You may recall from my last Halloween post that I LOVE Halloween! Once we moved into the new house I couldn’t wait to start building up my arsenal of spooky masks, skeletons, tombstones and more! I started hitting up sales, combing dollar stores for supplies and even crafting up a few of my own. Well, this year I think I topped myself in the creepy scenery department and wanted to share a few fun before and after pics…
Before: Adorable front porch, complete with hanging ferns, lots of sun, and a comfy porch swing.
After: what an unfortunate accident. Muwahaha. $30 Walgreens skeleton and about 15 $1 creepy cloths layered around the porch frame, Dollar store tombstone and caution tape, and a few bits from another skeleton strewn about. Added a bubble fogger and a strobe for some seriously cool effects!
And this little bonus scene using the rocking chair and another awesome $30 Walgreens skeleton. Added some body parts also acquired at the Dollar store, and re-used my giant web. Thanks to TheNextMartha for pointing me at that those skeletons, genius. Need a few more for next year!
My next before and after is the fireplace mantle. Before, cute late summer collection of stuff. Way too bright and cute for Halloween.
After, CREEEEPY, much more appropriate scene. I used LOTS of web here, anchored by strategically placed, clear command hooks. The glass jar centerpiece was from a thrift store for $2 and is sitting on a candle base I found laying around. I added Spanish moss, some fake eyes, and a small foam skull and hand and voila! Creep-tastic on a budget. The most expensive piece up there is the creepy couple photo, $3.79 on sale. It’s safe to assume I paid full price for NOTHING except for the Dollar store items…
Most of the other items up there are dollar store or post-Halloween clearance from Michaels or Hobby Lobby last year. I gravitate towards skulls, body parts, tombstones and the rickets fence pieces since they mix and match nicely to make great scenes. Sprinkle in a few small pumpkins and ugly gourds from the farmers market for a little “color”.
You’re probably already tired of the build-up so I’ll just fire through some additional photos of other cool things we whipped up for the party. Who doesn’t want a murder bathroom? Webs, $1 creepy cloth, more dollar store props and those gel “blood spatter” clings. I use them every year, you can too if you are careful and store them properly on their cling background.
Note the use again of glass jars (all from thrift stores or re-purposed from my own dining room hutch), Spanish moss and random bits and parts…
Dining room included quite a few nice little scenes, again most of it was from the dollar store, or some repurposed items I had laying around, a few from local thrift stores that were rehabbed with a little spray paint like this ole’ thing from my earlier post:
More creepy cloth, webbing, and some clearance light-up items from Walgreens and Target!
And who doesn’t like a nice cheese plate at a party? Guess what? Yeah, more dollar store items. You don’t have to spend a lot to have cool decorations! Cheese plate is my own, from Pottery Barn MANY many years ago, but normally used for fancy dinner parties and not normally filled with human organs 
Since one of my skeletons broke, I decided to let him hang out in the kitchen, who needs legs anyway… Added the toxic sign since this was propped up right over the food, hehe
Last minute impulse buy - Cemetery complete with light up trees and a strobe thanks to JoAnn pre-Halloween sale and a few deals at my local Walgreens:
And last but not least our new butler who greeted everyone at the door, thanks to mom for this great piece! Note the skeleton legs that detched from the one in the kitchen, figured I might as well use them…
Already have some AMAZING ideas for next year. Need a few more skeletons and a bucket of fake blood, as a start 
