The local Michaels arts-and-crafts stores have been slowly stocking their shelves with Halloween.  Also, they have some deep discounts on their spring and summer merchandise.  Some of these can be used for Halloween too!

First, the Halloween goodies!

The Lemaxx Spooky Town displays have a bit of a canival-like atmosphere this year.  I took some pictures below.

There are lots of elegant decorations with variations on the skull theme this year…

…and other stuff (please forgive the occasional blurry picture)…

 

The changing portraits were sufficiently creepy

Check out this video for the full effect

I also saw a good selection of bisque ceramics.  You’d need access to a kiln to glaze and finish these.  There are craft locations that will do that for you (Like Art and Soul in the Plano TX area)

The stores are also deeply discounting spring items.  One thing that caught my eye was the decorative boxes.

I especially like the boxes in the background that look like books.  These are just crying out to be altered into some creepy Necronomicon or other spooky book (with a secret hiding place inside for your spell-making ingredients!).  Check out Dave Lowe’s blog for ideas on how to make these into a faux leather creepy book.  Even the regular boxes could be turned into a vampire killing kit, like this one in a video from Shadow of Palms.

ScreaminScott says “dig it up!”