A mantel, spookified!

So Friday night, I got a wild hair to make our mantel look a little more Halloweeny, which I've never done. I always leave fall decor up there till November 1 Thanksgiving. I struggle with Halloween and fall decorating -- do I do all fall, then take it all down for Halloween, do I do both? Do Halloween, then fall?

Oh, it's so hard being me. The stress of these decisions keeps me up at night. (Totally kidding! Kind of.) I have to have fall up in late August, so for me it's fall, then some Halloween thrown in, then fall, then Christmas. I try not to overdo it though -- it's easy for the house to get overwhelmed with extra decor during the month of October!

When I started the mantel, I just tried adding some spider webs and spiders but it just looked totally goofy with my gorg candles and beady stuff. It was then I decided to go all. the. way. And I LOVE IT!!!

Awhile back, I got this frame for $1.99 at Goodwill: Last week I spray painted it and completely, unabashedly copied Chris at Just a Girl and did this:I just printed out a 31 to the size I needed, cut it out, then cut out those numbers on scrapbook paper.

I put it up on the mantle and it just wasn't enough by itself. So the wheels started turning in my head and it came to me....
Another Goodwill frame in the basement, some spray paint, and some letters printed out on scrapbook paper:
Another empty frame, with another computer print out:
Next year I hope to use another ornate frame for Eek...for now, I'm not picky. :)

I saw a store display that used black tulle in their Halloween display and I fell in love. It is so cheap! I bought some a few weeks ago and didn't do anything with it till now. I nestled all my ghouly votives in it:
Don't worry, I only use LED votives anymore. No fire hazards!
I have had these candleholders for years and years, and a week or so ago I spray painted them black. They were an odd brown color and now I LOVE them:
I took an extra apothecary jar and put some skeleton bones inside:
The bones were bought on clearance last year. Do you see that nasty spider inside? Uhhh, he totally grosses me OUT. I dropped a few of them in there and was getting the heebies looking at them, they look so real. Ugh. I got them all out but this one cause I couldn't reach it. NASTY.

To create a little it one step further, I took a short strand of lights and put them under the black tulle:
I love having just those lit and the rest of the lights off. Spoooooky! But in a lovely way. ;)
Some spidey webs completed the look:
I love it. Like, I love it like I shouldn't love a spooky Halloween mantel. LURVE.
Best part? I didn't buy ONE thing for this mantel. I used the computer and pulled everything together from what I had.
A FREE spookified mantel, you can't beat it!
You can enter the Joey and Chase giveaway till tomorrow (Monday) at noon Eastern time! Rachel has graciously offered a ten percent discount for whatever you order from her site between now and this Friday, the 23rd! To get the discount, enter "TDC10" at the checkout. Lovely!!

Check out this stream