2011 Outdoor Halloween Decor

This is my first time really decorating for Halloween. A couple years ago, I threw some fake spider webbing over our very dead tree ON Halloween Day, but this year - I actually put thought into our Halloween decorations.

I started out by simply placing two pumpkins on our front porch. That was fine for a couple days, but something was definitely missing. So I took a trip to my favorite store - Salvation Army - and found some AWESOME goodies!

I noticed a small hay bale in the shop window, but decided to go over into the "Brick-a-Brack" section first. And what do you know? Another hay bale! I checked out the price: $1.99 - can't go wrong! So I picked it up and high-tailed it back to the front window to get the other bale. It was marked at $4.99, but the manager said he'd give me the $1.99 price. In the basket it went!

I also found this great black urn that was not-too-big, not-too-small for $4. I knew it would make a great addition to my front porch if I just added some spooky flowers (of which I had some leftovers at home from other projects) and black river stones (left over from my June wedding centerpieces).

After a bit of moving things around, I'm really happy with the way it all came together. It's not too spooky and is a very nice welcome for visitors (and Trick-or-Treaters)! I love that I'll be able to re-use the hay bales for my Fall Decor and I'm sure I'll find something to do with that black urn throughout the year!

Another great find I got from Salvation Army was this white plastic picket garden fencing. I knew exactly what I was going to do with it when I saw it and the $.99 price for 3 pieces was a total bonus!

I took it home and got out my hack saw! I sawed away at each piece creating broken slats - a really spooky look. After it was all broken up, I inked up my Tim Holtz Distressing Tool with Antique Linen Distress Ink and went to town! I knew Antique Linen wouldn't be enough, so after letting each piece dry a bit, I distressed them again with Walnut Stain.

Little trick: After you've finished inking up the plastic, use your heat tool to set/dry the ink. Be careful and don't get too close or you could melt the plastic!

Now that my fence was dirty-looking and spooky, I was ready to create my own personal Garden Cemetery! I had a few tombstones from a couple years ago, so I stuck them in my (very sad) garden by the front porch.

This is where I make my confession: Hi, my name is Veronica and I'm a terrible gardener. 

It seems that dying/dead plants and weeds really add to the effect of a Spooky Garden Cemetery, so I'm going to pretend like that was my plan the whole time. I MEANT for my garden to look awful so that it would be PERFECT for Halloween. Yep. That's my story.

It's been super windy here for the last little while, so I filled sandwich bags with rocks and placed them on top of the stakes that keep the tombstones from blowing over backward. That seems to be helping as I haven't lost a tombstone yet!

I tossed a couple furry spiders into my Hostas and hung a BEWARE sign on the broken fence.

Our front porch/walkway area is now ready for Trick-or-Treaters! Check back tomorrow for a look at my Halloween Door Wreath!