Etsy Halloween Shopping Guide

Mimi Cafe Union

Fresh Home Ideas has a nice slideshow of Halloween Etsy items, like these fondant dismembered hands, an iPod dock in the shape of Bram Stoker's Dracula, and many others.

DIY Halloween Blocks

Poppies at Play

I love these adorable Halloween letter blocks!  The very simple instructions, along with downloadable print-outs for the letters, are here.

[Via The Crafter's Cafe]

On Vampires

Over on the Huffington Post, Varla Ventura reflects on vampires.  Having just recently watched the 1931 Dracula, I can't argue with that.

"The Raven" Trailer

John Cusack as Poe.  Why do we have to wait until March for this?

Altern-o-Lanterns

Photo by Arbitror, via Instructables

 If you're worried about the pumpkin shortage this year, the Hairpin has a round-up of pumpkin alternatives, including the reasonable squash, the adorable apple, and the slightly more ridiculous grape and tomato.

Dead Bat in Jo-Ann's Halloween Aisle

"Bat" by possumgirl2, via Flickr

It may sound like set-up to a bad joke, but a dead rabid bat was found recently in the Halloween aisle of an Olympia, Washington, Jo-Ann Fabrics.  Strange, but true.

[Via The Consumerist]

DIY Halloween Paper Lanterns

I've been seeing a lot of awesome Halloween paper lanterns recently -- like these, these, these and  these from Pottery Barn, and these, for example.  But instead of paying between $10 and $25 for some readymade lanterns, I decided to try my hand at making my own, so I bought a $5 string of paper lanterns at my local Five Below and got to work.  What I wound up with is, I think, fun and customizable, and much more personal than the store-bought versions.

You Will Need:

A string of lighted paper lanterns
Glow-in-the-dark acrylic paint
Paint brush
Paint receptacle (I used a takeout lid)
Pencil
Sharpie
Scissors
Halloweeny templates or stencils
Newsprint-covered work surface

Untangle your lanterns and spread them out on a newspaper-covered work surface.

Brush a coat of glow-in-the-dark paint onto each lantern.  Let this dry, then repeat.  I used two coats, and my lanterns glow very faintly in the dark.  If you want a more robust glow, you may want to do three or four coats.

While your paint is drying, decide what images you want to put on your lanterns.  I used this bat from Good Housekeeping and this raven.  You could also do spiders, haunted houses, or whatever else your spooky heart desires.  Resize your images to fit and cut them out.

Once the paint is dry, hold your stencils up to the lanterns and trace the outline with a pencil. (The duller the pencil, the better, so you don't poke holes in the paper!)  I fit two images on each lantern, and alternated the pattern, but you can arrange them any way you like.

Color in your outlines with Sharpie.  You could also fill them in with black paint, but I feel like I have more control with a pen, and I also wound up liking the kind of distressed-looking results of the streaky ink.

Once the ink is dry, you're ready to hang your lanterns and admire!  Be sure to expose the lanterns to a generous dose of light to activate the glow-in-the-dark paint.

I suspect that you could also cut your spooky shapes out of black tissue paper and paste them onto your lanterns if you so chose, although that seems a bit more fiddly to me, and doesn't involve the dubious pleasures of a marker high.  It would also be fun to find some orange lanterns and do Jack-o-hanging-lanterns.  Next time, perhaps!

Also, if you're really not in a DIY mood, Five Below has the best deal I've seen on Halloween lanterns, with $5 strings of Halloween-print lanterns.  You can locate the nearest store here.