DIY Pretty Lace Pumpkins

These are not your ordinary plain orange pumpkins. Nope. They are covered with black lace! Here's the simple DIY for these pretty gourds and they are also cheap to make. 

Win win!

Whenever I find black lace remnants or lace on sale, I grab it. I also get black lace clothing at yard sales and thrift stores and recycle it. This lace was $2 a yard at Walmart a while back and this project took less than half a yard left from a different project. 

This project couldn't be easier. Lay your contrast fabric over the black lace and cut out a long rectangle  about 8" wide by 20" long.  I cut out both layers at the same time.

Using the longest stitch and loose tension on your sewing machine, stitch the two pieces together at the top and bottom of the long sides. Turning the lace to the inside, sew the two short sides together. You now have a tube of material with long stitches at the top and bottom. You can also sew this by hand if a machine isn't handy.

Thread a long sewing needle with strong black thread, like quilting or crochet thread.  Gather one stitched side of your pumpkin and pull the stitches tight. Use the needle and thread to sew the gathered end tight and secure the gathering with a couple of good knots. 

Here's a neat tip....stuff these little pumpkins with a handful of crumpled up plastic shopping bags. Most of us have dozens of the things and they are perfect for a poufy filler for these pretty pumpkins.

Make sure your needle has a long piece of string and tie a big knot at the end. Stick it right through the middle of the gathers of your stuffed pumpkin and out the other side. Make a big loop around the pumpkin and draw it up til your pumpkin squishes down and poofs out. Draw it tight and tie it in a knot. Do this five or six times and adjust your big loop around each section of your pumpkin for a pleasingly plump effect.

Voila! Fat, lacy pumpkin!

Hot glue a stubby twig or even a cinnamon stick in the middle of the gathers and add silk leaves (these are from the Dollar Store). If you wish you can also give it a light touch of glittery spray for a bit more gleam.

I LOVE how these come out! And you can also make pumpkins with no lace just by using your choice of fabrics. I made the white pumpkin at the top left using muslin and twine. And of course, I stuffed it full with plastic shopping bags!

For a neat look, why not layer white lace over burlap for some rustic chic pumpkins? Or black lace over purple fabric, or mustard gold. How pretty that would be? Now I have to make some!

Super Simple Shivery Paper Halloween Bats

Each year when I decorate by black tree branches for Halloween, I always make sure to add these tiny paper bats to the display.

They are perfect for an indoor display at Halloween time. They are so light that they swing and sway with the slightest passage of air as you walk by. Such fun!

And they couldn't be simpler to make.

What you will need is black crepe paper and very thin florist wire.

Cut your paper bats from folded over crepe paper so both sides are identical. Curl a 6"-8" length of florist wire around a pencil and with a small dab of hot glue attach one end to the back side of your paper bat.  Stretch the wire out slightly to wrap it around the tree branch, wreath or arrangement then stretch it out a bit more to position your bat. The more you stretch out the wire the more shivery the bat will be! Blow on your tiny bat and see it dance and wiggle!

I grouped mine 3 at a time for this display. I LOVE the way they came out. This would be a fun kids' craft and your could go all out, making LOTS of these bats for your house. Crepe paper is recommended since it is so light. Copy paper or cardstock is too heavy.

Try it out and see how easy but neat these bats look in your holiday house!

So Cheap Halloween Fun Decor with Poster Board

This Halloween project is so easy and so CHEAP that you can do it every year with your kids. Read on and have some fun decorating for Trick or Treat.

On a trip to the Dollar Store, Insanely Creative Christy and I got to brainstorming about cheap Halloween decor for my front windows. We thought of the silhouettes Martha Stewart shows on her website so we grabbed 6 sheets of black poster board at 2/$1 and came up with these decorations.

We did this in one afternoon and we got the giggles doing it. It was alot of fun.

Christy came up with the idea of the monster eyes and claws coming out of the louvers. They look awesome.

She added crow cut outs and then  cut out the window shapes from my drawings on the poster boards. We used double stick tape and waited impatiently for twilight to see how it all looked.

Hey, that looks pretty good with just the flash on my camera. But wait, there's more...

Here's how they look after dark. Pretty cool, huh? And we still had poster board left. So Christy cut these out and stuck them up in my kitchen windows. Forgive the fuzzy pics, I was laughing at the time....


So cool and so cheap. They will look great on Halloween night if we don't scare the neighborhood kids away!

Now we are thinking how we can use poster board for Christmas decor and other holidays. Hmmmm, when we come up with something I'll be sure to post it here.

I'll be posting this to the fun linky parties listed on my sidebar, come check them out for some great, creative projects.

Crackle Paint Those Christmas Balls For Halloween!

Since I discovered the easy peasy way to make a crackle paint effect with Elmer's glue, I've used it on just about everything. Christmas balls redone for Halloween are no exception. There are lots of pics in this post, but it's a fun project so read on...

I buy Christmas balls all year long when they are cheaper than cheap cheap. I'll be watching for more in different colors but my favorites for this project are silver and gold.

Ooh aaah!

Here is how you do it.

Pop the top off the ball and insert a pen or dowel or paint brush handle so that you can hold the ball without touching it. Trust me, this makes everything easier.Go into your stash and grab the Elmer's glue. This technique works with both the school glue and glue all by Elmer's.

Brush a thick coat of glue all over the ball. Not thick enough to run and drip but still, get a good coat of glue on there. Prop it up and let it dry for 5 to 10 minutes until the glue is tacky but not wet. Do NOT let the glue dry completely, but IF you do, just apply a new layer of glue over the top and let that layer get tacky.

Using a soft paintbrush, apply acrylic craft paint in long smooth strokes in one direction. I used gloss black. After I painted all one direction I did a few soft random crosswise strokes just to see what it would look like. Do not go back and forth with your brush, you will drag the glue layer. Prop that ball up and let it dry. 

Five minutes layer my paint was starting to crackle. I LOVE this part! See the crosswise crackle? That is from the soft sideways stroke I tried. I like the interesting pattern it made.

Let the ball dry completely. Once it is dry (and gloss craft paint takes a long time to dry, so be patient if you use it) you can use your wonderful crackled ball as is or seal it with acrylic spray.

And here is what this effect looks like on colored balls!

Here are a few orange over gold balls on my Halloween tree.

And a few more in a vintage wire basket.

So now my brain is churning out ideas for Christmas decor. Wouldn't white crackle over silver balls be a beautiful shabby chic look? Gotta try it! Or red paint over silver. Or white over red. Man, I am going to be doing this again and again in the coming weeks just to see what different combos look like.

So try it, you'll like it! It's easy and cheap and oh so fun to do. You'll never have so much fun watching paint dry than with this project, I guarantee it!

Here's a link to my uber popular post on crackle paint with Elmer's glue with LOADS of painted examples on different surfaces....

http://makethebestofthings.blogspot.com/2010/05/crackle-finish-with-elmers-glue.html

I'll be joining the parties on my sidebar. Come visit and check out all the neat ideas!

3 Quick & Easy Decor Projects

I decided to put these three projects in one post, because I am rarin' to move on to my Christmas blogging. Can you say gifts and decor and great ideas?

Project 1-Here are the spooky Halloween branches from our front deck. By the end of a wild and windy week they were looking shabby and tired. But no problem!

Dollar Store clearance sale, two packs of fake leaves for a dollar. Score!
I took the cobwebs and bat garland off the branches and straightened them up in the urn with florist foam and duct tape. The urn, by the way, was a clearance item at Kmart for $1.66!! I added the leaves with hot glue and.......

...voila! Now it is a colorful vertical accent in the corner of the living room. I like it alot. And when I switch to Christmas decor, a blast of my heat gun will loosen those leaves so I can add snowflakes, etc. A bit of fabric draped at the base hides the foam and duct tape.

Project 2-This project uses a Dollar Store vine wreath and satiny fabric in fall colors. I made oversize rosette flowers, two and a half to three inches across.

I wanted them bigger so I could use less of them. I love the shiny sheen of the fabric against the two cream muslin rosettes.

Hot glue is my friend. Way way back in the sixties I would have wired all this stuff in place.Thrift store leaf bunches are the perfect touch, but not too many so the twiggy wreath can show through.

Project 3-Here's a quick way to dress up and display your pumpkins, real and fake. Taking more of those Dollar Store leaves, hot glue them around the rim of a candlestick, of glass, metal or wood.

Or, glue the fake leaves around the bottom of your pumpkin. This gives it a nice ruff of color.

Perch your pumpkins on the candlesticks for a colorful display. Here they are on my baker's rack, all switched over from my black and white Halloween. I added gold berry picks and propped it on the top shelf, along with a bunch of leaves in a spray painted bottle and my silver button blingy decor ball.

I'll be switching this all over to Christmas decor right after Thanksgiving. I'm wondering if I can pull off a black, white and silver Christmas theme on this rack. I guess we'll all find out!

I'll be linking up to the fun parties in my sidebar. Come check them out and join the fun!

Pretty Lace Pumpkins

Since we've moved I have not yet found all my holiday stuff, and I've been itching to get some things changed up. What to do? Why, make some decor with what I can find, of course.

So I shopped my stash and found scraps of black lace yardage, and fabric in white and rusty orange and some crochet thread.....and ta da! Lacy pumpkins to get me kick started.



Cut your lace and backing fabric the same size. Make the length twice as much as the width. This gives you pleasing pumpkin proportions.



Sew both pieces together on the long edge with your longest stitch. Or you can do this by hand with needle and thread. Pull your thread up tight and gather it and tie it off. I put a dab of hot glue on the thread ends to keep them taut. Then sew your short side seam.

Turn it inside out.

Stuff your pumpkin full with fiberfill or whatever you have at hand. I've even used plastic shopping bags in a pinch. Lord knows we have plenty of them!

After stuffing, pull thread on the top edge tightly to gather and tie your threads, then secure with a little bit of hot glue.


Thread a sturdy, long needle with black crochet thread or string. Tie a knot in one end and run it through your pumpkin, straight through the middle. Draw it tight. The tighter it is, the fatter your pumpkin will look. Do this about six times.

Look! Plump pumpkiny goodness!

Glue a stick and some fake leaves at the top for a bit of color. So cute! By this point you will be smiling and quite pleased with yourself. Or is that just me?



And here is the combination of black lace over orange fabric. Gorgeous! I'm thinking now I need to make some black ones with white lace, just to complete the lacy look. And the best part? These didn't cost me a dime since I made them with scraps from my stash. Win win!

Ooh aah. I love the look of the black lace over the solid colors. At the top left is a plain white pumpkin with no lace. I like the pure simplicity of it. Now to the fun part, putting this all together for a colorful display.

I'll be linking up to the fun parties in my sidebar plus The Fall Festival below.  Stop by and take a look, there are always tons of creative ideas out there.


 

Halloween Fun in my Etsy shop!

This red haired witch design is one of my most popular paintings. Besides the black roses and the October tree, the sponged edges are full of skulls, bats, pumpkins and spiders. So much fun to paint!

By special request, The Welding Man made me some rusty cutouts for Halloween years ago and we've been selling those designs ever since. Love the heavily rusted finish which is sealed for vintage texture. There is also a rusty Halloween cat in my store.

Ah, I love this necklace design. Last year Martha Stewart picked it for her Best of Halloween Gallery. That happened the same week I was diagnosed with breast cancer, so this necklace represents all the positive things that came after that. Counting my blessings, oh yes!


I've been painting my vintage style Halloween banners since 2007. This is a popular design with LOTS of fun details. I LOVE the color combination of bright orange and black.


Every kitchen needs a bit of Halloween style, and this spooky skeleton towel set is just a little bit scary and a lot of fun. I have two different spooky styles this year!

I make these ornaments every year for our house and I always list them on Etsy. They look good hanging or grouped in a cloche or basket or as accents for that special Halloween tablescape.

One of my favorite banner designs. This one just SOLD out of my shop.

A group of my banners hanging on our porch. What a traffic stopper! These originals have all sold but I repaint new ones from these designs every year. Love the colors!

I have lots more listed so please take a moment to stop by my shop. The button is on my sidebar. You never know just what you will find! Thanks!