Ghostly Rat Wreath for Halloween - Easy, Last Minute Halloween Decor Idea

I originally bought and spray painted 30 plastic rats for a last minute Halloween costume idea but as soon as I lined them all up to admire my handiwork, I suddenly envisioned a wreath and became so much more excited about this idea instead! 

Yep, it's a little last minute but that's how I roll. 

I spend so long hanging on to summer every year that Thanksgiving and Halloween always sneak up on me - I only just decorated my pumpkins! (Check out my quick and easy marbled pumpkins here if you missed them).  Because Halloween is looming, I'm thrilled that my new Halloween wreath only took about 10 minutes to whip up.  I'm not a huge fan of the classic Halloween palette of orange + black (although I do enjoy Orange is the New Black, lol), so I love this Halloween wreath idea because it's minimal and all-white - perfect with my blue and turquoise decor! - but it still has a ghostly, creepy, (kinda cute), Halloweeny vibe.   

If you're doing this Halloween thing at the last minute like me (or, as Hubby put it, getting ready for Halloween 2018), you'll love this quick and easy Halloween wreath idea.  10 minutes to make - tops!

Supplies:

• Plastic rats (I bought three packages of Les Rats, lol, on Amazon)
• Matte white spray paint (I also used a shimmering white for the wreath)
• Grapevine wreath
• White thread (or strong glue like E6000)
• Scissors (I pine for these)

The first step takes two seconds: lay the mice on their backs and the gravevine wreath face down and blast with a quick drying spray paint.  Let dry, flip everything over and blast with paint again.  The whole process, minus dry time, took me five minutes.

However, you could also save time and skip this step entirely!  Use a natural grapevine wreath and the rats au naturel for an even quicker craft.  Or spray paint to match your decor.  As I'm typing, I'm picturing a mischief of rats sprayed increasingly lighter shades of my favorite hue for a pretty ombre effect.  Hmmmm...

Hello little cuties!  You complement my decor so much better now...

With the rats painted a ghostly white, I quickly affixed them to my grapevine wreath.  

Time for a little confession: as a DIY blogger it's my job to come up with a steady steam of crafts and DIY projects and that's such a sweet gig, but one thing that bothers me is how wasteful the industry can be.  So many bloggers have admitted to disposing of their crafts immediately after pressing "publish" (never mind the perfectly lovely, beautiful rooms scrapped and decorated again and again for content).  I understand that more content is the name of the game, but I try to be mindful of promoting an unreasonable preoccupation with the consumption of goods.  Sometimes the sheer volume of STUFF in this world is really distressing.  Honestly, I can be a little harsh on the environment, with my unnecessarily massive diesel-guzzling truck and hit or miss composting efforts, but I do try to not be wasteful when it comes to DIY and home decor.  When I can, I reduce, re-use and recycle in my home and decorating pursuits - and that applies to my DIY supplies, too.  

So while I recommend you take a dab of E-3000 glue (or any other tough, multi-purpose adhesive designed for plastic) and strongly bond these little rats to their new home, I opted to use string and secure them by their feet and tails for a secure, but not permanent, rat wreath.  This way I can happily hang my wreath for the precious few hours before Halloween, and then re-use the rats and the wreath for another blog project down the road. 

Either method works, but gluing will take two seconds, the thread will take about 5 minutes.  I used a large needle to help me navigate the thread around a suitable piece of grapevine, secured the tail and a foot or two with one loop and tied off the thread and snipped the end before moving on to the next one.  Because the thread is the same color, you really cannot see where the thread has been tied.

I overlapped my rats a bit to create a more spooky vibe of these ghostly cuties crawling all over each other. Spooooookkyyyy.

Easy peasy!  And I love these little faces greeting me when I come home.

Please tell me there's someone else out there who has left their Halloween decorating to the last possible minute too???

I should probably get started on that cute costume idea for next year, shouldn't I... 

No Carve Marbled Pumpkins in Shimmery Teal | Minimalist + Modern Halloween Decor

It must be the lake's influence on me, because since moving to the shores of Superior I have really been gravitating toward designs with an organic vibe.  Ice dyeing, watercolor, dip dyeing - give me anything that calls to mind swirling water and waves. 
 
I had pinned a couple of marbled fabric ideas and was promptly inundated with DIY marbled pumpkins in my Pinterest feed - like these indigo ones, these pretty pastel ones, these densely marbled ones, these brightly colored ones, these blue/green preppy ones, and these super saturated ones (from way back in 2013)!  I couldn't get marbling off my mind, so I decided to make some marbled pumpkins of my own this year.

I loved the sparkly turquoise pumpkins I made last year - especially my last minute Pyrex-inspired pumpkin - but I have to admit that I also really loved the look of plain white mini pumpkins.  I actually hesitated before painting them turquoise, because they're just so cute.  This year I wanted to try something that was really subtle and celebrate the natural look of those cuties.  But of I couldn't find nice mini pumpkins of the fresh variety this year, so I took a chance on some faux ones from Amazon.  When they arrived, the green stems looked a little too faux and the beige color was a bit off so I just sprayed them all a crisp white and I love how they look.  It turns out that I don't really discriminate between real or faux pumpkins, I just love the look of a mini white pumpkin.  Plus the white helps my marbling really pop, while still keeping the overall look pretty minimal.  And I don't have to watch these beauties slowly rot!

Supplies:

• White pumpkins (real or faux - here's the link to mine)
• White spray paint (optional - find something designed for plastic)
• Nail polish (something inexpensive, I used half a bottle for six pumpkins)
• Plastic container (disposable)
• Toothpick
• Lukewarm water
• Twist ties  

How to Marble a Pumpkin: 

The first thing I did was spray paint my pumpkins white and then I let them dry overnight. 

Before marbling, I attached little twist ties to the stems so I could hang them to dry without touching them.  Actually doing the marbling was so easy, and only took a few minutes!

I grabbed my plastic dish and filled it with lukewarm water.  Then I just added a few drops of nail polish (I found my OPI Emerald Empowered bottle at the buck store!), swirled it with my toothpick and dunked the pumpkin quickly!  In and out, in one swift motion.  Then I hung my pumpkins to dry but the nail polish dried in minutes.  I gently wiped off any excess water with a paper towel.

So easy!  Such a perfect last minute, no carve pumpkin decorating idea because if you skip painting the pumpkin, these can literally be ready in five minutes. 

I liked the look of a half-dipped, marbled pumpkin but I did experiment with dipping from both ends - and also painting the stem the same color as the marbling. 

But in the end, simple won out and I favored my five little marbled pumpkins with their minimal vibe.  I love that little pop of swirly blue - they look perfect lined up on my kitchen window sill.

Have you tried marbling anything?  Have you decorated any pumpkins yet? 

I always wait until fall, if I can, because it just doesn't feel right until the leaves change color.  As a DIY blogger, I'm supposed to be doing this in the summer, but as someone who lives for summer, I can't bring myself to think about fall (or winter!) until well into October....

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Pyrex Inspired Painted Pumpkin

Happy Halloween!

This weekend was suitably foggy and eerie for a Halloween weekend, so I got cozy inside.  I've already sold some of my beaded Christmas spiders so I really need to get cracking and make some more, but first I had to make one last Halloween craft: turquoise painted pumpkins, inspired by my favorite vintage Pyrex pattern, Blowing Leaves.

After painting a series of pumpkins turquoise for my easy turquoise rhinestone pumpkins, I started dreaming about a Pyrex-inspired painted pumpkin.  I eyed up my turquoise Pyrex collection and plucked the Blowing Leaves casserole from the top shelf. 

Using the Craft Smart Paint Pen (found at Michael's - this one is similar), I just freehand drew the design of mod leaves.  It is TRICKY to draw on a pumpkin because it's round and lumpy, and my design is admittedly a little wonky, but it turned out so adorably cute I wanted to share.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween!  If you're craving a sweet treat but can't stomach any more candy, I highly recommend baking up a batch of these easy chocolate raspberry hand pies tonight.

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Turquoise DIY No Carve Pumpkins with Black and White Rhinestone Sparkles

I have to admit that Halloween is not really my jam.  I don't love orange and black as a color combo, cheap Halloween costumes have a weird smell that makes me nauseous, and, as a child-free woman, an evening when children are invited to scream at my door and demand my candy is, quite frankly, more terrifying than A Nightmare on Elm Street...

This year, though, my mission is to really embrace Fall and when I spotted a bag of miniature pumpkins at the grocery store, I decided that maybe a little no carve pumpkin decorating might help me feel more festive.

It worked!

I am no longer the Scrooge of Halloween - look at my adorable DIY turquoise rhinestone pumpkins:

Of course I painted them turquoise first - that's literally how you can get me to do anything.

Supplies:

• Mini pumpkins (real or fake!)
• Acrylic or craft paints
• Small paint brushes
• Stick on rhinestones

A package of dollar store stick-on gems (here's a similar pack on Amazon) in spoooookkkkyy black and silver added a little bit of sparkle - although I think these pumpkins look adorable in every state:  plain, turquoise, be-sparkled.  They're mini pumpkins!  Yeah, I can get on board with this.     

I also made this little "evening sky" pumpkin with a deep blue paint and a smattering of silver stick-on rhinestones:

Because these rhinestones actually come in strips, I also whipped up this pale blue mini pumpkin with black and white stripes:

Once I started bedazzling my pumpkins, it was difficult to stop.  I actually really got into the spirit of things and almost bedazzled the gourds I bought for dinner (I sneak them into a chili recipe).

As I was making these, I kept thinking they would be such a great craft to make with kids because, although they're super easy and don't require any artistic talent, applying those teeny tiny rhinestones did challenge my fine motor skills!  I think you could keep a medium-sized child (too big to eat the rhinestones) busy with this for quite some time. 



See the transformation in me?  Look at me thinking about the children!  Maybe this year I won't eat the best Halloween candy and leave them with the dredges.     

For more modern and colorful Halloween and Fall decor ideas, check out my new Pinterest board dedicated to Fall holidays!

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DIY Halloween Spider Wreath

Time to reveal the Halloween themed wreath I started making in August!  I have been meaning to make this for years, but kept forgetting until the day before Halloween.  Not this year! 

Supplies:

• Foam wreath (or use a pool noodle, like I did)
• Yarn
• Thread (to match yarn)
• Glue
• Beaded spiders (see my Christmas spider tutorial)
• Two screws (for hanging)
• Wire (for hanging)
• Ribbon (optional - for hanging)

After I made my spiders (using this tutorial of mine) and turned a pool noodle into a wreath (it's still holding strong!) I was ready.  I glued the end of a piece of yarn to anchor it.

Then I started wrapping.  Oh boy.  No one seems to mention in their yarn wreath tutorials what a boring and never-ending task making a yarn wreath is.  In the beginning, I hated wrapping the yarn so much I almost abandoned the idea again.  I persevered (mostly because I'd already shared my pool noodle and plans), and spread it out over about a week of re-runs of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  An excellent choice because a) I loved (and still love) that show and b) the campy-scary plot lines were perfectly themed.   

I am sure there are a million ways to do this, but I wrapped the yarn firmly, but with gaps, and then when I had a few rows done, I simply moved the yarn over.  It sped up the process instead of lining up each one individually.

When I was done, I tied off the yarn in the back.  To attach the spiders, I ran some white thread through one end of the eye pin and tied it tightly, with the knot at the back.  I wanted them to dangle a bit, like they're crawling around.  You could also use a dab of glue and affix them by their bodies.

I used the same thread to dangle a spider in the middle.

To hang the wreath, I originally just wrapped a piece of black ribbon around the wreath:

But then Hubby came up with this genius idea: he twisted in two screws (with a touch of glue on the ends) and then once the glue dried overnight, he wrapped heavy duty picture hanging wires around the screw, fashioning a little loop.  We hung the loop on a screw already in our front door and it's completely hidden.

I only did one layer of yarn and, in certain light, the orange of the pool noodle seems to make the cream a bit orangey.  It works for my orange, black and white colour scheme but for other noodle-users, I recommend a darker yarn or double wrapping.

For the first time, I'm thrilled with our condo-issued orange front door!

Here are some creepy crawly close ups:

My neighbor tells me that her little girl loves this wreath and she wants to come over to touch, examine, and pet each spider, so that totally makes me smile.

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