A Halloween Treat

The kids loved these! We found this cute mini pumpkin bundt cake pan at Walmart. We just used a yellow cake mix. For the frosting it worked best when we warmed a can of frosting and poured into the center of the pumpkin. To top it off we used sprinkles and an M&M.

More Jars!

These jars sit on my kitchen table. I filled one with M&M's and the other one I lined with mini skeletons from the dollar store and filled with black balls I found in the Christmas section at Hobby Lobby. My chandelier is another find from Z-Gallery last year after Halloween!

Bones and Jars!

As you can tell we LOVE Halloween around here!

My favorite item to decorate with is apothecary jars. Mine are filled with black and orange glitter balls by RAZZ (I found mine at Taipan, Hobby Lobby had some similar ones) and Halloween M&M's. I got my glass eyeballs last year on clearance from Z-Gallery. The orange and black garland is from Target last year and my black skeleton heads and mini skeletons are from the dollar store. I cut a piece of zebra print scrapbook paper to fit the inside of my cake stand. I love to buy decorations after the holiday's on clearance.

Pumpkin Dessert

This delicious dessert is perfect for the Fall, and would be perfect for your next party. I love the different layers! It is great served warm with ice cream or whipped cream. I received rave reviews when I made this. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Dessert

Crust:

1 box (unprepared) yellow cake mix (reserve one cup for topping)
1/2 cup butter (softened)

1 egg

Mix together, and press into greased 9x13 pan.

Filling:

1 can (30 oz) pumpkin pie mix

2/3 cup evaporated milk

2 eggs

Mix together, and pour on top of crust.

Topping:

1 cup remaining cake mix

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup hard butter

2 tsp. cinnamon (or a tad more)

Mix together, and sprinkle on top.

Bake at 350 degrees, for 45-55 minutes.

*Recipe from my amazing friend (and photographer) Jessica Gowdy

SPOOKY!

I love this new addition to my Halloween decor! The spiderweb lace runner I found in Utah, but can also be found at www.heritagelace.com for $15. They also have a large round table topper web for $8 on their site that is really cute! I found my witch last year at Z-Gallery after Halloween for only $10 and then tied an orange ribbon around the waist. My "SPOOKY" sign was a gift, but it actually looks really easy to copy. I took my black cake stand and filled it with black and orange christmas balls that I found at Hobby Lobby last year. I cut an orange circle out of scrapbook paper to line the cake stand so my christmas balls would pop! The spider on top is from Z-Gallery.

BOO!

This BOO sign is super easy to do and the best part is I am going to put JOY on the otherside for Christmas! It will serve two purposes. To start you will need to get 3 boards cut to the size of a 12X12 piece of paper. Then drill holes in each of the four corners. I painted the edges of each board black. Next choose 3 sheets of scrapbook paper and modge podge onto each board. Once dry I took a black ink pad and distressed the edges of each board. I poked a pencil through the holes and then took sandpaper to the edges of the holes.

Next paint letters, mine are painted a deep purple. I found my letters at Hobby Lobby. Then I decopaged over the top of each one and sprinkled Martha Stewart glitter in Crystal Fine over the top. After letters dry you can embelish them however you would like. My ghost ornament and Happy Halloween sign are by RAZZ. I found mine last year at Orange Patch. My spiders are from Z-Gallerie last year. Attach letters to board, I used tacky tape, and connect boards with ribbon or tulle.

Just a tip, I attached my spiders and ghost ornament with velcro so the board will lay flat when I switch it over to JOY.

Haunted Houses

Another tradition that our family has, is to make Haunted Houses while the men are at the Priesthood session of conference. The kids love and look forward to it every year. There is just something about having frosting and candy right there in front of you without restrictions. I guess I can't blame them. It is a bit messy but definitely worth it. We cut boxes to the perfect size and hot glue them to a piece of cardboard. We use graham crackers for the sides and roofs and spread frosting for the glue. We also use tubes of frosting to fill in cracks and stick the candy. We always have the usual assortment of Halloween candy but this year we realized that the 100 calorie snacks were the perfect size and shape to decorate the houses.

The candy delivery truck bringing the goods.

The finished products. In years past we have given out prizes to the Spookiest, Cutest, etc.The moms always want to make their own Haunted House but we are too busy helping the kids. We decided it would be a fun date night with several couples making them.

Pumpkin Tower

I made this last year. I sprayed an urn that I already had black. I bought a black wreath from Michael's. I looped about 3 yards of black and white striped ribbon around the wreath 2 times. I just looped a small section and poked it into the wreath with my finger. I took the ribbon off to store it. Then I had a garland of black beads and also wrapped it around the wreath. Then I stuck a white Funkin on top. I saw a really cute pumpkin tower at a boutique that maybe I will do next year. They stacked 3 Funkins (small, medium and large) and used a black feather boa in between each Funkin. They had it standing a top a tall black metal can. It was very cute!

Fun Pumpkin

This is an quick and easy idea to dress up a pumpkin to match your display. First we bought a Funkin from Michaels. Then cut several 1.5 inch strips of patterned paper. The thinner paper works better. Find the length of the strips by measuring the pumpkin from top to bottom. Then pour some modge podge in a bowl. Dip the strips of paper into the glue completely saturating the paper. Then glue the paper to the pumpkin. It will be a little lumpy. Layer each strip so that the pumpkin is completely covered. Then add rhinestones evenly around the pumpkin. I waited til the modge podge was dried before I added the rhinestones. I used a rhinestone glue. Then glue some leaves to the top of the pumpkin. I clipped some of a bunch of flowers that I already had.

Bat Mobile

We saw this in the PBK catalog.



This is how we made it: We used 3 different sizes of embroidery hoops - 12, 10, and 7 inches. We wrapped them with black ribbon dabbing with a little hot glue at the beginning and end and in the middle as needed to hold. We strung the three hoops together with invisible thread. We cut little bat shapes from black glitter fun foam and punched eyes with a small hole punch. We strung each bat (we poked a hole through the top and bottom with the thread showing on the back of the bat ) on black carpet and button thread and then strung it through a small black pom-pom. We put a dab of hot glue where the thread goes through the bat to make sure the bat stayed in place. Then we tied each bat and pom-pom on the hoops. We put 9 bats on top, 8 bats in the middle, and 6 bats on the bottom. We love the way it turned out. It flutters around perfectly.

Falling for Autumn

It's funny that the temperature drops a few degrees below 100 and all of a sudden it feels like fall to us. We are very easy to please in that area. I am even thinking about wearing a sweater one of these days just because... Plus we have only about 10 seconds of sweater-wearing weather so we better live it up.


Next to Christmas, Halloween is my favorite time of year to decorate my house. I love the colors and my kids love the spooky stuff we have around. It is just a fun time of year - the beginning of a great season.


We have some great projects to share that you really can do yourself...no for reals!


We made this banner last year while the boys were at the Priesthood session of conference. (Wait til you see what we will be working on this year!)

The background is 6 by 10 inches with a 4 inch angle to the middle. We backed the pattern paper with black cardstock to give the paper more body. The orange rosettes are made from tissue paper. We cut a sheet of tissue paper into 2.5 inch wide strips. We folded them accordion-style and used double-sided tape to attach the two folds on each end. The letters are cut from glitter fun foam (we found ours in the Kids Craft sections at Hobby Lobby and Joann). We found a font that we liked and printed a pattern. Our letters are 4.5 inches tall. We then hung the banner on a strip of tulle.

This year I added the gems on every other flag. I bought these gems at Michael's. The price on the bag was 3.99 for 30. They rang up at .01. I felt a little guilty so I showed my receipt to the manager. She said they were on extreme clearance but if it stayed at .01 it would mess the whole system up. So she had to fix the price to 1.00. OK fine, I'll still take them. It was still a bargain!

To attach them, I wound wire around a marker two times, punched a hole at the bottom of the paper, and put the gem on the wire and then through the hole.

My banners hang on a curtain rod that I hung over my couch in the living room. But some of us hang them over windows or on shelves. You find the perfect place in your house.