"Give Thanks" Sign

I wanted to make a Thanksgiving sign to hang in my apartment. I went to JoAnns and they had canvas' on sale for 50% off so I knew I had to make an amazing sign with such a great deal. I picked up three pack of thin canvas' and gathered the rest of my supplies from JoAnns and stuff i had on hand.

Finished product:

Supplies:

• 3 canvas'
• paint ( fall colors)
• paintbrushes
• small bouquet of faux fall leaves/flowers
• acrylic letters
• glue
• ribbon

Steps:

1.   Paint the first canvas' completely with a fall color. I mixed yellow and orange to achieve my desired color.

2.   After the background color drys, paint a tree trunk in brown on the canvas.

3.  Next glue three leaves from  the bouquet to the top of the tree trunk. Set aside

4.  Paint the other two canvas' with the color that you want the letter to be (I used brown) and let dry.

5.   Arrange your letters on the canvas' however you desire. ( I had to play with "Thanks" for a while before I finally made it all fit, so next time I need a bigger canvas or smaller letters).

6.   Paint over the entire brown canvas' (including the letters) and let dry.This will be the background color.

7.   Peel off the acrylic letters to reveal brown words.

8.   Next attach ribbons to the first canvas( with the tree) to all four corners with a stapler or glue.

9.   Connect the "Give" and "Thanks" canvas' to the one with tree. Use another piece of ribbon to make a hook to hang your sign.

10.  I then attached a flower i cut from the bouquet to the "Give" canvas.

mantle and entertainment center

I wanted to completely decorate my condo this year for Halloween, but I wanted it to be inexpensive and easy. I feel like i accomplished my goal and I can not wait to finish the rest of my condo.

So here is how I transformed my mantle and entertainment center :) Hope you find some great ideas for yours.

I started by adding garland that had purple lights already sewn in. I found the garland on sale at Target for $9 and had to get it.

I also picked up two glass vases at the dollar store and dripped melted red candle on both to make them appear bloody. After adding the fake blood, I put 12 ping pong balls that look like eyeballs in the vases and added them to my mantle.

I painted two candle stick holders, that I also picked up from the dollar store, purple and then with mod podge to make them shiny. I added those to my mantle with two red candle sticks.

I found two shiny, mini witch's brooms at Target for $2.50 each that  I put on the ends of my mantle.

I already had a set of skull lights that I purchased from a dollar store last year that I added as well.

I then put my EAT, DRINK AND BE SCARY sign that I made in a previous blog post to the middle of my mantle.

I then pinned a string of skeletons to the bottom of the mantle.

My fireplace is not actually useable so a decorative item sits in front of it. I moved it and thought it made my whole set up look bare. I decided to add some dollar store cob webs to transform my ordinary item into a Halloween piece that adds more to my mantle.

 I then found some creepy cloth from, you guessed it, the dollar store, that I hung over my nantle and entertainment center to make my condo extra spooky.

Witch Tutu

For my Halloween costume this year I was not buying one from the store. I am completely over paying $60 for about two feet of costume. I decided that I wanted to be a witch, so I made my self a tutu (which I love). Here is how you make the tutu, it is really easy and actually fun!

Materials

•  tulle- I used about 6 1/2 yards of black, 5 yards if green, and 5 yards of purple
• elastic- 1/2 inch thick, and I used black in case some showed through the tulle
• orange ribbon
• scissors

Steps

1. Cut a piece of elastic that is about 2 inches shorter than your waistline.

2. Hot glue the ends together.
3. Cut all of the tulle into strips about 3 to 5 inches thick. I think the variance of the width adds more flare to the skirt. The length to cut the tulle depends on how long you want the skirt. I wanted mine to my knees so i just doubled it (because the tulle will be folded in half)

4. Then put your elastic around something, like a chair, and begin tying slipknots of tulle.My pattern was two pieces of black, a piece of all three colors, two pieces of green, two pieces of purple, a piece of all three and lastly two pieces of black. To make the knot, stack the pieces together and fold them in half. Make an upside down U behind the elastic and pull the tulle though it.

5. Continue the pattern all the way around the elastic

6. Then cut pieces of orange ribbon to tie into the skirt between the two black knots.