our haunted graveyard & 6 wicked days of Halloween

today is day one of a 6 day blog crawl.

Go check out the creator of this crawl, Marilyn of the Artsy Girl Connection as she shares the first post with her Creepy Critter Potion. What a great way to get some vitamins into your kids and have fun doing it! Check back tomorrow for the next name on the list!

I finished up the outside decorations, but never got around to posting them, so here they are...

Like the sign says, enter if you dare.

This guy hangs from our flag pole. Last year my son would not go NEAR it!!

My husband works on a conservation area here in Missouri, and has access to alot of great outdoor stuff. Like corn stalks! He lined our walk with them by sticking them in the ground a little and tying them to a hidden post. He also gathered individual stalks and tied them together and they are freestanding in the yard. The pumpkins he carved years ago with a dremmel tool and has them over our landscape lights.  They are all different. Pretty cool I must say. 

Here is our graveyard with Styrofoam tombstones. We usually get one or two after the season on clearance. I am sure they are easy to make, but we only buy if they are CHEAP!

I love my little hippo mouth that I put bird seed in poking out on the bottom right, so not relevant! 

Or is it...

The corn was green a few weeks ago, until it was 'replanted' here.  Sometimes we tie a bunch to our columns but wanted to try something different this year.

The witch is our standard 'scarecrow' mount. It changes every year too. Last year it was a great Jack Skelton! Her head is actually a big plastic ORANGE pumpkin. Know what I painted her face with?? Yep. Annie Sloan's Antibes green. Perfect for that witchy green complexion. I go out every day, waiting for it to slide off the plastic or chip due to the elements, but it looks like I just did it yesterday.

This guy does creep me out a bit.

Alas, I can not have a very pretty front porch until after Halloween, as it usually

 hides the urns and pumpkins.

I do have a little bit of 'cute' stuff peaking out. 

This guy is pretty creepy too. If my husband could turn our yard into a real Haunted graveyard, he would so do it!! I sometimes have to curb his 'enthusiasm'and remind him, the trick-or treaters are usually little kids.

I love how adding just a bit of Spanish moss finishes off this pumpkin urn. 

I love how the tombstones age over time, like the real thing.

This is again, my husband. The bones usually are in the ground, looking like they are coming up from the grave, but this year he did a 'bone mobile'. Just drilled a hole and strung them up!  

We also do a fog machine, creepy music and black lights on Halloween. Like I said, it's kinda borderline!

Hope you enjoyed our yard, I know we do!!

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black cat and an Old White ghost

Today I finished up a couple little Halloween crafts. 

I'm pretty much thru with Halloween decor and crafts. Maybe.

I love old postcards, especially Halloween ones. I wanted to do a little plaque that had an impression of one, so I started with a piece of balsa wood. It is about 4"X8" (cheap). I used a little ASCP in Graphite, Old White and Paris Gray. Just enough to dry brush the background a little bit. I left it a little streaky. Forgot to take a shot of that.

I wanted to do one that used Ephemera Script, but could not find any I liked. So I found this 

cat one. But I only put one cat on it, my board was to small for all of them.

I also tried to transfer this to the wood but I can not for the life of me find the Splendid Blender pen that Villabarnes uses in so many great ways. You can go check out some of her creations she makes using it. To view, click on her button.

So, I had to do it free hand. I then filled it in with acrylic craft paint.

I had NO orange, red or yellow, so I took some of my kids finger paint and mixed red and yellow with a little bit of glow in the dark paint. Not because I wanted it to glow in the dark (it doesn't), because I was to lazy to go down stairs and get white, but to make it a bit lighter. The glow paint is the same consistency as the finger paint

I finished it up with a coat of ASCP clear wax, then some dark wax on top. 

Not exactly what I was going for, but it will do.

On to my second craft...

I live near a farm that has dried gourds of every shape and size. I grabbed a couple and decided 

I wanted to make a ghost. If you go to my Pinterest page here, I have a bunch of inspiration photos using gourds.  If you need an invite, just leave a comment and I would be more than happy to add you. 

I sanded off  lightly, all the 'stuff' that had dried with the gourd. Not sure what the 'stuff' is.

I think it gets moldy as it dries out and hardens, then just turns to a little bit flaky, hence the 'stuff'.

I painted it with a touch of ASCP in Old White and then drew on a face with a permanent marker. 

I went over it with a light coat of ASCP wax.

Then I put a piece of cheese cloth over the top and he is done. 

I think I may run and get some smaller friends for him.

Anyone else have any ideas for gourds other than tree houses?

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Spooky Mantle

My Halloween Mantle is up!! I have lots of pictures and lots of details about my recently found objects.

The candelabra have been on a shelf in my store room for over 7 years. They are silver, so they had the perfect tarnished patina for this vignette! The vinyl chandelier on the mirror was 1/2 price at Hobby Lobby, costing me $10.

I dressed up my newly painted built-ins too.

The compote holding the pumpkin was purchased for $.25 at the same garage sale I got the $10 dresser at. I love how Spanish moss just seems to add to the creepiness of it all.

The clock I got for $2 at a garage sale, and I

sprayed the oak finish on it black.

The candle with a flickering light in it was in the clearance section at Hobby Lobby for $4. The small mirror had a gold finish on it until I dabbed some ASCP old white with some dark wax on top. The mirror back I applied bleach to it then made some scratches in it with a fork.

The silver pumpkin was originally painted with Krylon foil metallic spray then I put a light wash

of water and ASCP in Granite, then wiped it off. I was going for a mercury glass look.

I think it looks pretty good!

I decorate my sofa table too.

The glass bottles came from Goodwill for $2 total and the labels my husband got for free.

The silver skull I have had for a few years.

The turtle shell we found in the woods behind our house, and I think it is a perfect fit for Halloween.

I picked up 3 glitter sculls for cheap at Goodwill!

I love the antlers, they kinda remind me of bones...

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