Halloween mantle-2012

Halloween is right around the corner. October always seems to go by so quickly I never have enough time (probably because it's fall and I want to savour every last moment of everything autumn...so it rushes by too fast for me).

I had my fall mantle up a few weeks back:

But as I already said, I wasn't fully pleased with the results.

I told you I would get back with you on how I played with it. And I didn't. But I did play a little and left it all together dissatisfied again (first world problems, I know!).

Not really better. But then I left that a week and decided to come back and revamp for Halloween.

I went to the dollar store and bough the 3 birds and the netting/cloth. Everything else I already owner from previous years.  The picture is something I pinned from pinterest:

I love it for some reason (prob the black cat!) I distressed it with paint to give it an aged feel.
I also pinned this:

I replicated it by filling some dirt and glitter in a jar and making the distressed label:

Quick tutorial on how I "distress" this:
1) Print out in whatever font you prefer for the size you need. Tear off of paper for size. (more haphazard the better)

2) Take acryllic paint in brownish color and dilute greatly with water. (Note: people stain/distress/discolor things easily all the time with tea or coffee. But I wasn't gonna brew any just for these small projects)

3) Paint quickly on your paper and wipe away:

4). Burn edges. The best way I've found is using my burner on the stove. It gets the look I want better than using a cig lighter or match (which just burns the paper down rather than smoking the edges):

I adhered the label to the bottle with tape. Easy peasy.

So far, these are the only Halloween decorations I have up! Oh noes! I meant to do more on the outside but I was pretty busy this weekend and didn't get a chance.

I did a spooky look on my picture which makes it look pretty cool:

I will post more Halloween decor hopefully this weekend!