Last year we threw our first Halloween Bash and while I took lots of pictures I only shared a photo of PapaBear's hilarious pumpkin carving display. I found lots of DIY Halloween crafts online & thought I'd share them now since the only decorations I'm putting out this year are our pumpkins from our straw bale garden.
We haven't ever really decorated for Halloween before so I was starting from scratch. With a very small budget we managed to make our big ol' house party worthy. I used lots of black card stock for bats, mice on the stairs (#8), cat silhouette, and the silly toilet monster (#2). I also stretched a package of brown paper lunch bags pretty far. We gave out paper bag brooms as prizes for games (#11) (dangling doughnuts, scavenger hunt, Halloween bingo), used them to wrap up drinks for the dice game which is always a big hit, and used them for collecting items for the scavenger hunt. I wrote "Happy Halloween" on the front of the bag and teams had to collect something that started with every letter.
Julia helped make some decorations (#4) and I printed a bunch of my favorite fall photos for all my frames. (#1)
My goal was to avoid scary and stay more along the lines of creepy. We had a house full of kids so they really got a kick out of all our specimen jars #7 & #9) Since we have animal lovers in our house we already had quite a collection of snakes and spiders already. I picked up a few rubber mice at Target to round out our collection. They all floated to the top of the jar of water, but we fixed that problem by tucking fishing sinkers into some of them. Goodwill was a good source for interesting looking glass jars. That's also where I got the BOO sign for our mantel (#10). This was the first time I allowed ghosts into our home and be the extent of our ghost decorations besides the adorable footprint ghosts (#17) that I hung in our entry way based on this post.
I already had ruby slippers so all I had to do is stuff a dollar store pair of knee high socks with newspaper and tuck the tops under our play house (#6). Using leftover black spray paint from when I made he ghost sign, I sprayed the word "EEK" to add to a ledge in our bathroom where I had stuck more bats (#5). The tub for drinks (#19) was easy to transform into a silly monster with some foam core and pipe cleaners. I liked to have unexpected elements as well so we did more than just carve some of the pumpkins (#18) Food was easy as we provided soup and everyone else brought appetizers. I made cute signs for the drinks (#15) Witches Brew was coffie, Vampire punch was read punch, & Spider Cider was hot apple cider.
My favorite decoration was the one I didn't have to take down - the mantel fabric garland. (#10 & #13) I purposely chose colors that could stay up through thanksgiving. At the time I made this one, I didn't have a rotary cutter, but I have since learned my lesson.
I had so much fun at the party I forgot to take very many pictures but I did get the girl cousins with grandma in their matching pj's and our dog Conor in his 'bad dog' costume.
It was a very happy halloween for the Chronicles of Narnia crew - Susan (me), Peter, (Sam), Edmond, (PapaBear), Lucy (Julia), and Aslan the lion (Elsa)
Do you have any Halloween traditions?
We haven't ever really decorated for Halloween before so I was starting from scratch. With a very small budget we managed to make our big ol' house party worthy. I used lots of black card stock for bats, mice on the stairs (#8), cat silhouette, and the silly toilet monster (#2). I also stretched a package of brown paper lunch bags pretty far. We gave out paper bag brooms as prizes for games (#11) (dangling doughnuts, scavenger hunt, Halloween bingo), used them to wrap up drinks for the dice game which is always a big hit, and used them for collecting items for the scavenger hunt. I wrote "Happy Halloween" on the front of the bag and teams had to collect something that started with every letter.
Julia helped make some decorations (#4) and I printed a bunch of my favorite fall photos for all my frames. (#1)
My favorite decoration was the one I didn't have to take down - the mantel fabric garland. (#10 & #13) I purposely chose colors that could stay up through thanksgiving. At the time I made this one, I didn't have a rotary cutter, but I have since learned my lesson.
I had so much fun at the party I forgot to take very many pictures but I did get the girl cousins with grandma in their matching pj's and our dog Conor in his 'bad dog' costume.
It was a very happy halloween for the Chronicles of Narnia crew - Susan (me), Peter, (Sam), Edmond, (PapaBear), Lucy (Julia), and Aslan the lion (Elsa)
That looks like an awesome party! Despite the budget constraints, you were able to celebrate the Halloween in a fashionable manner. And I think the trick is to make use of what you have, especially for the decorations. You can save money and still make your party fabulous and awesome. And you can make it fun by throwing some scavenger hunt games, just like what you did. Good job on organizing! I hope that your next party is as marvelous as this.
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