Halloween Tree

A few years ago I made a Halloween tree. I used the branches of the Harry Lauder's Walking Stick from my parent's yard. First I spray painted them black, leaving a few of the dried leaves on for added creepiness. Then I mixed up some wood putty (the powdered kind you mix with water) and poured it into a tin bucket. When it started to set up I stuck the branches in and once dried the putty held them tight and made a nice heavy base so the tree won't tip over. To disguise the putty I stuck some decorative moss on the top. A few years ago I made a teeny-tiny paper chain out of green, orange and black construction paper. I also downloaded some vintage Halloween images from The Vintage Gallery to make some hanging ornaments. I need to make some more. Maybe some tiny ghosts?


This is how we had it set up when I first brought it out this year. We added the gravestone candles, Ethan's paper-bag pumpkin from nursery school and our little spooky house (a bird house actually), which we got from Michael's last year and painted in Halloween colors.

Then I found our little grave yard. The fence is shared with the Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations as well, so the graveyard is removable. The base is a painted piece of cardboard. The graves are painted cardboard hot-glued to the base, and we stuck the gravestone candles in there as well as some mummy candles left over from Hudson's spooky birthday party last year. There are also some cute little wooden pumpkins that I keep out for Thanksgiving tucked in there.

Last is my tiny Boo! box made from a match box and some decorative paper, felt, ribbon and a button... and the skeleton guys we made a few years ago. They are made from A wooden ball (I guess.. I am suffering from a brain freeze right now and cannot think of what theheck it is called!). It had a hole in the bottom already. I painted it white and added the facial "features". I stuck half of a chop stick in bottom of the ball (the cheap kind I grab for free when we get chinese food at the grocery store, wrapped the stick in wire and made wire arms and legs as well. then I covered the whole thing in masking tape and drew on the "bones". They are bending and the kids like to re-arrange them. I think that one of them had a black suit when we first made them becasue he was supposed to look like Jack Skellington.