More Halloween decorating with Freebies

Can you believe that I am still decorating for Halloween? And still without getting down my old Halloween stuff.

Someone needs to seriously stop me.

Luckily I have confined my decorating obsession to the family room/kitchen area.

This is the first year that I have decorated the top of my TV cabinet for Halloween.

I really like how it turned out. And all I spent was $1.00 for the crow from Dollar Tree and $2.50 for the twig pumpkin from Target.

I keep some of the white pitchers I collect on top of the cabinet all year round. I just added a white vase that I filled with twigs from my willow tree. FREE!!!!

I already had this frame. It was a thrift store makeover. I added a Halloween subway print that I got from......DRATS, I can't remember where I got this free download. I thought I had saved the link, but I guess I didn't. If anyone knows who originally posted this free printable, please let me know so I can give them credit.

The bird cage came from TJ Maxx back in the spring or early summer. But the twig pumpkin from Target and the crow from Dollar Tree are new.

Another pitcher from my collection. I did just print out the "Boo". It came from V & Co. Be sure to stop by her blog & print out you own. I placed it in another 25 cent thrift store frame that I painted ORB (oil rubbed bronze).

I really like how this turned out. I just love finding "free" stuff to use on the internet.

And no, I still have more Halloween decorating to show you. I'm feeding it to you a little at a time. But don't worry if you missed something. I plan on doing a recap post showing all my Halloween decorating. Just not sure when.

But it should be pretty soon as Halloween is coming up quickly.

Holy Batwings, I made a Batmobile

A few weeks back I saw some bats that Kat over at Everybody Loves Raymond...and Kat had made out of scrapbook paper.

It was love at first sight. With the paper bats, that is. I just knew I had to have them. Which meant, I was going to have to make some myself.

So I did!

Kat hung her bats from some branches. I decided to make mine into a bat mobile.

Not that kind of Batmobile.

This kind of batmobile.

If you want the pattern for the bat and a tute on how to make them, you will have to click on over to Kat's blog by clicking here. I'm too lazy to tell you myself.


I already had all the paper on hand. I got the Martha Stewart black glitter at Michael's with a 50% off coupon.


I needed nine different bats to hang from my chandy. I don't have a Silhouette machine or a Cricut machine. And since my paper wasn't double sided, that meant I hand to hand cut 18 different bats. I used a glue stick to glue the bats together. I then used cheap dollar store white school glue along the edges & covered the glue with the black glitter. I hung the bats from the chandy with black curling ribbon.

I love my batmobile. Now if only I could get Batman to show up to my house in the real Batmobile and take me for a spin. Varooooooom!!!!!



Linking to:

Weekend Wrap up Party @ Tatertots and Jello

My Spooky kitchen wall

The only Halloween decorating I've done in my kitchen is on the big wall. I only have one wall in my kitchen area that I can decorate. The other two are covered up by cabinets.

I wanted to stick with my black & white theme since the kitchen & my family room is actually one big room. But I did add a splash of orange.

Only because I found these cute pumpkins at Target this year. They were like a couple of bucks each. Pretty cheap. A dollar a piece would have been better. But I can't complain too much.

I didn't want to change up my existing decor too much. So I placed 2 of the pumpkins inside some goblets that sit on top of this shelf. I did remove my rooster finial that usually sits in the middle so the pumpkin with the witches hat could sit there.

On the plate rack I added two of the black & white damask plates that I already had. They came from Marshall's last year or the year before. The Halloween subway art plate is actually a paper plate from Target this year. I just taped it to one of my ironstone plates.


In fact, I taped the paper plates to three more ironstone plates. The paper plates from Target were less than $2.00 (at least I think they were). And the best part, I can throw them away when Halloween is over. But I won't. I'll save them for next year. Except that next year subway art probably won't be in style.

Target also had a matching Halloween subway art tablecloth. But I had already purchased some spider lace to use as my tablecloth this year. But I was sooooooooooo tempted to buy the subway art one at Target. I did get the pillow for my family room.

I hung three more white ironstone plates on the wall. I printed out the letters from Allsorts blog to spell out "EEK". Last year I had printed out "BOO" from The Graphics Fairy.

And of course, I forgot to take a photo of the entire wall. Here you can see at least 1/2 of the wall. The EEK plates are hanging above an antique secretary that sits just to the right of the 3 large plates.

And on the left you can see I hung 2 of the 3 Halloween signs I picked up at Dollar Tree.

I'm having such a good time trying to decorate as frugally as I can this year. And at this point, I can't see a reason for dragging out my old Halloween stuff. I'm liking the new stuff better.

How to Spookify a Spring Wreath

I wanted to make a new Halloween wreath this year. But I didn't want to spend any money. That meant I had to make one from stuff I already had.

Remember this wreath I made in the spring from split peas? Well it had gotten pretty faded out. I thought this would make the perfect Halloween wreath. But not looking this way. It needed a makeover.

So I pulled off the daisy flower & pulled off the green ribbon.

I spray painted the entire wreath with black paint that I already had on hand.

I then made a paper fan or what ever you call it from some scrap paper I had on hand.

Then I spray painted the lid off an orange juice can. Printed out a cat graphic I stole off the Internet.

Hot glued it all together.
Tied it to my white frame with some spider Halloween ribbon I picked up at Dollar Tree. And that is how you makeover a wreath for Halloween for free (or almost free).

I'm really enjoying decorating for Halloween without getting out my old crap and not spending much money.




Linking to:

Weekend Wrap Up Party @ Tatertots and Jello

Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest

Hookin' Up with HOH @ House of Hepworths

Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch

Even my wall is looking spooktacular

Are you sick of my Halloween decor yet? You better not be, as I still have more to show you.

This year I decided I was going to decorate the big wall in my family room. But I didn't want to spend a lot of cash. So I decided to use paper to transform my family room wall. What is cheaper than paper?


This is what my wall looked like before. Kind of, sort of. I no longer have the huge Paris painting in the gold frame on the wall. I replaced it with......

This smaller one. I like this painting better. And I like the white frame better. Sorry that I forgot to take a before photo of what my wall looked like before the transformation. But between these last 2 photos, you get the idea.

This is how my wall looks now. Isn't it spooktacular?

As you know, I'm doing a black & white (or cream) Halloween theme this year. I love it!


To cover up the Paris painting I cut out a piece of black poster board & just layed it on top of the painting. I just tucked in the edges inside the frame. I then cut out a couple of ghosts from white poster board & taped them to the black poster board. I got one of the ghost templates from Martha Stewart. The smaller one I made up using parts of the Martha Stewart one.

I then made this "BOO" garland. I got the letter templates here at a blog called Allsorts. She has every letter, plus numbers 0-9. Hung it from vintage black rick a rack.

I used even more letters that I got from Allsorts to make this "SPOOKY" banner. The black & white damask triangles I got from Sharing with Sherri. She actually made an "AUTUMN" banner. But I wanted mine to say spooky instead of autumn. So I just printed out the letters I wanted & taped over the original letters on the banner that Sherri shared. I hope she doesn't mind.

I used some vintage black rick a rack ribbon to hang my banner from.

I like how the two O's in this photo look. Reminds me of an owl.

I just strung the banner across this thrift store mirror.

This picture frame used to hold vintage post cards of Venice. I just love Venice. It is definitely a magical place.


But I was looking to spookify it up for Halloween. So I printed off some vintage black & white Halloween images from the Internet. Except for the photo on the far right. It is actually a vintage photo of me and my sister & 2 brothers dressed up for Halloween in 1965 that I printed out in black & white.

The Spooky letter art sign below is actually sitting on the table behind my couch. I will share the entire table vignette with you later. I'm still not quite happy with it for now. If you want to know how I made the Spooky sign, you can read it about it here.

Here is my original Halloween photo that I used in the frame mentioned before. This photo is date stamped May 66. But everyone knows that Halloween isn't in May. It's in October. I guess my mom was a procrastinator too, and didn't get the film developed until May. So this should actually be a photo from Halloween 1965. I am the one dressed as a Greek goddess. This was my favorite Halloween costume when I was a kid. I can still remember that Halloween. I also have 1 more sister that isn't in this photo. As she wasn't even born for another couple of years after the photo was taken.



I really like this owl silhouette. I found the template for this on Martha Stewart's website.

This trick or treat owl print came from The Graphics Fairy. But I changed it up just a little.

I found this cool website called PhotoFunia. This website has a lot of cool stuff that you can do to change up your photos. I changed up the original print in PhotoFunia's lab, using the vintage photo effect. I love how this turned. out. Perfect for the look I was going for this year.

I found this silhouette on google images by looking for vintage Halloween silhouettes. It came from Boxwoodcottage's photostream on Flikr.

I like this one so much I may frame it & use it all year round.


The witch is another Martha Stewart template.

And finally I used four prints I nabbed off of The Graphics Fairy. All of these were found in her Halloween category. I made them more vintagy & creepy using the vintage photo effect over at PhotoFunia in their lab.

I think this is probably my most favorite thing I did with paper. I love how these prints turned out.

I hope that you enjoyed what I did with my wall. I'm happy with how it turned out. And to think it only really cost me my time. I already had everything else.



Linking to the following blog parties. Be sure to check them all out & leave a comment or two for the folks that are participating. We all love comments.

6 Weeks to Spook @ Bella Before and After

Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch

Sunday Showcase @ Under the Table and Dreaming

Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors

Weekend Wrap Up Party @ Tatortots & Jello

Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest

Hooking Up with HOH @ House of Hepworths

Transformation Thursdays @ The Shabby Chic Cottage