Outdoor Fall Decorating.

Okay, I am not the best nor the most creative decorator. But I tried my hand at turning the outside of my home into looking a little more fall/Halloween looking.
My flowers pots I have on either side of my garage have died. I thought about planting some fall mums in them, then decided to just fill them with pumpkins and squash. I stuffed some fallen leaves in between the pumpkins and such as well.{that bush in the background will turn a fiery red soon. I LOVE it!}

I have a bench next to my porch that I put a couple of pumpkins and squash on. I think we might stuff some of hubbie's old clothes and make a scarecrow to sit on the bench as well.

I took branches left over from when we trimmed our apples trees in the spring and sprayed painted them black. Then my pre-schooler and I put some spider webs on them and a couple of spiders.{we need to buy more of those spiders, I don't know where they all go!} We then stuffed the branches into our flower pots and added more pumpkins and squash!

I tied some Halloween ribbon I got from Wal-Mart last year when it went on clearance around my lights.

I moved my wood pumpkins I showed you here, onto my porch.{I still think I want to make a third one}.

And here's a picture of my porch. Not the best looking, but I feel like every year I get a little better! And I don't think I'm quite done with the porch yet, maybe add some corn stalks, and such.

2x6 wood pumpkins

I made these with some scrap 2x6's we had laying around. I had two different heights of wood. I sanded them down, then painted them a bright orange. I then sponged a darker orange over the top of that. The 'stems' were spare blocks of wood cut from a 2x2. I painted them a green then sponged a darker green over the top.
I just nailed the stems to the top of the pumpkins. But wood glue would work just as well!
I used some scrape pieces of fabric to tie around the stems.
I then painted some wooden hearts I had and glued them onto the pumpkins and added a little raffia to the hearts.
I think I might go buy another 2x6 to make a third pumpkin....

Halloween countdown blocks

I have seen these on alot of blogs, but I actually saw these first LAST fall at a craft fair in my town. I made one for Christmas last year that I'll show you later. Each side of the blocks have a different number on them. You rotate them as you progress towards Halloween.
I used three different colored scrapbook paper. I cut them to the size I needed then I mod podged them onto painted blocks,{ the base is a 2x4 that I cut to about 7 1/2 -8 inches} then I used Vinyl for the numbers and lettering . But stickers or die cuts would work as well. Just glue those on.
These are the numbers you'll need~0,0,1,1,2,2,3,4,5,6,7,&8{ make sure the 6 can double as a 9 if it's turned upside down}.
On the first block you use ~0,1,2,3,4,5. On the second block~6{doubles as 9},7,8,0,1,2.
Have fun counting down to Halloween!

Halloween canning jars

Have no idea what these are for?

How about now? Aren't they cool!

I saw these on a blog somewhere but I can't find where! If you know where I might have seen these, let me know so I can give that blog the proper credit. I was planning on sending you to that blog for directions on how to make these. But since I don't know where to send you, I'll hurry and give you some directions. But I don't have step-by-step photos because I wasn't planning on doing this!

I took some old canning jars{the rims had chips in them, so they were no good for canning}. I brushed some Mod Podge on the jar, then put on strips of tissue paper. Then Mod Podge once again. When they were dry I cut the faces out of construction paper{vinyl would work as well} and glued them on. I also painted the lid rims to put on top. Then I put electric tea lights in them. {I might tie some raffia or something around the tops to complete the look}

Here they are all lined up. The monster ones don't work too well because the green tissue is too dark to let much light thru. But I still LOVE them all!

I'm thinking if it's not wet outside on Halloween night, I might put these out along the walk to light the way for trick-or-treaters. If I do, I'll try to remember to take some photos to show you! Have fun crafting!

Brown Paper Bag Halloween Memory Book

This is a memory book made out of brown paper lunch bags. I folded them in half so the tops and bottoms of the bags are now the sides of the book. With the fold being the 'spine' of the book. Then I just covered the 'pages' with scrapbook paper and pictures! Right now there are only 12 pages. I thought I could put a picture of V. from each year on a page. It'll last 'til she's 12. {Unless I add more pages!}

This is the front. {I'm not the fanciest scrapbooker}.

You open it up and you see the cutest little girl ever! {Please excuse my thumb in the picture. I'm covering V.'s name to protect her online identity}

Where the top{opening} of the bag is, you now have a little 'pocket'. I added some pull outs with pictures on them.

The side of the book here is the bottom of the bag. I can fold them two different ways. The way it's folded here I have a flap I can lift up to see a {future} picture underneath.

Empty pages for future Halloweens!

There you go! I also have a Christmas one I'll post pics of soon. Hope I don't bore you people with all the pics of my projects! Thanks for looking!

Boo block

Isn't this a cute little block? I know the picture is a little fuzzy, but you get the idea! Even though Halloween is still a couple of months away I had to make this! I found this paper at the local scrapbook store last week. I loved the owls eyes and knew I had to do somthing with it that was Halloweenish!




First, I cut about a 6 inch block off of a 2x4. Sanded it down and painted it a terra cotta orange.

Then I sanded the edges and brushed some stain over the edges to give it a little bit of a distressed look. The picture dosen't really show the edges that well, does it?

Then I tore a piece of the owl paper to fit the block and ran a sepia colored ink pad over the edges.

Brush some mod podge onto the block. This is your glue.

Then press the paper on. Brush some more mod podge over the paper, smoothing the paper out as you go to prevent it from bubbling up.

I cut the letters out of black vinyl with my Cricut. But you could use any type of alphabet stickers. Or even write the letters on with a thick, black, magic marker.

Simple, but cute!