The After Halloween Target, Michaels, and Walgreens Haul! 2014

It's that time of year again! That time when all the Halloween stuff gets marked down and I get to have fun being the biggest scavenger bargain shark I can be! I had a lot of luck this year watching the merchandise go down in price from 50% off to 70% off to 80% off to... the most exciting of all markdowns: 90% off! I guess things don't generally get marked down any more than that.

Starting with Target!

A very cute bat towel:

I love those polka dots!

A pillow for 90 cents!

Same here:

Some 30 cent jute twine which should be great for some future craft project:

Cupcake wrappers:

Some vintage looking tissue:

Doesn't this remind you of that tissue you see in Halloween pics from the 1930s?

Hanging star decorations you fold out:

I was really excited for this! I'd had my eye on it through October. Not that $6.00 is all that expensive for a makeup set, it's just that I knew it would get marked down. There were several Halloween makeup sets made by e.l.f this year, and this was my favorite.

The "Vampire" beauty book opens up to show many eyeshadow colors, an eyeliner pencil, a lip gloss, and some false eyelashes/glue. There are also some instructions, but I didn't really bother with those. I played with the set today and was very happy with the colors. I'm a fall color makeup person year-round, so I'll get some use out of this set. The eye shadows are super pigmented!

I was intrigued by this eyeball washi tape. I have no experience with washi tape, but I've seen some neat DIY ideas for it online. So what better time to try it out than when it's marked to 60 cents? That and the bright colored eyeballs are awesome.

I stuck some of the washi tape to a pumpkin to see how it looked. This is neat stuff. It sticks pretty well but comes off with no trouble at all. I can't decide what to stick it to first! I watched some videos online of girls sticking it to everything from the wall, to their computers, to their fingernails. Does anyone out there have some experience with this tape?

A cute little 30 cent bucket:

I think these skulls were 90 cents. I think the two of them are going to look cool sitting in the urns next year. 

The skulls are a nearly real size. Maybe they're accurate as small human skulls go.

I was lucky enough to hit Michaels when their stuff was down to 80% off. I wonder if Michaels marks down to 90% off at any point? I don't think I've ever been there when the prices were that low.

This was probably my favorite Michaels find:

These little glitter doilies are so detailed. I don't even know what I'm going to do with them yet, but they'll fit into a craft project somehow. Maybe as part of a Halloween banner? I think these were 39 cents for the pack of eight.

The back shows the details clearly. Some of these have a skull in the center and others have a spider.

Check this out! It's a fake candle made in that old-timey candlestick way. It was a little over $1.00. Last one too!

I also found a few candles in the regular pillar shape.

Here's how the flames look when lit. I like the curve to the flame. These fake candles just keep getting better and better design-wise!

This is a good tie-in to my Walgreens shopping. It so happened that Walgreens had these awesome black candle holders that fit the new Michaels candles! And get this, they were marked down 90%. The shorter ones were only 29 cents! So I cleaned out the few that we were left. I think they'll be good for decorating year-round.

Walgreens had this light up witch hat that will probably be worn by a pumpkin or skull next year.

Some pumpkin window clings:

Six glamorous glitter spiders for only 29 cents!

I'll have fun sprinkling these around. They always look good on a pumpkin.

I hope you all have the good luck I had with after Halloween bargains this year! Did you get any good deals during the past few days?

Welcome to the Witch Party! 2014

We had a wonderful time at this year's Witch Party! I think this was our best party yet in all the years we've been doing this. This year's theme (on top of the standard witch theme) was skeletons. These were the invitations. You might remember the chandelier envelopes and snippets of the cards from last year's After Halloween Target and Michaels Haul. You're going to see several things from that haul!

I loved that chandelier so I had to keep it. I cut apart the cards themselves and reassembled them as a sort of skeleton club scene. Then I drew some little skeletons and colored them in/glittered them.

The new toad was looking very dapper in his party attire:

You can see the back of him in the mirror. That cape was actually part of a (very small) dog outfit!

Me and my toad in our matching purple and black outfits:

 
I painted a bunch of little plastic skeletons with metallic paint. I was really happy with how these turned out.

As you can see with this little platinum skeleton, they're super poseable. The guests all ended up having fun making the skeletons do yoga poses. I wish I could do the stuff these little guys can do! They're very flexible.

The skeleton is sitting with the vintage bottle collection you might remember from past years.

The little skellies also became part of the flower arrangement: 

Thanks to Old Fashion Halloween, I found out about these awesome blinking skulls! The lights in their eyes change to all different colors. Blue to green to red to purple. They really light up in the dark! Believe it or not, these cool skulls can be found at Dollar Tree.

You might remember these little skulls from the package I was sent from HalloweenCostumes.com. I poked holes in them and stuck some heavy duty straws in them. The straws were probably intended for cake pops. These look like skull lollipops to me.

My mom and me:

A hat I put together from the package of supplies I got from the Target Haul last year.

This paper fan decoration's placement was another idea from Old Fashion Halloween:

Black and orange chips from Aldi:

The table was set with the skeleton decorations. I was inspired color-wise by those bright napkins. My little painted skeletons are holding the place cards.

 
This witch was a gift from a friend. Isn't she perfect?

I decided to try making some bone buns by cutting with a cookie cutter from a Pillsbury Dough Sheet. The sheets are probably made for pizzas but they worked fine for this too!

All cooked:

Skeletal salad tossers:

Baked Ziti:

The piratey little cupcakes! These were triple chocolate with the chocolate chips melted inside. Pretty addictive stuff. I like how that spider photobombed the picture.

The treat baggies with a black skull pattern:

I had a lot of fun decorating outside using some of the gifts I was sent, like the luminaries. The skulls on the luminaries were a perfect match with what I wanted to do. I lit a candle and placed it in the cauldron. The bones fit with the cauldron somehow.

Some of the skull illustrations are courtesy of The Graphics Fairy.

I was pretty proud of myself for what I did with this freestanding skull. I printed it out, cut it out and taped it to a small picture frame.

Remember this skeleton from my gift package? It got a little girly with the help of some cupcake wrappers and some duct tape.

The same glass candle holder I used with a bat last year but now with a skeletal hand.

Some really neat vintage looking garland from Dollar Tree:

Here's what the decorations looked like at night:

Dollar Tree helped once more with the fake candles inside these luminaries. What a brilliant blue glow they created!

I love all the contrast of this soft orange light with the bright blue.

 

Remember these two?

I love this photo! It's kind of blurry but it's one of my favorites from the night. Spooky and mysterious. This is actually the spider skull you see in my candy bowl each year for the trick-or-treaters.

To show you some details of my costume:

My hat had a veil that can be pulled down:

 My skull and crossbones earrings:

 That locket I pieced together from ebay pieces:

 Skull socks!

Our guests brought some really neat gifts for us! Those black, glittery candles are so cool. You just twist them and they light up.

I thought these would be those kind of gnarly tasting candies but they actually tasted like orange!

A cute picture frame and a festive farmers' market pumpkin:

I hope you enjoyed looking through these photos! I always look forward to sharing them. If you'd like to see pictures from parties past, here are some links to those posts:

Witch Party 2013

Witch Party 2012

Witch Party 2011

I'm planning the Halloween Blog Party for this Sunday! I'd love to have some more costumed photos from you guys so you can join in the fun!

You can email them here:

contactartgirl@gmail.com