Ideas on organizing Halloween Party

Our last year Halloween party was a huge success and everyone is still talking about it. This year we are going to use some of the ideas but we also have lots of new ones so we'll see how this one goes!

 

If you are hosting a party and not sure where to start here is some ideas for you:

1. Choose a theme for your party, it is always fun.

2. Get some large-scale decorations or a photo background. Everyone is so excited about it and it looks good on photos.

3. Potluck is the easiest way to save some time and work for the hostess.

 

4. Some food decor and colorful tableware is a must. It's Halloween and it should be fun! Get matching colors napkins, plates, silverware and table cloth. Ask your guests to decorate their dishes.

5. Chain stores have a wonderful selection of Halloween items but don't forget to check garage sales and thrift shops. They might have something unique.

6. If you make the decorations yourself, there is no need to be perfect. Use purchased or free printables for a wall decor, make a colorful pillow out of old Halloween t-shirt, a couple of garlands from cardstock cutouts and you will have some great OOAK things.

7. Be ready to offer your guests some games and dancing. Have costume, best decorated dish or best decorated pumpkin awards.

Halloween is so much fun. Organize it well and everyone will have a great time!

Halloween party 2016

Our Halloween party last Saturday was so much fun. We made it witched themed so it was so neat to see so many witches in one place! My girlfriends are so creative. Everyone had a completely different image from each other. And their brooms were pieces of art! Some are handmade, some store bought but everyone had a lovely little flying machine.

Our husbands were allowed to wear different costumes or just a comfortable outfit so everyone could have a party the way they like it.

The party was great and we had many new decorating ideas this year I'd like to share with you later. Thank you everyone, who helped to organize it and thank you for coming, everyone!

Happy Halloween, guys!

Halloween party food ideas

October is here so is thoughts of the holidays. Halloween is a first one on a list so I am already planning what we are going to cook for a party, what to wear and how to decorate that it would look different than previous years.

So I wanted to share some easy ideas on party food appetizer styles. Last year I made these and they were a big hit! These foods can be easily cooked any time you are in a mood for them. I used some food decorations and these dishes easily fit into the Halloween party table!

1. Сheese balls

Ingredients for the smaller ball:
cream cheese, 8 oz, at room temperature

goat cheese, 4 oz, at room temperature

chopped scallion

seasonings to taste: dried chopped onion, garlic salt, smoked paprika

black sesame seeds for coating

Ingredients for the larger ball:
cream cheese, 16 oz, at room temperature

1 can crashed pineapple, 20 oz, well drained

1/2 chopped green bell pepper

seasonings to taste: dried chopped onion, garlic salt, paprika

black sesame seeds for coating

 

Mix all ingredients but the sesame seeds, form 2 balls. Place sesame seeds on a flat plate and roll the cheese balls in it. Move to a serving plate, decorate and store in a refrigerator until ready to use. Serve with fresh baked sliced baguette.

2. Meat and cheese quesadilla

 Ingredients:

a pack of tortillas

cooked meat (cubed roasted chicken, shredded pork or some chopped steak)

Monterrey Jack cheese, shredded

mayonnaise

Medium taco sauce to taste

Preheat your oven to 385"F. Line the tray with a foil. Spread a thin layer of mayonnaise on 1 side of the tortillas and arrange some meat and cheese on half of the circle. Spread some taco sauce on top of the meat and cheese and fold the other half of the tortilla on top of the meat and cheese. Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes. Let it cool and cut to a single size servings. Arrange on a serving plate and decorate. Cover with a lid to keep moist until ready to serve (no more then 2 hours without refrigerator since there is some meat and cheese in it).

3. Chocolate cupcakes

I am sure you have your favorite recipe for these. So just bake and frost them as you always do, sprinkle with edible decorations. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve.

What are you going to cook for your party? Please share with me your ideas!

Eggplant garlic spread, Halloween style

This easy to make eggplant spread is a great example of how to transform the ordinary food into Halloween treat for your party. It is also a great vegetarian dish that is low in caries.

 

You will need:

2 eggplants

1 garlic bulb

sunflower or olive oil (I like to use the fragrant unfiltered sunflower oil purchased at the Russian food store),

lemon juice to taste

salt, pepper to taste

crackers or sliced toasted bread for serving

1 loaf of French bread

1 plastic  skeleton toy, thoroughly washed and dried, slightly longer than the bread. Do not use the toys with the small parts which can be easily detached!

Preheat oven to 400'F. Wash and pat dry the eggplant and garlic (do not peel). Wrap garlic in a piece of foil. Place vegetable on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Turn  the oven off and leave your vegetables inside until cool.

Peel the eggplant and garlic and place in a bowl. Blend your vegetables if you like a mushy texture or simply chop the eggplant and mush the garlic. Add salt, pepper, lemon juice and sunflower/olive oil to taste.

Now, let's decorate. 

 

I sliced my bread horizontally, scoop the soft insides and placed my skeleton into a bread. Then I filled the opening with chopped eggplant and garlic mixture and arranged the crostini around it.

Now it's even got a name, The Dead Man' dip! :)  Make sure the skeleton is visible so that someone would not bite into it.

Have a fun party!

Halloween fun

We are getting ready for Halloween party and it's always fun to plan something different to decorate.

I took my boxes with Halloween stuff out of our garage and took everything out. The idea hit as soon as I found a clown mask and some costumes we were wearing previous years. I also noticed a clothing rack in the corner so a scary clown figure became very impressive :)

So the idea is simple. Everything is going on the rack and I am going to add some volume to the body by wrapping some fabrics around the clothing rack. We add the hands made out of twisted wire hanger and we got a pretty tall figure, and pretty good looking one also.

Have fun decorating this Fall!

DIY Halloween banner BOO

Halloween is near and I still did not put any decorations outside the house. I hide the box with Halloween stuff in the far corner of the top shelf in a garage and it is almost un-reachable. A tall ladder would help for sure but at least at this point I am just walking by.

That's why I am especially interested in some new quick DIY projects for Halloween.

I contacted Irina (Graphicland) wondering if she could help to make a simple graphics banner for me. She was excited and pretty soon the new banner was born. Irina was also kind enough to give me permission to share these graphics with my blog readers.

   So, here is the banner and it is really easy to make. 

 Just print the graphics and cut out the flag triangles. Glue them to the cardstock and put them under some heavy books to make sure they will stick and be flat. I would suggest using wax paper to put between the book and the cardstock to make sure that the cardstock will not be glued to the book. About 30 minutes to one hour should be enough.

Now, cut the flags out of the cardstock. You can cut it either really close to the paper edge or leave some space, it's up to you. Make two holes in both top corners of your flags with a paper punch. Thread the jute cord through the holes in the flags. Leave enough jute to reach the areas to tie it to.

It's ready! You can add some embellishments to make it more personal and it will become one of a kind.

You can download the graphics for this projects here (1, 2, 3) or visit Irina's blog for more great projects!

 Have fun with this projects!

Halloween home decor ideas form the stained glass expert

I love to decorate our house for Halloween but I am always looking for some new ideas. I went to Alla FleetingStillness for inspiration with this matter.

Alla is a great stained glass items designer, I really love her style. I am proud owner of two wonderful pieces made by her and I am completely trusting her with home decor!  

 1. What does Halloween mean to you?

To me, Halloween is the most fun holiday of the year. I like it even more than my birthday. I think I like it because it is a holiday that does not celebrate anything in particular, at least for me. I know Halloween has a rich history, but it is not really the history that is celebrated. This is the most fun, no-obligation, crazy, come up with your own theme and let-it-all-out holiday. It can be very much fun for adults - I hosted a black-tie champagne party once, and always is fun for kids - last year we had a huge turnout of kids and parents, probably 70 people total. I like hosting parties, and Halloween parties are the most fun.

2. What would your suggestions be for picking Halloween decorations?
I love to decorate my house, both inside and outside. Every year I buy a few more items and my husband complains that they take up too much space in the garage. But he sure stops complaining when I open all those boxes and decorate the house, making sure it looks different every year.

I have neighbors that pull all the stops out while decorating outside. Last year, they had a huge installation with three life-sized surgeon figures operating on a zombie in their front yard! I think this is absolutely wonderful, but if you are not up for an effort of this scale you could just put out some strategically placed string lights, a few carved pumpkins, or votive candle holders in paper bags decorated with scary drawings. Just make sure you put sand into these paper bags to avoid fire.

Inside, I like to have a couple of focal points, so last year I got 3 5-foot-tall cardboard figures with repositionable limbs (a witch, a mummy, and a zombie) and attached them to the wall at the entrance. I also got a plastic sheet to cover the refrigerator with a picture of an open refrigerator full of spoiled food and severed limbs. This year I am planning to get a motion-activated broom that waltzes around and cackles.

After your focal points are in place, just pull out your last year's decorations and use them in a different way, or not as intended. For example, last year I took my old vampire shoulder-length black gloves, stuffed them with crumpled newspaper and stuck them behind a mirror - it looked pretty nice - two black hands reaching out :)

There are simple touches and small-scale handmade projects you can do that will add some extra spice. Transparent plastic sheeting from a hardware store (that is normally used to cover up the floor and furniture while painting) can be transformed into a removable wall mural of a cemetery or a Halloween table cover with help of only black and red permanent markers. White balloons wrapped into leftover plastic sheeting make wonderful floating ghosts, and also are great party favors for the kids.


3. What costumes are you and your family thinking about wearing this year?
This is the hardest question of all. I do not know yet. Last year I was The Queen Of Hearts, and my husband was what we called An Elegant Vampire, my daughter was a Witch with an electrified costume, a and my son was a Ninja that lost half of his gear. So far, my daughter has changed her mind about a 100 times, going from Hermione to An Indian Girl to A Witch to a Ninja… My son wants to be a zombie boy and he found a pretty cool costume for that. I will probably pick costumes for my husband and I after we're done picking for the kids. As the last resort, my huge butterfly wings, cat tail and ears, black feather boas, veils and other items left over from the past parties could be mixed up into some sort of a black mutant animal :)

Gothic ring tutorial

You can make this gorgeous Gothic ring in no time with Albina's easy-to-follow tutorial!

Tools and Materials:

· 2  20ga round dead soft wire – 2 ft

· 1  10 mm bead – 1

·     Ring mandrel

·     Chain nose pliers

·     Wire cutters

1. Cut a piece of 20ga round dead soft wire2 ft (61cm) long.

2. Place a 10 mm round bead in the middle of the wire. Bend the wire down as shown.

3. Place the wire with a bead around the ring mandrel mandrel at ½ size larger than needed. Wrap the wire around the ring. There is one wire on either side of a bead.

4. Wrap each wire around the bead, one side at a time and alternate sides. Your wires will end up in opposite directions.

5. Continue wrapping until you are satisfied with number of wraps or you have at least 2” of wire left on each side.

6. Take the ring from the mandrel.

7. Use the wire end to wrap around the shank. Make 2-3 wraps. Cut the wire. Tack the wire ends with chain nose pliers so they are not poking.

8. Repeat step 7 with another wire end.

© 2011 Albina Manning

For more great tutorials please visit Albina's shop, AroundBeads

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Our party is over but there is still time for trick-or-treat.Are you a good witch or bad witch today?



Happy Halloween, everyone and may our best witches go with you!