Tag Archives: vintage halloween

Our Cosmic Family Halloween Costumes

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Ive been saving the pictures from Halloween 2013 to post this year because on November 1st, no one wants to look at Halloween anymore.  I on the other hand could look at Halloween inspiration everyday.

Last year Hudson, my now 4 1/2 year old son, chose our family costumes.  He decided on his own that he wanted to be an astronaut.  So we went with it, we were an out of this world Cosmic Family.  His costume was super easy. Although I could have went a creative DIY route with it I decied a long time ago that its best to mix homemade with store bought to save time.  So, Hudson’s costume was an offical NASA jumpsuit and a very awesome space helmet available still through NASA’s website, potter barn kids and various costume shops. DONE!

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Jake was excited in implement a costume we’ve seen other families create as a space themed group, Mission Control.  His costume was fairly easy to gather, real clothes and a few costume pieces like the headset and retro glasses.  I found inspiration for the look from a gallery picture on NASA’s website, as well as a name badge to alter, I just plopped a pic of Jake in it and printed it in black and white.

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We had to scratch our heads a little for Macy’s costume.  She wasn’t as excited about the theme as the rest of us.  But we found inspiration from Chanel Dror’s shooting star costume on CamilleStyles.com, a full DYI is on the link, check it out!

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It was really right up Macy’s alley, it sparkeled and all we needed was  a metalic leotard, ribbon and some glittery foam sheets.  We scored a gorgeous mask too.  Macy wanted a skirt instead of a unitard and I went with a multi star head band instead of a single star, I was inspired by this headpiece. (sorry the source has been lost).

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I choose to be a martian AND  the most exciting part for me was finding the best inspiration for a vintage martian.  Not weird or scary alien, not sexy martian, just retro and just perfect!

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These handmade costumes from the 60’s were found on Fritz Liess flickr site and he captions them saying that his mom made them for his cousin and she and her date won a costume contest at a dance.  Of course they did!  These are awesome!

So I had to make one for myself, which once again I dont really know how I did it, I just did.  Without a pattern just from looking at these pics.  It was time consuming but the other costumes werent so I had the time to really focus on mine.  Making some changes like the length and head piece to suit me better.

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Your getting a peek of my party table from our open house on Halloween night, there is more to come about my treats and decor finds!

Although there is always decor and good food at every holiday in our home, we really love Halloween because of the costumes. We’ve made it a big deal out of it since our college days and love that we could incorporate it into a family affair.

One of our most loved and also well published family costumes is our Wonderland Family, check it out!

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A Vintage Inspired Halloween Dinner Party

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Halloween Dinner Party 2012

Last year this Halloween dinner party was featured on Amy Altas just a few days before Halloween.   We all know that as soon as its November 1st no one wants to look at Halloween pictures anymore. So I’ve held on to these pictures for almost a whole year!

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My party was inspired by vintage Dennison Bogie Books.  After deciding that I needed to know the origin of the iconic screeching Halloween cat face that pops up everywhere, I did a little research and discovered Dennison Boogie Books dating as far back as 1912.  I fell in love with its wholesome and kitschy suggestions and illustrations of a bygone era.  Most importantly I found inspiration in revitalizing the use of crepe paper as in inexpensive decoration material.

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I sought out a few vintage Dennison Halloween die cuts and illustrations on ebay to reproduce, ordered a republished copy of a 1926 Bogie Book and a few rolls of crepe paper.  The rest of the decorations were from our curated Halloween collection.  And of course all the treats were made by me!

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The invitation is vintage, sort of, I designed and drew it 8 years ago….pre photoshop knowledge.  Back in the day, I loved to make hand cut and one of a kind cards from card stock.  A reader informed me that the technique I used to make this card is called typesetting, who knew?  I just did what I had to do to get stuff done, I still do!  You can check out more about this card HERE and know that you can still create a beautiful invitation even if you don’t have skills of a graphic designer.

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What about that about that wall??!!!  I love big showy backdrops and I was channeling Dorothy Draper with the black and white stripe fringe crepe paper.   Crepe paper can deliver that big of a punch without breaking the bank,  it was so easy to create and so inexpensive.  I covered a 12 foot wall with just 6 rolls at $2 a roll!

Tabletop:

The placemats are vintage Dennison illustrations that were once used on crepe paper banners.  The desert plates are crate and barrel and target.  We always cruise the thrift shops for Halloween decorations, the older and creepier the better.  These candle sticks are brass cast-off that we spray painted black.

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The crow curio is a combination of a glass dome sitting and a styrofoam round decorated with fringed crepe paper.  You can see an up close how to about it HERE.

Sweets:

The treats included a scary black cat and spider web cookies, mummy Oreo pops and a three-tiered Trick or Treat cake.

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A cake this size would easily serve 100 people, so I made two of the tiers as fake dummy cakes.  The cake layers features a Dennison Cat made from fondant, silhouettes of dancing witches and a harlequin pattern reminiscent of a paper lantern.  I finished the cake off with a witch, moon and bat silhouettes fondant topper. You can see more of the cake HERE.  And I have had a request to share the template I used for the dancing witches.  Well, there wasn’t one, I drew it!  But I might go back through my files and see if I can find the inspiration and my original sketch.  If I can I’ll clean it up and share it as a download.

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Instead of caramel or red candle apples I came up with “Black Magic” candy apples by coloring the sugar with black gel coloring. Then I dipped it in black sanding sugar for extra sparkle.  See more about them HERE.

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I had more guest (and more decorations) than one table could hold, so the littlest kids at our party had their own table.  Here I used more Dennison inspired imagery.  I created a paper chandelier right from the instructions in a Bogie Book and made tussie mussies to hold candy for the the kids to take home.

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And just incase you’re wondering, I didn’t rent orange chairs, those are our own dining chairs.  We use orange in our home decor so it was easy for our Air Chairs and Panton Jr chair to become part of the party decor.

Each year our Halloween decorations box grows, it grew alot last year and I cant wait to reuse almost all of these decorations this year at our Halloween Open House party.  But the questions is do I wait another year to share those pictures or do my readers want to see Halloween posts in November?

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Filed under Celebrations, Paper + Fabric, SugarCoated