Crafting Halloween

Halloween wraps fear in innocence

as though it were slightly sour sweet

Let terror, then, be turned into a treat!

- Nicholas Gordon



I love Halloween!  I enjoy everything about this season, from the turning of the leaves to the skeletons in store windows.  I generally start thinking about Halloween crafts and decorations right about the time public schools start back up, so by the time the holiday actually happens, it's been on my brain for a good two months. 

I've got a few ideas this year and I thought I'd share them, just in case any of you wanted to get your craft on, too.

• A painted jack-o-lantern in folk art style - Bryant has bought a board of appropriate width and will cut it down for me (probably next week) so I can paint it.
• A spider clock - use either a large, flat clock or just a piece of wood (thin) and a purchased or rescued clockworks.  I'm thinking of painting the wood antique white, maybe staining the edges to age it and then painting on some spiderwebs.  Then I want to glue plastic spiders on where the numbers would go.  Simple, fun and effective.
• A graveyard for my Halloween Village - I have a Gothic Cathedral that is just begging for a spooky graveyard to go behind it. 
• Candy corn earrings - using paint chips, Mod Podge Dimensional Magic and some jump rings and earring hooks.  I'm super excited to try this one - I've never used MP Dimensional Magic, but it looks like some pretty amazing stuff.  It's similar to regular MP, but instead of drying flat and even, it creates something of a thick shield, giving the piece some oomph. 
• Bats in the lamp - I've done this one before, but it's such a quick, easy, kid-friendly craft, I can't help posting it again.  Draw some bats of various sizes (or look for an image online to trace) on black construction paper or card stock.  Use double sided tape to attach them to the inside of a lampshade.  When the lamp is on, the silhouettes show and make cool shadows on the walls around and above the lamp.

There are a gazillion other Halloween crafts I want to do (some I've seen, some I've only imagined), but these are the ones I will likely do this year.  I'll post photos as I get them done and I can also do tutorials if anyone is interested.

What kinds of Halloween crafts or decorations are you planning this year?