A Halloween Decor Tutorial (that's so simple it's hardly a tutorial)

I've been told the recession is over. Only in my neck of the woods things are still tight (a little too tight if you know what I mean). This translates to a miniscule holiday decorating budget (aka no decorating budget). Now I could have given up and pulled out my boring old halloween decor. Only I DON'T WANT TO! (spouted while petulantly stomping my feet.)

And thankfully I didn't have to. Because I already had all the "ingredients" for this project it was (virtually) free.

Ingredients:

• Halloween Graphic (you can find all sorts of free vintage graphics from The Graphics Fairy)
• A piece of wood (I literally scavenged mine from the empty lot next door)
• Mod Podge (okay -- if you aren't crafty you *might* not have this lying around)
• A paint brush

Take your graphic and cut it to fit the piece of wood. Spread a layer of mod-podge on the wood and then place your paper on top of it. Mod-podge over the top of your paper. Smooth out any wrinkles. Let dry. Simple as that.

Now if you so desire you can get all fancy and, say, paint the wood prior to adding the graphic. Or you could go and sand the edges to give it a nice finished look. Me? I dug through my son's bone collection and displayed them along with my new vintage skull. Yes. Bone collection. You know -- snakes and snails and puppy dog tails. Indeed he is a boy.

At any rate I'd say we're ready for trick or treat. Well, almost, it seems my daughter wants to be sushi for halloween ...

Happy Halloween!

Well we made it through with our ball o' yarn costume intact. Were I to make this again I'd use plaster cast material instead of paper mache. I think it would hold it's shape better and also be easier to wind yarn around. Though the casting material might be a touch heavy. The costume was shed relatively early in the evening as the arm holes were somewhat awkward. Live and learn. My husband has suggested I do a cost/benefit analysis on these projects I take on. So here you have it:

Unused exercise ball and newspaper from the neighbors: Free

Yarn from the Goodwill: Twelve dollars

Hot glue and glue gun: Eight dollars with coupon

Giving my daughter the costume she wanted for Halloween: Priceless

And now on to new projects ... after all the holidays are just around the corner!

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Here are some other images I'm loving from the season.

I hope you all are having a wonderful Halloween weekend!

Frugal Friday

I've got lots of frugal ideas to share with you but today am short on time. We are having people over for Halloween and have spent the day cooking and cleaning and cleaning some more. As such I've just one small idea to share ...

Do you remember the babies? Well one of those babies was born today - on Halloween! Her mom must have known because she'd asked me to knit a pumpkin hat for the occasion. Well today we went to visit the new babe in the hospital. I wanted to bring something to brighten the room and almost bought flowers. But then I remembered something I'd read last night in Simple Abundance - Victorian ladies used to preserve fall leaves. I didn't have time to preserve leaves but I thought - why not a fall leaf bouquet. My yard contained several branches of intact leaves and some Russian Sage and Yarrow that hadn't yet given up the ghost. I was so pleased with the final result that I also made another bouquet for tonight's table.

So that's my single simple tip today - use what you have. You may be pleasantly surprised with the results.