This month, I had the pleasure of hosting Bunco at my home. October is an important month to be the Bunco hostess because we always dress up and have a costume contest. While normal hosting involves buying enough wine and making sure the pretty towels are hung in guest bathroom, Halloween Bunco involves a bit more thought and prep. I really wanted to do some fun and spooky Halloween decorating without going overboard on cost and prep time. So, just for fun, I want to share some of my Halloween party decorating and Bunco ideas with everyone.
The first thing I made for the party was the Bunco score cards. I drew out a spiderweb border, thought of some spooky sayings for the mini buncos, and played with some creepy fonts until I had a Halloween worthy Bunco score card. I made six slightly different versions of this score card which you can download here for use at your own Halloween Bunco Party. Make sure to download the original for the best quality, and please feel free to leave me a comment if you use these for your Bunco gathering.
Before you read any further, I want to say that I didn't go all out and do a full haunt. This is the easy, accessible version of a Halloween party. I did some art, some funny accents, and some themed food just to get everyone in the mood. Second, I was running behind during set-up so you're getting party aftermath pictures (sorry).
Anyone who knows me, knows that I love doing art for my parties. When my daughter had her puppy birthday, we covered some of the art around the house with puppy themed designs. So, this time, I made a series of three paintings to help get the room in the Halloween spirit.
The original idea was to take black poster board and make white chalkboard styled paintings. Of course, that only works if the store has black poster board.
That's okay, because some of my best ideas come from having to think outside the box in search of a plan B. Plan B ended up being totally cooler than plan A anyways. Any idea that starts with "pour half cup of wet paint onto canvas" has got to be good :)
As some of you may have guessed, these are finger paintings. I didn't really plan anything in advance. I didn't draw it out on the canvas or make practice sketches. I knew that I wanted to do a skull, a witch, and a spider, and I had an idea of how I wanted them to look, but time was short and I just poured a handful of paynes grey onto the canvas, added a few handfuls of water, smeared it everywhere, and then used my fingers to wipe off the paint. My kids, and my guests loved the paintings so I was pleased.
I also made these day of the dead pens for my guests to use for keeping score and for favors that they could take home with them.
This project was also very paint reliant. I painted plain mini skulls to be day of the dead sugar skulls, covered the pens in black ribbon, and then added some fake flowers around the head to cover the joined areas.
My last really crafty project for the party was making these black dripped glasses. What's better than sangria served out of a cauldron with eye balls floating in your beverage; getting to drink the sangria out of a spooky black dripped plastic champagne flute.
My other decorative accents were pretty easy to do. Sometimes simple is more effective. People got a real kick out of my party crashing witch, and she was made using paper towel rolls, a pair of my socks and shoes, and plastic bags for stuffing.
The mini graveyard was easy and cheap, and it looked great surrounded by all the food.
Madam Leota was also easy and fun. I just cut out a picture of her from a downloadable Halloween party invitation, put the picture in a glass globe, and put a flashing colored pumpkin light behind the cutout. The effect was great for the price and she made a wonderful accent to the grape tray :)
And lastly, I had to put something funny in the bathroom.
I hope that some of these ideas or printables can help you haunt your house or party. I have a few more Halloween and October themed crafts in the works that I I'll hopefully also post soon.
I'd also love to know what everyone else is doing for Halloween. What's your favorite tradition?
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| Click on the image to download all six cards. |
Before you read any further, I want to say that I didn't go all out and do a full haunt. This is the easy, accessible version of a Halloween party. I did some art, some funny accents, and some themed food just to get everyone in the mood. Second, I was running behind during set-up so you're getting party aftermath pictures (sorry).
Anyone who knows me, knows that I love doing art for my parties. When my daughter had her puppy birthday, we covered some of the art around the house with puppy themed designs. So, this time, I made a series of three paintings to help get the room in the Halloween spirit.
The original idea was to take black poster board and make white chalkboard styled paintings. Of course, that only works if the store has black poster board.
That's okay, because some of my best ideas come from having to think outside the box in search of a plan B. Plan B ended up being totally cooler than plan A anyways. Any idea that starts with "pour half cup of wet paint onto canvas" has got to be good :)
As some of you may have guessed, these are finger paintings. I didn't really plan anything in advance. I didn't draw it out on the canvas or make practice sketches. I knew that I wanted to do a skull, a witch, and a spider, and I had an idea of how I wanted them to look, but time was short and I just poured a handful of paynes grey onto the canvas, added a few handfuls of water, smeared it everywhere, and then used my fingers to wipe off the paint. My kids, and my guests loved the paintings so I was pleased.
I also made these day of the dead pens for my guests to use for keeping score and for favors that they could take home with them.
This project was also very paint reliant. I painted plain mini skulls to be day of the dead sugar skulls, covered the pens in black ribbon, and then added some fake flowers around the head to cover the joined areas.
My last really crafty project for the party was making these black dripped glasses. What's better than sangria served out of a cauldron with eye balls floating in your beverage; getting to drink the sangria out of a spooky black dripped plastic champagne flute.
My other decorative accents were pretty easy to do. Sometimes simple is more effective. People got a real kick out of my party crashing witch, and she was made using paper towel rolls, a pair of my socks and shoes, and plastic bags for stuffing.
The mini graveyard was easy and cheap, and it looked great surrounded by all the food.
Madam Leota was also easy and fun. I just cut out a picture of her from a downloadable Halloween party invitation, put the picture in a glass globe, and put a flashing colored pumpkin light behind the cutout. The effect was great for the price and she made a wonderful accent to the grape tray :)
And lastly, I had to put something funny in the bathroom.
I hope that some of these ideas or printables can help you haunt your house or party. I have a few more Halloween and October themed crafts in the works that I I'll hopefully also post soon.
I'd also love to know what everyone else is doing for Halloween. What's your favorite tradition?
