Vintage Halloween Tree

Do you ever dream about holiday decorations and spend hours imagining how you would do things if you had an unlimited budget? Well I can tell you that we do! I've been dreaming of a Halloween tree for years, but just couldn't bring myself to spend the money on a black tree. But thanks to Hobby Lobby's after Christmas clearance in January of this year, we now have our very own Halloween Tree!

It's the perfect spot for our Vintage Halloween Cat and for $2 I couldn't pass it up. You've probably seen these trees at Hobby Lobby and I've always thought they looked so sad. Especially the black ones! I'm sorry, but I just think there is something wrong with black Christmas trees. Black is for Halloween! Not Christmas!

Here's a very bad cell phone photo before it was decorated - 

Worse than Charlie Brown's tree - don't you think? But it made a great base for our vintage tree. I filled it in with lengths of black tulle, also from Hobby Lobby, and that made all the difference in the world. The tulle was cut in lengths equal to the branches, and tied onto the trunk. Then we added ribbon, ornaments made with glitter paper, starbursts made from paper straws and small ornaments from Garden Ridge. You might know it as At Home but it will always be Garden Ridge to me! The Boo ornament came from Michaels. It was plain wood and got a coat of orange paint and glitter, of course!

Quite a difference don't you think? 

We are lucky enough to have a Cricut, and cut out the bats, witch, ravens and cat out with it. They have a great vintage feel, especially with the glitter paper. 

The orange sparkly ribbon also came from Hobby Lobby and took an entire spool. The pumpkins were perfect after I hit them with a coat of spray glue and orange glitter.

I had a small flower pot out in the garage that we spray painted orange to use as a base. We filled it with plaster of Paris, then removed the wood base from the tree and set it into the pot. Leigh and I debated about decorating it, but ultimately felt that it detracted from the tree and looked better plain.

I know it's kind of early for Halloween, but I've been dreaming about this tree since January and just couldn't wait any longer! Besides, I'm going to start decorating for Halloween next weekend. What better way to spend a 3 day weekend than turning the house into Halloween Town?

What do you think? Too early or not? Please let me know if I'm crazy or just getting ahead of the holiday rush?

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

Thank You Country Living for the Feature!

Wow! Just Wow! I really can't believe this actually happened to us! Country Living featured our Spooky Potion Bottles in a Halloween Round Up today! Click on the photo below to go to CL's post -

We are slide 14 -

We are so completely blown away to be featured with so many other Rock Star's of the blogging world! 

Thank you again to Country Living and all of our readers! You guys are what makes blogging so much fun!

Sweet Little Vintage Witch Girl

Lately I've been obsessed with vintage Halloween and vintage photos. We've used vintage witch photos in the past and found this adorable vintage photo on The Graphics Fairy. I thought she would make a sweet little apprentice and with the addition of a witch hat, courtesy of LexiVonErrie on Deviantart, she is all ready for Halloween.

We have several versions ready for you to download -

Here's the original - 

I think she makes an adorable little witch girl in her Halloween hat! How about you? Maybe you can use her in your Halloween crafting or decor - she would be precious in an ornate frame or hanging on the wall in your family gallery.

Hope you are having a terrific week! We are halfway through and you know what that means?

Sorry! Couldn't resist! Have a great one!

It's Time for PUMPKIN EVERYTHING - Chalkboard Art and Printable!

I spent most of the day getting my hair colored and while I was sitting in the chair (and playing on Pinterest of course!) my feed was just full of Pumpkin pins! That's when I knew that it was official and PUMPKIN EVERYTHING time was here! Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cake, pancakes, ice cream, jack-o-lanterns, glitter pumpkins, burlap pumpkins, and on, and on, and on! (Sounds like Bubba in Forest Gump!)

Since the Pinterest world has turned into PUMPKIN EVERYTHING, I decided that we also needed a board of the same name - click on the photo below to go directly to our board -

And then when I got home, I realized that it was high time to get rid of the July 4th chalkboard art and what better to replace it with than an homage to our favorite time of the year!

Most of the time, I'm really lazy with my chalkboard art and just find an image on Pinterest that I can copy. But this time, I decided that I would design my own in Picmonkey. I find that I can usually freehand an image if I have something to look at.

Here's my layout -  Version 1

And Version 2 - 

These would be great to print and frame or just print and use it to make "Real Chalkboard Art" like I did.

How do you like my Longaberger basket? I picked it up for $20 in Fredericksburg last month. I've got several of these baskets that I've collected over the years and was just tickled pink to find this one. It looks great hanging from the chalkboard along with a vintage apron.

Wishing you lots of PUMPKIN EVERYTHING and a wonderful week!

Fun Fall Pumpkins and a Sweet Black Cat

I finally got some time for a little crafting this weekend for our favorite holiday and whipped up this cute little black cat and 4x4 pumpkins. Mr. Crafty actually cut them out last fall but we never got around to putting them together. They were so quick and easy and I love the primitive look of them. What do you think?

The pumpkins are 4x4's cut into 6, 8, and 10" length and painted orange. The stems are thick branches that are cut to 2-4" lengths and then attached with E6000. We drilled small holes next to the stems and inserted the wire vines with a dab of E6000. Then hot glue a green leaf on top and they are all done. The black cat is an 8" 2x4 that is notched out, painted black with googly eyes and a bit of ribbon. So quick and easy and the best part is they can be used from now until Christmas!

Here are the 4x4's before being decorated -

We are dreaming of cooler weather down here in Crosby and this helps me feel like it will be here soon! Who's ready for Fall? We are! Pumpkin everything, Halloween, Thanksgiving......I'm so ready!

Wishing you cool Fall breezes and a wonderful week!

Vintage Halloween Cat Paper Doll

Oh my stars! Can't believe we let a whole month slip by without posting a thing! July has been just crazy busy with VBS, a trip to Fredericksburg and massive amounts of yard work! Thanks heavens the yard work is all done because it has been viciously hot the past couple of weeks.

But guess what time it is? Time to start working on Halloween Decorations! I found this adorable vintage cat on Pinterest and spruced him up with some glitter.

Isn't he just adorable? I found the printable on Pinterest and couldn't find the original source. If this belongs to you, please let me know so that I can give you proper credit. I tried the Google Image source and also tried to find Prim Gatherings on line but there are just too many sites.

Here's the printable and you can also find it on our Vintage Halloween Board. I printed him on cardstock and then affixed that to another piece of black cardstock with spray glue.

He is going to look amazing on our soon to be Halloween Tree. Picked this one up after Christmas last year at Hobby Lobby for 90% off. Check back this week as we decorate it. We are making all kinds of vintage ornaments for it.

This is an Iphone shot of Mr. HCat before he was glittered.

Leigh and I both get so excited when we see Halloween decorations in the stores. We saw them at Michaels and At Home (formerly Garden Ridge) this past week. Woohoo! It makes me dream of cooler weather, fall, firepits and so much fun with the family.

Wishing you cooler weather and wonderful week!