This season’s decorating theme was inspired by Miranda at Spooky Little Halloween the hands down expert on all things Halloween. Miranda shares her awesome ideas on food, movies, music, fashion, decorating…you name it… all year long on her website, social media, her seasonal publications, and now, bypumpkinslight podcast that she co-hosts with Mike from All Hallows Geek. One of the many things I love about Spooky Little Halloween is that Miranda uses classic jack-o-lanterns and candy corn in the styling of her magazines and website. The imagery brings me right back to my childhood and memories of trick-or-treating, when lit jack-o-lanterns showed the way to the next house, and to the next. And getting home and dumping out our pillowcases of candy on the floor in front of the TV. So many happy memories and feelings that it inspired me to incorporated these classic symbols to decorate my dining room this year. I created glowing jack-o-lanterns and a Candy Cornfield against a dark aesthetic in order to really make these two elements pop. The candy corn colors really stand out against the black corn husks and the black jack-o-lanterns with glowing faces remind me of those Halloween nights from so long ago. Just for fun, I repeated playful candy corn elements in my tablescape by creating a candy corn chandelier, napkin rings, Candy Corn Stalks and a festive wreath. Check out the easy how to’s below and please make sure to follow/subscribe to Mike and Miranda’s podcast and on social media, and make sure to pre-order her seasonal magazines to get your dose of spooky all year long. Enjoy!
Candy Corn Inspired Menu Ideas
Candy Corn Crafts
Materials
Candy Corn Candles
- 1 orange pool noodle
- blue painters tape (2.5 inch thickness)
- 2 cans spray paint (yellow and white)
- hot glue sticks (white) (I got these from Daiso)
- 6 tealights
Candy Corn Stalks
- 24 foam faux corn cobs
- 3 cans spray paint (yellow, orange and white)
- 1½ pounds dried corn husks
- 1 box fabric dye (Black)
- 8 curly willow branches (I got these from Hobby Lobby)
- glue gun
Candy Corn Napkin Rings
- 6 paper towel rolls cut to 5-inches
- bubble wrap
- tissue paper (yellow, orange and white)
- Mod Podge
Instructions
Candy Corn Candles
- Cut pool noodle into six 5-inch lengths with a serrated knife. Tape center of pool noodle with painters tape to mask off the orange center and spray one end of the noodle white and the other end yellow and allow to dry completely. Remove blue tape to reveal the candy corn color scheme. On the white end of the pool noodle, trace around a tealight to mark where the tealight will sit. Use a small serrated knife to cut out a circle deep enough for the tealight to sit inside the pool noodle flush with the top. Use a hot glue gun with white glue sticks (I got these from Daiso) to run drips of white glue around the top of the noodle to mimic wax drips. Let cool completely and then add your tealights. I removed the lightbulbs from my chandelier and then fit the candy corn candles over the lights.
Candy Corn Stalks
- Spray all the foam corn on the cobs with yellow, orange and white spray paint and let them dry completely.
- In a large plastic tub, add corn husks, hot water and black fabric dye. Add more hot water until all the husks are submerged, pressing down to mix the dye and the water into the corn husks. Allow to soak overnight for the darkest black color. If you don't leave it long enough it will be purple, if that happens leave it in longer.
- Once desired color is reached, remove husks from water and place on paper towels, layering with more paper towels and roll them up to remove excess water. Unwrap and allow to dry overnight. Some will be still damp feeling and others will be drier but that's ok. The damp ones will be easier to wrap around your candy corn cobs and will dry completely with time.
- Rip the large husks in half and hot glue husks around corn cob, layering a few husks and bend to curl them outward. When gluing husks make sure all three colors of the candy corn cob are peeking through the husks. Hot glue cobs to curly willow branches securing with more husks wrapped around the branch as needed.
- I taped floral foam around a long container and draped it with black creepy cloth to create the base for my Candy Cornfield. Add the corn stalks into the foam and decorate with lighted foam jack-o-lanterns and enjoy!
- JACK-O-LANTERNS: These Jack-o-lanterns were carved from foam pumpkins from past Ghoul at Heart themes (Pink-o-ween and Mad Scientist) where I added small curly willow branches to each stem, wrapped them with black masking tape to add personality. For this theme, I sprayed them all black and added a piece of orange vellum paper to fit inside over each face of the jack-o-lantern and added a small tealight to light them up! 🎃
Candy Corn Napkin Rings
- Coat paper towel rolls with Mod Podge and cover with bubble wrap and allow to dry. Cut out strips of white, yellow and orange tissue paper. Coat one end of the roll with Mod Podge and layer white tissue paper on the bubble wrap, folding the tissue to the inside of the tube. Repeat with the other end with the yellow strip of tissue paper and allow to dry. Apply top coat of Mod Podge to white and yellow ends and allow to dry. Repeat with the orange strip of tissue paper and apply to the middle of the roll. Apply top coat of Mod Podge to seal orange strip and allow to dry overnight. Once dry, stuff a black napkin through the yellow end and fluff to make it look like the corn husks and place at your place setting.
- Here's a look at our finished Candy Corn Tablescape...
Those Candy Corn stalks are just so awesome!!! Beautiful Look!
Thank you Mary. Happy Halloween.
Lori 🖤