Striped Skeleton Halloween Wreath: Using Spray Paint on Styrofoam

Over the summer I bought a styrofoam ring to make a life preserver style wreath for the door but just never got around to it so after a coat of orange spray paint it was ready to use for Halloween.

Last year I had a wooden skeleton hanging on our door but it blew around in the wind and banged into the door so loudly that there's no way it was going back on there this year.  I decided a 'quiet' wreath out of styrofoam would be better. Black and orange spray paint with polka dots can be considered quiet, right?

After the coat of orange spray paint dried, I taped off stripes. When I had them lined up how I wanted, I went around and really pressed the tape edges down because I thought there might be a lot of bleed through with painted foam.

Here's the painted wreath. It looked like Tigger! (Anyone need an idea for a Tigger party?)
To finish the painted wreath I went through my stash of Halloween gear and found skeletons and bats.

Because they open down the middle and never seemed practical as boxes that would hold anything I decided to split these cardboard skeleton boxes and use them for accents on the wreath. I covered them with a couple of coats of black spray paint.

I topped the wreath with a paper bat and tied a polka dot ribbon on the bottom.

Corsage pins served double duty and both fasten my spooky flare onto the wreath and give the bat and skeletons eyes to glare at the trick-or-treaters coming to the door.

Now I'm ready to start the rest of our Halloween crafting and decorating!

Words to Wake Up To: Houndstooth Nursery Sign

When I found out that we were having a girl I started pinning nursery ideas and was sure I was going to avoid pink in favor of a beige/gray room. My entire pregnancy I managed to avoid doing a single thing to her room other than hang white curtains but after she was born I kept finding myself buying things that were pink. 

The idea of a neutral room was pretty much abandoned when I bought the flower painting and things started to get out of hand when I came home with this:

I like to decorate kids' spaces with homemade items and artwork so as I started to gather these store bought wall hangings for the nursery I felt like I needed to balance out the 'cute' with something a little more meaningful. I made this wall hanging with a houndstooth stencil and a sticker quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

"Be Silly. Be Honest. Be Kind." I love the idea of our little girl waking up in a room with this sentiment. 

I mixed a shade of pink paint and coated a canvas with it.

Then I mixed a green that ended up almost too preppy in combination with the pink and stenciled the houndstooth pattern on. This photo was taken while the paint was still wet.

I had to paint a white background for the clear sticker because the background pattern showed through too much when I tried to put it on.

I coated the painted canvas with varnish and added the sticker.

Finally, I framed the sticker with pieces of eyelet fabric trim.

After the trim I went from liking to loving the sign even though it's quite the combo of colors and patterns!

Now I need to find some words to wake up to for our bedroom. Right now the first word that comes to mind in the morning is COFFEE.


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