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Frightful Flowers Make Halloween
'Boo-tiful'
Do-It-Yourself Halloween Decorating Projects
(ARA) - What could be scarier than some fake spider webs and a
leering jack 'o' lantern this Halloween? For millions of
Americans, the answer seems to be a bare front porch and
undecorated home totally lacking in spirit.
In 2007, nearly 50 percent of Americans decorated their homes or
yards for Halloween, according to the National Retail
Federation's Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions survey.
The survey estimated total Halloween spending, including
decorations, at around $5 billion last year.
Many serious Halloween acolytes add one or two major items of
decoration to their collections every year. Larger pieces,
especially those that feature movement, light or sound, can cost
hundreds of dollars. But it's possible to create a fresh, fun or
even frightful atmosphere with a cost-effective, timeless
decorating tool - cut flowers.
"It's easy to take home decorating for Halloween a step beyond
store-bought decorations by using flower arrangements," says
Jill Slater, flower designer for flowerpossibilities.com. "While
simple, Halloween-themed floral creations can be enjoyed during
the fall holiday season, fresh-cut flowers can be enjoyed in the
home throughout the year."
Flowers are especially versatile as Halloween decorations
because they can be used to create fun or frightening effects.
Whatever the atmosphere you plan to evoke, remember that color
is key.
For scary effect, choose cut flowers in powerful colors like
blood red, or ghostly white. Crimson roses, lightly laced with
somber white genistra and presented in a creepily cracked urn
can make a frightfully good -- and eerily elegant -- decoration
for your grown-up Halloween display.
For fun arrangements, choose seasonal colors like golds,
yellows, oranges and burnt umber. Accent seasonally hued floral
arrangements with harvest-themed extras like dried corn husks,
wheat stalks or gourds.
Flowerpossibilities.com offers several "recipes" for fun
Halloween floral decorations, including:
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Spooky Sheriff
Materials:
* One 6-inch round pumpkin (real or hollow
artificial)
* Three stems protea
* Two stems orange gerbera daisies
* Two stems yellow gerbera daisies
* One stem yellow lily
* Three stems boxwood
* Three or four stems sword fern
* One
red bandana
* One small
cowboy hat
* One brick floral foam
* Floral clippers, scissors and knife
* Floral preservative/food |
Directions:
1. Soak floral foam for at least 30 minutes in water treated
with flower food/preservative.
2. Cut and scoop out pumpkin. With permanent marker, draw eyes
and nose of Spooky Sheriff.
3. Cut the wet foam to fit and insert the floral foam into the
pumpkin. Set the cowboy hat on top of the floral foam.
4. Cut flowers and foliage to approximately 4- to 6-inches in
length. Begin inserting stems under the cowboy hat and into the
exposed floral foam. Place the colorful yellow lily and yellow
gerbera daisies front and center and position the dried wheat
and orange gerbera daisies to one side. The protea and sword
fern are used to fill spaces of the bright flowers.
5. Tie the bandana around the base of the pumpkin.
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Floral
Creepy Crawlers
Materials:
* One decorative wire basket
* Two bricks floral foam
* One stem each: orange standard carnation
and pin-cushion protea
* Colorful shredded bunny grass
* Two 2-inch clay pots
* Six Chenille Bump stems of pipe cleaner
(available at craft stores)
* Four stick-on plastic eyes (available at
craft stores)
* Glue gun and glue
*
Halloween candy
* Floral clippers, scissors and knife
* Floral preservative/food |
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Directions:
1. Soak one brick of floral foam for at least 30 minutes in
water treated with floral preservative/food.
2. Cut the floral foam that has been treated with floral
preservative/food to fit the inside the clay pots
3. Cut the pin-cushion protea to about 2-inches in length and
insert it into the center of soaked floral foam.
4. To make the spider legs, cut the pipe cleaners in half. Then
shape them by wrapping around index finger. Insert the pipe
cleaner legs into the floral foam surrounding the flower at
spaced intervals. 6 legs are used for each spider.
5. Adhere eyes onto the flower using the glue gun.
6. Repeat steps two through five to create the orange standard
carnation spider in the other clay pot.
7. Cut dry brick of floral foam to fit inside of the basket, and
place securely inside to use to prop up accessories and your
floral creations.
8. Cover dry floral foam with colorful bunny grass and set one
Floral Creepy Crawler inside the basket and the other just
outside.
9. Sprinkle Halloween candy throughout the bunny grass.
Courtesy of ARAcontent
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