Cute Halloween Decor~ DIY

It's finally the most wonderful time of the year! Spooky season! The only problem, is there's no catering to my specific niche of decor. So, this year, I finally vowed to resolve this issue and make Halloween decorations to my liking~

First things first~ Buy the supplies. I went to my local craft store and they were having a big sale and on top of it I bought all the defective decor for an added discount on top of it~ I mean, I'm already going to fix them up, so a few extra steps or missing components don't bother me.

My main pieces are a foam tombstone (non-working light function), skull (with a big crack/dent on its underside), and 3 pumpkins (that a kid actually tried biting into and successfully took a few bites out of).

My arsenal of choice for this project are:

Spray paint primer!!!! (super important)
Spray paint of choice~ I chose an off white and a light pink colour
Acrylic paint for small details
Paint brushes

[[not pictured]]
exacto knife
sand paper

Since my little pumpkins had big chunks taken out of them, I needed to fill them in and chose to try this Wood Powder Clay from Daiso instead of my usual paper clay... I actually ended up hating this wood clay. It dried to the same styrofoam texture as my props, but it didn't paint well, or sand down well at all! So, I don't recommend it.

My choice for filling in small props is proper paper clay, which I ended up going back and doing later...

With my larger pumpkin, I eyed it for a certain reason~ it was hallow inside! I kind of wondered if I could turn it into a vase, so I cut off the top with an exacto knife and filled it with water to test if it was leak proof.

Thankfully, it is! So, I could happily follow through with my idea!

After finding an area that was well ventilated and suitable for spray painting, I got to work spraying everything with primer. (Since the skull is plastic, I sanded it a bit before priming, optional but it helps give the primer better adhesion.)

I also used this time to see if a primer would melt the styrofoam tombstone. Most spray paints have compounds, I believe alcohol of some sort, that can melt styrofoam. So, I was hoping a primer would help against that. The primer went on without a hitch, so I gave it a good 4  layers of coating.

The pumpkins I was less worried about melting as they seemed to be a sturdier foam and were coated in a durable exterior. So, I sprayed them in a primer first, then after drying, I sanded down the areas where I fixed them to make the transition from clay to foam smoother.

Sanding in between layers of primer will help make an even smoother surface in the end product, and can really make a vast improvement on a spray painting job! The best example in the end is my skull, since I spent a lot of time on it doing it right!

I like doing 2-3 layers of primer, just to make sure everything is well coated and and as smooth as I can make it.

After the last priming coat dried, I got to work doing multiple light layers of my colour of choice.

Doing many light layers can be pretty time consuming, but it makes for a better result, trust me! Plus, it dries faster!

For my poor tombstone, the spray paint still managed to eat though it very badly in some areas, especially where I accidentally got a bit heavy handed. I almost gave up on it then decided to use some of my paper clay to fill in the worst areas, which worked semi-decently... But, the spray paint still managed to eat though more of my styrofoam as I continued on afterwards...

I thought that spray painting this would save me more time rather than hand painting it with acrylic paint, but boy was I wrong!!! If I ever do this again, I'd rather just suck it up and take my time sponging acrylic paint onto styrofoam.....

After letting my pieces dry and have a few extra hours to cure to harden up, I had these lovelies!
I could probably happily stop there, but I wanted to add bit of flair to some of them.

Using my rose gold acrylic paint, I dry brushed thin layers of paint onto my pumpkin stems, and onto a tooth of my skull. Doing thin light washes of acrylic I found is the best way to paint objects without any sign of brush strokes or uneven coating. After 6 or 7 passes, the paint will be nice an opaque!

The tombstone got the same treatment, but with a white acrylic paint I had laying around and the same rose gold paint for accents.

Then finally my babies were done!

The cute and spooky corner of my bedroom!

Before I could call myself done, I wanted an extra little nod to the fall season with a runner for my coffee table. Since I couldn't find any that I liked and that fit into my aesthetic, I decided to make a simple one with some lace and a pretty burlap ribbon I came across.

I easily hot glued the lace onto the burlap, and used more hot glue to faux hem them together.

For a super quick job, it came together very nicely!!

With the table runner, and some roses put into my pumpkin vase~ my table is ready for the fall season!

Finally, I can feel satisfied with unique Halloween goodies that reflect the proper spooky ambiance that I adore, and without looking too out of place in my life.

I really didn't think that doing something like this would be so easy, and take up only a day! I'd like it to be known that it isn't actually as intimidating as one would think to take on this kind of project and I highly recommend it! 

So, may the Great Pumpkin bring everyone holliday cheer, and maybe leave out some treats for the spooks in your life!

<3CarisseIris