Halloween Pumpkins, Stairs and Mice

Our stairs are all dressed up and ready for October!

After~

Here is my stand-in "Before" -sort of! These are actually our steps to the downstairs -same number of stairs, same style. Sorry! (I really do not know what happened to my before picture!)



I picked up some orange craft pumpkins from Michaels, and gave them about 2 or 3 coats of Creamy Ivory, and painted the stems black. I used pencil to draw the letters on and "painted" them with a standard "fine" point permanent black Sharpie marker. Holding the marker on it's side allowed for the best flow of ink. The pencil was so forgiving -any mistakes, and they erased right off of the paint! Lucky me, I think it took me about 5 trys before I got my "O's" how I wanted them. Because I was marking over paint, I did manage to wear out my older marker. I found that the new marker seemed to be going that way too, so I just gave it a few good swipes over a paper towel, and it came back.






Since our risers are also wood, I starched some muslin fabric on to create more of a contrast. After the Fall, I will be starching on a new fabric! (Sorry, no pictures of this step, "somehow" I missed it. ) You can just peel the fabric right off and throw it in the wash when you need a change! I discovered this idea at Sew Can Do.

The mice silhouettes are a Martha Stewart product that I found at Toys-R-Us. Each package includes 12 pieces. The mice are made from a thick cardstock and are adheared with double sided sticky dots, which came in the package. I am sure you can easily make your own too. Aren't they cute?


If I were more ambitious, I could also paint the back of my pumpkins to spell out "E-e-k-!" Then we could change them around depending on our mood! And just where did this great idea come from? Kellie, at This Blessed Nest. She has a more detailed tutorial, and a lovely loooooooong staircase where she spells out H-a-l-l-o-w-e-e-n, alternately with T-h-a-n-k-s-g-i-v-i-n-g -so creative! Thanks, Kellie!

And of course my trustee supervisor, Staxie, was helping me all the way~


Check out these links, there is so much to discover~

I am linking to:
Between Naps on the Porch_Metamorphosis Monday
Cottage Instincts-Make It 4 Monday
C.R.A.F.T-Making Monday Marvelous
Sew Can Do
All Thingz Related
Thrifty Decor Chick


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This post has been tagged! Thanks All Things!