Step right up goblins and ghouls! Come take a peek and get some Halloween inspiration, Carn’Evil’ style! With all this quarantining and social distancing, I’ve had plenty of time to be left to my own devices…which means I’ve been in super creative Halloween frenzy since March. So I’m super happy to finally get to share what I’ve been up to for the last few months. This year’s decorating and food theme was Carn’EVIL’ where I tried to create the old time feel of the road show carnival where creepy skull clowns and blood striped pumpkins elevated by vintage boxes take center stage. The supporting cast includes a homemade vintage harlequin tablecloth, a light up marquee sign, a circus tent chandelier made with party hats, and much more. So come on in and enjoy the show!
Dining Room Decorating
When I decorate I usually start in the heart of my home, the dining room. It’s where I entertain my family and friends (at least before the pandemic) and where we gather during the holidays. So decorating this space is key to setting the stage. The first thing I made was a vintage tablecloth that echoed the past with washed out harlequin diamonds against a coffee stained tablecloth. It was simple to make although a bit messy when it came to coffee staining the fabric. I took an old twin sheet and soaked it in coffee for a day or so and then hung it out to dry outside where the sun baked in the vintage nicely. After a quick ironing, I painted a rough border with acrylic paint, and then stenciled the diamond pattern onto it. I echoed the same harlequin pattern with the rough black border in the Cirque du Freak Marquee sign.
I made all the vintage boxes by covering various sized paper mache boxes with scrapbook paper that I aged with antiquing paint and black stencil paint. The small favor boxes were also paper mache, but I covered them with red carnival tickets and then aged it with black stencil paint and then sealed it with Modge Podge. Super easy and really cute. I placed them on these resin skeleton hands that I bought a few years ago from the 99 Cents Only Store. When I bought them I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do with them, but I’m glad I did because I use them almost every year in my decorating.
Next came the skull clowns… Armed with new permanent markers and some skulls from my Halloween stash, I drew clown makeup around the mouth and eyes and then traced it all black. Then I smeared diluted black acrylic paint all over the skull and wiped it off with paper towels to give it an aged look. Adding a foam clown nose that I gently sprayed with spray paint finished the look. I liked the way they came out so much that I turned one of them into a jack-in-the box using fake vertebrae bones and a box. He turned out so great that I made him the star of the table.
More Carn’evil’ Decorating Ideas…
Under the Big Top Chandelier
For How to instructions click here.
Cirque Du Freak Marquee Sign
For How to instructions click here.
Blood Painted Pumpkins
For How to instructions click here.
More Fun Ideas…
One of the fun things about creating Halloween decorations all year long is that I find I can use other holiday items and transform them for Halloween. For instance, while designing my Carn’Evil’ decorations it was June and July, so everything in stores was for 4th of July. Which was a bummer when I was looking for Halloween stuff. But this year, I lucked out and was able to use some 4th of July garland and rosettes from ‘The 99′ and transformed them into cool vintage carnival decor for my dining room. For the garland, I cut off the blue stripe and stars from the top and then aged the pennants with a little black stencil paint. For the rosettes, I spray painted the outside blue stripe and stars black so that it matched my color scheme. and used them as a backdrop for my Wine and Candy bars. Easy and very Carn’Evil’-ish, don’t you think?
What better way to end this post but with the Carn’Evil’ WINE and CANDY bars. My friend Neidin, gave me this bottle of Petite Petit as inspiration when I told her about my Halloween theme being vintage carnival this year and I loved it so much that I bought two more of the Michael David wines. And lastly, no party is complete without a fun mix of red and black candy at the Candy Bar.
