Arachnoporch + a Giveaway

I struggle with creating a halloween display without going too over the top with neon green/deep purple/bloody skeletons/a stunt double for Edward Cullen.  That’s why I was almost bruised my vocal cords after screaming in excitement when Lowe’s Creative Ideas magazine offered up a giveaway for you guys…and a gift card for me to use to greet my trick-or-treaters in style.

Did you know that in the old house we never had trick-or-treaters?  Not once.  Maybe it was because we weren’t living in a neighborhood…or maybe it was because our direct neighbors were all older…or it could be that our road was a little too busy and narrow for kids to cross…but whatever the reason, we were all alone on Halloween…hugging our giant bowl of Snickers…weeping.  Not really.  But we did think about how one day we would live in a neighborhood that had a few kids.

And hopefully in the next few days, that dream will come true.

But back to the front porch…usually it looks like this:

And now after we added our spooky decor, it looks like this:

Our entire porch got a $50 spooky makeover that will greet those little goblins & princesses with style.

The porch columns are really the ‘entrance’ into the porch, so it was an obvious choice to start there.  We added some branches (trimmings off crepe myrtles that were just thrown into the woods) anchored by a few pots with semi-dead mum bushes.  We also buried a little spotlight in the bush for spooky uplighting.  Outdoor spotlights are cheap right now (under $5 plus the bulb) and I recommend investing in a few.  They are great for the holidays.

Beyond the branchy columns, is our spider themed entrance.  Will loves spiders…I like to credit the homemade spider doll I made last year…and we liked that it was not too scary for any toddlers that would be trick-or-treating. Gotta love a G-rated halloween entrance, right?

We were able to reuse the grapevine wreaths that adorned our windows at the old house as a subtle branchy reference on our double front door.

On either side of the doors lives our black footed urns which were versatile enough to work for Halloween…so they stayed.  First we put in a couple more uplights…then stacked a couple grapevine wreaths and then stuck in a bunch of branchy clippings.

At the floor, we put all our pumpkins and funkins and our homemade spider pumpkin.

This creepy crawly is so fun.  First of all – it took only ten minutes.  We just assembled the textured legs (they are actually outdoorsprinkler parts) and used a drill to cut holes for the legs.  Then we sunk them into the medium sized carving pumpkin and added a couple eyes (halves of old plastic easter eggs with eyes drawn on).

Webster (our nickname for our creepy crawler) would be super simple for those of you who don’t want to have your child weilding sharp weapons of skin destruction.  Plus, it gives you or the hubbie a reason to use power tools

The most impactful piece in our Halloween porch-tacular is the spider web ‘rug’.  I usually don’t go uber graphic or modern but in this case, the high-impact floor covering works for our look (and our theme).  The best part?  It’s no-paint, no-mess, fifteen minute project…oh and it cost less than $20.  (stay tuned for the how-to details on the spider and web-rug later!)

What do you think?  Festive and fun, right?

Well, here’s the best part – Lowe’s Creative Ideas Magazine is giving you a chance to win a $50 gift card to spruce up your exterior (or interior)…let’s get them details on how to win, shall we?

• PRIZE : $50 gift certificate to Lowes
• NUMBER OF WINNERS : One (1)
• TO ENTER : Leave a comment with the phrase ”I’M CAUGHT IN YOUR WEB” and then tell me what you did to your pumpkin this year!  Is it a jack-o-lantern?  Any cool carvings?  Are you a painted pumpkin pro?  Any ribbon, stud, or puffy paint peeps?
• PRIZE SHIPS :  The lower 48 states
• NITTY GRITTY :  This giveaway ends on Friday, November 4th at 8am EDT.  Only one contest entry per email address.  The winners will be chosen using Random.org and announced on this post.

Oh and don’t forget to go over to Lowes Creative Ideas after entering this giveaway to subscribe to your free magazine…they have some really cute ideas in there…like mumkins and how to create a holiday photo backdrop and spooky shredded curtains for your porch!

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Congrats to Sara S.  – our winner of the $50 gift certificate to Lowe’s!

Her comment was…

“I’M CAUGHT IN YOUR WEB.  We carved a breast cancer awareness ribbon and “hope” in honor of my mom and her fight against breast cancer!”

What a great reminder to all the trick-or-treaters!  Thanks Sara!  And remember to shoot me a quick email at [email protected] to claim your prize!  Thanks to everyone who entered and happy Halloween