Halloween is upon us

So halloween is my favorite holiday. its not the actual day per say ... its more the season. perhaps because its a decorated holiday and after all that is what i do. of course xmas comes in a close second for me. it must be my inner goth or somethin. this year i actually have the time to halloween craft with my kiddos. there are a few projects piled up that have wanted to get to for years. so as i get them done one by one i wanted to share them with you ... they are pretty thrifty crafty if i do say so myself. i want to know what you think, i want to know some of your goolish ideas, and screamin good deals!



this is the fountaining halloween garden tree. its pretty crafty and fun to do. we started with a weeping willow silk tree that is a posession of studio stems. its leafs were already stripped for prior design use and it was already painted black so a bit of the hard work was done months ago. this will run you about $50-$100 at a craft store but you can often find used silk trees or perhaps you have one that your not sure you want or arent sure what to do with, why not strip its leafs and paint it black? if you dont have one, granny might! it didnt come with this perfectly gothic victorian porch pot, no that was studio stems' as well. it cost me about $40 at tai pan about 2 years ago but you get the idea. you could even paint an old pot lying around the house. i filled the bottom with rocks to support the tree. next a took a black leaf garland i found at michaels for $1.99 and stripped the leafs of that and wired them onto the tree - all silk items basically have the same parts. i wanted it to look sparce. then i cut with wire cutters a xmas style halloween black wreath branches and twisted those on. i also found that little goofy black wreath at michaels, or roberts has them too and sometimes even wal-e-world, it was around $2 as well. then i took about half of a black feather boa and intertwined it were the branches all meet to make a gothic feather nest $4 at any of the above stores. the black crow resting in the tree ran me about $1 at the dollar store. then another $1 buys web cotton that is stratigically strewn. ping pong balls make the little crows eggs. i figure you can assemble this little ansamble for about $75 of if your super thrifty with the finding of a tree and pot then for as little as $10-$15!
there you have it.... a gothic garden feature for the season