Trick-or-Treat Halloween Mantel

Happy Halloween! My kids are so excited to dress up today as a pink fairy and Iron Man for their school costume parade and then head out trick-or-treating this evening. I hope I can keep up with them! I’m 38 weeks along now, just waiting on Baby Girl to make her appearance.

A few weeks ago, I finally got the “Halloween decorating bug” and did up our dining room mantel. Hazel and Owen had fun helping me and making their own decorations too.

Mainly, I used items we already had, decorations from previous years, and some crafts we worked on together. The only new purchases were all of the pumpkins and gourds.

Here is what we put together…

Although I MUST WARN YOU!! Before we venture ahead…

BOO! This post is long 🙂

I took a ton of pictures of our mantel, Halloween tree and other decorations that the kids made around the house. Since I waited until Halloween to share all of this with you, I have to cram it all into one post.

I hope you will forgive me for the overload and enjoy this mini “Halloween tour” from inside our home.

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Since everyone always asks about our mantel: we found it a local architectural salvage shop about six years ago. It came out of a home in the Rochester area which is pretty cool. I love pieces of history being saved and given a second chance.

To decorate it for Halloween, I always start with a strand of white lights draped in tattered cheesecloth. I love lights and would love to use them all year, but it’s not till right about now that it feels legit.

My four year old, Owen, bought himself a light up jack-o-lantern at a yard sale a few months back. The kid is crazy for yard sales and finding stuff on the side of the road…wonder who he could have gotten that from? So, that went on one side and a Cinderella and a jarrahdale went on the other.

I filled the rest of the mantel in with random items found throughout our home, including some old books, a wire tree, amber glass bottles and battery operated candles.

It was Hazel’s idea to put both black crows in the nest and I stacked them on top of the pumpkins. She also added the glittered candy corn (similar to these) in one of the antique bottles.

We made our own pipe cleaner and yarn spiders. One is crawling on the mantel, while the other two are on our Halloween tree.

My husband has had this wire tree since he was a kid. I bring it out every Halloween. The little candy corn cat was purchased at a small shop a few years ago.

Hazel drew faces on some baby boo pumpkins which were the perfect fit for this mantel vignette. I love my kids drawings 🙂

Above the mantel, we put a cat silhouette that my mom made on her Cricut Explore. She printed it on black glittered paper for Hazel. It’s on the hunt for a mouse…

Several years ago, I bought a box of vintage metal letters and symbols at a thrift store. They are perfect for Halloween, being black and white, so I put a string up with the words: TRICK OR TREAT?

Inside the mantel, we hung our scrap fabric ghost family (tutorial here). My mom and I made these together just after Owen was born. I thought it would be fun this year to hang them from fishing line and have it look like they were floating inside the mantel.

We decided to fill in the bottom of the mantel with this season’s collection of pumpkins and gourds. We found the large ones at a farmer’s market and the small ones at Walmart! I was surprised when I saw them there and was tempted to take every one they had. I love the soft colors and unique look each one has.

Hazel and I made a faux wood “Pumpkin Patch” sign together out of cardboard. It was the perfect finishing touch.

When Hazel was a toddler, I had her paint some rocks white and I drew faces on them to make a tiny ghost family. The kids decided they belonged in the patch too.

Eeeek! There is that mouse…

We have a white tree that has been on our back patio for awhile (I last used it for Hazel’s wolf birthday party), so I decided to bring it in and do it up as a Halloween tree. I printed off various vintage images on card stock. I think my favorite is the Man in the Moon as the tree topper. Most of these came from The Graphics Fairy.

A strand of burlap “Happy Halloween” ribbon, more of our pipe cleaner spiders and some pumpkins that Hazel drew faces on finish off the tree.

In our living room, we displayed lots of white paper ghosts on all of our windows. I cut them out for Hazel and Owen and then they drew faces on them.

Owen’s make me smile. I love watching my kids learn to draw people in their own unique way.

Hazel got very creative with hers adding mustaches, hair bows and even made one look like Charlie Brown from It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! It’s definitely one of my favorites.

Finally, we had a “pumpkin carving party” with my mom and step-dad over the weekend. My step-dad, Gary, and I worked together to make the kids’ pumpkin carving wishes come true. I did the drawings…he did the carving. This year, Owen wanted Iron Man and Hazel wanted a unicorn. They were pretty excited when we put them outside lit up!