Grab a couple of the “Words of Love” cylinder vases from Dollar Tree. A steal for a dollar each.

You could put anything in these. I opted for some shredded foil and some adorable plastic glittery heart picks purchased at DT.

Today I’m going to show you how I made a very cheap garland. Everything was purchased from Dollar Tree and cost about ONE DOLLAR AND SIX CENTS TO MAKE. Yup, $1.06!

I purchased:

Doilies – $2 (I used 8 out of 60)… 14¢
Ribbon – $1 (I used about 6 feet out of 9)… 67¢
Table Scatter – $1 (I used 7 out of a zillion or so pieces)… negligible
Glitter Stickers – $1 (I used 8 out of 32)… 25¢
Gluesticks (a negligible amount)

I made this garland to sit straight across the front of the mantel mostly due to the flimsy nature of the paper doilies. I’m sure you could double or triple them if you wanted something a bit more heavy.

I measured how much ribbon I needed, left a bit extra just in case.

Next I pulled out 8 doilies, 4 in white and 4 in red. I marked my center of the ribbon and just threaded the hearts on through the lacey edges. I had to fold the ribbon in half to get it thin enough. They went on really easy, actually.

At this point I attached the garland to the mantel to finish off the detail work. Affix both ends and move the doily hearts as needed. Then put 8 of the glitter stickers onto the doily hearts!

Now get your glue stick ready cause we’re gonna add the table scatter.

I pulled out a few different ones and just carefully glued them onto the ribbon, in between each doily.

Yes, and that’s all. A tiny bit of creativity and a trip to Dollar Tree and you’re set. I hope this will at least provide you with a little inspiration for your own Valentine’s mantel. I’ll be adding a couple other Valentine’s themed crafts in the next few days, too!

]]> http://www.euclidboo.com/wordpress/crafty-valentines-day-mantel-garland/feed/ 1 http://www.euclidboo.com/wordpress/vintage-santa-claus-brushes-free/ http://www.euclidboo.com/wordpress/vintage-santa-claus-brushes-free/#comments Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:32:45 +0000 Jen @ Euclid Boo http://www.euclidboo.com/wordpress/?p=396 No registration required to download these Photoshop brushes, free for personal use! Dress up your Christmas projects with these genuine vintage Santa faces. In abr format.

Free download, Christmas theme gradients!

Download, then either save or open. Will open/load in Photoshop automatically.

Free download, Christmas theme gradients!

Download, then either save or open. Will open/load in Photoshop automatically.

But first, a little background: We’ve been putting on the show here in Euclid, Ohio since 2003. Before that I lived in 2 other places and put on the haunt yearly, really since 1999. Aside from the collecting of Halloween things and anything else I blog about, I’m also a huge yard haunter. I love it, dressing up, giving the kids a thrill and getting compliments from the neighbors. I love it when people in the middle of summer ask about Boo. It’s an awesome feeling to do something for our neighbors, just because we ALL enjoy it.

I got the wild hair the year after I graduated. Got all these ideas in my head. It has exploded from there.

It all started with the Monsterlist, which if you’re any sort of haunter or extreme decorator, you have been to. It’s the resource for Halloween tutorials and it’s been there since forever. I love it.

Over the years, as my skills have increased along with Guy’s, we’ve really put together an impressive little setup we are quite proud of. The byproduct of success, of course, is the occasional “what the hell was that?” We’ve all got them and here they are. I’ve rounded up my top five. Learn from my mistakes.

1: Welcome!

Fail 1: 2009's "welcome" banner

I wanted something to clearly mark off the entrance, even though there was no alternate way in. This was my lazy replacement for pillars, which I always sort of wanted to make.

I’m a woman, I improvise! I cut out felt (yes, the flimsy felt that kindergarteners make things out of), printed letters, cut those letters out and then used the printer paper as stencils. Painted on the letters (probably with oil paint so I would surely be sticky for 3 solid weeks) and sewed a pocket into the back of the felt. Slipped rope through and hung it from the garage to a pole. Center supports are for the weak.

Guess what happened next! Not only did it look nothing like I thought it would look, it actually drooped and sagged and looked pathetic. Check out the gap like that often found in a fat mans pants.

I don’t even know where it ended up. I hope it’s in the trash somewhere, thinking about what it’s done.

2: The Bleeding Tombstone

This baby looked great in the tutorial I found. They did a beautiful job and I was completely chomping at the bit to make my own. I wouldn’t say we jumped into this one without the right materials, but we had to use shiny paint (for stone?) and butchered some Tupperware in the making.

Fail 2: This bleeding tombstone scares ME.

It looks ok… not at all the stunning piece I was hoping for. Now the fun parts: the pump jammed all the time. Our flower box base that acted as the water reservoir was too big and we were stuffing odd bits of foam and plexiglass in there (HAY WHYS THE PUMP JAMMING LOL). And of course it never felt the desire to actually stand up, and even though floppy tombstones are always so effective, we tied it to a tree. HOW SPOOKY.

The best part is yet to come: no matter where we placed this thing, surrounded by lights like some 17-year-old starlet, nobody ever noticed.

3: The Haunted TV

In the spirit of the tombstone, we also decided to make a haunted TV.

Actually, we saw a huge console on the curb down the street, so we walked down there and rolled it back during mid afternoon traffic.

Guy gutted it, we put the fake screen in, which was nothing more than some shimmery fabric that had somehow avoided the 80′s/being turned into spandex. Add a foam head and none other than a Saturn windshield wiper motor and voilà! a haunted television.

Fail 3: This here boob tube.

This prop was less problematic than the tombstone, it wasn’t tied to anything but it got the same result: no one ever even looked at it.

I kind of blame being outside for this one. Maybe.

4: Peter the harmless-I-swear scarecrow

Fail 4: Peter did not die for your sins.

This one would have been fine, really, if someone hadn’t come along with their panties in a bunch. Let me explain:

I wanted a cheap scarecrow for 2004, just for the atmospheric element of one. So we grabbed 2 pieces of scrap paneling, nailed them together, stuffed a dummy and gave him a pumpkin head.

That was it, I promise.

Setting up Halloween day, a woman stops her car (I live on a very busy road) and gets out, starts gnawing on my ear about Peter. Can you guess what her issue was?

“[Her] Savior died on a cross…”

This conversation between us went down in flames before it really had a chance to get going as I had a million things to do and also, IT’S A FUCKING PUMPKIN NOT JESUS.

She then gave us window clings for the local Christian Cleveland station 99.5 the Fish. One was stuck to the stop sign on the corner of my house until some time around 2007.

5: I wish the electric chair was real

I can’t recall if this idea was ganked or pure genius. I can’t even remember who thought this would be a great idea. Which is fine as no one has to pay if I can’t prove who birthed this idea: A car horn triggered by a board that’s pushed when someone sits in the electric chair.

The kids took a half a millionth of a nanosecond to figure out this made noise – and a lot of it – and take full advantage.

Fail 5: Don't toot your own horn.

Do you know what it’s like to want to start tossing other people’s children in a fit of horn-induced rage?

I think Guy may have pulled the power to the horn between the tricking or treating 2005 was even a thing of the past.

I have a couple of others that could have really deserved an honorable mention. It’s a delicate balance that must be struck when you’re limited by storage space and cash flow whilst still having to make things that scare children in an out-of-doors environment, large and attention-getting without being physically interactive.

This is why when we hit on a good idea, we share

Free download, Halloween gradients inspired by autumn skies!

Download, then either save or open. Will open/load in Photoshop automatically.

I’ll be adding to this list as I find other sites to add, so come back often!

The Internet’s Premier Pumpkin Pattern Site
Traditional, classic jacks, movies, superheroes, sports, video games, words

DLTK’s pumpkin carving patterns
Aliens, Angry Birds, ghosts, cats, cartoons as well as classics

Martha Stewart Halloween pumpkin-carving patterns
Leaves, spiders, cats, many unique faces, words, Victorian and Gothic

The Pumpkin Wizard*
Traditional, cartoon, monsters, movies, tv, music, celebs, politicians, sports

Better Homes and Gardens free printable stencils
Traditional, designer, TXT, fall, cat, dog breed, paint accented

Disney Family Fun Pumpkin-Carving Ideas
Faces, animals, skeleton, evil fish, pumpkin on pumpkin

Celebratinghalloween.com free stencils
Faces, words, scene, Angry Birds, Transformers, fairies

Paper Pumpkins stencils
LOTS of faces, dog breeds, Japanese and cultural, tiki, snowflake

Extreme Pumpkins free stencils
Faces, Batman, Jason, Obama, McCain, Skellinton, flaming, Che, Satan, mummy

Hershey’s stencils arranged by difficulty
Dracula, pirate, Reese’s, cauldorn, tree, BOO, grim reaper

Colonial Williamsburg themed pumpkin carving patterns
Windmill, Cresset, cannon, Washington, Jefferson, Capitol, Liberty or Death Gallows

Feeling particular ambitious? Make your photo into a pumpkin carving stencil.

*These resources also offer paid options, but their selection of free was so good, they deserved a mention.

We pulled it off quite well I think, and everyone had a great time. Here I’m going to share with you some tips and ideas – This time it’s our Hallowe’en of Yesteryear menu.

The 1915 Bogie Book gives some suggestions for both a formal sort of dinner and a buffet. We stayed on that track and added in a few modern goodies from our own childhood, because after all, a Halloween party is supposed to be a good time!

Here’s some suggestions from the 1915 Bogie for a Halloween supper menu:

• Cream of Celery soup
• bread sticks
• Waldorf Salad
• Brown Bread Sandwiches*
• Popcorn Sundae
• Ginger Cookie Men
• Coffee

The 1915 Buffet suggestions are just as, erm, interesting:

• Cucumber Sandwiches
• Salmon Sandwiches
• Jelly Sandwiches
• Stuffed Celery
• Olives
• Orange Sherbet
• Fancy Crackers
• Cakes
• Chocolate

Those are some rather unique choices to make. I don’t know how well salmon sandwiches go with caramel apple shots, so these are our inspired edible choices:

The Euclidboo.com Halloween Supper/Buffet Menu

• Finger Sandwiches (chicken, ham, egg salad fillings, on wheat (brown) and white)
• Homemade Caramel Corn
• Nuts (decorate and serve right from the can!)
• Maple Cinnamon Coffee
• Yummy Mummies (not the exact version we used, but awfully cute!)

For dipping we made 2 sauces, a honey mustard and another sauce, mixing some of the honey mustard in with raspberry jam. Try it, it’s very good.

Friends brought whatever they wanted – delicious blue cheese dip made an appearance. It still all had a throwback feeling to it while not being too strange on the palette, was easy to prepare and store and clean up was practically non-existent.

On the table were 3 jars with labels I printed affixed – candy corn, candy corn and mallowcreme pumpkins and peanut butter candies. Everyone put in a guess on how many corns were in the small jar – and the winner took it home! Cute and I hate candy corn, so win-win.

We also served vanilla ice cream, but that was part of a game, which I will get to another day.

I think the most crucial thing is to not over think a menu like this. People are coming for the games, the fun, the entertainment, even to see how decked out your house is. Putting out a basic variety of food and snacks that can be left out makes for an easy and fulfilling table.

*A brown bread sandwich was made by using a can of brown bread. Cream cheese, peanut butter & chopped dates acted as a filling.

Aired on network television for the first time in October 1985, this is a special that ran pretty regularly, but of course, they just don’t air them anymore.

Not sure why. Too much awesome for kids nowadays?

I betcha.

Honestly? I don’t now who was scarier when I first saw this at the tender age of 5, the pirate ghosts or the man in the chair. Seriously.

Garfield's Halloween Adventure

Garfield's Halloween Adventure: Blinky let's Garfield know what's up with Halloween. Garfield, being a fatty, is all about it.

Garfield is just finding out about Halloween for the first time. It’s not so much the holiday he’s into, it’s the free candy. Naturally.

Garfield's Halloween Adventure: Odie might have a semblance of a brain?

Well you know two sacks have got to be better than one… so he gives Odie some story about dogs helping cats and since Odie’s dumb, he’s completely on board.

Garfield's Halloween Adventure: Impressive costume.

I enjoy going through my Halloween stuff this much, too…

Garfield's Halloween Adventure: Odie the Stupid.

The most lulz-worthy line in the entire thing. Especially if you’re 5 and named Jen.

Garfield's Halloween Adventure: The one thing he's not is a scaredy cat.

TOT’ing is going pretty well, Garfield threatens a nice lady into giving them more candy, and everyone under their costumes is really a terrifying ghoul. You know, pretty normal.

Garfield's Halloween Adventure: The scary old man!!!

So they decide they aren’t getting a good enough loot collection and see some houses across the way. They take a boat, find a house and well, let the real terror begin!

Garfield's Halloween Adventure: NO SPOILERS HERE.

Nice headwear.

*Note that you must have Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate editions of Windows 7… and of course, Windows 7 itself. Duh.

Download the free Windows 7 Theme Terror Carolers from here.

Save it to a place you can find it. Your desktop is usually a good place.

It will look something like this. Double click it.

Let the file finish downloading.

Now go look wherever you saved it and double click the themepack file.

(hint, if it’s your desktop you saved the file on, mouse over to the bottom right of your screen… see a little rectangle near the clock? Click it to get to your desktop in a hurry without closing any windows.)

Awesome. Onward.

From here it should take care of itself. It will automatically apply the new theme colors, sounds and backgrounds.

You can always choose another theme, and Terror Carolers will always be selectable as well.

Here’s a quick preview of the backgrounds included with the Terror Carolers Windows 7 theme. All photos are my original pictures and are taken of our homemade Terror Carolers singing choir of pumpkins. Feel free to pass it around and Happy Halloween to your and your PC!