Local Antiques Store Dollar Tree Pumpkins

 

And this is what the owner did with her Dollar Tree

pumpkins!  Check out my 2019 Dollar Tree pumpkins here.

Dollar Tree Styrofoam Pumpkin Upcycle 2019

It all started a few weeks ago,

when I bought a thick cable cardigan at a garage sale for 25 cents.

Yes, I bought it because I liked it -- but I don't normally wear thick sweaters,

and to be honest it was a bit small.  But I immediately saw the potential for some

sweet sweater pumpkins.  I went out and bought 8 styrofoam pumpkins and two bunches 

of tan flowers from Dollar Tree = $10.

 

 The more I looked at the sweater, the more I thought I

had better research it.  Turns out I might be able to get

$25 for it on ebay.  Best to not hack it into bits after all.

But I did find a flour sack in my stash that would cover

four of the pumpkins ....

 and a lacy ivory jacket in my "donate" pile that I could

cut up for the other four.  I am still a little disappointed to not

be looking at pumpkins dressed out in cozy cable knit....

I have decked out these little pumpkins in many different styles over the years.

The price is great, and they are easy to whack a hole in the top

in order to stuff  excess fabric in.  This year I used some

old wooden pieces for the stems.

Views of some past DT pumpkins: 2014, 2015, 2016.

Freaky Friday Halloween Upcycled Vintage Hats, 2017 Edition Part II

More vintage tweaked Halloween hats from this year:

SKELETAL CREW HAT

 VILLAINOUS VISOR HAT

 HAIRY EYEBALLS HAT

GLITTERY GHOULS HAT

 

RHINESTONE ARACHANOID HAT

ICEPICK HAT

Halloween Upcycled Vintage Hats 2017 Edition

 I have been taking cheap vintage hats and upcycling them into classy (yet freaky)
Halloween toppers for several years now.  If you wish to see past years click:
2014 here, 2015 here, 2016 here.

Without further ado, I would like to present the 2017 Halloween hats:

GREEN SNAKE HAT

I made two snake hats this year, this is the first.

RUBBERY SNAKE HAT

This is the second snake hat.  

I like how the snake tail hangs down the back,
 like decorative ribbon.

REAL BUGGY COLLECTION HAT

This hat was inspired when I found a huge dead bug in my yard,

he is front and center. I added a couple more real, and a couple fake bugs.

 I had to figure out how to put them on pins,

without pinning anyone's head.  

Pinning them to a huge furry spider was a good solution.

ME & MY DOLLY HAT

This is my only Halloween doll this year.

I found her at a flea market, no legs.

But she is not really very scary, 

I gave her a fancy "matching" hat with a feather.

 I'VE GOT MY EYE ON YOU HAT

DRIVING ME BATTY HAT

Bat in front glows in the dark.

This gives you a nice view of my model.

FURRY EYEBALLS HAT.

Eyeballs made out of pingpong balls.

This one is my favorite hat so far.
 So far .... because there are more coming tomorrow.

Freaky Friday Halloween Shadowboxes

I upcycled two of my upcycled Halloween books

 (a double upcycle!) from the last year to make two shadowboxes.

Click here

 to view my Halloween Book Assemblages post from last year.

I adored the decorated Halloween books, 

but they were not a big seller.

I am hoping the shadowboxes will do better.

I didn't have to buy a thing for these, 

I am not quite yet at the bottom of the Halloween decorating stash.  

But close.

"For The Eye" is my favorite creepy element.

Freaky Friday Framed Creepy Halloween Dollar Tree Portraits

For the next four Fridays I will be featuring

some of my Halloween projects on what I like to call "Freaky Fridays".

Today's Freaky Friday feature is Dollar Tree Halloween Portraits.

 I do not receive any compensation from Dollar Tree,

but I love DT and don't mind tooting their horn.

All scary portraits in this post came from DT (and of course were only $1.)

The outside pics I just trimmed to fit metal frames that I already had.

 This was my fave, I had this ugly 1990s oval frame

with a floral print.  I spraypainted white directly over the glass to cover the flowers.

That provided a nice base to apply the clear adhesive portrait to.

 I cut the zombie pic out of it's plastic "frame" and glued it inside this

actual frame.  The sturdy frame makes it look so much more authentic.

This bride and groom pic was leftover from my DT stash last year.

I loved the old fashioned look to it, I am not sure

if DT will carry these this year.

Sold the larger pics for $12.

Altered Dollar Tree Pumpkins With Rusty Hardware

I made a few of these last year, click here to view.

The base is the Dollar Tree Styrofoam pumpkin.

Although I always have a stash of rusty hardware,

it is surprisingly hard to find enough size and shape

 appropriate pieces to do very many pumpkins.

So this year, there are three.

I love the lightbulb, mad scientist look.

They "screw" in so easily with the Styrofoam.

Easy and a lot of fun to make.

Halloween Still Life In A Jar 2016

I came across a stash of old wide-mouth peanut butter jars a few months ago.

I knew instantly that they would be perfect for "still life" jars.

I'm saving a few for Christmas-themed jars.

I think I made five this years,

but only managed to photograph these three --

and I think all three have already sold.

Loved the skull on a stand that Dollar Tree

offered this year.  Perfect size for this jar.

Another of the peanut butter jars...

With a knob attached to the top it would

resemble a cloche.

Halloween Poison Apothecary Bottles 2016

Some years I have accumulated many cheap antique apothecary bottles for this project.  And this year...not so many.  That gave me the opportunity to go slow, and enjoy the decorating.

Here is Group A.  Most of these bottles were "dug" (from the ground)

so I didn't have to do anything to age them.

The labels include some from Dollar Tree,

some from Michael's, and some free on-line labels.

Not all the bottles had corks, but that doesn't bother me.

The one at left I attached a broken old doll head to the top.

And after this photo I put a slightly damaged chandelier crystal

upside down in the top of the Eye of Newt bottle.

Group B.  Then almost all of them get a little 3-D bling.

Anything from plastic creepy crawler to old jewelry.

Love the dolly arm stopper on the Frog's Blood bottle.

To see some of my apothecary bottles from a different year,

click HERE

 

These were somewhat more generic bottles that I

whipped up after finding a stash of keys.

More to come...

Halloween Book Art Assemblages 2016

I decided that to "eek" out my full enjoyment from an art project, I can handle doing about three.  Any more than that, and it seems like a job.  Which, is necessary sometimes.  But thankfully not for this project.

 

Like last year, I did include quite a few screws.

I really don't like my book assemblages to fall apart,

and this really keeps them solid.

(Clamp books together before attempting).

Again, a few screws.  (Another tip:

drill pilot hole first before adding the screw.)

  Check out my past book assemblages by clicking here and here.

Halloween Upcycled Vintage Hats 2016 Edition

One of my favorite ways to "elegantly" celebrate the season is making Halloween themed hats from vintage hats that have seen better days.  All the hats that I used cost me less than $2 each.  Most of the decorations came from Dollar Tree, and it was just a matter of creative composition and securing everything securely -- just like a real millinery. 

"Rat's Nest" Hat

I thought the white feathers helped

set the rat apart from the black hat.

"Black & Orange Glitter" Hat

"Mad Masquerade" Hat

"Bat Wings" Hat

"Give Me A Hand" Hat

"Orange Tarantula & Web" Hat

"Glow-In-The-Dark" Hat

"Crow's Nest" Hat.

Crow is motion sensitive -- and makes cackling noise.

Click here or here to see last year's editions.