Halloween Mantel and Decor

As I have mentioned once or twice or maybe even a few times, Halloween is my favorite holiday!! :)  I love the eeriness, the mystery, and the fun that's packed into Halloween.  I love to decorate the inside and outside of my house with all kinds of Halloween decor.  This year I didn't do anything outside because I didn't feel like dragging the homemade headstones and spiders down from the garage rafters.  Lazy, I know.  Also, my headstones have seen better days/Octobers.  I need to do some work to them.

The inside of my house is all decked out with pumpkins, spiders, webs, skeletons, skulls, etc.  The dining room portion of my living/dining room is really sporting Halloween spirit.  :)  Even more so this year since I moved my faux fireplace to that side of the room.  Here's a peek at what my dining area and mantel look like during the month of October (not the greatest pictures in the world):

 Here is the dining area.  The lighthouses and such look out of place, but oh well.  I turned my great-grandparent's china hutch into a sort of witch's work area.  There are specimen jars, a voodoo potion book (the real deal), and a picture of Marie Laveau, amongst other things. 

 Here is a closeup of the witch's work area.  There are spiders randomly placed on the cheesecloth, but for some reason you can't see any here.  Note:  This is the ONLY time I allow spiders in my house.  Yes, they are fake, but still really creepy.  Ick!

Here is a close-up of one of the specimen jars.  I made a bunch a couple of years ago using old canning jars and some empty drink bottles.  I used those little foam capsules that expand and turn into a creature when submerged in water.  I chose the bug ones.  I also had some little toy skeletons and rats laying around that I used in other jars.  I tried to make the labels look dirty and old using tea and food coloring.

My mantel!  I covered all the pictures on the South wall with scary pictures I printed off the internet.  You can only see one here and it's the creepy puppet from the Saw movies.  I put candles, fabric, a jack-o-lantern decoration, and some jack-o-lantern lights in the fire area of the fireplace.  The two black thing to the right of that are two vintage-looking frames with a black vintage-looking shawl draped over them.  

 Here is a close-up of one of the mummy heads that scattered on both the mantel and the china hutch.  My friend made them a couple years ago when we hosted our first annual Halloween party (no party this year).  She made them out of styrofoam balls, black tape, cheesecloth dipped in an Elmer's glue/water concoction, and scary-ish googly eyes.  Pretty nifty, eh?  :)

My Grandparents bought me some eyeball lights a couple years ago so I put them in a cloche stand by a skeleton. I made that stand using a cheese dome cloche and a candlestick from Hobby Lobby.  I actually made two.  The other is taller and on the right side of the mantel.  I put a skull and mummy head in it..

 

Close-up of the frames and shawl. 

So there you have it.  Most of my indoor Halloween decor!  Today I'm linking up to Home Stories A 2 Z  Beth is hosting a Halloween Mantel linky party!  Head on over and check out all the awesome decorations and mantels! 

"Halloween is huge in my house and we really get into the "spirits" of things." ~ Dee Snider