Ghosties
Crumple up a piece of tissue paper into a ball. Place it into the center of a flat piece of tissue paper. Pick up the corners of the flat tissue and twist it around the ball. Tie a twist tie or a piece of string around the ghosts's neck. Draw a face with a felt pen. You can hang them up all over the house! You can also glue on yarn, and make a black hat and cape from colored paper to make a witch!
Lighting
When you have everything so dimly lit it's a good idea to have some reflective tape over the Exits. A black light bulb is always a good effect, especially if you are dressed as a skeleton!
Sound Effects
You can record several scary sounds and play it back during the festivities. A very large sheet of poster board or sheet metal makes great thunder. Uncooked rice poured onto a cookie sheet sounds like rain. Crinkle a handful of cellophane for a roaring fire. To get a good scream you can, well -- scream. Snap carrots in half for the sound of breaking bones. Flap a plastic bag in front of the microphone for thesound of bats. Slowly blow bubbles with a straw into a bowl for that bog sound. Hunt around your house and the garden to find a squeaky hinge somewhere and tape it before someone gets to it with a can of oil.
Monster Footprints
With a magic marker, draw a footprint in a big sponge. Cut out the footprint. Pour washable paint in an 1/8 inch aluminum pan. Press the sponge in the paint and sponge footsteps up your sidewalk to your front door for trick-or-treaters to follow, or around the side of your dark, spooky house. Flip the sponge upside down to stamp the other foot.
Icky Cobwebs
Cut some string into 4 foot lengths and tape them to the ceiling. You should have a very dim room for this. Just before the victim arrives you can hold a bowl of water up to the string and get it wet. When people walk in the wet, slimy string will brush across their foreheads and scare them!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
7 Great Halloween Homemade Decorations For Indoors
Witches Spell Book:
Use a large, old book. Use parchment paper for additional pages. Gently rip and char the edges of parchment paper using a charcoal-colored marker. Use a calligraphy pen to create a ghastly spells or recipes (Eyeball Stew anyone?). Use double-stick tape to secure the pages to the middle of the open book. Add a leather or velvet bookmark as a final accent and prop it up on a book or plate stand.
Canisters of Yuck:
A variety of canisters full of decaying items is perfect for your Halloween table. Gather canisters of all different sizes. Create murky or bloody preservative fluid for some by adding green or red food coloring plus a tablespoon or two of milk to water. Place plastic insects and body parts, witch or alien Halloween masks, floating eyeballs and tiny shrunken apple heads (peeled apples with carved faces that have dried up) in separate jars. Add a piece of ragged gauze and waxed string to the lids for an eerie effect.
Skulls and Skeletons:
Place plastic skulls on table tops illuminated by candles. Hang a skeleton cutout in your coat closets (let guests hand their own coats up for this scary surprise!)
Bats:
Hang rubber bats around your front door and in the windows. If you prefer to make your own, cut them out of black craft foam and hang with thread or tack some to walls with push pins. You can also hang these outside in your tree branches!
Living Room:
Furniture covered in a messy fashion with white sheets makes any house look as if it was abandoned years ago. Add in some ghostly window treatments by hanging shredded gauze in the windows for curtains. Place a hidden fan near the gauze to create movement. You can also cut out ghost silhouettes to hang in the windows out of the gauze.
Spider Webs:
An inexpensive and easy way to add to your Halloween decor. Purchase batting from your local craft store and spread it out to create the spider web. Position on candelabras, window sills, overhanging lamps/chandeliers etc. Place plastic spiders in the web for the finishing touch!
Candles:
Flickering candles create shadows and give the room a subtle spooky feel. Position them far from any blowing draperies and on top of tin foil disguised with black stones and gravel. Make sure you don’t leave them unattended while lit.
Use a large, old book. Use parchment paper for additional pages. Gently rip and char the edges of parchment paper using a charcoal-colored marker. Use a calligraphy pen to create a ghastly spells or recipes (Eyeball Stew anyone?). Use double-stick tape to secure the pages to the middle of the open book. Add a leather or velvet bookmark as a final accent and prop it up on a book or plate stand.
Canisters of Yuck:
A variety of canisters full of decaying items is perfect for your Halloween table. Gather canisters of all different sizes. Create murky or bloody preservative fluid for some by adding green or red food coloring plus a tablespoon or two of milk to water. Place plastic insects and body parts, witch or alien Halloween masks, floating eyeballs and tiny shrunken apple heads (peeled apples with carved faces that have dried up) in separate jars. Add a piece of ragged gauze and waxed string to the lids for an eerie effect.
Skulls and Skeletons:
Place plastic skulls on table tops illuminated by candles. Hang a skeleton cutout in your coat closets (let guests hand their own coats up for this scary surprise!)
Bats:
Hang rubber bats around your front door and in the windows. If you prefer to make your own, cut them out of black craft foam and hang with thread or tack some to walls with push pins. You can also hang these outside in your tree branches!
Living Room:
Furniture covered in a messy fashion with white sheets makes any house look as if it was abandoned years ago. Add in some ghostly window treatments by hanging shredded gauze in the windows for curtains. Place a hidden fan near the gauze to create movement. You can also cut out ghost silhouettes to hang in the windows out of the gauze.
Spider Webs:
An inexpensive and easy way to add to your Halloween decor. Purchase batting from your local craft store and spread it out to create the spider web. Position on candelabras, window sills, overhanging lamps/chandeliers etc. Place plastic spiders in the web for the finishing touch!
Candles:
Flickering candles create shadows and give the room a subtle spooky feel. Position them far from any blowing draperies and on top of tin foil disguised with black stones and gravel. Make sure you don’t leave them unattended while lit.
Homemade Halloween Decorations Mini Halloween Banner
http://www.holiday-crafts-and-creations.com/
What You Will Need:
Felt: Background piece - Full sheet yellow or gold (9" x 12"), Other felt - black, white, purple, orange, yellow, green.
Embroidery thread: black, white, purple, orange, yellow, green.
8 candy corn buttons
2 black buttons (size: 1")
Orange ribbon (at least 18")
Scissors
Needle and straight pins
Step 1:
Print out the Halloween Banner template (PDF file). Cut apart the four designs. Trace and cut out the ghost background on black felt, the "BOO" background on purple felt, the cat background on purple felt, and the bat background on orange felt.
Evenly space the felt pieces on the 9" x 12" yellow felt. See photo A to see how this will look.
Step 2:
Pin the felt pieces into place so that the felt won't move as you are stitching them onto the yellow background. See photo B. Sew the pieces on using the whip stitch around the edge.
Step 3:
Now trace and cut out a white ghost, a white "BOO", a yellow moon, a black cat, and black bats.
Tip: To easily cut out the circles in the "B" and "OO" try using a standard hole punch. If it does not cleanly cut the circle out all the way, you may have to trim it by cutting the hole a little bigger.
Stitch these pieces onto their appropriate background by using the running stitch. See the photo at the bottom of the page.
For the eyes:
The ghost - You could use a hole punch to make the eyes. Use black felt stitched on with one or two stitches, like in the form of an "X". (The mouth too).
The cat - Use green felt stitched on with one or two stitches. The black part of the eyes can either be a French knot stitch or black seed beads.
The bats - Use yellow felt stitched on with one stitch or one French knot stitch.
Step 4:
Sew the ribbon onto the back of the banner in the two upper corners. Sew it on right behind where each of the black buttons are going to be, so the buttons will later hide the stitches from sewing on the ribbon.
Now sew on the two black buttons over the stitches from the ribbon.
Step 5:
Sew on 3 candy corn buttons across the top of the banner between the two black buttons. Then sew on 5 candy corn buttons across the bottom of the banner. To make your own buttons see our Clay Candy Corn page. There is a section on that page on how to turn the clay candy corns into buttons.
Step 6: Optional
If your banner tends to bend forward while hanging on the wall, you could do this optional step.
Cut about a 1" X 8" strip of cardboard and glue it to the back of the banner. See photo C. Only glue the two ends of the cardboard strip and be sure to place the glue right behind the two black buttons. This way no glue will show from the front. You could use any type of glue you would like, but we would suggest using hot glue.
Now your Halloween banner is finished! It's a cute little banner that will give a touch of Halloween to your home. For more homemade Halloween decorations and ideas, please return to our Halloween crafts home page.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Pumpkin Bread Recipe
Pumpkin Bread Recipe
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups (210g) flour
1 1/2 cups (210g) flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup (200 g) sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (1/4 L) pumpkin purée*
1/2 cup (1 dL) olive oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup (1 dL) chopped walnuts
Directions
1 Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Sift together the flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda.
2 Mix the pumpkin, oil, eggs, 1/4 cup of water, and spices together, then combine with the dry ingredients, but do not mix too thoroughly. Stir in the nuts.
3 Pour into a well-buttered 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Bake 50-60 minutes until a thin skewer poked in the very center of the loaf comes out clean. Turn out of the pan and let cool on a rack.
Makes one loaf.
2 Mix the pumpkin, oil, eggs, 1/4 cup of water, and spices together, then combine with the dry ingredients, but do not mix too thoroughly. Stir in the nuts.
3 Pour into a well-buttered 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Bake 50-60 minutes until a thin skewer poked in the very center of the loaf comes out clean. Turn out of the pan and let cool on a rack.
Makes one loaf.
Cranberry almond pumpkin upside down cake
Cranberry almond pumpkin upside down cake
Ingredients
8 oz. (16 tbsp.) unsalted butter
8 oz. (16 tbsp.) unsalted butter
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 cups cranberries
4 oz. (1 cup) coarsely chopped whole natural almonds, toasted
2 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
6 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
Chantilly Cream
Ingredients Chantilly Cream
1 cup heavy (whipping) cream
3 tbsp. sugar
½ tsp. vanilla extract
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of a 9-inch square pan with parchment paper. Melt the butter in a small saucepot over medium heat. Add the brown sugar and whisk until smooth. Pour the brown sugar mixture into the bottom of the cake pan. In a medium bowl, combine the cranberries and almonds.
Place them in the pan over the brown sugar mixture. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin puree and oil.
Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Stir the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture. Carefully spread the batter over the cranberry pecan topping.
Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Stir the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture. Carefully spread the batter over the cranberry pecan topping.
Bake until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean, 35-40 minutes. Cool the cake for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Place a large plate or platter on top of the cake. Invert the cake and plate together. Remove the pan. Carefully peel off the parchment paper.
Cool completely before serving. Serve with Chantilly Cream.
Chantilly CreamCombine all of the ingredients and whisk until soft peaks form. Refrigerate until you are ready to use. Makes 2 cups.
Serves 8-10.
For more great recipes check out California Country!
Monday, September 28, 2009
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