It is time for the Monthly Thrift Store Décor Upcycle Challenge. This month we are keeping with our Halloween momentum and I am crazy excited about it. I picked up this Christmas house from Goodwill last November and immediately knew I wanted to turn it into a haunted house. The snow on the rood and the many windows are perfect for a creepy piece of Halloween décor. Keep reading to find out how to make your own DIY haunted house makeover.

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The Rules:

Upcycle an item(s) from a thrift store, resale store, or garage sale into a new piece of decor.
There’s no monthly theme.
There’s no budget to stick to.

Meet the Hosts

Make sure you follow our board on Pinterest for more upcycled decor inspiration!

[bctt tweet=”#DIY haunted house makeover from a thrift store Christmas statue! #repurposeit” username=”diyadulation”]

Materials

Thrift Store Christmas House
Black Acrylic Paint
Brown Acrylic Paint
White Acrylic Paint
Purple Acrylic Paint
Acrylic Spray Sealant
Birch Bark
Plastic Halloween Toys (I got mine at the Dollar Tree)
Scissors
Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks
Fake Spider Web

Step 1

First, cover your entire house in black acrylic paint and let it dry.

Step 2

Next, paint the front door brown.

Step 3

Then mix a small amount of brown paint with your purple paint and paint all of the windows on your house.

Step 4

Next, mix a small amount of white and brown paint and paint the trim of the door.

Step 5

Add the same lightened brown paint to the trim of your house.

Step 6

Then add some of the brown and purple mixed paint to random shingles of your roof.

Step 7

Touch up any areas that need it and allow the paint to dry.

Step 8

Spray your entire house with acrylic sealant and let it dry.

Step 9

While your sealant dries, cut small pieces of birch bark to look like boards for the windows.

Step 10

Next, glue the boards across all of the bottom windows on your house.

Step 11

Now select some plastic Halloween toys to embellish your house with, including one skeleton bookmark.

Step 12

Cut the bottom off of your skeleton bookmark.

Step 13

Next, attach the skeleton to the top front window on your house with hot glue.

Step 14

Then glue small toys over each wreath on your house.

Step 15

Add a board across the window directly above the door and one board next to the door.

Step 16

Next, pull off a small amount of fake spider web.

Step 17

Add the spider webs to the roof of the house.

Tip:

You may need to add dabs of hot glue to keep the spider webs in place at the edges of the roof.

Step 18

Lastly, glue a plastic spider or 2 on the spider webs.

This DIY haunted house makeover turned out fantastically! The fun colors of the plastic Halloween toys make it more playfully spooky so that it doesn’t scare the kiddos. If you want to up the creep factor, stick with the white toys exclusively or paint the toys bronze before adding them to your haunted house. Whichever style you choose, you will have a fun and thrifty new piece of Halloween décor. We’re not done with the upcycled fun yet. Check out the other thrift store projects from my friends below!

See where I’m linking up!

Don’t Forget to Pin It!

And now for more thrifty goodness!

Check out what my fellow upcyclers created below!

Step 16

Lastly, glue the spider to your lantern.

This DIY spooky spider web lantern is so easy to make and budget-friendly you will want to make several different size ones to create a spooky vignette. #ad

Once your lantern is finished, place it over 2 electronic candles. I used tea lights in the photos but I think electronic pillar candles would look fantastic as well. This DIY spooky spider web lantern is so easy to make that you will want to make several different size ones to create a spooky vignette. Luckily, you can create many of them guilt-free with Dollar Tree. Looking for more frugal DIY Halloween décor? Check out these Mini Pumpkin Lanterns or this awesome DIY Buffy Hush box. Don’t forget to come back on Thursday for the Thrift Store Haunted House Makeover.

It is time for another awesome Movie Monday Challenge! This month we are focusing on Halloween movies which I am crazy excited about because horror films are my absolute favorite. I can’t get enough of them. That’s why it totally made sense to pick a classic horror film for this challenge. Friday the 13^th is an iconic, cult horror film that everyone at least recognizes even if they haven’t seen it. It is time to pay homage to this classic film by making this DIY Camp Crystal Lake sign. Don’t forget to stick around until the end to see what Halloween movies everyone else picked for the challenge!

Affiliate links may be used in this post. Ordering a product through these links may result in a commission at no extra cost to you. Read the full disclosure here.

[bctt tweet=”Pay homage to #Fridaythe13th with this #DIY Camp Crystal Lake sign for Halloween!” username=”diyadulation”]

Materials

Piece of Foam Board
Black Marker
Pencil
Scissors (You definitely want this pair for this project)
Brown Acrylic Paint (Because so many colors are used, I recommend this set)
Yellow Acrylic Paint
Red Acrylic Paint
Green Acrylic Paint
Black Acrylic Paint
Blue Acrylic Paint
White Acrylic Paint
Assortment of Paint Brushes
Plastic Paint Tray

Step 1

First, outline your sign on your foam board.

Step 2

Cut out your sign with your Tim Holtz scissors.

Note:

These scissors have a shorter blade length and let you cut out your sign without destroying the foam.

Step 3

Paint the entire sign brown with a large paint brush.

Step 4

Let the brown paint dry (almost) completely.

Tip:

You want some of the paint to still be wet to mix with the yellow you are about to add.

Step 5

Next, paint yellow over your entire sign.

Step 6

This time let all of your paint dry completely.

Step 7

Next, paint the red outline around your sign with a small, detail paint brush as pictured.

Step 8

Begin adding the details to the outline by adding short brush strokes coming out from the line.

Step 9

Continue adding the details until your entire red outline is completed.

Step 10

Next, paint a red semi-circle in the bottom center of your sign.

Step 11

Add a green semi-circle around the red one.

Step 12

Then mix a touch of black paint with your blue paint and paint the water inside your semi-circle.

Tip:

Use a larger brush for this than your detail brush.

Step 13

Add a more significant amount of white paint to your blue mix until you get a sky blue color and paint the sky.

Note:

The arrow in the photo above is showing where the white brush strokes go in step 15.

Step 14

Next, paint grey hills in the background and add white details to your scene.

Step 15

Also add white brush strokes to the bottom left of your scene.

Step 16

Then add your boats and the reflections on the water.

Step 17

Next, add the tree details in green and black to the bottom left corner where your white brush strokes are.

Step 18

Lastly, add birds to the sky.

Step 19

Paint a green body on the left of your semi-circle and 2 green arms on the right.

Step 20

Then paint a red head and red details.

Step 21

Paint “EST. 1935” in black under your painted scene.

Step 22

Next, write “CRYSTAL LAKE” centered above your painted scene with pencil.

Step 23

Write “CAMP” centered about that.

Step 24

Paint the words red with your detail brush.

Step 25

Add the words “WELCOME TO” in pencil at the top of your sign.

Step 26

Add the details to the “CAMP CRYSTAL LAKE” letters as pictured above.

Step 27

Next, paint the words “WELCOME TO” in your sky blue.

Step 28

Add a red rectangle above your green body.

Step 29

Paint a green outline around the red head.

Step 30

Lastly, outline everything in black as pictured and let your sign dry completely.

I know it is a lot of painting but this DIY Camp Crystal Lake sign turned out fabulous. Now we have another awesome piece of covert nerd décor in our home which is my favorite way to decorate. In fact, this piece could easily be left out year-round since there is nothing about it that screams, “Halloween”. If you decide to display this outside be sure to spray the entire piece with a protective sealant so that it doesn’t get ruined. I would also recommend bringing it inside during storms. Now it is time to see what my friends created for this month’s Movie Monday Challenge. Definitely stop by and give them some love! Speaking of great signs, a compay called LightSpeed have this great new technology that makes the coolest looking signs! My friend told me about it, they use an LED Exposure Unit to make mess free beautiful patterns that costs so much less to make then traditional painting.

See where I’m linking up!

On the last Monday of each month, a group of bloggers participate in a #MovieMondayChallenge, hosted by C’mon Get Crafty! We decide on a topic, genre, or specific movie to use for inspiration and everyone gets free reign to create something wonderful!

This month’s challenge was. . . . HALLOWEEN!!!! Everyone was allowed to choose their own favorite Halloween-themed film for this challenge.

Now let’s see what everyone else was inspired to create for this month’s #MovieMondayChallenge!! If you’d like to join our Facebook group, you can request an invite here.

An InLinkz Link-up

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