Haunting the Manor

Maybe it's just me, but we add to our Halloween decoration stash each year in the same way we add to our Christmas decorations. 

These are a few we added this year, and some of them were free downloads (for which I have included the links), so you can have them too!

This is a little bit of a non-conventional Halloween decoration - these were rusted metal letters that we picked up at a flea market. They, of course, had the entire alphabet, but with Fall just around the corner, I opted to get letters to spell out "Boo" and add them to my Halloween decorations.

And here are some decorations that include the free downloads I was talking about. The framed print is a poem that sounds suspiciously like a spell when paired with these witchy potion bottles.

The spell (poem) is available as a free printable at Positively Splendid in a couple of sizes and colors. To create this, I saved the 12 x 18 size and then cropped and printed at 11 x 14 with a freebie coupon at an online photo vendor. 

Here's a closeup of the potion bottles:

The labels for the potion bottles are available as free downloads at Love Manor in custom sizes. To create these, you'll need to save, clean, and de-sticker some bottles for this project throughout the year. Different shapes and sizes will add interest to the display. (I also painted all of the metal tops of the bottles black for a consistent look, but do whatever floats your boat.) 

In lieu of trying to find an adhesive that would stick to glass, I printed these on full sheet size label paper, cut the labels to size, and then stuck them to the bottles. I filled the bottles with items that resembled what the labels indicated (for example, Dollar Store plastic eyeballs, eyelash yarn for werewolf fur, chenille yarn for earthworms, glitter for moon dust, etc.)

Here are some closeups of some of the labels that I used:

And then there's my dining room. I have struggled with decorating this room for Halloween for YEARS! It's painted red (RED ROOM, RED ROOM! - Sorry, I just couldn't resist), and I finally figured out that all of my orange decorations were what was "off" about the Halloween decor in that room. So, now I've gone with a black and white color scheme in there, and it is starting to shape up. It will probably morph again next year, but this is what it looks like this year.

Here's a full-length view of the buffet. I covered the mirror in the standard spiderweb that you can find anywhere this time of year, but I swapped out the cheapie spider that comes with the web with a pack of gigantic glitter spiders from Michaels (well worth the $2.00 investment).

The Raven print is another free printable that can be found at Over the Big Moon:

And it paired quite nicely with my little bird friends that you see here.

And this is the candy cauldron. I'm sure I will be sprucing that up next year. It's flanked by two large styrofoam skulls that are adorned with red and black masks, which might make them look even creepier.

And according to my nifty Halloween countdown board, we've only got 4 days left! Hope you're as excited as I am!