Thrifty Halloween DIYs (1)

Hey gang! Since Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, I thought we could celebrate the season with a whole week of spooktacular (and affordable!) makeovers, starting today!

I love pulling out and adding to my decorations every year, and some of my very favorite items are the humble little thrift-store knickknacks that I’ve spookified with a little love and paint. I don’t know why, I just find it so much more gratifying to make it myself rather than buying something mass-produced and found in every store. Plus, they cost like … hardly any dollars.  So you can really beef up your stash of scary stuff and save money and have fun doing it!

Do you agree? Are you with me? Thrifty Halloween-decor high-five?

Let’s go!

Today, it’s all about the pumpkin.  Get your hands on some orange paint and just about anything can become a pumpkin. Even salad bowls. Believe it.

 

 

Obviously those salad bowls were meant to be pumpkins all along, right? And that hanging hook is the perfect twisty pumpkin stem.  But that’s not all …

 

It’s a trinket box too! I mean, c’mon. What imagination. From Sarah at Sadie Seasongoods.

 

I don’t know what this next item is exactly … an industrial strength jello mold?

But once again, it was obviously born to be a pumpkin. This comes from Susan at Homeroad, who happens to be a thrifty pumpkin expert and has quite a collection of creations. I believe she calls them ‘Junky Punkys.’

Here’s another:

And here’s a whole patch!

See Susan’s grate pumpkin here, and the painted pumpkins here. (Is that an old spotlight I spy? Susan, you’re too much!)

 

Don’t want to paint? Too messy for you? Not enough time? Then you probably aren’t planning to carve a jack-o-lantern either. That’s messy and time consuming.  Don’t let that stop you. Just get a magnet sheet (like this), cut out some simple face shapes, slap it on something magnet-friendly …

 

Boo! That’s like, a 10-second craft right there. You might get carried away and make jack-o-lanterns for every magnetic surface in your house. A watering can? A metal bowl? Put a face on it.

 

All from Pam at House of Hawthornes.

 

And this last one has been circulating the interwebs for a few years now, but it’s too great not to share.

From Amanda at Crafts by Amanda.  SO FUN!

You can find old televisions like this in almost any thrift-store.  My thrift-store can barely give them away, and usually has them priced at literally $1. But with orange spray paint, and some vinyl to make the face, (and as long as the TV works well enough to display static), you’ve got yourself the coolest Halloween decoration on the block.

Wouldn’t it be awesome to make a big display with a whole bunch of them, all different sizes? The only problem would be storing them till next year … no thanks. Hey, I know! Just give them away to trick-or-treaters! Everyone wins, and you save on candy!  Told you this was thrifty.