Halloween {Hallow's Eve Fun } Mantle Decorations

Tonight my little guy and I decided to make our annual Halloween decorations.

But this year besides our usual Jack-O-Lantern carving and pumpkin seed roasting, we decided to decorate our mantle as well. I wanted to use only things that I already had around the house.

I started several weeks ago by getting some branches off our willow tree.

I forgot left them outside to dry a bit and then I simply spray painted them with black paint. I used the same Rustoleum Black Hammered paint I  had left over from the patio table project I'd done over the summer. I then took my new favorite metal bucket that I found at this cool, little, downtown antique shop (which I blogged about here.) 

I also found the three medicine bottles during that bargain shopping excursion. I decided to make some spooky labels and remembered that I had seen some pre-made!

Yippee for me! All I did was resize them to fit my bottles. It would have been so much easier, I think, if I had printed them on label paper, maybe not, but I didn't have label paper so I just used regular. Then I cut them out and simply brushed Modge Podge on the backs of them and adhered them to the bottles.

The spooky beverage labels can be found {here} and are courtesy of the very talented Kate over at Centsationalgirl.com.
Aaron tried his hand at cutting out his own Jack-O-Lantern. He drew the face and then used the little saw to cut out the pieces. I washed out all the "guts" prior to him carving it and I saved all the pumpkin seeds for roasting. Sergio loves to roast them and he adds a little olive oil to the pan and salts them afterwards. He also likes to add some powdered habanero chile pepper that we bought in New Mexico. They are soooo good ;)

We also decorated some pie pumpkins by drawing on them with a black paint pen (which I love!) and then gluing some bling on them.

I cut out some ghosts and tied ribbon to them and hung them on my Halloween tree.

I then cut out some bats and taped them up behind the tree on top of my mantle with painters tape.

You can find those templates here at familyfun.go.com Isn't it great that we have so many free resources on the 'net? Luv it :)

{Sergio made this little haunted house silhouette last year}

Since we have a Nightmare Before Christmas theme going outside, I thought I'd add a little of Jack and Sally to the mantle as well. This is their house after all you know? :D

So there you have it. Our little piece of Halloween heaven :)

Bring on the candy and caramel apples.

**I linked this up to Metamorphosis Mondays at Between Naps on the porch. Go there to see more Halloween Decor ideas.
And don't forget to visit stephanie lynn's awesome blog Under the Table and Dreaming where I linked up this project too.
More great blogs I'm linking this up to:
The Letter 4
Tatertots and Jello
At The Picket Fence