Anyone who has been reading this blog for any length of time knows I have an affinity for things that are strange and creepy. Not pretend creepy things like fake spiders. I mean genuinely creepy things like old medical textbooks and cheese that sprays out of a can.
This year's Halloween DIY is a reflection of that side of me. I've been preparing for this one particular Halloween craft for 2 years now. And when it was finally completed I texted a picture of it to my niece.
Unlike myself, my niece is not a fan of all things creepy.
Before we continue on, and I reveal what may be the creepiest Halloween decoration ever made, I would like to share with you the text message exchange between myself and my niece.
Curious as to what would prompt such a reaction?
I have been saving chicken and turkey bones from meals for the past 2 years.
I even enlisted the help of various turkey and chicken eating friends. To clean the bones, I just boiled them and scraped them clean. Then I let them air dry for a week or two. I've been keeping a box of bones in my basement for 2 years now. Any repairman who may have got snoopy down there would have been in for a bit of a shock.
My original idea was to make a wreath out of the bones, but I'm still so happy with my original Halloween wreath, that I wasn't ready to get rid of it.
So I changed direction slightly and turned the bones into a picture frame.
Being a lover of all things creepy, when I was a garage sale addict I scored a box of antique photographs and tin types. I went into my creepy basement to look for my creepy pictures and found the perfect one for this project.
I scanned the picture, enlarged it, and to increase the fright factor, I photoshopped her eyes out.
Then it was just a matter of squishing the Dollar Store wreath into an oval shape and hot gluing the bones onto it in a pleasing, yet creepy manner. Oh! And adding the skull on top.
All of the supplies, aside from the bones, came from the Dollar Store. The wreath, the hot glue, and the skull topper.
The total cost:
$3.
The other thing that adds a sense of authenticity to the wreath are the cobwebs.
Which are in fact, actual cobwebs. From my house. Yes. I'm so proud. I gathered most of them from the dining room walls.
Extra bones got placed in a bowl beneath the frame.
Wondering how that text exchange between my niece and I ended?
wow, this is so creepy! I love it!
Dang! I just threw out a carcass!
Totally creepy but amazingly awesome! Perfect Halloween craft.... this is just for Halloween right?
Love this - wish I could make one! (DAMN! I knew the whole vegetarian thing would blow up in my face one day!)
So fabulous & cool! WANT!!
I love it!!! I am way to lazy, I mean busy, to get anything done before halloween, including the costume that I've been dreaming up for the last two years, so I'll be lucky if I carve a pumpkin. But as usual, your projects are amazing!!! you can make me one if you want to... or give me your niece's.
Awesome. Super creepy. I wish I'd been saving my poultry bones all year.
Glad you gave that dollar store scarecrow wreath a make over. That thing was scary in a pathetic kind of way. ;)
That is the creepiest dang wreath I have EVER seen. Karen, you are so cool!
That. Is. GLORIOUS!! I will admit, though, to being just a little creeped out that you've been saving poultry bones for this project. And I'm also relieved to know that other people have cobwebs on their walls.
At first I thought this was Emily Dickinson! Anyway, I love it! Pure genious to save your bones for two years. Pure. Genious.
I LOVE THIS. I'm not sure which concerns me more. That I'm thinking about the 2 deer carcasses we have hanging at the butcher shop waiting to be cut up and maybe i should call them and have them save as many of the bones as possible......or that I've got to keep you and my daughter separated...cause this kinda stuff is right up her alley and she'll be out skinning little rodents to get this made in time for halloween. maybe i could hang this on the garage door.....never hurts to decorate the garage for halloween, right. and the feather boa on can go on the front door. oh, the possibilities.
Someone at another blog stole your boa wreath idea with skull!! Yes, I tattled. Don't worry though, yours looks better. :) I think the web address is: 2littlesuperheroes.com. She probably just had the same brilliant idea separate from you. There are many of us creatives out there.
Wait...I didn't tattle, I informed.
Okay master of Hallowe'en, we need adult costume ideas. Not adult-y, but those that fit adults, and won't horrify young children. When I say young children, I mean Brownie age.....need a costume to wear to the Brownie Hallowe'en party. My mind is blank.
Oh my giddy aunt that is amazing!!!!!
*starts saving chicken bones for next year*
Well, aside from making fun of my great great aunt, I think it's a brilliant creation.
But you just can't get away without some homage to candy corn and black and orange jelly beans - can you? Or little white marshmallow ghost "peeps"? I mean, halloween is all about how scary it is to eat all that junky candy, isn't it?
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why Karen should clean her basement... so she can keep on creating little gems like this one.... or depending on your opinion is why she should not clean her basement.
I hate it. It creeps me the eff out. It's the eyes. Or lackthereof. I'm totally having nightmare tonight. I should have known better than to look.
All that being said, I have friends who would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. I may need to start saving bones now. I'll make them add the eyeless photo, though. I couldn't have that creepy ass thing anywhere near me.
Something is making me scroll up to look again......
....damn, why did I do that?
That is wonderful and not nearly as frightening as the scarecrow wreath.
I just checked, to make sure that that wasn't a portrait of Lizzie Borden that you hung up, with the bones. Gives me the shivers just looking at it hanging on your wall. Still, it's an original conversation piece. Especially when you have the ladies, over for tea.