Easy Halloween Decorating Ideas

Yesterday, I introduced you to my new friend.

I feel like he should have a name. You can’t have a dapper hat and not have a name. Any thoughts?

And he wasn’t the only thing I painted gold. There were pumpkins…

And bigger pumpkins, a paper mache skull,

And a couple of smaller skeletons.

And then the original item I planned to spray – the place card holders. Honestly, I had no intention of spraying so much, but once I started I couldn’t stop. I debated about spraying the skeleton, but then I figured, can you really go wrong with a gold skeleton?

So what did I use to create my elegantly spooky world?

Krylon’s 18kt. Gold Plate Spray. This stuff rocked my world. Covered easily, dried fast – and even the spray nozzle was very easy to use. I found mine at Hobby Lobby and it was not very expensive - I think less than $6.00. A little trick, don’t overly shake it, I kind of liked it better when it was a little mottled and uneven, it looked more like gold leafing – but a whole lot easier and quicker.

The pumpkins all started cheap and simple – styrofoam basics. For the ones with patterns, I first used the 3D gloss enamels. It is actually meant for glass which really didn’t matter. The only problem was that it had a 72 hour drying time and I am not that patient with projects usually. If you were to use it on glass, you bake it so the time is quick. I didn’t think it would work too well to back a styrofoam pumpkin.

These pumpkins worked particularly well (I found them at The Christmas Tree Shops) because they have a decorative curled wire on the top. That made it easy to hold the pumpkin while spraying and gave the place card a place to rest. However, you could just place a place card right on top of the pumpkin as well.

For all of the placecards pumpkins I did a simple dot pattern with the 3D gloss enamel and that seemed to work best and just took a few minutes. I tried different patterns on some of the other ones. You simply draw on your pattern with the tip.

For a few of the pumpkins, the skeletons and the skull, I just used the Krylon spray.