Halloween 2018

I hope that everybody had a Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday to decorate for. For the past several years, I decorated my parents’ house, played music on the porch, and dressed in costume to hand out candy. Many of the decorations that I used, I made myself. The music that I played and the decorations that I used were a mix of scary and light hearted. I dressed up as a black hooded, faceless ghoul. There was a mirror where the face was supposed to be on the mask, so that the kids would see themselves when they looked at it. I used the costume 4-5 years in a row, and it always got great reactions from the kids. They were usually either scared or amused.

Here are a few pictures of my decorations from last year:

A friendly paper mache pumpkin that I made

An evil scarecrow that I made, and two evil paper mache pumpkins that I made. I also painted the wooden crates that the pumpkins are sitting on

A graveyard statue of a hooded woman that I made

My graveyard scene; I made the tombstones and the creatures behind the two tombstones on the right

A ghost that I made

Two more ghosts that I made, at the end of the hallway

Since my parents moved this past summer, I decorated my car for a Trunk or Treat at my church this year, the night before Halloween. I also decorated my apartment and handed out candy to the kids in my building on Halloween night. Both nights were successful, and a lot of fun.

Here are some pictures from the Trunk or Treat:

And this was what I wore; the hat reads: “this is my costume”

Perhaps one of the most fun parts though, was that I made my candy bowls interactive. See the videos below:

And lastly, here are a few pictures of how I decorated my apartment:

Now, I know that this blog is supposed to be faith related, and it is supposed to be a place where I share my music and writings inspired by the Holy Spirit. So, some of you may be wondering, what does this post about my Halloween decorations have to do with that?

I am going to get to that right now. We all receive different gifts from God, and we are all called to share those gifts with others. Making my own Halloween decorations has helped me to discover gifts that I did not realize that I had.

For example: painting, sculpting, carving, arranging decorations, etc. I never was very good at art, but when I saw Halloween decorations made by other people, I really wanted to try to make some of my own. So I gave it a try, not knowing what the outcome would be.

I made my first Halloween decorations in the Year 2014. I learned all of the techniques that I have used to make decorations by watching different online tutorials. I made most, if not all of the decorations in the years before I started going back to church. And now since I started going back to church in January of 2017, I have used many of the same techniques that I used to make Halloween decorations, to make religious items. I have given many of the religious items that I have made to people as gifts.

Here are a couple of examples:

Standing crosses; I made the rocky parts on the bottoms from paper mache. I bought the crosses unfinished, from Michael’s and painted them

One of the standing crosses, and a picture frame that I made from unfinished wood items from Michael’s

And lastly, a paper mache cross that I made, with a St. Peregrine (Cancer Saint) medal glued on. I made it for somebody who has throat cancer. I had it blessed and touched to a St. Peregrine relic before giving it to the person.

Anyway, artwork is another way that the Holy Spirit inspires me; whether it be making Halloween decorations, or religious items. I would not have been able to apply the techniques used to make the religious items though, had I not first learned those same techniques to make Halloween decorations in the years before I started going back to church.

I really hope that this inspires somebody. God Bless!