Return of The Bat Wreath

Did you know that if you are a Pinterest user and a blog owner, there is a way to find out what photos from your blog have been Pinned? You simply type in http://pinterest.com/source/themerrymagpievintage.com/  but replace the last part between slashes with your blog address. Now, this method is not totally perfect. For example, this photo is from my blog from years ago, but it doesn't link back to me because it wasn't Pinned from my blog directly.

Even if it's not a completely accurate picture of what's being Pinned from my blog, I can see that easily the most rePinned image from my blog is this paper bag Bat Wreath that I made back in 2010.

Kelli from K Customables shared my Bat Wreath today on her blog. Kelli and her friend Kara create darling party printables and party supplies that you can find here in their Etsy shop. Pop over to their blog and check it out! 

Halloween 2011: leftovers

Remember the giant teeth Trunk-or-Treat idea that I Pinned?

Well, I bought some sheets of white posterboard and delegated that job to The Mister, who did a fabulous job and even made some big fangs as well:

I loved it! But apparently we weren't the only ones who saw that idea, because there were two other cars at our Trunk-or-Treat with teeth:

This decidedly more friendly version,

and this full-on face version, with kids passing out candy from the mouth. Funny!

Some of my favorite costumes from friends this year:

Flo, the Progressive lady. HATE those commercials, but my friend Stephanie looked just like her!

This cute Peter Pan family costume from my friend Brittney. I think this costume theme works best when you have adorable 1-year-old twins.

An amazing, elaborate Lego man costume my friend Annie made for her son, Graham. Holy cow!

And this creepy drowned Titanic victim costume from Keeley, which I am totally going to steal for a costume party someday!

What was the best costume you saw this year?

Halloween 2011: our Scooby Gang costumes

I didn't mean for it to take so long to get these photos posted, but life has just gotten in the way. Today school has been cancelled for snow, which is ironic since on Monday it was 71 degrees. It was like that last week too: nearly 80 on Monday, then 6" of snow on Wednesday. The only reason school wasn't cancelled last week too is that we were already on Fall Break! I am really thankful that last week's snow melted before Halloween and this week's snow held off for 24 hours so that we could enjoy a beautiful sunny Halloween and not even have to wear coats over our costumes.

Speaking of costumes, here's how we dressed up this year:

For a family with a little girl who LOVES Scooby-Doo, this was a natural choice! In fact, we chose this theme before Halloween last year, so I've been thinking of it ever since. Here's a run-down on our costumes:

The Mister as Freddy: wore his own jeans, blue dress shirt and white v-neck sweater. The orange scarf was thrifted (I had to work a little magic to make it the right shape) and the horrible blonde wig was new, but bought at the thrift store.

Maren as Velma: wore a perfect thrifted orange turtleneck sweater and thrifted red skirt. Bought the orange socks at Gymboree. We tried two different wigs but both had issues and she was not feeling great, so in the end we just curled the ends of her hair under and called it good. She also had more square glasses that looked much more Velma-like, but they were an adult size and wouldn't stay on so in the end we went with Harry Potter glasses I had in the costume box. Ah well. She also had a homemade magnifying glass made from a dowel, a thrifted embroidery hoop, black spray paint, and a piece of clear Saran Wrap.

Porter as Shaggy: wore his own brown pants. I thrifted a green turtleneck and when the weather turned out to be so nice that day, I went ahead and cut it into a v-neck to be more authentic. His hair is naturally shaggy, I drew stubble on his chin with an eyeliner pencil, and he gamely carried around a Scooby stuffed animal all night.

Heidi as Daphne: my purple vintage dress was thrifted 7 years ago, so to make it authentic, I simply sewed on two stripes of wide lavender ribbon and then made a headband to match. My green scarf was thrifted, my pink tights (which I didn't think would be quite so lacy) were on super-clearance at JC Penneys and my wig was new but from the thrift store. I couldn't find the right color of shoes at the thrift store, so I just bought a pair and painted them with acrylic paint (which totally cracked when I wore them, but they gave the right effect). The cutouts on the front were made with chipboard that was painted and hot-glued onto the shoes.

Bronco the yellow lab as Scooby: Even Bronco-doggie got in on the act! I made him a Scooby collar using teal ribbon and then made a tag out of teal and metallic gold cardstock that I hung off the ribbon with a binder ring. Bronco went with us to the Trunk-or-Treat, but stayed home for the actual trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.

We got so many nice compliments on our costumes, and I have to not-so-humbly admit that I think we rocked them! I may not be able to sew everything, but I can MacGyver the heck out of some thrift store finds!

I do wish I had just sprung for the $20 Velma costume for Maren, just so that we could have had the child-sized wig and glasses but I was determined to find something cheaper and make it work. Those efforts included one disastrous (new) black wig from the thrift store, and a thrifted blonde wig that I attempted to color brown with a brown Staz-On permanent ink pad, which is an hour of my life I'll never get back, especially since in the end she wore neither.

Even our jack-o'-lanterns were Scooby-themed! Truly, it was a fantastic Halloween and I'm so thankful to have a family (especially a husband!) who will go along with my crazy ideas. I'm already starting to plan our costumes for next year...

Just three more days and Trunk-or-Treat ideas

Each day, Maren counts down the days until Halloween and squeals as it's getting closer--and I want to squeal right along with her! I've got work to do this weekend to put the last touches on our costumes, and I still need to hit a few thrift stores to see if I can find shoes for mine. We're going as a coordinated group again this year and I think our costumes will be really fun! For any new readers, here's how we dressed up last year:

Our church traditionally has a Trunk-or-Treat event on Halloween, which I have mixed feelings about. On one hand--I know there are people that go and distribute all of their candy during the Trunk-or-Treat and then go home and turn off their lights, which I think is NO FUN at all! I happen to think that one of the fun parts of Halloween and trick-or-treating is getting to know your neighbors, and you can't get to know your neighbors if you won't open your door! On the other hand, the Trunk-or-Treat is usually held early enough that the kids can still go out trick-or-treating in their neighborhood, so double the candy--yay!

I know some churches have car decorating contests and I wish ours would start doing that--I think it would make the whole event more fun because right now, it's little more than an organized but crowded grab for candy. I found this awesome car on Pinterest

Original source

and I think I might be making a run to the store this weekend for white poster board! The rest of the car is made to look like a giant whale to go with the family's costumes, but I think I'll just stick with the big scary teeth.

Last year at our Trunk-or-Treat there was one person who went all out and made a Honeyduke's Sweet Shop in the back of her van. We didn't get there until it was almost empty, but I still got a few snaps so I could remember how clever it was!

Be sure to click on the photos to enlarge them so you can see the neat tags she made with the candy names. It would seem like filling all those jars of candy would cost a fortune, but most of the candy was inexpensive (salt water taffy) or homemade (toffee) or store-bought candy, gussied up (Licorice Wands were individual Twizzlers dipped in candy melts & sprinkles, Acid Pops were sour Dots on a sucker stick).

The key to this was the presentation--all of the candies were individually wrapped in little bags and each jar had its own label, printed in the Harry Potter font. The car owner made a shelf with a piece of painted board that was held up on either end by a large gold-painted book. The whole effect was really impressive! Maybe she'll be back again this year and I can get some photos when the jars are all filled up.

And just in case you haven't settled on a costume yet, let me leave you with a few of my favorites from last year's Trunk-or-Treat:

Incredible papier mache Mike from Monster's Inc.

The blue shirt was an XXL thrift store find and he stuffed the front with fiberfill. Hat was made from felt-by-the-yard from JoAnn's.

My friend's two-year-old as a Toddlers and Tiaras winner. Hilarious!

Have a fun weekend! Are you doing anything fun to get ready for Halloween?

Pinned it and Made it: Fishnet stocking pumpkins and 2011 Halloween decorations

Once I finally finished painting the china hutch black, I could hardly wait for the paint to dry so I could load it up with my Halloween decorations! They'd been sitting in my front room for two weeks and it was already the middle of the month so it was about time. I do wish I could have gotten it all done sooner, but it was worth the wait--I love how my Halloween goodies look in my new black cabinet!

I incorporated a Pinned it and Made it project into my decor: fishnet stocking pumpkins, pinned here. Last year I bought several pairs of black fishnet stockings when they were 75% off at Target, where they had a whole endcap full of them.  The pumpkins were leftover from an unsuccessful project a few years ago and were already painted silver.

I used a pair of ladies' one-size-fits-all stockings for the larger pumpkin

and a pair of kids' stockings for the smaller one. Was I really thinking of putting black fishnets on my 6-year-old daughter? Sheesh. This isn't Toddlers and Tiaras, for crying out loud. I do like that pair better, because they were black with silver threads running through and they look really great on the silver pumpkin! For both pumpkins, I simply stretched the leg over the pumpkin, with the toe hidden by the underside. I cut them off and used a small rubber band to attach the stocking around the stem, and poked in a couple of vintage foil leaves. A real pumpkin with a larger stem would have made that a bit easier. I do love how they look! Easiest pumpkin decorating EVER.

Here are the rest of my decorations. Since I had already taken everything out of my hutch to paint, I left it empty and filled it with only Halloween, which I like. Normally I have to decorate around the stuff that's already there.

It's a pain to load everything in and out and carry it up and down the basement steps, but I think I'm going to clear it out for Christmas decorating too. There's just so much more space.

I added a pair of orange and white polka-dotted melamine plates to either side of the big turquoise jack-o'-lantern plate and I LOVE how they look against the black and white checked background! I really wanted to emphasize the black and ORANGE with my decorating this year.

I kept things simple on the top of my aqua dresser. The Halloween lollies are another Pinned project that I may or may not get around to sharing this year. Those might have to be saved for 2012.

I added one of my big black sparkly flower pins to my orange and white striped pillow.

The display on my little ottoman is simple but again emphasizes the orange.

The family room got a little bit of decor, with a trio of estate sale vintage die cuts hung on Command hooks and a banner I made last year hung on the chalkboard. I have a display started on my sofa table but I got sidetracked so I'm not sure I'll get it finished at this point.

It took a little longer than usual this year, but I'm happy with how it all looks! Now my next task is to finish up our costumes...

Did you incorporate anything from Pinterest into your Halloween preparations this year?

Halloween platters 2011: Round two

I posted a while ago about the upcycled Halloween platters I made for my Etsy shop this year, but I didn't stop there! I made a few more and wanted to show them off because I love the silhouette images!

First is the Spooky Silhouette Family Gallery, all of them on vintage china platters:

Dracula

Frankenstein

Witch

Skeleton

I also found these two really neat orange dishes. They're not vintage, but they're the perfect color for Halloween!

Dracula on orange

Spooky crow on tombstone on orange

I also found one more of my favorite USA pottery oval shaped plates. I used these last year and I love them!

Spooky crow on tombstone on white

This pair of vintage white pottery urns got spookified with the addition of a pair of spindly-legged spiders.

Spidery white vintage urns

I didn't make these plates, but I love the black and white and I think they'd look nice in an arrangement with some of the silhouette platters.

Vintage Glastonbury Abbey plate

Vintage Italian villa plate

I can't resist vintage aluminum cookie cutters when I am out thrifting. Christmas designs seem to be the most common, but I've come across a few Halloween shapes so I glittered them and made Halloween tree ornaments out of them.

Glittery vintage Halloween cookie cutter ornaments

I've had so much fun crafting for Halloween this year! I've been so busy crafting, in fact, that I haven't decorated for Halloween yet. Eeek! Now that's scary. The boxes have been in the front room for a week, but I decided (once I'd dragged everything up from the basement and made a huge mess, naturally) that I really wanted to paint my china hutch, a project I've been meaning to do all summer long.

I got started on Monday and I have to admit that it isn't going as well as I'd like. Next time I decide to paint a piece of furniture with a brush and roller and latex paint, somebody slap me, mmmmmkay? You'd think I'd have learned my lesson, but apparently I'm a slow learner. Or an optimist. Or just really forgetful. It's spray paint from here on out, baby! Hopefully I'll have a finished project to show you soon. Hopefully, because I need to get the decorating DONE and the disaster that is my front room back in order because it's giving me the itchies. Time to man my sanding block!

The Ghost of Halloween posts past: Gummy Candy Kabobs

This is a repost from last year, but I still love these Gummy Candy Kabobs so much that I don't feel one bit bad sharing them again!

Dear friends, there are a few things you should know about me.
I love:
1. Candy
2. Festively colored candy that matches the upcoming holiday
3. Gummy candy
4. Food on a stick

So when I opened up the 2010 October Better Homes & Gardens magazine and saw this page, I about passed out. (I can't save the photo to show here and my scanner's on the blink, so click the link and go check it our for yourself. I'll wait!)

See what I mean? The gummy candy kabobs checked every box on my list up there, so I knew I had to make some for myself.

The best part for a candy freak like me was shopping for the candy, of course.

Sources: Wal-Mart for the orange slices, caterpillars, and peach rings, Target for all other candy. Blackberries and sour jelly pumpkins from bulk bins in Target candy aisle. Lollies and pretzel bags from Michael's. Not shown: Peeps ghosts, also from Target. (I tried to stay away from black licorice-flavored candies which made finding black treats a lot trickier.)

Some tips:

• If you use the pretzel bags, keep in mind how low you can push the bottom candy and still have it fit in the bag.
• Spray the skewers with non-stick cooking spray first; it helps the candy slide a bit easier
• Gummies with a layer of white marshmallow on the bottom (rings, frogs, caterpillars) are tougher to poke through. The worms were easier.
• The licorice I used was the Australian-style, which comes in all kinds of flavors (and hence, colors)
• For the top gummy, only poke the skewer halfway through so the pointy end doesn't come out the top.
• Peeps ghosts were darling on the skewers but just a smidge too wide for the pretzel bags to fit over easily, so it was a struggle to get them bagged neatly.

Aren't they cute? The bright colors and shapes are so fun and festive. Maren helped me pick out the candy for each skewer but she was a bit too young to make the kabobs herself. I would recommend this project for kids a bit older who a) have stronger hands and b) won't stab themselves accidentally with the skewer. Maren did help in checking the candies for freshness and quality by sampling them liberally.

When I was waiting in the checkout line to buy the pretzel bags at Michael's, I noticed these lollipops with long skinny plastic sticks and thought perhaps I could make candy kabobs on those as well. They were only 39¢ each so I grabbed three to give it a try. They actually worked really well because the candy slid easily over the slick plastic stick, and they already have the cute lollipop at the top. The ends aren't sharp, so for some of the tougher candies I poked a starter hole with a skewer.

Gummy candy kabobs would make a cute centerpiece for a party! For my photos I poked mine into a piece of floral foam in a crock that totally doesn't match--I was in a hurry and it already had the foam inside, so I grabbed it--but if I were doing it for a real party, I'd use a cuter container and hide the top of the floral foam under a layer of something like crinkled shredded paper. The BHG article suggests using a vase with jelly beans to anchor the skewers. The lollipop kabobs didn't work well for this application because after a little while the plastic sticks bent and they splayed out to the sides of the arrangement.

I'm kind of obsessed with this idea now and I want to make gummy candy kabobs for every occasion! Gummy and chewy candies are available in all sorts of colors, flavors and shapes and they make those Peeps for just about every holiday now. I'm having visions of an arrangement of skewers made solely of those great big gumdrops (last year's gumdrop craft) and I'm obsessed with the idea of making rainbow kabobs with a giant marshmallow at the bottom to act as the cloud. I have no occasion to make them for but I just think they'd be so pretty!

What occasion would you make gummy candy kabobs for? What kind of gummy or chewy candy is your favorite? Would it be wrong of me to plan an entire party around my rainbow gummy kabob idea? ;)