Rat Infestation

Sadly I was MIA at the end of October.  Sickness rampaged on both my family and my computer and put us out of commission for a while.  But seeing as how this is a year-round Halloween blog, I have no scruples in still posting the rest of my Halloween decorations!

I was disappointed to find when perusing through my pictures that I failed to capture my outside witch at night...bummer.  :(  We'll have to catch her next year.  But there were still plenty of pictures to be had.

One of the additions to the outside for 2011 was a derelict crate of "live rats."  

 I used the Martha Stewart idea HERE, but did live rats instead since I didn't feel like carving intricate pumpkins.  Besides, the dollar tree had rubber rats (pretty decent looking too)...and I can't pass up inexpensive decorations.  :)

Luckily we had just inherited some old wood crates from my in-laws (they had been sitting in a back shed for years, which made them nice and weathered), so we were able to put them to good use!

 Complete with spooky dead leaves!

So I took a few supplies...

And stenciled on the letters (stencils bought at a local craft store).

I also added a little paint around the edges and corners to give it more of an authentic "stamp" look.

I then surrounded the box with another smaller box (that sort of looked like a lid or something), the rats, and a few lanterns with LED candles inside.

Peek-a-boo!

I ended up putting a larger LED candle under the lettering for better night viewing.  Here is a very horrible, blurry picture of what it looked like at night (along the bottom).

I had planned on taking more another day, but then the aforementioned sickness occured.  Sadly, that is the only picture we ended up getting of our carved pumpkins (placed in large urns with moss spilling out).  We found the most amazing $4 candles at Kmart that lit them up better than anything we've ever tried before (and even flickered like flames).  You can also see the beginnings of the "Wicked Wick's Candle Shoppe" in the bay window.  I didn't have time to finish that particular project, so it will have to debut in 2012.

And there ya have it!  I hope to acquire more weathered boxes in the future so that I can expand this display to include live serpents, live spiders, etc.  The ideas are limitless!

More outside decorating ideas to come in 2012!