As you already know, I love all things Halloween. Pumpkins, costumes, food and kids who are out and about trick-or-treating, dressed in their favorite batman costume. The list goes on. However, what really intrigues me are these wonderfully whimsical decorations of vintage Halloween, that I found online.
Who doesn’t love a black cat trick or treating? Or a clever little pumpkin? There is something intrinsically appealing to me about their rather rustic and primitive construction. Notecards of the 1900s are fun to collect and can add that little vintage touch to any halloween decor. Again, their simple artwork and use of strong vibrant colors are to be treasured for generations to come.
Many decorations of these eras contained simple materials: crepe paper, cardboard, orange and black chenille stems and papier mache, that are fortunately readily available to use nowadays. One craft I’ve made with my own children were paper mache candy holders. It’s messy, but the results were fun–and charming!
- Supplies needed: small round balloons already inflated, strips of newspaper (about 1” thick) paper mache paste (recipes follow), paint and paint brushes, small chenille stems.
- in a large bowl, mix your newspaper strips and paper mache paste until it’s nice and gooey. Sorry, it is a sticky mess and probably best to work on outdoors.
- start wrapping the strips around your balloon careful not to cover the entire surface, you’ll want to leave room to add your little treats later. Then let it dry for a good 36 hours.
- Once thoroughly dry, pop your balloon and start to paint. My kids and I used black paint for spooky cat and owl faces, white for ghosts, orange for pumpkin heads. After the paint dries stick a thick needle through the two side so you can thread the chenille stems through it and there you have it. Cute, vintage and functional!
Easy Paper Mache recipe:
one part flour
two parts water
3 TBL salt
OR
one part water
two parts glue
Emma Rae Curtis is a costume/dressing up/makeup & accessories expert. She mainly writes about Halloween but also about all things costume and dress-up related.
