Halloween Festiveness

I have to say, I just wasn't feeling Halloween this year.  Summer didn't start till September, so one month later I wasn't ready to pack it in and commit to all things black, orange and spooky.  That said, you know I can't let a holiday pass without getting my Martha on just a little!  So I had a couple little cheerful Halloween decor projects, nothing too effort-intensive.

Festiveness #1: Teeny Bat Pumpkins

 

This really WAS a Martha project, I copied it straight out of Martha Stewart Living.  (Right before the best pot-roast recipe and just after the article on how to arrange moss.  Just kidding!  Actually, maybe not!)  But the whole shebang took 10 minutes after procuring said tiny white pumpkins.  And look how cute!

The instructions are as follows.  Get some tiny white pumpkins.  Cut wings out of black construction paper.  Glue them on with Aleene's Tacky Glue (no, don't cheap out on other craft glue, Aleene's got your back and everyone else sucks!)  Admire the cuteness.

Festiveness #2: Leaf Garland

This project was of my own conception, which is why it maybe looks a little less...polished than some of my Martha crafts.  I was inspired by a fall bucket list I saw which had "Make Leaf Art!" as an item.  I don't know if you have seen some of the leaves change color this year, but it's been pretty epic around Green Lake for sure. 

 

En fuego!  So gorgeous!  When I was in college, I had never really seen the leaves change.  (What? I grew up in an evergreen forest in Oregon.)  When the the sweet girls on my freshman hall saw how amazed I was by all the yellow and red that nature could provide, they used to collect the prettiest leaves they'd see on campus and slide them under my door for me to discover when I got home.

So worth trying to immortalize, right?  So here was my funny little craft.  I was attempting to go for a bunting look, but in leaves.  It wound up looking like a 5th grader's fall project, but whatever.  Think bunting.

Instructions: collect 20 of the prettiest leaves you can find.  Flatten them under some books for a couple days while you forget about the project.  When you remember, pull them out and cut out pieces of fusible interfacing the same shape as each leaf.  (Fusible interfacing is what makes your collars stiff.  It can be procured at any fabric store.)  Iron the interfacing onto each leaf.  Press them under books again until they're good and dry.  If any of them become disattached from their interfacing, apply Sister Aleene, you'll be good as gold in no time.  String them onto yarn, and hang somewhere festive.

I hung mine above the door at a height appropriate to a 5'3" person.  Then I realized I had a 6'2" person coming to dinner and I got back on the chair and rehung them.  They do make the porch look a little more welcoming though, right?

Festiveness #3: De Rigeur Jack O'Lanterns
It isn't Halloween without jack o' lanterns no matter how bah humbug you're feeling.  We always have a lot of pumpkins because we have to entice trick or treaters up our long and daunting stairs!
This was our set this year:

 

Yes, that's four normal scary faced pumpkins on the left.  But my favorite are the two on the right.

I'll spare you the totally disgustingly cute story of these two pumpkins, but it was a "gifts of the magi" moment.  I carved the one on the right for the hubs as a surprise and he carved this one:

 

As a surprise for me.  Yes, it is a house with a door that actually rotates on toothpick hinges.  (Yes, we are nerdy engineers.)  

So that is the extent of the Halloween decorating, but those three projects go a long way towards making it feel like fall in our little home.  Do you have any Martha fall projects up your sleeves?  Do tell!