Halloween decor – Created by Jess

Halloween Candy Boxes

Here are a couple of fun Halloween themed candy boxes that I made. I would like to share these with my fellow crafters as a way to say “Happy Halloween”! There are links at the bottom of this post to download .pdf versions of the candy boxes as well as a .pdf guide to score the folds and cut out the boxes.

This Dracula themed box has the funny product name “Iron Count” because dark chocolate is a good source of iron! The back of the box has a lovely quote from Dracula himself, a perfect Halloween greeting. This box is the perfect size for large chocolate bars. I like the Lindt Chocolate bars because you can easily take the foil wrapped bar out of the original box and slip it into the custom made box, plus they come in lots of flavors and are available everywhere. I used a thicker cardstock but because the chocolate bar is rigid you can probably get away with regular paper.

“Candied Corn” makes a great Halloween gift when dressed up in this little black box! A dapper Pumpkin Man adorns the front of the box along with a cut-out window to see inside. The back of the box has a cheery Halloween greeting surrounding an adorable owl. You probably want to print these on a heavier cardstock because the candy corn isn’t light! I’ve added a .pdf version with a light gray background for those who want to print multiple boxes, I know ink is a precious commodity!

Instructions:

Print the box artwork and the box guide
Place the guide on top, and line up the cross marks with the page below (hold up to a window, lightbox, or lamp when using thicker paper)
Tape pages together (optional)
Place on cutting mat and score the dotted lines, these are where the folds will be
Cut along the outside solid line get your box shape
Fold Box and glue/tape the side flap under the back of the box
Fold and close top and bottom flaps

Dracula Box Art.pdf

Dracula Box Guide.pdf

Pumpkin Box Art Black.pdf

Pumpkin Box Art Gray.pdf

Pumpkin Box Guide.pdf

A Halloween Wreath

October is a busy time for our front doors and porches. In addition to a seemingly steady flow of political canvassers, we are coming up on that magical night, October 31st. Some years that means a small handful of trick-or-treaters, and other years, it means a steady parade of carefully constructed costumes. While running out of candy would be tragic, having an uninviting front porch would be worse. How else do you let people know they are welcome to come up and knock! In addition to flickering carved pumpkins, I always put out a few other festive decorations and lanterns. Don’t forget to leave the porch light on as well. All it takes is one decoration to let people know you celebrate this spooky holiday. If you don’t have a large doorstep or porch, then this is the ideal Halloween decoration for you. Today we are making a simple Halloween wreath.

This craft is pretty inexpensive, I got all of my supplies for about $10.00 at Michael’s. I used a 40% coupon on the wreath itself and all of the extra bits were on sale. This black plastic wreath is just like green ones you find around Christmas time, I chose the 18″ size, pick whatever size is right for your needs. Whenever I’m making a wreath like this I always check the Christmas section for floral and wreath making accents. You might be surprised to learn that these glittery orange leaves and silvery grey balls were tucked in with with poinsettias and holly berries! Plus, if you want a bit of color in your Halloween wreath, they have some great purple and bright green accents to choose from. I picked out some black and white ribbon, a cute little wooden ornament of a spell book, and this great little owl with an orange glittering front. You will need some string, black is best, and a hot glue gun and glue sticks, also a pair of wire cutters or scissors.

Before you decorate these wreaths, you need to “fluff” them out. Kind of like setting up a fake Christmas tree. The one on the left is straight out of the bag, when you pull apart all of the branches and bend them outward, you end up will a nice full looking wreath like the one on the right.

The first thing I put together was my little owl and the wooden spell book ornament. I cut off the ribbon from the ornament and tucked one of the wires from the owls feet through the hole. Then I used hot glue to secure the wire to the ornament. I glued a long piece of black string to the back of the ornament, this will allow me to tie the piece onto the wreath. I cut off the wire from the other foot and added a small drop of hot glue to secure it to the wooden book.

The owl has a small clip on the back that I secured to one of the branches and then tied my string around the wreath. I like this better than gluing the whole piece down because I can straighten in out easier when I hang this up again next year!

I’m the first one to admit, I have no idea how to make a proper bow! Maybe someday I’ll learn, but this cut and glue method usually does the trick for me. I started by making four large loops, the length depends on how big you want your bow. I used hot glue to secure the ends together and to hold the middle of each loop into the pinched shape. I stacked these larger loops together using hot glue to form what is starting to look like a bow. Then, I cut a bunch of smaller strips and folded them to make half size loops, I glued the ends together and glued these single loops all the way around to fill out the bow. I did the same thing with even smaller loops to make a fuller middle section. Then I made one small loop and glued in to the center. Next, I flipped over the bow and glued a long piece of black string to the back. Just like we did for the owl, this makes the bow easy to tie on and re-position if needed.

bow and leaves — bow with orange glittered leaves

Once my bow was tied on in the right place, I cut apart my stems of glittered leaves. I hot glued little leaf clusters on each side of the bow and continued gluing leaves down until it looked as full as I wanted, on both sides. With the bow finished and my owl in place, I put the silvery grey balls on as a finishing touch. I cut them off the cluster using wire cutters and randomly placed them around the wreath using a dab of hot glue on each. I think they break up the solid black sections nicely and give this wreath a little more glamour.

I have a large metal hook to the left of my front door which is where I always hang my wreaths. These don’t weigh too much though, I’ve used wire in the past to tie them to the wooden part of the screen door, or you can pick up a wreath hanger that slips over the top of the door. I’ve seen them pretty cheap this time of year, check the Dollar Tree.

Halloween is coming…

I found this green glass jar at Goodwill last week. It was only $1.99 and such a great color, I had to get it. I decided that because I didn’t “need” it, I would use it for a Halloween decoration, or candy jar.

I used rubber stamps and scrapbook paper to make a label for my jar. I carefully cut out the stamped design and used a piece of double sided adhesive to turn it into a sticker.

I applied my sticker to the glass jar, all done! I chose to name the contents Poison, but you could make a bunch of these using all different containers and have fun making up the various labels and contents. This was a very quick craft too, less than 15 minutes. It’s a bit early to decorate for Halloween but I couldn’t resist this Goodwill Bargain.