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!