It's frighteningly simple to set a festive scene when your shroud your home in this shadowy shade.
Carved Pumpkins
These puckish pumpkins with their paint-blackened rinds and orange-gold interiors, thumb their carved noses at traditional jack-o'-lanterns.
Tools and Materials
Pumpkins
Miniature carving saw
Plaster scraper
Masking tape
Black floral spray
Battery-powered light
Needle tool or awl
Waxed paper Straight pins
Carved Pumpkins How-To
1. Make a 4-inch round hole in the bottom of your pumpkin with a carving saw; scrape out flesh.
2. Place pumpkin on newspaper in a well-ventilated area. Wrap masking tape around stem, and coat pumpkin with black floral spray. Let dry for 30 minutes; remove tape.
3. Print desired template enlarged or reduced to fit your pumpkin, and cut outside the perimeter. Tape to pumpkin.
4. Use needle tool to outline the shape with close-set holes. Cut out design with saw. (If necessary, touch up pumpkin with floral spray.)
5. Place battery-powered light inside. For a muted glow, affix a sheet of waxed paper behind the cutout with straight pins before adding the light source.
Creepy Paper Mice and Bats
These creepy, crawly paper mice and bats are not so nice. Stick these unsavory critters on stair risers, baseboards, or any spot where they might give unsuspecting passersby a little jump.
Tools and Materials
Black construction
Paper
Scissors
Masking tape
Creepy Paper Mice and Bats How-To
1. Print templates.
2. Trace the shapes onto black construction paper, and cut out.
3. Mount as desired with masking tape.
Silk Flower Wreath
This once upon a midnight dreary wreath was created with materials from a crafts store, then sprayed it a raven hue and accented with a silky taffeta ribbon.
Tools and Materials
25 to 30 four-inch silk roses
16-inch wooden wreath form
Hot-glue gun
Black floral spray
Black taffeta ribbon
Flat thumb tacks
Silk Flower Wreath How-To
1. Remove stems from roses, then attach blooms to wreath form with a hot-glue gun.
2. Lay wreath on a piece of newspaper in a well-ventilated area, and spray with black floral spray. Let dry for 30 minutes.
3. Cut about 54 inches of ribbon, and make a large bow; affix it to top of wreath with glue gun.
4. To hang, cut a second piece of ribbon to the desired length. Use tacks to fasten one end to the back of the wreath form and the other to the door stile.
Black Magic Rose Bouquets
Coat inexpensive mint-julep cups with high-gloss black spray paint and fresh roses with black floral spray, then scatter them with orange taper candles, over your mantel. (Deadly appearances aside, fresh blooms and greenery are not harmed by floral spray.)
Tools and Materials
Fresh roses
Greenery
Mint-julep cups
Black floral spray
Black high-gloss
Spray paint
Black Magic Rose Bouquets How-To
1. Lay roses, greenery, and mint-julep cups on a newspaper-covered work surface in a well-ventilated space.
2. Coat flowers and leaves with black floral spray and the vases with black high-gloss spray paint. Let dry 30 minutes; create arrangements.
Spooky Paper Curtains
Replace fabric curtains with elegant, gothic-inspired ones made of paper.
Tools and Materials
24-by-36-inch heavy-weight black paper from art-supply store
Scissors
Masking tape
Printing Instructions for Templates
Once template is open on your computer screen, click the print icon or press Ctrl P on your keyboard. When the print screen appears, select "Print As Image" under the Properties button on the upper right. Click OK to print.
Spooky Curtain How-To
These patterns combine to form the top and side panels of the curtain.
1. Download the templates, which you'll print in sections and tape together.
2. Trace the shapes onto black paper, and cut out.
3. Place looped pieces of masking tape on the curtain's edges, and attach to the inside edge of the window's frame.
Witch and Cat Lawn Ornaments
This sinister sorceress and her trio of menacing felines are in a black humor -- all the better to give guests a start when they arrive at your home for the festivities. The figures are easy to make from hardware-store supplies, and they can be brought out year after year.
Creepy Candy Jar Labels
They say the devil is in the details, and when decorating for halloween, this sentiment is all the more appropriate. These decorations are both elegant and eerie -- perfect for amusing guests over the holiday.
Candy Jar and Label How-To
It wouldn't be Halloween without a healthy dose of candy.
1. Choose licorice, candy sticks, and the like in black to match a party's dark theme.
2. Group them together in glass jars and label them with our "warning labels", such as "Rotten Sweets: Dissatisfaction Guaranteed," on self-adhesive paper and affix them to the jars of sweets.
Print out the Candy Jar Labels on self-adhesive computer paper. Affix to candy jars.
Cobweb Stickers Clip Art
Cobwebs, incorporated into the fireplace's molding, provide a resting spot for long-legged critters.
Print out the cobweb labels on self-adhesive computer paper. Affix to the molding of the fireplace or any other place in the household where spiders might lurk.
I made these also. I found that by tracing the witch pattern on the plywood with a black felt pen eliminated the use of reposition-able spray. I didn't have the mess the paper would have made peeling it back off and I have the pattern in tack for the next set I plan to make. I can't wait to display the witch and the cats in my yard!
we made the witch and cats this year and made a slight improvement - after they were all assembled, we spray painted the pipes and fasteners black - now they look great from the back, too!
You might try a glow stick in these pumpkins. I just made the spider eggs this week and the trick with those is to use a glow stick in them. I did a test with the "premium" glow sticks that I got and they really put out the light in all different colors and last for hours. If you got an orange glow stick, that would be perfect, but the green and yellow really pop!
My husband and I also made these and they look FANTASTIC! Our neighbors were trying to get us to make more and sell them! I had success with using indirect light. We used a yellow bulb...it looked a lot more eerie, and mount it behind the silhouette, shooting to the wall closed to where we have them. You don't need a lot of light....
First don't use white lights. Second don't use high wattage bulbs. If you can, find low wattage colored floodlight lamps. The colored party bulbs (25-40 watts) in green ,red, orange or blue also work well, but you may need to find a special fixture to protect the bulbs from the elements. If lighting from behind, don't point the light at your ornaments, instead shine it on a wall or backdrop that is close behind them.
You also want to hide the light fixture if you can to remove it from the observers line of sight. You want to showcase your ornaments not draw the eye away from them or make the observer look away because the light shines in their eyes. If lighting from the ground still does not work, try attaching the light to a tree branch above.
We made the witch and cats lawn ornaments and they are beautiful. We put flood lights shining on the back of the figures and it did not look right and then we tried them in the front of the figures, it is still not right. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to display them with lighting?
Thanks
We made the witch and cats lawn ornaments and they are beautiful. We put flood lights shining on the back of the figures and it did not look right and then we tried them in the front of the figures, it is still not right. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to display them with lighting?
Thanks
My husband and I made the witch and cats this year. They are awesome! I paired them with a homemade broom made of a large branch and twigs to give it a more eerie look. Looks great!
I made these when they first came out, I was and still am so very proud of how wonderful they look! I was so pleased to have a free pattern that is so professional looking! They are the delight of my Halloween decorations!
I made 2 of these a few years ago. I had never worked with wood before, but I was so inspired that I just started and it was quite easy. I love them they are my favorite Halloween decoration and my neighbors loved them to. 2 sheets of 4 X 8 plywood 3/4 inch thick cost about $30.00 and a can of black paint, about $10.00 and a few accdessories, total cost approx. $50.00 for two fo them..And I squeezed 2 cats on the same wood. Great project...
I was very driven this year to make these items. Yes, I too saw them going for big bucks from a well known on-line store. They also show a 8 foot tree for $400! Between my husbands draftsman abilities and my design background we did it all for under 100.00!
My husband and I made the witch and cats silhouettes in 2005 when this issue came out. This year I saw then for sale in a pricey catalog. About $320 for what you see here. I love these, and look forward to taking them out again.
My family and i made this a few years ago, now everyone of my aunts wants us to make this.
I made this last year and everyone in the neighborhood stopped by and told me they loved it. I ended up going to the "Halloween" mega store and purchasing a crooked witch's broom that looks like it was made from a branch of a tree, and also purchased a "flickering" light bulb for the lantern, and it turned out really creepy.
I did this last year to my 6 pumpkins and they turned out great. Unfortunetly the squirrels liked them too. I learned not to spray the pumpkins first, instead I carved them, stuffed them with newspapers then sprayed them. The reason for that was because when I went to take off the template when they were sprayed firs, the paint would peel off along with the tape that was holding the template. My neighbors loved them too.
I live in Salem, MA. I think one of these would be great in my yard this year. Love to have Martha stop by.
I live in Salem, MA. I think one of these would be great in my yard this year. Love to have Martha stop by.
I've made these and get them out each year. Although there always seems to be at least one that escapes and is still peeking out of the Christmas decorations.
I have these and I L-O-V-E them! They weren't too difficult to make the pattern was the most time consuming part we found that cutting it out then pasting and tracing was the easier route! We have made them a couple times for family as well! I look forward to getting my Witch and cats out every year! They are a big hit with the neighborhood!
My husband made this for me for Halloween, after saving the MSL for three years and making sure he got a jigsaw for Christmas! :) He said it wss very easy to do, but putting the pattern together was the most difficult part. We had a hard time finding "repositionable spray"--many spray adhesives were permanent AND repositionable, depending on how much you spray, so read the can.