Halloween! Love it, love it, love it. Decorating for Halloween is the best! There are so many possibilities. From the boring old pumpkins and gourds to the bloody knives and severed heads.
Personally, decorating with fake blood is not really my thing. I like to fall somewhere in between the boring pumpkins and bloody body parts. Don't get me wrong, I have a few ping pong ball eyeballs floating around the house, but I also have some candy corn and black, orange, and white flowers. In this particular tutorial, I am going to show you how I made the spooky tree branches seen above.
Obviously I started with branches. These particular ones are leftover from my wedding centerpieces that I made in 2013.
Personally, decorating with fake blood is not really my thing. I like to fall somewhere in between the boring pumpkins and bloody body parts. Don't get me wrong, I have a few ping pong ball eyeballs floating around the house, but I also have some candy corn and black, orange, and white flowers. In this particular tutorial, I am going to show you how I made the spooky tree branches seen above.
Obviously I started with branches. These particular ones are leftover from my wedding centerpieces that I made in 2013.
I originally bought them from a website called bloomsandbranches.com. It is a very cool website with lots of different choices, but I expect that you could probably snap a few branches off a tree in your backyard and use them just as easily.
My branches were originally a brownish-red color when I bought them, but I sprayed a light white mist of spray paint over them for my wedding. I suggest doing the same for the spooky branches. The white provides a nice contrast with the black decorations.
I used dollar store vases to hold the branches. They were a little thinner and taller than I would have liked, but they were what I had in the garage. I was a little worried they might tip over with the weight of the branches. In order to solve that problem, I filled them with dollar store glass rocks that I also happened to have.
My branches were originally a brownish-red color when I bought them, but I sprayed a light white mist of spray paint over them for my wedding. I suggest doing the same for the spooky branches. The white provides a nice contrast with the black decorations.
I used dollar store vases to hold the branches. They were a little thinner and taller than I would have liked, but they were what I had in the garage. I was a little worried they might tip over with the weight of the branches. In order to solve that problem, I filled them with dollar store glass rocks that I also happened to have.
Instead of leaving the glass rocks visible, I decided to cover the vases with a layer of burlap. Burlap is great to have in the craft arsenal, especially during the fall season. You can turn pretty much any decoration into a fall decoration with a little bit of burlap. Most of the craft stores sell it in rolls of varying widths. I have a ton of it. For this particular project, I used the thickest burlap I had. A few dabs of hot glue did the trick.
I didn't have enough glass rocks to cover the base of my tree branch that wasn't sprayed white. Candy corn to the rescue! One of my Halloween decorating tips is using candy corn to fill in gaps. It was a cheap, easy solution to my problem. I put the candy corn right on top of the glass rocks to cover up the ugly base of the branch. Perfecto! I told you Halloween was awesome.
Once the branches were secure, I added a few little embellishments. I bought two black ravens from the dollar store that I placed at the base of the branches.
Then I cut a few pieces of thin black ribbon and tied them around some of the smaller branches at the top. From a distance, they look a little like bats in the trees. At least I think so...
Once I was satisfied with the overall look, I placed the branches on either side of the buffet table in my dining room. I rearranged some of my fall decor to accommodate the new arrivals. I was very pleased with the results. A little spooky, but not too scary. Definitely creative and sure to draw some attention. Pretty much exactly what I was going for. Score!