Vintage Inspired Halloween at Michaels

Hey everyone! So, it's been awhile since I've been on here. Mostly that's because I was without internet! The internet had been going out every week or two since late June. Things are up and running now, thankfully. Is anyone out there happy with their internet provider? Or even moderately OK with their internet provider? Or just not completely hating it? 🤣 I am very open to suggestions for a new one.

So, time for the first installment of the Michaels Halloween items! I say first installment because this blog post is going to be about the colorful, vintage-inspired stuff. The second post is going to be more themed around a certain topic I wanted to discuss anyway.

I see that I'm late to the party, judging by the other Michaels Halloween blog posts I saw up just now. Well, we can compare notes anyway. And for those of you who aren't following many other Halloween blogs, this can be some actual news for you! Haha.

I love the vintage look to the items this year. The classic black cat is always a winner with me.

Here's that cutie again, this time on a jar. I would love to have some t-shirts featuring these images.

This pumpkin is reminding me a lot of the real old time paper maché decorations I've seen in antique stores.

Some adorable ceramic containers:

And how about this vintage-inspired, blow mold looking pumpkin man!? I'm looking these pics over and thinking how Michaels will be seeing me again during their after Halloween sales.

A kitty cat candy holder (I'm assuming). Who else thinks this looks like the cat off The Simpsons? Remember Snowball the cat?

A crazed looking cat pillow:

I had to stand on my tip-toes to get this pic, because this welcome mat was up over my head. So I didn't even get to see how cool this was until looking at my camera screen. It reminds me of a Ouija Board. That was probably the intention.

An idea of a shelf layout with all that good looking orange and black:

I'm tucking away the idea of putting little pom poms on a house, because that's pretty cute.

And how great is this Victorian? This would be even better if the windows were cut out. Can't you imagine this as a massive candle holder?

Michaels had some cute Halloween miniature buildings out. Or in this case, the "Pumpkin Tilt-a-Hurl".

How about the "Garden of Eaten"? This looks a bit Little Shop of Horrors inspired... Check out that poor dude in the doorway!

The flies make a gross addition.

I like the fortune telling theme Michaels has gone with this year.

This is one of those "Squirrel Vision" pics I took from the floor up.

Same here. It turns out that "Squirrel Vision" was the only way to get some of these signs without a glare.

This just cracks me up!

Sort of in that similar vein, here's a bottle of Love Potion No. 9:

There were a few fun critters out in the store. These toads make me smile. I should mention that these toads and that love potion bottle appear much larger here than in reality!

The ultimate critter shelf! See my toad there? I have the green one. Looks like they're being made in black now too. Those snakes were massive. Massive and squishy. I gave one of their heads the squish test and was surprised that it was more like a stress relieving ball than a pillow.

These eyeballs look an awful lot like those that are sold by Grandin Road. These eyes felt like something between stone and resin. They were surprisingly cold to the touch.

Hehe.

So there's Michaels Halloween Part 1. What do you think? Pretty good stuff this year, hey? I haven't been to any other stores with much Halloween stuff out yet. Jo-Anns was starting to put things out, that harvest-type stuff. Other than that, I haven't seen much. Have you guys seen much Halloween at other stores?

Halloween at Target and lots of it!

Get ready to see lots of photos! After going to two different Target stores over the past few days, I have a lot to share. Target has some different "collections" of decorations this year. They have a classy black and metallic purple collection, a traditional orange and black collection, and a pretty impressive Day of the Dead collection! And there were lots of fun toy-like items that moved and lit up.

Starting with some nostalgia... I love this mask because it reminds me of my childhood. Do you guys remember those super bright Halloween decorations printed on kind of a cardstock material? These would be from the '80s. I remember a bright green full body skeleton decoration like that and some faces. Well, those are immediately what I thought of when I saw this:

Ah ha! I found a picture of one of those 80s skulls:

Skull pic on Halloween Wizard's blog

There are a lot of skulls on that page, but I'm talking about the first one.

I didn't try to light up these masks, but I'd like to see one in action. It appears they are sensitive to sound. I think this butterfly mask looks like something made to go with a blacklight. Now we're getting into 90s nostalgia!

This a cute new prop: the haunted fishbowl. If you press a button, all these different lights come on and the little skeleton fish move around.

Masquerade birds

These pumpkin pillows were so soft! Like a nice, fluffy blanket. How do you like that Simpsons looking bat?

I LOVE this skull and crossbones. This is the first time I've seen fake skulls go in that piratey direction.

In other new skull news, check out this dragon skull! It said on the tag that it lights up and I think I can see a lightbulb in there.

That red wire or cord looks almost like thin neon rope lighting.

The Wheel of Fate! I like where the hand is pointing now (Treats will be yours), but they're not all good spins.

This thing was massive! We can see that it lights up in purple but I'm not sure if it lights up in other colors.

I liked all the metallic purple accents I was seeing. They had a lot of metallic purple on black stuff.

Check out this Day of the Dead section! I like that they're going in a direction where some of this could actually be used on an altar. The candles and candleholders, for instance.

This wreath was one of my favorite items there. I'm feeling inspired to make something like this.

Some of those little birds Target carries:

Sugar skull dachshunds!

This reminds me of the classic blow molds, only super tiny.

This poison bottle is kind of an old-school liquor jug/bowling pin.

Obviously this spider's legs can be bent down. They look pretty funny like this.

I think these spiders have pretty adorable faces. Their hairdos are adding to the cuteness.

Check out these wicked old school devices! Those specimens in what looks like a mad scientist's lab equipment actually startled me, because they made so much noise. I think the others are pretty fun designs. The boombox brings me back. You can't see in this pic, but if you peel apart that purple center in the phone, there's a big eye.

Here we go:

If you get a chance, give this phone a listen. I think you'll agree with me that it sounds like a close relative to Cookie Monster. The alarm clock opens and rings really loudly. That one was a little much for me. It'll make you jump.

Here's a close-up of that nostalgic boombox. This one wasn't like that crazy alarm clock. It was surprisingly low key in the noise department.

And the specimens! This reminds me of something. A kid's show? I don't know. Somebody help me out here. Do these eyes and teeth remind you of something?

Some big, juicy eyes! I assume these are for sticking on a pumpkin?

More eyes! These were in the party favors section:

One more eye! I can't remember if this does anything aside from glancing around. It reminds me a little of that eye on the spellbook in Hocus Pocus.

I think there's something creepy about a bunch of mascot heads on shelves. I'm reminded of a local costume shop that I don't think exists anymore. It was creepier than this because it wasn't well lit in there. There were rows after rows Easter Bunny suits in there.

I think the cow is kind of cute.

I'm pretty sure I saw this chicken head worn with a full fluffy chicken suit years back, something close to it anyway. A person was doing something like "The Funky Chicken" in this at a street festival. 😁

Funky, tribal pumpkins:

Pretty cute

This one might be on the After Halloween Haul list:

Tiny punk planters! At least I see those plants as hair. I'm now noticing those creeping hand candleholders behind them. They had some of those hands in black too.

A close-up of another punk item: the spiky pumpkin

I'm ending with this Ouija Board tray because it fittingly says "GOOD BYE".  I  can see this tray as holding a number of candles. I think the metallic gold on this tray would look really cool by candlelight.

Do your Target stores have this same general selection? The two I visited varied a bit. One seemed to have more of the traditional orange and black decorations.

I should also mention that now is a good time to visit Target for some discount school supplies/organizers. I ended up with some pretty large plastic magazine or binder holders for only 58¢ each!