Too Darn Crafty For My Own Good!

Are you sick of Halloween yet? Not me! :-)

What I am sick of is the low standards (and high prices!) of some of the decorations. For example, have you ever gone to a craft store looking for a Halloween wreath for your front door? (Yes, I know I could get a motion-activated something or other, but those things drive me nuts.) Well, I've looked and looked, and what it appears to me is that the craft stores take regular floral wreaths, stick a few pumpkins and/or scarecrows on them, double the price, and call it Halloween. Nope.

So I decided to make my own, and I think it turned out "boo-tifully"! (c'mon, you knew I was going to say that, didn't you?)

You can make one, too, if you're the crafty type, and here's how:

I took your average grapevine wreath (which will run you between $3-15 dollars, depending on how big of one you buy, and the more "irregular" and "grapeviney" the better), and spray painted it black (I already had the black spray paint). I bought black long-stemmed roses ($1.00 apiece) and pulled off all the black leaves, bought plastic floral garnishes in two shades of purple for .49 cents apiece, some black and purple ribbon (about $4.00). The little skulls and smaller tombstones are actually candles I bought for about .50 cents apiece, and the bigger one is a hanging plaque I got on sale for $5.00. The raven was the most expensive thing on it - he put me back $9.99, but I've seen them cheaper. The words 'scary', 'trick' and 'treat' came from the bargain bin at the craft store, costing me less than $3.00. (Oh, and you'll need a glue gun, which I already had, but they're really not expensive.)

All total, I figure I spent about $30.00 bucks and some time, but I have a great, big, totally awesome looking wreath (if I do say so myself!). You could make a much smaller one for about $10.00.

Any other "crafters" out there?