Decorating with Witch Hats

It’s almost that time!  Are we ready for Halloween?!
Not quite?  Oh good – I’m not either 😉  I do have the kids’ costumes all set (yay!) and we went to the corn maze with my husband’s sister over the weekend but there are still some Fall and Halloween activities I haven’t checked off the list.  Like buying pumpkins for carving.  Or eating half the Halloween candy before the trick-or-treaters arrive.  And the event I’m most looking forward to is going with a friend to see the Witches at Gardner Village next week.  That was something we used to do every year and I really missed it while we were living out of state.  I’m not a big on dressing up but it’s kind of the thing to go in costume or at least wear a witch hat so I’m still debating about digging out one of the glammed up witch hats from my stash.

While I’m debating that (or you know, procrastinating about heading down to the shop for a day of sanding laundry drying racks) why don’t I show you some of my fun Halloween decorations using ticked out witch’s hats?

I have a whole collection of (mostly DIY) witch themed decorations now, but I think the one that got it all started was my witch hat centerpiece.  Inspired by one of my first trips to see the witches at Gardner Village and all of the amazing creations people were wearing on their heads, I decided that I wanted one too!  In my version I wanted to be able to look at it the whole month of Halloween, so instead of designing something for my head I put together something for the dining table.

I used an inexpensive costum hat as the base and filled it with floral foam.  Not only did this allow the hat to keep its shape while sitting on the table, but I was also able to attach the silk flowers and leaves and ribbon directly into the foam with floral pins and hot glue.  Easy as that!

I have used that centerpiece for a few years now and loved it so much that when I participated in a fall craft show I decided to whip up a few to sell.  I decided to do a slightly different technique on these, due to my love/hate relationship with hot glue.  I’ve found that hot glue just doesn’t last long when exposed to changes in temperature or if the item gets bumped very often so I used fishing line to sew the flowers, berries, leaves and ribbon onto the hat and only used the hot glue sparingly.

The added benefit of putting it together that way is that not only does the hat look great on a table (you can easily stuff it with newspaper or grocery bags if it needs help standing up), but will also work well hanging from a candlestick (as I did on my mantle), on the end of a broomstick, on the wall, or even as a wreath on the front door.  Plus, the when not in use the hat can fold up a little bit to take up less space when you store it for next year.

Want more Halloween decorating ideas?  Take a look at my front porch decorations, all of them crafty projects just waiting for you to create them like:
Witchy wreath and Boo swags
Home of the Wicked Witch wooden sign (bonus – it’s double-sided for Thanksgiving too!)
Wooden Pallet Pumpkins

Linking to:  Pretty Pintastic Party, Learning from Each Other, BFF Open House, Inspire Me Monday, Made By You Monday, Lou Lou Girls, Tip Me Tuesday,