Spooky Cakes…

Here’s some more eye candy (pun intended) for your viewing pleasure:

     

    

Yummmm!  Can’t decide which of these is more awesome! 

Halloween Inspiration

Halloween is finally just days away and I keep looking back to my Halloween inspiration files for great ideas for our annual costume party.  I haven’t finished decorating yet, so I’ll be posting pics from the party this weekend. :)  But here’s a look at some of the ideas:

           

 

Spooky Silhouettes

The haunting of Fort Guthrie continues in the dining room, where a set of spooky silhouettes expounds on this home’s history.

  

Attired in the fashion of the day, the Guthrie family’s likenesses are hung on the dining room wall.  The room is lit by two gothic black candle sconces and a few scattered tealights.  A solitary raven, perched atop the antique buffet, warns visitors to “beware” the spirits and wraiths that haunt the mansion’s many halls.  The scene is set for a ghostly gathering…

Now for the details.  To create the silhouettes I snapped a photo of each of my subjects in profile against a black background.  Using a photo editing program I increased the contrast until the background was solid black.  Then I selected the entire background, made it white, then inverted the selection and made the rest of the picture black.  (If I had considered this, I might have set up my subjects in front of a lighted white curtain instead to achieve the same result.)  I smoothed the edges of silhouettes and added in old-fashioned collars, neckwear and hairstyles.  And because I don’t trust my cutting skills (says the seamstress), I just printed the black images on white photo paper instead of cutting them out of black cardstock, as is customary. 

For the frames, I really wanted to do them in oval frames with white mats.  Uh, yeah, who wouldn’t?  But for party decor, I just couldn’t justify the cost of said frames.  I had about given up on finding any affordable oval frames, when I was browsing Michael’s one day and stumbled upon these routered wood blocks!  At $2 a piece, they were made for me!  I bought five of them and skipped merrily home, happy to spend $10 on a few pieces of pine that would take a normal person (read: my Papa) hours to cut and router into the intricate faceted oval shape. 

To create a framed look, I painted the edges with black semi-gloss paint.  Then I took the printed silhouettes and simply cut an oval to fit inside the wood frame.  Using Mod Podge I glued them onto the frame, and applied another layer of Mod Podge on top to seal the deal.  Add a sawtooth picture hanger on the back and voila, you are done!

Homemade Spooky Silhouettes.

Happy Haunting!

only a week to go…

A Haunted Halloween Mantel

With only eleven days to go until our Annual Halloween Costume Party I am getting anxious to decorate!  However, as the party is at my parents’ house this year, I can’t just jump up and go spookify something at a moment’s notice.  But, I was there last weekend getting a head start on the haunting of Fort Guthrie.  We are trying a little different theme for our dining room decor (the living room being the “dining room” for the party).  Instead of our typical "Halloweeny” pumpkins and ghosts with orange and black everywhere, this year I wanted to go for a haunted mansion look.  Think Miss Havisham’s parlor.  I am loving the Dollar Tree’s freaky fabric and black crows this year!  Lots of potential for spookying up the place, and you can’t beat that price! :)  Here is a glimpse of the haunted fireplace mantel that Papa and I put together:

Here’s a stray silver pitcher that the lady of the manor absent-mindedly placed on the mantel.  An assortment of crystal candlesticks with blood red tapers light the ruined and rotten mantel scarf.

This little possibles box can’t contain the creature within as it tries to make its escape…

…while a lone black bird perches momentarily atop a stack of neglected books, gathering dust.

Overlooking the antiquated scene, a spider makes his way along the family portrait wall.

A dead bouquet of flowers serves only to gather cobwebs in this ruined mansion.

Across the room, a colony of bats is startled up from the basement; tearing through filthy, rotten wall hangings as they seek an escape…

 

 

What do you think?  You like the look? 

I am so excited!  Can’t wait to finish the decor!

I have family portrait silhouettes for the dining room that I am excited to show you, too, so check back soon for all the spooky fun!

Happy Almost Halloween!

Indian Corn Centerpiece

Pottery Barn is great for inspiration.  We just saw this Indian corn centerpiece in the latest Pottery Barn catalog.  It’s perfect for fall dining as well as your Thanksgiving Dinner table! 

 

Luckily, my mom had a great crop of Indian corn this year just waiting to be made into some crafty thing.  Armed with our corn, hot glue, string, and a clear glass hurricane lantern, we set about to create our own centerpiece a la Pottery Barn.  On the cheap. :)

   

First things first, I discovered there was no way I would be able to wrangle corn, shuck and glass all at once with simply a string to bind them.  So I decided the simplest thing to do was to hot glue the shuck to the corn and then the whole thing to the glass.  I shucked my corn and selected shorter length ears (so there would still be some glass showing above) and then picked out some pretty shucks that contrasted with the corn color.  Next I made bundles of shuck and corn by gluing all the shuck pieces together as a backer then gluing the corn inside the shuck.  After I had made enough bundles to circle the glass, I started gluing them onto the hurricane.  After I had ringed the lantern with corn, I went back and added in a few pieces of shuck to fill in the gaps between corn bundles.  It just needed a bit more fluff! :)

     

Finally, we tied the whole thing together with twine and gold yarn.  Then we set it on a silver platter lined with fall leaves and stuck the candle inside.  Voila! 

Pretty.

What do you think?  Want to make one for yourself or someone special as a lovely harvest gift?

I’ll be back soon with some spooky Halloween decor!