Cute Halloween Items for 2021

I’m back with some creepy and spoopy Halloween items on my Halloween wishlist! It may be because I have a toddler now but I’m totally obsessed with Hallmark’s Halloween kid selection this year!

Take a look at these spoopy items for 2021!


Wearable Monster Brain Bean Bag Toss Game, Set of 4

How cute is this? And it’s wearable? Count me in! Price $19.99 @ Hallmark 


Spooky Eyeball Plush With Light

This plush combines three of my favorite things in one— spooky plushies, eyeballs, and LED lights. How can eye go wrong? Price $8.99 @ Hallmark


That’s all for now but I’ll update this post as I shop and search!

Another sign!

Here’s another sign I made in order to tease that I would be putting out decor until Halloween. 

I’m pretty pleased with this sign. It’s a variation of a sign I saw on a Facebook Halloween group. I changed the wording and the fonts. I ended up screwing it to a wooden plank/pole for sturdiness. This particular sign is fading a bit due to the Texas heat but it’s nothing that can’t be touched up.

For the type on the sign I actually just picked out a style I liked and projected it on the wood. Pretty simple stuff. Prior to this all my signs were just free handed but I thought it would elevate my designs to look cleaner and slightly more professional to get the font accurate. 


Our first Halloween tree!

Our first Halloween tree is up!

Daytime/night time shot. It took me awhile to get to this point but I’m quite pleased with it!

Sometime in August I decided I wanted to try to set up my first Halloween tree ever. Not really my thing but being stuck in quarantine, it kind of became something to cheer me up plus I love our tree because I can program the lights myself. I initially programmed the lights with a candy-corn colors but for the final tree I went with purple and orange.

The tree also sat quite bare and dingy looking for some time. I had only a few ornaments and it didn’t look complete at all. I had some eyeball ornaments I loved but they weren’t enough. I decided to make more out of materials I had on hand. Here’s how they came out:

I was pleased at first until I put them on the tree and determined they looked rather uninteresting. They didn’t pack the punch I thought they would and I knew I needed to snazz them up a bit. 

I went online and found some ideas for a circular paper fan and gave it a shot! Here’s how they came out:


What I did was take 3 identical squares, fold them up like tiny fans, then folded those fans in half and glued them together. Pretty simple stuff! I added my claw-made glittery eyeball embellishments along with some others I had (store-bought) and couldn’t have been happier with the change!

I then removed the bare scraps I had on the tree and rearranged everything, swapped the light colors and was finally done.

I’m really proud of my lil ornaments! It gave me inspiration and confidence to be able to customize my own ornaments even for Christmas or all-year around if I wish.


The best part is that my 2-year-old hasn’t even destroyed anything yet surprisingly!

In addition to the ornaments above, I also made these little ghouls.


I used extremely cheap $1 skulls from Dollar Tree, painted them a mossy green hue and added translucent glitter to them and gave ‘em a simple eye sparkle. I’m not normally a fan of glittery skulls but these are exactly what I wanted! I didn’t take any progress pics on these but you get the picture.

That sums up my tree for this year! I’m really excited about it and love looking at it everyday. Makes my home feel like a home for sure! (spooky home) Couldn’t be happier!

I’ll be updating this post soon with a video of my tree!

Spooky Tree Scene Setter

I finally started setting up my new tree scene setter! I have been unable to finish work on it but this is what I have so far.

Close-up! A little fluorescent spray paint combined with lighting goes a long way to make this prop super eerie!

This is one of those items that look good in the daytime and night time which gives it 2 klaws up in my book!

Even from a distance, it looks quite authentic! Although I feel this was cheaply made, for the price it makes sense. I wasn’t even initially impressed with the texture on it until I put it against the tree. It’s more AMAZING that I imagined and totally worth it! 

This was a part of my first “quarantine/online” Halloween Haul of 2020 and inspired by one of my favorite places featuring the same spooky scene setter!

Below: A few night time pics with lighting!


Quite possibly my favorite part of this scene is the FREE part! I had a tree die in my backyard and the branches were saved to use in my haunt last year. I strategically spray painted some of the branches to pop under black light and I loved the way it looked.

I saved the branches again and put them out under the tree, gave ‘em some fresh paint and placed them in the ground. It’s definitely my favorite scene of the yard.

What’s left to do:

Add more texture around the tree to make the branches and tree prop flow seamlessly. I’ll do that by adding more loose branches and making them appear intertwined with the tree—almost like an armor of branches. I may or may not add some obviously fake leaves to be over the top. Not sure yet!

I’m sincerely hoping I feel well enough to complete this sometime this week! 

Skull-lift! (Skull Makeunder)

To cheer myself up, I started working on a few Halloween projects of mine for 2020. This was one of ‘em! 

I took an old skull prop that I previously altered to look like a clown complete with a slurpee lid paper mache nose and gave it a look as if it was naturally decaying in the elements. I saw someone do something similar to a full size skeleton and it looked like it would fit my haunted trail/spooky garden theme for this year so I gave it a try myself. 


Here’s the night view! I just popped a color-changing LED bulb back there and it rotates through about 8 colors. I also set an orange fire LED in front of it to achieve the spooky ambient lighting.


Here’s the before pics and a little of the process. I gave it a simple coat of primer, then added skull-colored paint, tons of green hues, and glued on tissue paper and moss for a little bit of texture. 


I used the clown skull MANY times throughout my clown scenes over the years. It was time for something fresh!

Boo-it-yourself 2020 (To-do List!)

I needed to take a moment to document my BIY (Boo-it-yourself) ideas for 2020. I actually discovered that term on Micheal's official website. I also picked up tons of inspiration from the site too!

I write and plan out what I want to do each year but with quarantine I have not been in a mood to bother with Halloween DIY's at all. I recently got a sudden bump in inspiration with the recent Fall weather we had yesterday. It put me in the mood for sure!

Anyway, here are all of the projects I have planned out for now! I'll add and update as needed. I'll be sure to link back to this post any time I complete one of these projects so I can check it off the list.

Outdoor Projects
-Paint (4) silver skulls with realistic color and mossy texture and affix to shutters (IN PROGRESS 8/24/20) - DONE - pics not yet uploaded
-Repaint/redo large skull (currently a clown) to more natural colors/nature texture, add webs, light behind eyes and hang on house DONE!
-Touch up tombstones with moss and paint, add flowers and webs - DONE! Can be seen here!
-Attempt to make handmade bale of hay for display! (IN PROGRESS) 8/24/20 DONE - pics not yet uploaded
-Repaint broken birdbath and give "eerie" make under. (Actually repainted neutral tones to use all-year around 8/24/20) DONE! Link here!
-Make two pillars to hold pumpkin lanterns?! (need materials)  - DONE - Link here! (seen in b/g)
-DIY porch or stand out of scrap wood for "organ donation" scene (IN PROGRESS  8/24/20) DONE - Link here!
-Alien scene, repaint barrels using fluorescent lighting - NOT DONE
-Tree creature - spook up the store bought tree creature and put it up securely! (IN PROGRESS  8/24/20) DONE! - Link here!

Signs
-Build coffin sign with scrap wood (words to TBD but perhaps a welcome sign) - NOT DONE
-Repaint a store bought sign (words TBD but decided on fishing theme - IN PROGRESS 8/24/20) - DONE - pics not yet uploaded

Entryway/front door
-Create spooky wreath with a tombstone and critter theme DONE!
-Rearrange Halloween props and items near door, add spooky mat - DONE! Link here!

Indoor crafts
-Cut paper bat silhouettes to attach to white and orange balloons (hang up a week before Halloween) - NOT DONE
-Pennant craft with spooky paper for Robert's room or living room (pennants overlap) DONE! Link here!
-Spooky & cute crafts for mijos room (varies) - DONE - pics not yet uploaded
-Make spooky ornaments for "Halloween tree" DONE! (Our first Halloween tree was a success! See it now!)

Costume
-Begin mijo's Splatoon costume! (need wig, jacket, shorts, and white shoes)
-Construct weapon for costume 

DONE! Costume post here! (5/7/21)
I finally got around to making a complete blog post about my son's cosplay after my husband posted a picture of his finished costume on Reddit and it got an insane amount of upvotes and lots of questions!