Hocus Pocus – How to Decorate For Halloween For Under 20 Dollars

Halloween.  My absolute FAVORITE time of year and favorite Holiday (Thanksgiving is a close second).  I think the reason why I love Halloween so much is my sad, sick obsession with my favorite movie ever – HOCUS POCUS.  Every time the movie is on TV, I get about 4 different text messages from people letting me know it is on.  Some people that I haven’t talked to in years, ex-boyfriends, best friends, co-workers, I without a doubt every time get a text.  It’s sad, of this I am aware.  Why do I love this movie so much? I couldn’t tell you, but I do…so that’s that.

This year I wanted to focus my decorating around my love for witches and Hocus Pocus while still keeping the vintage feel to my living room.  Below are a few pictures of my Vintage Witch Halloween décor.  Since I am a strict budget this year (living on your own ain’t cheap)  I had to make a lot of my decorations.  A lot of the stuff I used was old glass bottles, old books and book pages, candles and dollar store finds.  The only thing I did purchase was some ribbon and a lot of the stuff I had from previous years of Halloween’s past.

I will post some tutorials on how I made some of the decorations this week.

The last picture is my favorite 🙂

Stay Fancy

-Jess

The Stockings Were Hung

If you haven’t noticed already, my blog has got a slight face lift for 2013. After many comments and emails about how all my projects are inexpensive and where I bargain shop, I decided to dedicate my blog to focus more on how to make exactly what you want, for a fraction of the price. Pocket Of Pennies will reflect DIY projects, tips and where to bargain shop, flea market finds and cheap fashion finds. I will still keep in my diabetic twist on recipes as well 🙂

To start my first blog post under the new face lift – I decided you show you my stockings that I made for Christmas. Since it is the first time my boyfriend and I have been moved out and away from home on Christmas, we both needed some new stockings. I must say, to try to keep down the cost, I tried to sew my own burlap stocking = FAIL. This later lead to a Christmas gift of a sewing machine from Evan (Thank you!) However, since the sewing machine came after the stockings I decided to do the semi-homemade version. Here’s what you’ll need:

Stocking: $8.99
Since Pottery Barn is a HUGE inspiration for me, I decided to take a look in the store while Christmas shopping. To my surprise all the Christmas items were half off!! I got 2 of these White Channel Quilted Velvet Stockings for $8.99 each. They are so well made and will definitely last!

Burlap: You will only need two 14x3in strips however, you can buy 2 yards for $1.50 at Joann Fabrics (using the 40% off coupon) Tip: Download the Joann Fabric app on your phone for coupons you can use right in the store. You can also sign up for their email coupons here. I highly recommend the app, you can download it in your iTunes store right on your iPhone.

Wooden letters: 4 inches. You can pick these up at any craft store in the wood section. They range from 1-2 dollars and you can always use a coupon.

Twine: I got mine for free from my Dad but a whole role will last you a LONG time and only costs about 2 dollars.

Sparkle Snowflake Ornament: After Christmas is the time to buy these! However, I got mine for a buck at WalMart in the Holiday section.

Ribbon: 14 Inches – I got mine off of a gift package for free 🙂

Here’s how you make them:
I first wrapped the wooden letters with the twine to completely cover the wood.

I then took my stocking and the burlap and hot glued it on to the top of the stocking. You can also use iron on stitching for a now sew approach.

Next, I hot glued the ribbon all around the middle of the burlap.

Now it is time to embellish. I first hot glued the twine wrapped letter onto the snowflake. I then hot glued the snowflake onto the left side of the stocking. I also added a wooden button I had laying around on the right hand side because it looked a little bare. And there you have it – Personalized Stockings. Do you have any traditional items that you always get in your stockings?

Merry and Bright

Christmas season is here again and this is the first official year that I am able to decorate my own place. However, after purchasing a new car a few months ago, buying all new decorations for our new place just wasn’t in the budget this year.

I get a lot of my inspiration for home decor from Pottery Barn. Their Pottery Barn Holiday Pinterest Page is out of control AWESOME. Just by looking through I was able to imagine what I wanted my home to look like on my type of budget.

The majority of items I used was pine cones and tree trims – BOTH FREE. As I mentioned in a previous post, you can get all the tree trim for free when you cut down your tree or at any place that sells fresh trees. Just bring a bag and go crazy.

The pine cones I have collected throughout the year. I actually got mine while I was babysitting for a family I used to babysit for in college one weekend. I made the boys play a game “Who ever picks up the most pine cones in 30 seconds and puts them in this bad wins!” – Thanks guys, I’m good 🙂 I sprayed them with snow spray to give them the wintery look.

Vintage music sheets are also very in, but why waste money on buying actual vintage music sheets? I printed mine out using this template. TIP: To make this look extra vintage, take a spray bottle, damp the paper with water, gently crumple it up in a ball, open the crumpled paper and lay flat on the floor, cover with a hand towel and iron the paper to flatten – Let dry and you have vintage paper. I sprayed mine with glitter spray to give it an extra pop for the holidays.

For the most part I just reused jars, wrapped them with old book pages, the music sheets, tree trim and OF COURSE burlap. I hope you find these ideas inspiring, they are so easy and CHEAP to make.

We still need our tree and I need to making the stockings but…….. without further adieu, from our home to yours, love Jess and Evan (even though it’s mostly just me) haha

p.s – Can you find the “Hidden Mickey” I designed into our Holiday Card?