Halloween Crafts

I have had several inquiries as to where I got the little black pumpkin cats I have perched on my front porch. Hold onto your seats, folks ...... I made them! Now, I must be fair here, I saw them in the October issue of Good Housekeeping. Such a cute idea, and if you click onto the link I provided, you can do this yourself too! I did do a little different on each craft. For instance, the cats are made out of faux pumpkins that I carved and the tails are black fuzzy pipe cleaners.I was able to purchase stips of gems that was used for the eyes,ears and collar. Here is the cat display. I think it turned out cute!






The black lace covered pumpkins is another easy do. I purchased six faux carvable pumpkins about seven years ago and have used them every year! Sure beats buying real ones year after year! (We do get one real one for the kids to carve). All I did was cover each pumpkin with some black lace purchased from the fabric store, pushed some straight pins in to hold and Voila! Then I bunched up some tuille to make it more frou-frou. I had also carved stars and moons into these when I first got them. I ran some orange lights up through each pumpkin before covering them, so at night they illuminate.






The witch I also copied from GoodHousekeeping. Mine is not as cute as theirs, but I tried to use what I already had on hand without adding too much cost, i.e. the cape. Of course I veered off the given track, but that is no surprise. Instead of using the website's template I just printed the picture and free-handed the witch onto the vinyl. I found the vinyl at the fabric store and chose the sturdier, thicker one. This is inexpensive. One thing I did notice, other than my front door needs replaced, is that GoodHousekeeping does a poor job describing the how-tos for their projects. I found myself winging most the crafts. But that is neither here nor there. If you are not good at drawing, I would have the template enlarged a little, according to your door size.I used some chalk to draw the witch onto the vinyl. Here is my witch after I drew it:




For the cape I just cut some fabric and sewed a running stitch across the top where I had bunched it together. Add a big sparkly gem and put a border of grosgrain ribbon at the bottom. Place some glitter for the band across her hat. For the broom, I purchased a cheapy from Target and spray painted it gold. I made her arm slightly longer so it could be wrapped around the broom to look like whe was "holding" it. Now as far as mounting the witch, you really should have another person help you. My eight year old worked great! Using some sticky 3mm mounts, lots of them, and some hot glue, she's up now! F.Y.I: hot glue will peel right off glass for easy removal. Now I'm not suggesting you do this unless you are VERY sure that your glue won't be too hot to crack your glass. Do this at your own risk! I am not liable should you try it and it crack your glass. This is what worked for me. I'm just saying..
Ok, so here is the classy good witch:




I'm still working on the decorations, my kids keep begging me to put the rest out! So for now I hope you find these to your liking and let me know if you try your hand at any of these! Have a great weekend!