Creepy Clown

Another flea market find is this guy. 

Not sure what is creepier the doll or the fact that the guy that sold it too me said it would look really cute in my bedroom. Now I have nightmares of the doll watching me sleep.

I was a little hesitant at buying him as I have an extreme paranoia of bed bugs and therefore do not buy used items made out of fabric or other bed bug loving material. But at firm price of $3 I just had to have him. Little did I know they sell for $30 on ebay!

I'm not quite sure what I will do with him yet. In the meantime my DH is having a blast trying to scare me. He has attached the doll to the garage door opener. When I unknowingly open the garage door I have a creepy clown flying at my face. (Any suggestions on payback are greatly appreciated)

Looks like this...

 

and this...

Halloween Candles

I found these candle holders at a yard sale for $1! Perfect Halloween addition to our entry.

I was going to put candles on them but I know I'd forget about them and then our neighbor Bambi (see below) or trick-or-treaters would knock them over. Yikes!

So I decided to go with flameless candles. Ouch they are expensive! Luckily summer is ending and the outdoor flameless candles are on clearance. My only options were white or peach so I went with peach which is close to orange and orange is halloweenish right? They needed some work. So I beat them up and sprayed them with a spritz of spray paint to give them an old wornout appearance.

Not the greatest looking up close but outside at night they look like this.

Mirror Pumpkin...So Easy

This time of year you can find glass pumpkin jars everywhere including thrift stores. I picked up this jar at a yard sale.

I had a few ideas for it and then I came across The Frugal Homemaker's blog and decided to go with a mirror finish. 

The mirror effects spray paint is sold at most but not all hardware stores. Its a bit pricey compared to other spray paints but its worth it. I was hesitant never using this type of spray paint before and figured it would take some practice. To my surprise it was extremely easy!

I followed The Frugal Homemaker's instructions and it came out perfect on my first try! Remember you must spray the inside of the object to get the mirror effect. Its really runny so I sprayed the top (of the inside) first and let it run down the sides of the pumpkin. I ended up doing 4 (really light) coats

I can't wait to add mirror effects to everything!!

Halloween Owl

Here's another project I discovered while being dragged around the flea market in 90 degree weather. I came across this owl that had seen better days. He is pretty good size and HEAVY. He had a lot of missing paint and scratches.

As soon as I saw him I was immediately reminded of an owl I saw on the blog Making Lemonade.

I already had black spray paint so creating the owl was pretty easy. He only took one coat of spray paint to cover all of him as well as his imperfections. Which is so much easier now with Rust-Oleum's new can design, see here. No more drips or runs!

I filled in the eyes red with craft paint I had around the house and here he is...

Flea Market Find

I typically don't buy anything when my husband drags me to the flea market because everything is dirty, old, creepy, and cheap. But when it comes to Halloween what's better than dirty, old, creepy, and cheap!

Recently I found this old frame, it was missing the glass and backing. Normally I'd consider it junk but looked like the perfect frame for a spooky pic.

I googled printable spooky images, found the perfect photo and printed on photo paper I had lying around. I was still missing a backing so I had to create one. I grabbed a cardboard box, traced the frame, cut out the shape and whala a new frame!

Here's the final product.

Spooky!

Halloween Steals

I wish someone had told me years ago to go to the dollar store for Halloween! I spent $22 and got almost everything I was planning on purchasing online!

Unlike most dollar store items, the Halloween items I purchased were the exact same items I was looking at online not poorer quality versions. The cheapest prices I found online for these items ranged from $5-10 so a major score! For example this Halloween tape is 30 feet, the same length as $5 versions sold online.

I also discovered there are actually dollar stores still around where everything is $1! The first store I ventured to claimed to be a dollar store but I could not find anything in the store that was only $1. Which did not stop me from buying this $3 owl, still cheaper than ones I've seen elsewhere.

I went to one store last week and the shelves were empty and no Halloween stuff in site. I asked and they said they had received all of their Halloween items and had cleared shelves for them but hadn't had time to put them out yet. Their deadline from corporate was to have everything out by the second Friday in September. I did find some great fall items in the meantime like this cute pumpkin.

And of course I went back on the second Friday to find them frantically putting everything out to meet their deadline, finding some major finds before anyone else! Can't wait to go back again!