As part of our pre-Halloween festivities, we made a gingerbread graham cracker Halloween house:
I got a little fancy with the design this year. Oh yeah, that is two stories thankyouverymuch :) It's amazing what a bead of hot glue can stick together!
We used ghost & pumpkin peeps, candy corn and pumpkin candies. And as always, our icing was nothing more than powdered sugar and water. It so much fun to see Munchkin having a blast with his decorating!
Last January I found this black mini Christmas tree on clearance at Target (for something like $2.50). I immediately snatched it up with the intent of making a Halloween tree this year.
Here's my top secret recipe:
Add 1 part orange lights
To 3 parts cute little ornaments (from Jo Ann fabrics)
I love adding witch hat embellishments to my Halloween decorations. Big or small they strike the perfect (for me) decor balance - not scary, but undeniably Halloweenish. My favorite house from my Halloween Village is the one topped with a small witch hat, and I have a few more up my sleeve for last minute decorations. Here's the fast and simple way that I make witch hats:
You'll need some felt, tulle and thin cardboard. The size of the witch hat you'll be making determines how much of each you'll need. For this hat (only 4 inches tall), I only needed a small piece of a felt sheet and a 2 1/2 inch strip of tulle. For small hats, I usually use the cardboard from cereal or kleenex boxes - for larger boxes I have used poster board or even foam core.
Mark off a 1/2 circle, in your desired size, on the felt
And cut out
Roll the 1/2 circle into a cone shape and dot with hot glue to adhere
To make the hat brim, place your cone shape on the cardboard and eyeball your preferred brim size. Draw a circle to mark the edge of the brim as well as tracing the circumference of the cone.
Cut out the brim and the shape of the cone, careful to cut slightly smaller than the trace line.
Once cut, check the brim size by slipping it over the cone. It should stop just short of the bottom of the cone.
To cover the brim, cut out two pieces of felt.
Cut the first larger than the brim
And the second to fit
Cut slits along the outside and interior of the larger piece
Using your hot glue, adhere the felt around the brim
Flip over and adhere the sized piece of felt to cover the raw edges
Slide the brim over the cone to form a hat.
I usually add a few dots of hot glue to tack the brim in place
At this point, the hat could be done - but I like to dress it up with a little bit of tulle puffed around the brim
To add the tulle, start by gluing one end of your tulle strip to the underside of the brim, where it meets the cone
Bring the tulle up and over the brim, fluff as desired, and tack in place with another dot of hot glue
From there it's just a back and forth tacking the tulle to the underside of the brim and then back onto the top of the brim, fluffing as you go.
And finally, I topped this hat off with a polka dot piece of ribbon as a hat band
This tute was pretty step intensive, but it goes very quickly - especially if your making them assembly line.
This year, I am still LOVING this cute little village! Here are some of the details (that I was remiss in posting last year)...
I just love the little fence and flying glittery ghosts on this one
This little witch hat is my favorite embellishment
The little Happy Halloween sign post is a painted toothpick
Love the flying bats!
And since I had such a fun time making the village last year - I decided to make another house this year...And offer it as a giveaway! This year's house features a glittery striped roof and two sides of spooky fun:
Frankenstein & an adorable owl are on one side
And this {un}spooky witch is waiting for Halloween on the other side
In order to have this little house in it's new home by Halloween, this contest can only run for a few days. I'll pull a winner next Wednesday. It's simple to enter, just leave a comment :)