Dollar Store Halloween Town

 Yesterday I was browsing pinterest and came across this link here. The site is 36th Avenue and she had some stinkin cute ideas including taking dollar store Christmas figurines and turning them into a 10 dollar or less Halloween village. This morning I went over to my local Dollar Tree and was pretty surprised to find exactly what I was looking for. The woman said they had just gotten the shipment and she was actually putting them out when I walked in. I then headed to Michaels craft store to get some glitter paint (the kind that says it will work on ceramic - I used Deco Art glamour dust but I know 36th Ave used Americana enamel paint) already had black spray paint. To make the paint less expensive use a 40% off Michaels or Hobby Lobby coupon. Just to price it I looked at Michaels Halloween figurines. They were nicer but each house was 20 bucks and higher, some over 100. The same trees I had just purchased at the Dollar Tree however (two for a dollar) were 6.99 at Michaels.


 I got excited and bought more than 36th Ave did. There are two houses, a church, a gazebo, a bridge, and a gate (which somehow didn't make it into the picture). There are also a 4 pack of lights that already glow orange, a 2 pack tree, a tree I thought looked a little more Halloween, and two 3 packs of people figurines. Pick the ones that already look creepy. Kids burying themselves in snow, a man with a bag, a man and boy with a shovel, scrooge, a woman, and Santa. Note here - we did not paint Santa black. We were worried there would be no Christmas presents if we did that.
Grand Total at Dollar Tree - $11 dollars

First thing to do was lay them out on newspapers and spray paint them all black. We had leftover purple in the garage so our trees got a black and purple treatment for extra spooky effects.



They look so innocent....now. Actually, I agreed with 36 Ave that the faces are a little creepy. She covered them with playdough while spray painting, I covered them with tape.

 Our finished village. Instead of painting it all black and just glittering it though I took orange paint I had in the closet and ended up outlining the windows, then put the purple glitter paint on the roofs and the orange glitter paint around the windows and beams. Then I got excited and got all my paints out. Added a little brown mixed with green to the bushes and a little white on the top of the gazebo. I had saved the woman figurine and painted her white as well - she is now a ghost in our gazebo.....
(Note - if you buy the gate make sure to turn it around. One side has a lot of wreaths, the backside looks a lot creepier.)

 Lady in White

 36 Ave had hers set up against a wall with a few bats, lights, and a black candleholder. Loved her set up. This is set up on my coffee table. Will have to add and work with it tomorrow. Tonight I am too tired to do any atmosphere and am just happy the painting is done.

Total time though was surprising. Whipped the whole thing out in a day and besides the drying which went relatively fast it took a total of maybe two hours. Most of that was trying to steady my hand while outlining windows and stopping to watch the latest Castle episode on TV. Those of you with better concentration skills could probably whip this out much faster! Set up tomorrow will take maybe 15 minutes.
So....
Total Cost - (Might be a little more if you don't have some paint at home) - $15
Total Time - 2 hours hand painting, 10 min. spray painting, time driving to local Dollar Tree
Kids who get to wake up to their own Halloween village - priceless ;)