It wasn’t so very long ago that I made some borax crystals with my nieces. Have you ever done this? It was one of our favorite experiments ever.

When it came time for Halloween decorations this year, I had a light bulb moment based on that experiment. I’m a big, big fan of skulls and skeletons . . . and it was time to try a project.

The borax crystal skull!

If you’re looking for a craft that’s a little bit spooky and a whole lot of sparkly, this DIY crystal skull is exactly what you need.

Not only is it simple and inexpensive, but it’s also perfect for adding a touch of eerie elegance to your holiday decor. The process of growing borax crystals is surprisingly easy, and watching the transformation happen over 24 hours is fascinating.

Plus, this is a great way to create a unique statement piece that can be displayed long after Halloween.

They’re also great conversation starters because not many people expect to see something so intriguing made from everyday supplies like borax and water.

So, if you love crafts that mix a little science with a lot of style, this project is for you. It’s fun, it’s sparkly, and it’s the perfect way to bring a magical vibe to your home this season.

Borax Crystalized Skull

Gather These Supplies

• Borax powder
• 1 C measuring cup
• Liquid measuring cup
• Water
• Glass skull ( 2.5” x 2 “)
• Large container to submerge the skull
• Medium saucepan
• Medium bowl

Choose a Container

Choose a container for water that fits the skull. Measure out how much water you will need to completely submerge the skull. There should be room so you can easily pull it out.

Boil the Water

Once you have determined the amount of water you need, add it to a medium pot and heat until it is boiling.

Combine Boiling Water and Borax

In a separate bowl add the borax. Once the water is boiling, add it to the borax powder and stir until all the borax has dissolved.

Cover Skull with Borax Mixture

With the glass skull in the middle of the container, carefully pour the water/borax mixture over the skull.

Allow Crystals to Form, Remove Skull

After 24 hours the borax crystals will start to accumulate on the skull. Carefully remove the skull from the container and place it onto paper towels to remove any excess water.

Make sure to wash your hands after being in contact with the borax and water mixture (or you can use gloves).

If you’re going to keep your skull out all the time and want to preserve it, you can seal with a polymer. Try a polyurethane spray from a craft store, or clear nail polish.

Any questions? Let me know in the comments! I’d also love for you to visit these other posts:

• Dollar Tree Skulls Makeover (Three Ways!)
• Skull Bean Art for Halloween Decor
• DIY Halloween Spooky Skull Display in Minutes
• DIY Skull Earrings That Look Good Any Time of Year
• Halloween Sand Art Made in Skull Mason Jars

The post Borax Crystal Skull Craft: Grow Your Own for Halloween appeared first on DIY Candy.

I’m a huge fan of monochromatic decor for the holidays. You can see that in my spooky skull display, Dollar Tree skulls, and simple Halloween doormat.

Sure, I’ve been known to get wild with my DIY Halloween decor. I love glitter and bright colors when the time is right. I guess it depends on the year?

Some years I’m more glitzy than others, but this is solid color year for me. And with that thought, I made these Halloween apothecary jars.

The best part of these Halloween jars is that they can be made in three simple steps:

• Paint the plastic animals
• Paint the glass jars
• Glue the animals to the jar

It’s easiest to paint the animal in four parts – back top, back bottom, front top, front bottom. I found that when I didn’t let the paint on the animals dry properly, it stuck to my fingers and came right off. When I painted them in four parts and let them dry, I experienced success.

Are you ready to jump into the project instructions so that you can have amazingly simple Halloween decor like mine? Let’s roll!

Gather These Supplies

• Glass apothecary jars in various sizes – mine are from Michaels
• Glass paint or multisurface paint – I used Martha Stewart Satin in Plum and Beetle Black
• Plastic animals – lizards, bugs, or snakes – in the kids’ crafting section at Michaels
• Paintbrushes
• Hot glue gun with glue sticks
• E-6000 (optional)

I finished up my Halloween apothecary jars by making sure that I touched up the paint on the plastic animals (anything I missed!) including covering up any hot glue that may have eked out the sides. Painting it to match the jars will make it unnoticeable.

You only have one more mission once the paint is dry – fill these suckers with candy! Candy eyeballs or gummy worms are perfect for these spooky jars.

They add such a perfect touch to my Halloween decor. I kind of love them. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Print

DIY Creepy Halloween Jars

Learn how to make creepy critter apothecary jars for Halloween! Easy enough for even a beginning crafter.

Course Halloween Crafts

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Dry Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 4 hours hours 40 minutes minutes

Servings 2 jars

Cost $20

Equipment

• Paintbrush(es)
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Ingredients

• 2 Glass apothecary jars in various sizes
• Multisurface craft paint or glass paint
• 6 Plastic animals lizards, bugs, or snakes
• E-6000 optional

Instructions

• Before getting started, clean the glass with rubbing alcohol or mild soap and water to remove oils and fingerprints.
  
• Give the glass one single basecoat of paint and let dry. Paint one layer on the bases and lids and let dry.
  
• After that layer has dried, repeat the painting until you feel the jar is covered. Make sure to let the layers fully dry between painting.
  
• Paint the plastic animals with coordinating colors and let dry.
  
• Once everything is dry, use hot glue to attach the animals in various points on the jar. You can also use E-6000 if you find the animals aren’t sticking.
  
• Let everything dry before filling with Halloween treats.
  

Notes

The brush strokes of the paint are going to look kinda bad at first, but don’t worry – the first layer is not indicative of how your finished jar is going to look. Just make sure you don’t have any globs and keep going!

Make sure not to get impatient and to let the jars FULLY dry before painting or you’ll take off what you painted.

The black took about three coats and the plum took about five coats.

If you’re into Halloween decorating projects like these jars, I think you’re going to like these other projects:

Borax Crystal Skull • Cross Stitch Canvases • Felt Ball Garland • Home Sweet Haunted Home • Pumpkin Terrarium • Shrunken Apple Heads • Skull Bean Art • Skull Sand Art • Vintage Halloween Decor • Wine Cork Skeleton • Witch Hat Wreath • Witch Mask

The post DIY Creepy Apothecary Jars for Halloween in No Time appeared first on DIY Candy.

Skills Required: Intermediate. You should have basic experience crafting and preferably experience with paint pens. This isn’t a hard craft, but there are quite a few details and you need a relatively steady hand. If you’re a newbie, just work slowly.

Nothing says the holidays like Star Wars as far as I’m concerned. When I was little I used to watch the movies a lot during the holiday season, so that’s the connection. It’s so engrained that I’ve even done a Star Wars Christmas tree!

Fall is coming soon, so I thought I would get started on a couple pumpkin crafts early. Of course, I had to head to Michaels to grab a couple faux pumpkins for this project.

I knew that I wanted my pumpkins to be Star Wars themed, so then it was just a matter of whether to go with the light or dark side.

I decided to embrace the Droids for my office and use an R2-D2 and C-3PO theme. The faux pumpkins work out great because I can keep them up all fall!

Gather These Supplies

• Faux pumpkin(s)
• Spray paint
• Paint markers – in the colors you need
• Pencil
• Tape
• Foam sheets
• 2 paper fasteners (brads)
• X-Acto knife

I used taller pumpkins for this project. Here are the pumpkins individually if you’d like to take a closer look! First is R2-D2 . . .

And C-3PO.

Get the printable how to below:

Print

C-3PO and R2-D2 Pumpkins

Learn how to make two Star Wars pumpkins that look like the droids C-3PO and R2-D2! Once you try, you'll want to make the whole cast of characters.

Course Halloween Crafts

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 4 hours hours

Dry Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 5 hours hours 5 minutes minutes

Servings 2 pumpkins

Cost $25

Equipment

• Pencil(s)
• X-Acto knife

Ingredients

• 2 Faux pumpkins
• 2 cans Spray paint gold, white, silver
• 6 Sharpie paint markers black, navy, blue, silver, white, red
• 1 roll Painter’s tape
• 1 Craft foam sheets white
• 2 paper fasteners brads

Instructions

• Spray paint both faux pumpkins with the color of your choice. Tape off any areas that you don't want painted. Give several light coats and let dry. Let the pumpkins dry for 20 minutes. Once they are fully dry, inspect your faux pumpkins and make sure you hit all areas with the paint. If not, go ahead and fill in at this time and let dry completely.
  
• Use images of the Star Wars droids to draw patterns on the faux pumpkins that you'll fill in. Use painter's tape to keep the lines straight.
  
• Then I took R2-D2 outside again and spray painted the top silver. I thought that would be easier than using a silver paint marker and much faster. After the spray paint dried, I used my paint markers to start filling in the details.
• Use the paint markers to start filling in the details. Let dry between layers and when switching marker colors. The paint markers go over the spray paint easy. Just make sure not to smudge what you've done with your hand before it dries.
  
• Cut legs for your characters (if required) out of foam board using the craft knife. Add details with paint pens and let dry.
  
• Attach the legs to the pumpkin using paper brads. You can use an awl to make a hole in the pumpkin if needed. Insert and position in whatever way you like.

Notes

It is better to use light coats than thick coats for spray painting.

If you mess up: it helps to have gold and white paint pens (or whatever your base colors are) so that you can color over any mistakes. If you mess up, let the paint dry before going over it. You can go over it with acrylic paint as well. Brush several layers and let dry between layers.

Who says you have to have traditional pumpkins?!? Give your pumpkins a little “character” this Fall/Halloween. Also check out these other cute posts:

• Star Christmas Crafts for Kids and Adults
• Star Wars Party Food for a Stellar Celebration
• Star Wars Perler Beads (20+ Free Patterns!)

The post Star Wars Pumpkins for Fall (R2-D2 and C-3PO!) appeared first on DIY Candy.

Skills Required: None. Even if you’ve never crafted before, you should be able to make this wreath. You’ll be wrapping pipe cleaners and deco mesh around a wire wreath form shaped like a witch’s hat. Anyone can do it . . plus it’s inexpensive!

There is one thing I definitely get excited about each year when it comes to holiday shopping, and that is hitting up the Dollar Tree for DIY Halloween decor supplies.

I love to shop the craft stores too, but Dollar Tree just happens to have some different stuff. And of course, that stuff is at really inexpensive prices.

It just so happens that while browsing the dollar store this year, I noticed they had a witch hat wreath form. I’ve made Halloween deco mesh wreaths before, but never in the shape of a witch’s hat!

I knew that this year I was going to make a Halloween wreath. Which was exciting, because it’s been awhile since I’ve made one!

Here’s the great part about this project – it can be completed and up on your door in an afternoon. You’re going to complete this witches hat wreath in four easy steps:

1. Wrap the Hat Top – you’ll use deco mesh in black to wrap the top of the wreath form
2. Make the Band – add a mesh band in the color of your choice (I used lime green)
3. Create the Wreath Brim – deco mesh and pipe cleaners are added to make a fluffy wreath brim
4. Add the Spider – place an embellishment on the wreath near the brim

It’s simple, it’s inexpensive, and you’ll have it done it a few hours. Also don’t forget to check out the video in this post.

The wreath form is measured 22.5″ height x 21″ width for your reference. If you can’t find it at the dollar store, Amazon also has them here.

It’s out front with my Halloween fairy garden. It was quite simple and only took me a few hours! What do you think? I’d love to know in the comments (plus get the printable tutorial below).

Print

Witch Hat Wreath

Make a Halloween witches hat wreath using supplies from Dollar Tree! This is easy holiday decor, even if you've never crafted before.

Course Halloween Crafts

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings 1 wreath

Cost $6

Equipment

• Wire cutters
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Ingredients

• 1 Witch hat wreath frame
• 4 rolls Deco mesh 3 rolls of black and 1 roll of lime green
• 1 package Pipe cleaners
• 1 Glitter spider
• Command strip

Instructions

• Cut several pipe cleaners in half using wire cutters.
  
• Beginning at the top of the wreath form, add a 1/2 pipe cleaner at the top and twist to tighten.
  
• Grab the black deco mesh, bunch up, and tighten the pipe cleaner around the bunch and twist.
  
• Keeping the deco mesh somewhat bunched up in your hand, wrap around the wreath form. You want to overlap the row on top when you wrap.
  
• Continue until you've reached the third horizontal wire bar on the wreath form, or wherever you'd like to begin the band with the green mesh. Add a pipe cleaner and tie down the mesh the same way you did at the top. Trim the excess black mesh off the top and bottom with the scissors.
  
• Add the green mesh with a pipe cleaner and wrap 5 – 6 times to create a band. Secure the end with a pipe cleaner and trim both ends of the mesh with scissors.
  
• Continue the black the way that you did in steps 3 – 4 until you get to the brim.
  
• At one end of the brim, add a pipe cleaner and twist around to secure.
  
• Bunch up the deco mesh and secure to the pipe cleaner. Twist.
  
• Move your hand down about 12" on the deco mesh and bunch up. Secure close to the first pipe cleaner with another pipe cleaner.
  
• Continue bunching up lengths of deco mesh and attach to the wreath frame with pipe cleaners. Work your way across the top of the brim and then the bottom.
  
• Use your hands to fluff in between the pipe cleaners and spread the mesh out. Add any additional mesh as needed to fill in areas.
  
• Trim all loose ends with scissors. Add a spider or other embellishment using a hot glue gun.
  
• Hang with a Command strip making sure to hang on one of the hooks versus the mesh.
  

Video

Now that you’ve made a Halloween wreath, here are some other projects you should try:

Borax Crystal Skull • Cross Stitch Canvases • DIY Halloween Doormat • Felt Ball Garland • Home Sweet Haunted Home • Lighted Pumpkin Topiary • Mesh Halloween Wreath • Pumpkin Terrarium • Shrunken Apple Heads • Skull Bean Art • Skull Sand Art • Skulls Makeover • Spooky Apothecary Jars • Spooky Skull Display • Wine Cork Skeleton • Witch Mask

The post Witch Hat Wreath with Dollar Tree Supplies appeared first on DIY Candy.