Simple Halloween Party Decor Ideas

Here are some of fun and inexpensive ways to decorate for a kids' Halloween party that I came up with for a local mommy group's get together they hosted this month!

I made simple goody bags that acted as an activity bag for each kid during the party. I stamped "Happy Halloween" on plain brown kraft bags and filled each one with the all the items needed to make little pom pom spiders for their craft activity.

Inside each bag I placed a smaller clear cello bag full of different sized pom poms and googly eyes, a few pipe cleaners, a straw for their drink, and a cute pipe cleaner pumpkin to take home.

Each table had simple teeny pumpkins in wire baskets with some Halloween colored crinkle paper. I love this stuff!!!

We also put jars of pumpkin wands at each table. Just a stripey straw with one of those marshmallow pumpkins on top! Each jar was tied with a ribbon for a simple centerpiece.

Easy and well within a small budget! 

Some of the activities also included these tattoos I made here. And each child took home these party favors too!

Thanks for stopping by today!

 XOXO,

Zombie, Witch, Cat, and Mummy Halloween Costumes!

This weekend I actually finished all my littles' Halloween costumes! And with a whole 5 days to spare, phew! :-) We even carved our pumpkins and into more than just jack-o-latern faces too, I tell ya we are on a R.O.L.L.

So back in August (yes AUGUST! Don't your kids start planning out Halloween costumes months in advance?), Noah kept telling me he wanted to be a zombie...a zombie?! Thankyouverymuch Plants vs Zombies. I figured this was finally the year of store-bought costumes and you know what? I was okay with that...I mean it has to happen at some point. I even took him to a few different stores but he just didn't like anything he saw. Finally he asked me if I would just make it for him. Really??? Okay, sure! And then Penny literally begged me to make her a witch costume with lots of purple (her favorite color)...and Ellie, well, she had her heart set on a kitty cat :-) So thinking all this through I figured they were all "classic" halloween characters and, since Oliver really doesn't care what he is, I decided to make him a little baby mummy. Gah! His turned out so stinking cute!

At first I wasn't really sure how to make a zombie costume. I mean they are just an un-dead version of regular people in regular people clothes, ya know. We talked about his vision and really he just wanted to be all bloody and have ripped up clothes, lol! Well, that was easy enough for me.

I sewed up a pair of light grey twill pants using an existing pair of his pants as a pattern except making the legs much wider so he looked really skinny and zombie-like. We wanted the pants to be light enough so that you could see blood and dirt but not white in color.

Then I bought a simple white t-shirt and stained it with tea to make it look grungy and found a flannel at a local thrift shop for $3 to finish off his costume. To make everything all dirty and bloody, we actually just grabbed some Crayola markers in red, brown, and black and went to town marking up his clothes. I used a pair of scissors to make small cuts all over and then took a piece of sandpaper to rough up all the edges.

I bought some face paint at Target and lightly painted his face white and then added some black around his eyes so he looked tired and undead.

I was even able to get him out of character for this one...do zombies ever smile?

Penny had her heart set on a purple witch...you know, a "good" witch. A witch! I didn't think my kids would ever want to be a witch with all the princess-y stuff out there. How fun it was to make a witch costume!

I made Penny's dress from a lightweight knit fabric so it has a nice drape and some stretch to it. I patterned it after a peasant dress but extended the sleeves into bell sleeves for that perfect witch look. I added a black cord for a witch-y belt and I bought her tights a Jo-Anns for 60% off. PS. they have lots of fun colors!

To make her cape, I bought some of this fun purple "Halloween" novelty fabric at Jo-Anns for 50% off...come to think of it all the fabric I bought for these costumes was 50% off...so inexpensive! When I did the math it costs about $12 or less to make each costume, such a great deal for handmade costumes!

I made a big witch-y collar on it and sewed a length of bias tape at the top of the collar that doubled as the string to tie it on.

I found the hat and broomstick at Target for a few bucks a piece, you can't beat such inexpensive finishing touches!

Ellie wanted to be a kitty cat, so sweet! All she wants to do is say "meow, meow" which actually sounds a lot more like "mow, mow" when she says it.

She picked out this kitty (cougar-y?) fleece fabric all by herself, it is so dang soft! And it's nice and thin and a dream to sew with.

I used Simplicity Pattern 1584 to make the dress except I added a small velcro closure on the back and omitted the black fuzzy collar as I figured that would annoy her after awhile.

I was also lucky enough to have just enough leftover fleece to make her a pair of pants to match. Love when that happens...and I actually don't mess up and have to buy more fabric after deciding to go through with it ;-)

Oliver. 

Oh, this costume is just so fabulous on him! I just love everything about it!

I bought 4 yards of white gauze and tea stained it in my crockpot along with a simple white onesie. I bought some white fleece and made him a pair of pants and a little hat and then just hot glued the gauze all over. Back and forth and side to side. 

If you are planning on doing a mummy costume and using hot glue, may I just warn you that you will want to stretch the clothing as you hot glue or you will have a really hard time getting said clothing on. Since it was hot glue and gauze it stretched and ripped apart without a problem but just took a bit of extra time having to re-do some of it.

I was a little worried he would hate this costume but he actually really enjoyed having it on! I think since the base is a simple onesie and a nice cozy pair of fleece pants all the gauze doesn't really bother him.

I just had to black and white one...so mummy-like!

I have to laugh at my attempt at group shots...4 kids in one frame...it's tough stuff, especially with a 16 month old who has no desire to stand still!

 I hope you enjoyed this year's Halloween costumes!
Are you done, getting close, or just buying at the store this year?

Thanks for stopping by today!!!

XOXO,

Halloween Treats and Party Favors

Anyone else feeling the time crunch of Halloween...one week to go!!!! I just finished two of the kids' costumes last night and I'm hoping to get the last two done in the next couple of days. We need them for a few parties this weekend, gah!!! Nothing like a little last minute stress, hahahaha, no. 

A local mommy group I'm in is throwing a big Halloween bash for all the littles in the group this year and they asked me if I wanted to help with the decorations and general party-ness. I have been creating goodie bags, table decor, treats, and favors over the past month and loving every minute of it, I love this kinda stuff!

I thought I'd show you what I've been creating over the last few weeks! 

I picked up these spooky little chocolate eyeballs and originally intended them to be in a vase or as some type of table decoration until I was browsing through designs in the Silhouette online store one night and I found this rad skull and cross bones design. I created a cute little party favor with it using their nifty print and cut feature!

I love catchy, some would say nerdy, word phrases (see past Valentine's here and here)

so I thought it would be fun to hot glue two eyeballs where the eyes would go and say, "Eye hope you have a Happy Halloween" *Snort!* Get it!

I die. :-)

I also found these fun "night creatures" at the dollar store and my mind went straight to that super cute Valentine I pinned about a year ago from Dandee (seen here). I thought I'd throw a Halloween spin on it and came up with this...

How freakin' cute, huh? Little specimen jars with creepy crawlies in them :-) Just like all the mason jars we use in the summer collecting bugs! Again, I found the cute little design in the Silhouette store and used the print and cut feature to create them.

I'll try to post some of the other things I created for this party if I can get the rest of my littles' costumes done...can you guess what they are going to be? They all go together again if you can believe that! Our theme this year is...SCARY!

Thanks for stopping by today!!

XOXO,

Monsters University Tin Can Party Cakes

This post is sponsored by Monsters University. All opinions and ideas are 100% my own.

With Halloween creeping up on us and all the parties the kids have coming up in the next week, I thought it would be fun to throw a party of our own, Monsters University style...ooh scary! But not just any Monsters-themed party, a viewing party! 

We just love the Monsters Inc. movie in our home and we practically ran to the theaters to see Monsters University when it came out this summer. So we were more than jazzed to find out it was finally being released in a Blu-ray Combo Pack on October 29....just in time for Halloween, y'all!

I thought I'd make some fun Monsters University Tin Can Cakes in Mike and Sully colors for cute party decor and food all in one!

These are so easy to make! And so cute too :-)

Just grab a white box mix and make as directed on the box or use your own trusty recipe and divide the batter between two bowls. Color one bowl lime green like Mike and one bowl aqua blue like Sully. Then wash and rinse out two 15 oz tin cans with lids removed.

Spray them with non-stick cooking spray and fill them each with batter a little over half full. Place your tin cans on a baking sheet in case they overflow while baking. Bake at 325 degrees for about 25-30 minutes. You will want to use a butter knife or something long to check for doneness. 

Once they are done, you will want to let them cool for 30 minutes to an hour before using a butter knife or a bread knife to pop them out.

To frost, use a basic buttercream (or even a store bought frosting) recipe and divide the frosting between four bowls. One you will color aqua, one purple, one white and a leeetle bowl black...I changed my mind from the picture above and decided to use white instead of lime green for Mike's cake as I liked the contrast better.

Then cut your tin can cakes into 3 pieces, slicing off the rounded top, and alternate layers with frosting. YUM!

I made the top of Mike's look like one huge eyeball!

And I made Sully's look all fuzzy by using a star-tip!

Remember, you can get your own copy of Monsters University when the Blue-ray Combo Pack is release on October 29th or you can pre-order the movie online too!

Follow Disney Pixar's Monsters University on Facebook :: Twitter :: Pinterest

 XOXO,