Spooktacular Halloween Tree

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)

Encourage Munchkin to mix well

And top with one teensy witch hat

Violá - Happy Halloween Tree!

I think it looks absolutely spooktacular ;)

I participate in the following link parties: Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Skip to My Lou, The Girl Creative, Making the World Cuter, Miss Crafty Pants, Super Stinky Boys, Mad In Crafts, Embellishing Life Everyday, Keeping It Simple, The DIY Home Sweet Home Project, Chocolate Drool & Kisses, Simply Cadence, Polly Wanna Crafter, Sew Can Do, Tip Junkie, My Frugal Family, Coastal Charm, New Nostagalia, Blessed with Grace, The Creative Itch, Funky Polka Dot Giraffe, Home Stories A to Z, The Lettered Cottage, A Bowl Full of Lemons, At Home with K, All Thingz Related, Today's Creative Blog, Not Just a Housewife, Sew Much Ado, Blue Cricket Design, My Backyard Eden, Gluesticks, Extreme Personal Measures, The Thrifty Home, The Trendy Treehouse, Someday Crafts, All Things Heart and Home, Elements Interiors, My Girlish Whims, DIY by Design, Somewhat Simple, House of Hepworths, Seven Thirty Three, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Beyond the Picket Fence, Black Kat Design, Thrifty 101, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Finding Fabulous, Poppies at Play, The Inspired Room, KoJo Designs, Whipperberry, Inspiring Creations, Romantic Home, The Speckled Dog, At the Picket Fence, Little Brick Ranch, Designer Garden, Simply Sweet Home, Simply Designing, Tatertots & Jello, Funky Junk Interiors, Be Different Act Normal, Saturday Morning Blog, It's a Crafty Life, I Heart Naptime, Under the Table and Dreaming, Creative Jewish Mom, Flamingo Toes, The DIY Showoff, Marvelously Messy, Nifty Thrifty Things, Thrifty Decor Chick, The Cottage Chick, Running with Glitter, One Artsy Mama, Dittle Dattle,

Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble

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.

I participate in the following link parties: Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Skip to My Lou, The Girl Creative, Making the World Cuter, Miss Crafty Pants, Super Stinky Boys, Mad In Crafts, Embellishing Life Everyday, Keeping It Simple, The DIY Home Sweet Home Project, Chocolate Drool & Kisses, Simply Cadence, Polly Wanna Crafter, Sew Can Do, Tip Junkie, My Frugal Family, Coastal Charm, New Nostagalia, Blessed with Grace, The Creative Itch, Funky Polka Dot Giraffe, Home Stories A to Z, The Lettered Cottage, A Bowl Full of Lemons, At Home with K, All Thingz Related, Today's Creative Blog, Not Just a Housewife, Sew Much Ado, Blue Cricket Design, My Backyard Eden, Gluesticks, Extreme Personal Measures, The Thrifty Home, The Trendy Treehouse, Someday Crafts, All Things Heart and Home, Elements Interiors, My Girlish Whims, DIY by Design, Somewhat Simple, House of Hepworths, Seven Thirty Three, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Beyond the Picket Fence, Black Kat Design, Thrifty 101, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Finding Fabulous, Poppies at Play, The Inspired Room, KoJo Designs, Whipperberry, Inspiring Creations, Romantic Home, The Speckled Dog, At the Picket Fence, Little Brick Ranch, Designer Garden, Simply Sweet Home, Simply Designing, Tatertots & Jello, Funky Junk Interiors, Be Different Act Normal, Saturday Morning Blog, It's a Crafty Life, I Heart Naptime, Under the Table and Dreaming, Creative Jewish Mom, Flamingo Toes, The DIY Showoff, Marvelously Messy, Nifty Thrifty Things, Thrifty Decor Chick, The Cottage Chick, Running with Glitter, One Artsy Mama, Dittle Dattle,

Ruffled Felt Garland

I love garlands.  Especially ones that are cheap and quick to whip up.  Because I also love making new garlands every year (along with new wreaths...and new decor items...and new holiday decorations...hmmm I sense a pattern).  This year my Halloween theme is candy corn and I just had to make a new garland for our stairs.  Coming up with a new garland for this railing can be a little challenging - Hubs insists that the railing be functional (pesky safety!), which means I can't wrap a garland around the railing.  So that means I have to attach it to either the back or underside of railing using either staples or thumbtacks.  After some brainstorming, a tri-strand ruffled felt garland in candy corn colors is what I dreamed up:

I used the same method as the St. Patty's day rainbow garland to ruffle up a looooong strip of orange, yellow and white felt.  Then just attached the garland using thumbtacks to the back of the hardwood railing.  And let me tell you, it is some very hard wood. 


Here's the very simple how to:


1 - To determine how much felt you'll need, measure the area that you plan to decorate and double the measurement.  For this garland, I used a length of yarn to create a sort of template for the finished garland (looping it on the railing) and then doubled the length of the piece of yarn to get my measurement.  I needed 1/2 yard of each color.


2 - Using pinking shears, cut the felt in 3 inch wide strips.

3 - Ruffle the felt by scrunching it as you run it through the sewing machine.  When you come to the end of a strip, just lay the next strip slightly overlapping and continue scrunching

4 - Once all the colors are ruffled, just gather them up and swag them together.  Yes, my orange and yellow are technically reversed.  I always seem to reverse the yellow and orange.  I am obviously candy corn dyslexic. 

Simple and easy - from beginning to end in a half hour :)


I participate in the following link parties: Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Skip to My Lou, The Girl Creative, Making the World Cuter, Miss Crafty Pants, Super Stinky Boys, Mad In Crafts, Embellishing Life Everyday, Keeping It Simple, The DIY Home Sweet Home Project, Chocolate Drool & Kisses, Simply Cadence, Polly Wanna Crafter, Sew Can Do, Tip Junkie, My Frugal Family, Coastal Charm, New Nostagalia, Blessed with Grace, The Creative Itch, Funky Polka Dot Giraffe, Home Stories A to Z, The Lettered Cottage, A Bowl Full of Lemons, At Home with K, All Thingz Related, Today's Creative Blog, Not Just a Housewife, Sew Much Ado, Blue Cricket Design, My Backyard Eden, Gluesticks, Extreme Personal Measures, The Thrifty Home, The Trendy Treehouse, Someday Crafts, All Things Heart and Home, Elements Interiors, My Girlish Whims, DIY by Design, Somewhat Simple, House of Hepworths, Seven Thirty Three, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Beyond the Picket Fence, Black Kat Design, Thrifty 101, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Finding Fabulous, Poppies at Play, The Inspired Room, KoJo Designs, Whipperberry, Inspiring Creations, Romantic Home, The Speckled Dog, At the Picket Fence, Little Brick Ranch, Designer Garden, Simply Sweet Home, Simply Designing, Tatertots & Jello, Funky Junk Interiors, Be Different Act Normal, Saturday Morning Blog, It's a Crafty Life, I Heart Naptime, Under the Table and Dreaming, Creative Jewish Mom, Flamingo Toes, The DIY Showoff, Marvelously Messy, Nifty Thrifty Things, Thrifty Decor Chick, The Cottage Chick, Running with Glitter, One Artsy Mama, One Tough Mother,