ethel Owen

Hallowe'en Tales by Ethel Owen recently sold--in original dust jacket--at eBay for  $482.77!

Seeing one with the dust jacket was a treat--I captured pictures (these aren't mine) from the auction to share here with you, see below for more inside views. I'd love to have a copy of this book as the illustrations are fantastic. I'm partial to silhouettes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 18 - Candy Corn - A Timeless Favorite

Love or hate it, it's Candy Corn-alicious! It isn't Fall until I've had my first Candy Corn. I love the stuff! It's always been a favorite around Halloween for me--and if you eat it with peanuts, it's like eating a Pay Day. Check out my Candy Corn Pinterest Board for crafts using candy corn and great recipe ideas some of which are shown throughout this posting.

Here's 5 interesting facts you may not know about Candy Corn:

1. George Renninger invented it in the 1880s.

2. The Goelitz Company (now Jelly Belly) has produced Candy Corn the longest.

3. Want some Chicken Feed? That's what Candy Corn was first called.....

4. National Candy Corn Day is Oct. 30.

5. At first, it wasn't just a Halloween candy--it was an anytime snack. It was only after WWII, that they started advertising it as a Halloween candy and it's been that way ever since.

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 17 - Bruce's Halloween Lanterns

Collector and Lantern maker Bruce sent me some images of lanterns he recently made--they are Spooktacular! Here's his blurb about how he made these:

I’ve been making the same lanterns for over a decade and wanted to come up with something new. The motifs are from a set of Beistle diecuts from 1933; the JOLs atop the panels are made with a Martha Stewart craft punch and I put yellow vellum backing on them. The inserts are orange vellum.

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 16 - Vintage Halloween Postcards

I love the veggie people in Vintage Halloween Postcards--so impish and fun to look at. They're very collectible too and this one sold recently at eBay for $176.99. It was also unused and in great shape which no doubt helped the end price.

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 15 - Sharon Bloom Designs

I recently interviewed Sharon Bloom of Sharon Bloom Designs. She does great ceramics with neat Halloween scenes and imagery that are evocative of Vintage Halloween. You can check out her Etsy Shop and also she has a Blog.

VH: How did you become interested in Ceramics?

SB: My background is in painting and one day I met another artist that became a good friend. She was a potter and encouraged me to try making some pins out of clay. At that time, I was not familiar with the medium. So, with rolling pin in hand and a block of clay I made my first cut out pins. They were thick and blocky and once in a while a customer will show me a pin from those early days, still intact and happily loved. Since then, I have branched out into painted plates and sculptural work.  

 

VH: What defines your style?

SB: I like to create a mix of a what I call a retro vintage Halloween style with my own twist. I love the old imagery from the paper decorations and find myself pouring over collector books and my own finds for inspiration. I want my style to evoke a sense of nostalgia, yet have appeal in the modern world.

VH: Tell us what inspires you to create?

SB: At this time of year, black and orange. A a lot of it! Halloween is my favorite holiday and season. I get really excited when I begin to see Halloween decorations popping up in the stores and driving by local pumpkin patches and seeing those little orange globes. Most days, I have a never endings flow of ideas that just seem to continue to cascade out of me. I am fortunate to have a fertile imagination that is stimulated by the world around me. Colors, pattern, and texture are a big part of that idea factory.

 

  

VH: Do you have a favorite Halloween memory from childhood?

SB: Sitting in our little kitchen nook in my childhood home and anxiously peeking out of the shuttered windows to see if it was dark enough to go trick-or-treating. It seemed like forever for the sky to darken on Halloween Eve. I loved running through my neighborhood with my older brother, without parents when we were older, and the freedom I felt on that night.

VH: What is your favorite Halloween theme?

SB: I love jack-o-lantern themes the most. Anything pumpkin really catches my eye and warms my heart. Although I am an avid cat lover, and have many black cat themed pieces in my own collection, the pumpkins win hands down. There are so many expressive Halloween pieces with pumpkin faces.

 

Some of Sharon's Vintage Halloween Collectibles 

Jenn:)

Countdown to Halloween - Oct. 14 - Halloween Parade Lanterns

I've always been intrigued by the Vintage Halloween Parade Lanterns. They are metal and had a place inside (see below) where a candle could be inserted. I imagine these looked great lit up at night! One of my favorite Halloween postcards features a veggie person, devilish character, witch and black cat carrying parade style lanterns. There have been quite a few of these at eBay recently selling in a range from $672 on the lower end on up to $1316 on the higher end of the spectrum.

 

Jenn:)