Thrifty Halloween DIYs (4)

Hey gang! I’m back again with more thrifty DIY Halloween fun. We’ve seen a lot of great makeovers each day this week, from junky pumpkins to creepy candles to haunted houses, and today I bring you …

… miscellaneous!

Sorry, not the most chilling category name ever, but I think you’ll still find it chock full of creepy creativity on the cheap.

 

And what could be cheaper than the dollar store? Not much, unless there is a 50 cent store somewhere I don’t know about. But anyway, that’s where Kim picked up this plastic skull and decided to give it some help in the looks department.

Ay que bonita! She’s all fancied up and ready to celebrate Dia de los Muertos in style. These are called calaveras, or sugar skulls, and are a big tradition here in Arizona. There are tons of beautiful examples online if you ever get the itch to try it yourself.

See more at The Kim Six Fix.

 

And moving from head to toe, check out this adorable idea from Julie at Julie is Coco and Cocoa.

Cat shoes! What a fun idea for an old pair of shoes. You might like them so much, you wear them all year long.

Next up are a couple of projects from my friends in real life. I have two friends who are equally (if not much more) Halloween-obsessed as I am, and when I saw some of the recent projects they had been working on, I demanded (nicely) that they send me pictures so I could show everyone on my blog.

 

This is was an unfinished clock from my friend Alicia, who finished it, and finished it hard.

She says “I couldn’t find a toy skull or plastic skull I liked for the side detail, so I made those out of clay.  The rest were dollar store goodies and cheap pressed wood frames.  I removed the bottom and used it as trim on the front side to make it more interesting.  And then spray painted the crap out of it, and rubbed silver paint on to age it.  Not bad for $20 bucks at Goodwill and less than $5 at the dollar store.”

She admits she made the clock just so she’d have more display space for the other Halloween things she’s made! She can’t stop, and she won’t stop.

 

My other friend Kelley is a notorious Halloween fanatic.  She’s known in town as the Queen of Halloween. I wish I could take you on a tour of her house, because it would blow your mind. Most of her decorations are things that she makes herself, like this clock that she threw together with cardboard and dollar store items.

She said “It’s a little wonky but mistakes can become happy accidents especially if it’s a Halloween object. The owl and its styrofoam cooler base are from the dollar store, so are the embellishments. I cut apart a $1 gravestone to make the arch. Time was really the most valuable thing that I spent on this, but it was fun!”

Then she made a welcome banner for her house of of old books and eyeballs that she painted herself. Fabulously freaky!

She’s also planning a steampunk costume this year, so she’s been busy making some steam-ified weaponry. These were old toy guns from the thrift-store and are virtually unrecognizable now!

I mean, come on! How great is that? Isn’t she great? She’s the greatest. You can see a lot more of her work on her instagram at KelleySmithArt. Give her a follow, you won’t be disappointed!

 

Last one for today, this battered and beaten up chair. Jamie was convinced she could do something with it, but every time she looked closely, it became more and more apparent that it was unusable. It had presumably been sitting outside for most of its life.

 

But it turns out that battered and weather-beaten is the perfect condition for a spooky seasonal skeleton chair! It looks amazing!  Wondering how she applied that skull graphic to her fabric? Find out at Southern Revivals.