Treats Not Tricks for a Fun & Simple Halloween!

Halloween is just around the corner and if you love this time of year as much as I do, you'll definitely want to create a few of these sweet treats for the occasion! Whether you're planning a party for a whole bunch of guys and ghouls or just celebrating with a few friends/family, these treats are sure to please, no tricking!

Halloween Party Mix

 

With all that Halloween candy, you're sure to need something salty to balance it out. Try a simple party mix with a few of your favorite salty snacks! 

For mine, I combined popcorn (white cheddar and cheese flavored) with pretzel nuggets, candy corn and pumpkin flavored marshmallows. Stir together and serve....easy as can be! 

Halloween Goblin Punch

 

This awesome looking creation (from a Girl and a Glue Gun) combines the best parts of Halloween....creepy plus sugary sweet! You can make your own variation depending on what flavor you like! 

All you need is a carbonated beverage (either some type of soda or fizzy water) and Nerds candies. And don't forget the cute as can be Peeps for the straw! 

Scary Sweets

 

I saw these adorable Mummy Oreo cookies and decided to give mine a twist, using Oatmeal Cream Pies instead! All you need is some type of cookie, white icing, and small candy eyes! I went with the store bought cookie icing in the tube (simple all the way!) and popped these in the freezer for a few minutes to let them set up. 

I also turned some Fudge Stripe cookies (dipped in white chocolate) into creepy Halloween blood-shot eyes. 

Then there are these monster cookies which never get old! I made these a few years ago and they have remained a favorite! 

Hope you have a spooky good time this Halloween! 

Monsters Made with Love

I'm trying to do more things. Well, I'm actually try to do less things but I'm trying to up the quality of the things I am doing. Less obligations and more things that have potential to bring me joy. It's easier said than done, but at least I'm trying. 

One of the things I've been doing is looking for local events to participate in. Things like classes and workshops to get me out of my comfort zone. When I saw a "Make Your Own Monster" workshop with Knox Makers, I immediately signed myself (and my unsuspecting husband) up for it. 

Knox Makers is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Knoxville, Tennessee. They rent and share a physical space where members are free to come together to work on gidgets, gadgets, and "otherwise Earth shattering breakthrough novel science." 

This great local org is focused on offering a place where makers can support each other, collaborate and share ideas. 

I saw the "Make Your Own Monster" workshop on Knox Makers' Facebook page and it just sounded too fun to pass up. The workshop was held on a Saturday morning at the Knox Makers headquarters off Chapman Highway. It was one of the first cool Saturdays of the season, perfect for getting into the fall spirit. Taught by Laurie, founder of Monsters Made with Love, the class was really fun. 

First, we chose our monster kits, depending on the size and color monster we wanted to make. Laurie gave us everything we needed to make our monsters, from colorful fleece and sewing notions to stuffing and monster eyes.  

I hadn't done in sewing by hand since my childhood days of making Barbie clothes with my grandma but tapping into that little area of creativity felt great. My husband hadn't done much sewing but he found his way, making a right nice monster of his own (below, right). 

Part of Laurie's spiel is making sure you give your monster a little bit of love and that the first monster you make is for yourself. Then, once you have loved yourself, she reckons that you spread the love to others with each subsequent monster you make. She even made us all give our monsters a little hug. It was pretty sweet. 

I gave my monster flaming orange out of control hair and big pink lips. Her closed eye is winking and her open eye is batting its thick lashes. I even managed to sew on some bright pink toenails. 

If you get the chance to take Laurie's workshop or find a class like this in your area, I highly recommend it. Adulting (I know, I hate that word) can sure suck the joy out of life. It's good to inject a little whimsy back in when you get the chance. 

Check out Monsters Made with Love here. The next monster making workshop in Knoxville is on November 7th. 

Simple Last Minute Halloween Decorations!

Halloween is nearly here and even though we don't typically get trick-or-treaters, it's still fun to inject a little spooky style into our home this time of year.

I've got pumpkins on the porch, and a few skulls here and there. Plus some cute bat cut-outs scattered about. But this year, I wanted to add a couple more spooktacular decorations without breaking the bank.

What's a thrifty blogger to do? Head to my local Dollar General store of course! I scoured the shelves and was able to get several things I just knew I could work my Halloween crafty magic on.

First stop? Googly eyes. I mean, you just can't go wrong with these silly accouterments. My inspiration came from this cute blog. In no time, I had covered a couple of small glass jars with eyes to create some sweet and silly Halloween monsters. I filled my jars with brightly colored crinkled paper, but you could also paint them like the one below.

Here's looking at you, kid!

Next, over to the candle aisle to nab a few plain white pillar candles, in glass jars. I think I might have used these for snowmen around the holidays last year, but this time they are perfect for ghoulish ghosts! A black sharpie was all I needed to give them some personality. You could also paint or stencil these with Hallloween scenes.

Check out these adorable white candles turned spooky from Creative Ramblings! So cute and super simple to make.

Via Creative Ramblings

Finally, there's just no end to what you can do with a little creativity and a hot glue gun. As a child of the 80's whose mom was crafty, I loved glue gun crafts! I finally broke down and bought one of my own recently and Halloween projects are a good use of my new tool.

You can make all sorts of spooky spiderwebs with the glue. Look at this unique creation from a blogger who turned a plain old Dollar Store vase into something straight out of the Addams Family!

I hope these ideas have inspired you to think creatively without spending a fortune. They sure did inspire me! 

Fun & Simple Last Minute Halloween Ideas!

Halloween is such a fun holiday, no matter how old you are. We've already made our annual visit to the local pumpkin patch, and our pumpkins have been sitting on the front porch waiting for some spooky designs. 

October means fall, and all the things we love most about the season, from cooler temperatures to leaves crunching under your feet, football watching on Saturday afternoons and pumpkin spice everything! Want to add some spooky style to your home for Halloween? 

Here are a few easy ideas that the whole family is sure to enjoy! 

1) Ping Pong Ball Halloween Lights

When I first saw this idea of creating a string of ghosts using cheesecloth, ping pong balls and a strand of white lights (via Unoriginal Mom), I knew I wanted to try it. 

Then I stumbled upon a bag of ping pong balls already painted to look like eyeballs and thought this variation might be even easier, and still lots of fun! 

All you have to do to make this is slit an X into the back of each ping pong ball. Push the end of a pencil through the opening to loosen it and insert each light from the strand into each eye ball. 

Light it up for some spooky fun! 

2) Easy Pumpkin Decorations without Carving

Carving pumpkins is fun, but so messy. And I don't know about you, but I want my fall decorations to last as long as possible. I usually transition them into Thanksgiving, and sometimes even revamp them with a Christmas theme. So carving is not my first choice for decorating Halloween pumpkins. 

Thankfully, there are so many fun things you can do to pumpkins without carving them! 

I found a package of cute Halloween cut-outs made of felt with adhesive on the back. These could be easily applied to a bigger pumpkin for a fun spooky scene. You could also make your own designs by cutting shapes from sheets of felt and holding it in place with glue-dots. Then there's also the option of using sheets of sticky-backed foam...which come in different colors of glitter for a sparkly effect. 

Not only are these options easy to apply, but they are also easy to remove, so this project is a great way to decorate your pumpkins for the Halloween season and then make them easy to re-use as part of a Thanksgiving display. 

Or, sticking with my eyeball theme, grab a package of googly eyes from a craft store. Create a one-eyed monster pumpkin, or a seven-eyed monster pumpkin. Let your creativity run wild. 

[image & inspiration via Find it. Make it. Love it.] 

3) Halloween Treat Cookie Monsters 

Who can resist a loveable, colorful monster? From Cookie Monster of Sesame Street to those adorable characters in the film Monsters, Inc., there's just something about that fur, those googly eyes that tugs at my heartstrings. 

I tried to capture a little bit of that monster madness with these simple Halloween monster cookies. All you need to create these is a dozen chocolate chip cookies (store-bought or homemade, you decide!). Next, top them with vanilla frosting, tinted in various monsterriffic colors. Here's a tried-and-true recipe from my blogger pal Heather at Sprinkle Bakes. Finally, add candy eyes, the more the merrier. 

Easy. Silly. Delicious! 

I hope you are inspired by some of these ideas to add a little Halloween haunted fun to your home this month. Happy Halloween y'all! 

Unique Ways to Decorate Pumpkins: Chalk Paint & Foil

This past weekend my southern beau and I made our annual visit to the local pumpkin patch. This is one of our favorite fall activities and we've been going to the same farm for a few years now. Do you have any fall traditions you are getting excited about? 

The only problem with real live pumpkins is they don't last very long. We don't even carve ours, and they still end up dying a watery, rotten death sometime around December. 

But I still love going out to the patch and picking out a few favorites. Did I mention they have homemade donuts at our pumpkin patch? This year, they had a moonshine glaze. I love the south. 

In addition to our living pumpkins, we also like to decorate the house with the sights of fall. Some of that is Halloween specific (we love our little retro Charlie Brown characters dressed in costume and waiting for the Great Pumpkin). 

But I really like my decor to have as much bang for my buck as possible. 

This is why I usually look for fall decorations that can take us all the way through October and November. That's where my friend Jenny comes in. She recently shared two amazing projects with me and I was so blown away by the beautiful results, I decided to share them with the viewers of Knoxville's Fox43. 

These are really unique ways to decorate store-bought faux pumpkins and the best part is, the results are beautiful without breaking the bank. Oh and they are perfect for Halloween all the way through Thanksgiving.

For both projects, you need to begin with some type of store bought artificial pumpkin. You can find these at most craft stores. The larger ones are often made of foam and can be carved, but I don't recommend it for this particular do-it-yourself. You can sometimes find smaller, artificial pumpkins, gourds, etc. at Dollar stores, thrift stores, or wherever else you scour for treasures.

1) Decorating Pumpkins with Chalk Paint

Decorating faux pumpkins with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® is a genius idea because there are so many great colors of paint to choose from. Who says your pumpkins have to be orange? With all the beautiful hues, you could really go wild and create some masterpieces.

And while it would just be gorgeous in its own right, that teal shade (Florence) would be perfect for folks with allergy issues participating in the Teal Pumpkin Project!

For our pumpkins, we started with a good base of Old White. What I love about Chalk Paint is how well it covers so many different surfaces. Sometimes these faux pumpkins are sort of shiny or plasticky (that's a word, right?), but Chalk Paint covers like a champ. 

Once your pumpkins are painted, you can go over them with clear or dark wax. When I painted a yard sale dresser Annie Sloan's English Yellow, I used the clear wax because I really wanted the color to pop. But with the pumpkins, the darker wax is also nice because it picks up all the great the texture and surface.

So once you have your pumpkins painted, you could stop right there and be happy as a clam with your results. Or you could take things a step further and make a real conversation piece. 

Allow me to introduce you to foil and size. 

2) Decorating Pumpkins with Foil and Size

Size is an adhesive made specifically for projects with gold and silver leaf, as well as foil. This is my first foray into the world of foiling, but it seems so much easier than leafing (also it's much more affordable). 

To begin, you apply an even coat of size (which is kind of like a runnier white glue) over your pumpkin. Wait 15 minutes for it to become tacky. Then, you apply the foil. Make sure to apply it with the pretty side up. The adhesive will pull the foil off the paper and cause it to stick to your pumpkin. 

You can burnish it to create a more even appearance or you can just embrace the splotchy look (which I happen to love). 

Check out the finished products below. I think they are gorgeous! 

To learn more about Annie Sloan Chalk Paint or to take a workshop, visit my friend Jenny's shop, The Backporch Mercantile.

Last Minute Halloween Treats

Halloween is tomorrow, but there's still time to throw together some last minute tricks and treats. I'm joining the crew from Knoxville's Fox43 to share a few simple ideas for Halloween treats and decorations you can re-create without spending a lot of time or money.

 1) Dracula Doughnuts

This simple treat would be a great addition to your Halloween party snack table. All you need to create it is a dozen doughnuts and some silly Dracula teeth. Insert one set of teeth into a doughnut and voila! You can add candy pieces for eyes if you want. Spooky!

2) Witches Broom Goody Bags

If you want to put together some adorable treat bags for your trick-or-treaters, look no further than these fun witches brooms. For each treat bag, you'll need two small brown paper lunch sacks, a thin stick and some twine.

Cut off the top several inches of one of the brown paper sacks and set it aside (this will be the inner container part of the treat bag). Then shred the other bag from top to bottom in thin strips. Insert the trimmed bag into the bottom of the shredded bag and fill with candy or other treats. Next gather the shredded strips and tie at the top with twine. This is the bottom of the broom. Add the stick as your broomstick for a final touch.

3) Monster Mouth Cookie Sandwiches 

Another tasty Halloween treat that would be fun to make with folks of all ages is monster mouth cookie sandwiches. 

A fun and simple Halloween snack! Take two chocolate chip cookies (I used store-bought in a large size, but if you want to make your own that's fine too). Spread one side of each cookie with frosting (tinted red). Line up six or seven mini marshmallows on one cookie and top with the other cookie to create a spooky smile.

4) Healthy (but adorable) Jack O'Lantern Mandarin Orange Cups

This would be super cute to include in a Halloween lunch. Or you could even give these out to trick-or-treaters since they are sealed safely. It's probably best not to give homemade treats to kids you don't know but these would be fun and sort of healthy! 

5) Elegant White Pumpkins

If ghosts and goblins aren't your style, try this simple pumpkin decorating project to add last minute Halloween style to your home. Decorate small white pumpkins with black sharpie by drawing different shapes and designs. You can also use different colored ink or even spray paint. It's so simple, but makes a bold statement!

For more Halloween fun, here are a few posts from last year. 

Fun & Simple Halloween Decorations on a Budget 
Vintage Halloween Decorations to Make 
Simple Last Minute Halloween Treats to Make and Share 
Halloween Candy Corn Bark 

Simple Last Minute Halloween Treats

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, but somehow this year I haven't gotten into the spirit. I was traveling for much of October and some of that time was under the weather a bit. So now Halloween is here and I have nothing to show for it.

Since I am joining those fine folks at WTNZ Fox43 for a segment this morning, I thought I'd share some simple, last minute Halloween ideas to inspire viewers at home as well as myself! There's still time to throw together some spooky decor and goodies using things you probably already have on hand. 

1. Milk Jug Ghosts 

I've seen this cute project floating around (get it, ghosts float?) on Pinterest and I decided to try it myself. Nothing could be easier, especially if you already have the plastic milk jugs on hand. 

All you need is a clean, dry (empty!) plastic gallon jug. The best for this project are translucent, but not completely opaque since you want the light to shine through. 

Using a permanent marker, draw a ghost face on the outside of the plastic jug. Or you could cut out shapes from black paper and tape them on (my method). Then add a light source inside. It can be one of those electric votive candles or even a strand of holiday lights. 

2. Witches Hats & Brooms 

Probably one of the main reasons I love Halloween is the candy. Who's with me? I was raised on the classics, Reese's peanut butter cups and Hershey's kisses. I guess that's why the next two Halloween treats seemed so appealing to me.

To create the witches hats, you'll need some type of flat, round chocolate cookie, Hershey's kisses and chocolate frosting. 

For the witches brooms, you'll need mini Reese's cups (not those tiny ones though) and mini pretzel sticks.

These Halloween treats are really easy to make and so fun! It's hard not to eat them as you make them, but isn't that sort of the point?

3. Paint Swatch Halloween Characters

Using paint swatches is great for all sorts of crafty projects. You probably want to find the swatches that are square, rather than the ones that resemble bookmarks. I used black cardstock to create the facial features. 

These would make great Halloween cards, place cards for a party or event invitations! 

4. Halloween Pudding Characters 

Another simple Halloween treat is made from turning store-bought pudding cups into creepy characters. For the vanilla pudding, you can draw a ghost face right on the plastic cups.

 {photo via}

For the Frankenstein faces, add a little green food coloring to the pudding and crumble Oreos on top. How cute is that? 

I hope you have a Happy Halloween! 

Want more Halloween ideas from Southern Belle Simple? Check out these posts: 

Spooky, Simple Halloween on a Budget (video) 

Thrifty Halloween Fun 

A Buttery Halloween!

I love Halloween, but as for dressing up...I guess this year I've been something of a party pooper. So what's a belle to do for her Halloween blog post when she's without a fabulous costume to share? Post pictures of her adorable cousin's creative costume instead, of course! My sweet cousin dressed up like the butter queen herself, Paula Deen! I love it! Her friend (above) went as Rachael Ray...too cute!

I hope y'all have a wonderful Halloween. Be safe tonight if you go out trick or treating! And eat an extra piece of candy for me...especially if it's chocolate. 

Spooky Simple Halloween Ideas

I always love visiting my friends at Knoxville's WTNZ Fox43 for their wonderful morning news show and this week, I shared some easy Halloween ideas that are also thrifty! I hope you enjoy!

Southern Belle Simple Halloween Decorations on a Budget

I'm joining my friends at Knoxville's WTNZ Fox43 this morning for a fun segment about all things Halloween! It's no secret around here that Halloween is the southern beau's favorite holiday and I love it too. What I don't love is spending a lot of money to decorate my home for the occasion.

One easy way to add a little spooky cheer to your home is with vintage Halloween images. I did a Google search for "Vintage Halloween postcards" and found some great options! It's easy to have these types of things printed at a local print shop, but for the cost of a little epson printer ink, I was able to print mine out at home. I then matted them on black paper for a few easy Halloween decorations.

I also shot the photo below of a local cemetery and played with the colors a bit to make it look extra spooky. This is another easy way to bring an eerie quality to your decor. Feel free to use this image for your own decorations. 

Since I wanted to keep this year's Halloween decorations on a budget, I decided to repurpose some things I already had, such as an antique black candelabra. I also visited my local Goodwill store (GW Boutique) and picked up a few more black wrought iron candlesticks (like the ones shown below) for a couple bucks. Some of these will have taper candles and the larger ones will make a perfect perch for a pumpkin or two.   

I also pulled out my small collection of antique purple glass bottles because I think they add a really neat mysterious quality to any Halloween decorations. These bottles started out as clear glass but they contain manganese which caused them to turn purple over the years as they were exposed to sunlight. Bottles of this type pre-date 1915 because companies stopped using manganese after that time. 

These are just a few of my ideas...I'm sure you have plenty of your own! With a little creativity, it's easy to decorate your home for Halloween while sticking to a budget. It doesn't have to be a big production to be lots of fun! You can visit this page to see the video of my segment where my ideas are brought to life! 

Happy Halloween! 

Witch’s Brew Wishes & Candy Corn Dreams

My house has been decorated for Halloween since around October 1st, but it’s possible we get into the holiday more than other folks.

This little crow has been part of my décor for a few years now and this year he found a nice spot on an Eiffel tower lamp. Some small antique glass bottles give a spooky effect as they can be imagined to hold potions and other mysterious concoctions.

These bottles actually started out clear, but certain elements present in the glass caused them to turn purple over the years as they were exposed to ultraviolet light. Many people collect this ‘sun-colored amethyst’ glass.

No Halloween is complete with candy corn and the rest of Brach’s sugary harvest mix. My great-grandmother’s carnival glass compote makes a perfect spooky candy dish.

White pumpkins add an unexpected touch, just watch out for the spiders crawling all over them. And after our visit to the real-live pumpkin patch, the southern beau and I finally carved our punkins yesterday….can you guess which one is mine & which is his? ;)

Anti-Recipe: Halloween Candy Corn Bark

Sweet and salty combinations are just the greatest when it comes to snacking so I decided to whip up a batch of white chocolate bark with candy corn and pretzels. The recipe is so easy and the best part about it is you can make as much or little as you want. This comes in handy for me since I’m trying to eat healthier and I knew if I had made a whole lot of it, I’d also have eaten a whole lot of it.

Ingredients:

• pretzels (I used the small square grid variety of Kroger brand pretzels)
• white chocolate chips
• candy corn
• tiny bit of cooking oil

1. Spread out a layer of pretzels and candy corn on a sheet of waxed paper (on your counter or a clean baking sheet).

2. Add a tiny bit of oil to the white chips and melt them slowly, either over low heat on the stove or in short increments via your microwave.

3. When the white chocolate is smooth and liquefied, pour it over the pretzels and candy corn. A thin coating is plenty for the sweet/salty combo but if you want to use more white chips for thicker pieces of bark you can break, go for it.

**Note: My measurements were about 3 servings of pretzels and candy corn (as specified on the packages) and then 3 tablespoons of chips…so the whole batch could be divided into 3 servings of about 300 calories each. Not the healthiest, but it is a special occasion treat!

{Disclaimer: The above image is not my creation…but it did look very similar}

The Last Halloween Post of 2010….I promise!

All fun things, Halloween included, must come to an end and since we have now entered the danger zone known as Thanksgivingandchristmas, I am giving up the ghost of my spooky themed posts and moving on to the season at hand. Before I can do that, I have to mention a little package I received in the mail last week, my loot from a Halloween swap I participated in. My swap partner was Miss Jessica from Duck Duck Cow and she definitely chose items that were right up my alley! (Sadly, I goofed on packing and some of the things I sent her got broken…boo indeed. I’m making it up to her though!)

My package included lots of creepy treats such as delicious candy, a cookie-making kit, orange Halloween socks (which came in so handy last night to combat the chills), sparkly bats and a huge jar of peanuts (how did she know to choose something so perfect?!?!).

My favorite item was probably the skull picture frame – totally keeping that out all year long! Swaps are really fun if you haven’t participated in one…even if you don’t have a blog. Everybody loves getting something in the mail (if the sender packed it well and it didn’t break…Sorry Jessica!).

Even Leon the Magnificent found something in the package to his liking… {seriously, I do NOT dress my dog in costumes, but he looks so cute}

Finally, I created a little poll so I could get some reader feedback about blog content for the rest of the year. This is my first year blogging through the holidays and I don’t want to disappoint! Please take a second and answer the poll (you can select more than 1). If there’s something I left out that you wish to read on SBS, please leave a comment! Thank you dears!

What would you like to see on Southern Belle Simple between now and the end of the year?
	Easy holiday recipes that won't break the bank
	Cute crafts that won't compromise my sanity
	Memories of holidays gone by
	Southern holiday traditions
	Holiday fashion tips
	DIY Gift ideas
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