HALLOWEEN IS FINALLY ABOUT A MONTH AWAY!  So, I totally feel like it’s okay to decorate the whole house accordingly.  Yay! This and Christmas are my families favorite holidays with Easter not far behind.  A couple weeks ago I actually thought ahead that we are having a Halloween party and we needed to get in on the Halloween decor and party favors before they sold out at the 99 Cent store.  Honestly, one trip there verses Michael’s craft probably saved me $100 or more.

So, I’ve spent like $70 already.  But this year I’m not going to buy all the costumes and pay expedited shipping.  I suppose I kinda do this every year but I have been buying my daughter’s so this is my area of focus.  I am going to brave making all of the costumes this year.  We’ll see if I can pull it off.

I opened up  my Halloween boxes and luckily, I have enough that I don’t feel like I need to go out and buy a whole bunch.  Although, I may want to do some cheap pinterest decorations to beef it up a bit.  Perhaps some coffins made with black streamers and some gauzy mummy type stuff!

One area of focus for me was repurposing my wreaths from the gate from last year.  They weren’t quite what I wanted this year; I wanted to go big.  So, I’m redoing them with a swim noodle and sticks and taking all the fluff from the old wreaths.

MATERIALS YOU’LL NEED:

One swim noodle

Two curved 2′ sticks 1-2″diameter

Floral thin wire – a whole package

Shipping tape or duck tape

Orange construction paper 8 sheets

Orange sparkly tulle roll

Natural raffia package

Several various sized sparkly mini pumpkins

4 sage leaf fake stems

8 yellow fluffy flowers

2 green and foam sparkly cluster stems (sold as a large fluffy cluster of things)

A couple clusters of fall leaf gord and mini pumpkin/pinecones clusters

And any organic material you want to add

I also used a dandelion type floral fake stem for more texture

FIRSTLY, take a swim noodle and find two curved sticks about two feet each in length.  Stick them into the noodle holes and tape around the edges until they are on securely.

 

I liked the organic element sticking out with the sticks.  I left that aspect revealed to give my wreath more dimension and a unique quality.

I planned to wrap it with yarn and then looked at my thin gauge of fiber and thought “heck no”.  That would take forever.  So I improvised with 4 sheets of orange construction paper wrapped tightly around the noodle and taped underneath the layers.  This at least got an orange color underneath.  I then wrapped it semi-loosely with my sparkly and regular orange tulle to elevate the paper texture.

Now I have a nice orange base to build upon.  I just double-knotted the tulle and taped the other end.  It will get covered up.  The best plan would be to order an orange noodle which I’m sure they make but you will still need the tulle layer to make it elegant.

So, you need 8 pieces of orange construction paper, one roll of shipping tape and one roll of sparkly or regular orange tulle.  All of these were leftovers from last year.  Yay, sticking to my moderate spending on this holiday plan.

Now choose your favorite fluffy flowers, sage-like fake leaves, sparkly foam clusters, raffia, tulle ties, and fall essentials to add to your wreath.  I wanted a symmetrical design so I designed one side and then copied on the other.

However, one flower cluster with the sparkles, I flipped them opposite so one green flower went high and one went low.  I like a lot of fullness at the bottom and clusters of flowers.  I had fun peppering in these little sparkly pumpkins I found at the dollar store in random places on the wreath.

 

Once you get your design layed out on top of the noodle start wiring with floral wire.  I ended up covering all wires with a handful of tulle and raffia ties long enough to wrap around the wires and tie a knot tightly in the clusters.  Always think about the bottom and sides that will be exposed so it looks clean and complete.

My favorite thing in blending a spooky story with a traditional fall one is that I don’t feel scared and somehow feel the cozy fall vibe at the same time.  I found it fun to buy a bunch of colorful and glittery pumpkins in various sizes and materials to add to my mantel.  I also tried to have symmetry with the pots, tombstones, and black candleabra and black kitty pop-ups.

I think it helps to focus the eye and having a centered wreath helps too.  The fabric comes together in the middle guiding your eye inward and the pumpkins are scattered about.  I love a lot of texture so this one was fun.

It is nice against a crisp white mantel.  But the use of color, lots of fall colors and traditional orange helps to make it calm and cozy.  Black accents help to tell a Halloween tale but still are subtle enough to not spook ya.  This was my thought process anyways.  Not sure if it reads this way or not?!

Have fun with it and remember you can make one for each holiday and tape noodles together to make big ones or make them smaller but it’s an easy foundation for a wreath and cheap!!  If you don’t want the sticks revealed just tape noodles together.  Let me know what you come up with.  Share a picture in the comments.