Halloween, in black and white... plus glitter!

This year I decided to do a little something different in my dining room.  I've collected a ton of old silver plate and with my two new mercury glass pumpkins... well, I knew I wanted to have a black and white Halloween vignette on the dining room buffet.  Of course, the black includes a bit of glitter... and glamor... the white is milk glass, of course.

The mercury glass pumpkins rest upon black glass....

And nothing in my house would be complete without some vintage... crepe paper that is.

So... when I stepped back from this... I realized something was missing.  I liked it, but it lacked something.  I realized the mirror needed a bit of dressing too.

I had an old Readers Digest book I'd picked up for .10 cents and knew it would be a great back drop for some old Martha Stewart black discs that spell "Happy Halloween".  I think I picked them up 5 or 6 years ago at Michaels... used them once perhaps?   Along with some black bias tape, a bit of cotton lace, glue and black glitter... well this was the makings of a Halloween garland!

So first I cut a bunch of pages out of my .10 book using a cutting blade, then stacked the sheets/pages and cut them in half.  On each page, I glued on a black disc and let them dry.  When they were all dry I used my white glue and brushed on a thin amount just along the edge of all four sides.

Working on a piece of tissue paper, placed inside a cookie sheet... I sprinkled.... well more like poured.... glitter around all four sides of the page.  Carefully with the blade of my cutting knife, I picked each page up...

And placed it on newspaper to dry.

In just a few minutes, well maybe 20 or 30, I had the pages and letters all finished... lined up to dry. While the letters dried, I carefully used the tissue paper to pour all of the extra glitter back into the bottle... When I was done the bottle was full again. It's pretty amazing what a small amount of glitter can accomplish.


After the glittered pages had dried completely, I punched 2 holes in the top of each page being sure I went over the original small holes on each letter... strung "Happy" on one piece of black bias tape and "Halloween" on another piece of bias tape. Added a bit of lace at each end...

And voila! 

A bit of paper, ribbon and glitter put together to make a vintage looking banner.  It was just what this little spot in the dining room needed.  A bit of black glitter to go with the sparkle of the silver.

And now, a little before and after shot....

What do you think?  Is it the finishing touch?  And made out of what I already had, plus a .10 cent thrift store book!

Starting off October.... by getting ready for Halloween,

linking up to

The Vintage Farmhouse 
Halloween Giveaway