In my last house, this buffet was upstairs and only got a few little decorations. In this house it’s front and center so I needed to do better. Once I rearranged the decorations I had to fit the new place, I realized that I was seriously lacking something for this spot that brought in a little height. So I had myself a little brainstorm, and came up with this little ghost family.

I got three foam cones measuring 15″, 9″, and 6″, and a bunch of paperclay. I only ended up using two bricks for all three ghosts.

Start by covering each cone with a thin layer of the paperclay, spreading it into the pockets in the foam to get good adherence. When that layer is dry, add another one as necessary to cover the foam texture.

You don’t have to be a sculptor to make the head. I just took a ball of paperclay that looked proportional to the size of the cone I was working with, and squeezed it in my hand. The ridges of your fingers make a naturally cool ghost head shape. Just smooth things out a little, make the top of the head a little pointier, and you’ll have just the right look.

Place your ghost head on top of the cone, and stick it down with more paperclay, smoothing things out as you go. You can also add a little more paperclay around the neck to avoid such a rigid cone shape, or add a whole lot more paperclay if you want to give your ghost some curves.

I pressed my fingertips into the clay to make spots for the eyes, and this had the added effect of pushing some clay up to make cheekbones. Let them dry at least overnight.

One of the best features of paperclay is that you can sand it when it’s dry. So give your ghosts a good thorough sanding to smooth out the texture and to make the head a little less lumpy.

You can paint your whole ghost if you want to, but I loved the color of the clay so I just left it alone. I painted on a simple happy face with acrylic paint, but I used chalk to make the cheeks. I remember my mom using her makeup on craft projects as a kid, so I bet you could use actual blush to get the same effect.

Cut a piece of cheesecloth big enough to cover the ghost. Pick up the very top and snip out the very center. A small cut is all you need.

Pull the cheesecloth over the head and glue it around the neck with whatever white glue is handy.

Tie a little black ribbon around the neck, and your little ghost family is complete.

I love Halloween, but it’s hard to decorate for with small children. Things are so gorey and scary, or else they’re so completely juvenile I’d make my house look like a preschool. I think these manage to be cute and stylish at the same time. And they add great height.

This new place has this big cut out in the main downstairs wall, and I never know quite what to do with it. Most of the year I’ve just been leaving it empty because nothing I have seems to work in that spot and I really don’t want to buy a bunch of knick knacks for a temporary residence. But now that we’re in holiday season? I thought I could just use it like a mantle. Which means I could make a banner for halloween.

I was inspired by all the beautiful Victorian inspired decorations that pop up in the stores and on blogs. Normally that’s not my flavor of antique, but it just goes so well with Halloween that I can expand my horizons. Plus, it was a chance to play with glitter, which I am always up for.

You’ll need a whole bunch of thin cardboard for this project. I get all mine at scrapbook stores – as I’ve mentioned before, a lot of it is used in shipping paper, so many stores will give it to you for free – but you can also use cut up cereal boxes or leftover shipping material. Anything thick enough to hold up to paint.

Cut your cardboard into a diamond shape. The easiest way to do this is with a quilting ruler and mat. I cut the cardboard piece into a rectangle measuring the height I wanted (12″ in my case) by the width I wanted (8″ in my case). Then I marked the middle of all the sides, and, using my ruler, cut a diagonal from the middle of one side to the middle of another. I did this for each side and what was left was the diamond shape I wanted.

Paint all your large diamonds in a creamy color with acrylic paint. You may need to use a couple of coats to get good coverage.

Cut more diamonds for the inner pieces, and paint them black. I made these diamonds measure 6″ wide by 8″ high.

To glitter the edges, you could just brush some glue on and sprinkle glitter on top. But I wanted to experiment with a masking technique, so I cut some masking tape with a pair of decorative scissors, and used that to control where I put the glue. This was time consuming, but as precise as you can get with glitter.

I brushed glitter on the exposed edges, and covered it with a gold glitter. My personal favorite is the Martha Stewart glitter. I don’t know how we got by without it for so long.

Since the masking tape technique was a bit of a pain, I wanted to try a different option for glittering the large diamonds. I took a transparency I had lying around, but you could use any thin plastic, and cut that with a pair of decorative scissors. I held that in place as I brushed the glue on the edges, and then I sprinkled orange glitter on top.

This technique was way easier, but it was also sloppier. My pattern didn’t come out precise, but it was close enough that it was worth it to me.

Spread a white glue on the back of the black diamond, and glue it to the center of the cream diamond. If your cardboard starts to curl, flatten it under something heavy for a bit.

Next you need to make the rosette. I got a roll of crepe paper streamers and cut it to 14″ long, and then accordion folded it about every 1/4″. I did not worry about precision for a single minute, so don’t even think about grabbing a ruler. Just aim for smallish consistent folds and you’ll be just fine.

Spread a SMALL amount of white glue on one end of the streamer and bend it around to meet the other side. Spread another SMALL amount of white glue in the center and push it together. I emphasize small amount of glue because water is crepe paper’s kryptonite, so if you use too much then all your folds will dissolve into a crumpled pile. You don’t need much to do the job anyway.

Glue the rosette to the center of the black diamond with hot glue. Hot glue works better with crepe paper because you don’t have to worry about it losing it’s shape, but if you tried to use it before, you stood a good chance of walking away with a few blisters.

The last step is to prepare your letters. I cut mine out of more chipboard using a font I printed off my computer. I use this technique so often I must have shared it over and over again, but just in case – I print the letters off in the size I want, on normal copy paper. Then I stick the copy paper to the chipboard and cut them both out at the same time.

Paint them green, cover with glue and then green glitter, and when dry, glue on top of the rosette with hot glue.

While my hot glue gun was handy, I hot glued the tops of each diamond onto a black ribbon. Since I was making this banner for a specific spot, I actually hung the ribbons in place and then glued the diamonds on so I could get everything positioned just right. The diamonds can be fairly heavy, so I had to readjust the ribbons afterward, but it was a really handy way to get everything spaced evenly.

I had a big space to fill, so I went big, but you could make this way smaller by just changing the dimensions of the diamonds. Or you could choose a different saying to make it shorter. I think this could also be really fun to hang on a staircase as a Halloween answer to a traditional garland.

This ornament is really just a variation of one I’ve done before. Whenever I sit down to start designing ornaments, I always start by thinking of different mediums I could use to create a theme, and embroidery is just so darn easy.

It’s nice to get this one finished and on the tree. I’ve been carting around little pieces of embroidery all month. It seems like a spiderweb is so dainty the stitching would go crazy fast, but I made them big enough that each one took me hours. I think it’s worth it though, it really fits my spooky theme, and brings my colors in together.

Embroider a spiderweb. I’ll post a pattern if anyone really wants one, but I thought spiderwebs were pretty doable by just about everyone. I used black cotton perle floss and some leftover crepe backed satin I had lying around. I do a lot of embroidery on that fabric, partly because I’ve got a ton of it, but also because I like that contrast between the homespun embroidery and a fancier fabric.

I couldn’t figure out how to make a spider in embroidery. I asked all my super smart embroidery friends if they knew of some magical 3-D stitch, and while they were all consulting their samplers and stitch books, the stupidly simple thought occurred to me that I could just use a bead. I secured the bead with a couple tight stitches, and then used three long stitches to make the legs.

Pin it to your backing fabric, right sides together, with a hanging loop sandwiched between the two layers. Then just sew around the stitching. You could make this neater if you felt like it, but I was digging the wonkiness. Nature isn’t perfect after all.

Stuff and close. If you’re going for heirlooms, use a whip-stitch or something similar. Me? I always close my ornaments with a little fabric glue. Saves me hours and people aren’t going to notice. Especially after the next step.

Run a thin strip of fabric glue around the seam and adhere a little black satin cord, hiding the edges in the hanging loop. I almost left this step off, but it just looks so nice and finished I had to do it.

We’re getting down to the end here, and we’re starting to reach all those ornaments that are so easy they feel like cheating.

I bought that great textured polka dot fabric to replace the binding on my tree skirt, and I had a whole bunch of bias cut binding left over I couldn’t bear to get rid of.

I cut it into 1″ strips, pinned one end down to a styrofoam ball, and just started wrapping. And then for a hanger I tied a great big black ribbon, and used a glue covered pin to hold that in place.

See? How much easier could it get?