Project: Halloween Tree

I love Halloween and Halloween-themed crafty stuff. For inspiration this year, I went through every Halloween project in my old craft books and magazines and absolutely nothing caught my eye until I saw the cover of the April 1969 issue of Pack o Fun magazine and had a total, "Aha!" moment.

The project featured on the cover is an assemblage of eggs with doofusy faces drawn on them , all wearing homemade hats and hanging on a pink painted branch. Not exactly my idea of a worthwhile project, but I knew I had to make this goofy thing with a Halloween twist. It just so happens that I love drawing skeletons and skulls on stuff so the logical solution would be to create a skull egg tree.

I blew a dozen eggs and only managed to obliterate two of them. I was in the middle of drawing skeleton faces on them with a Sharpie when my daughter Eleanor decided she wanted in on the action. I gave her one to draw on, which she promptly turned into egg confetti. She drew on her second one with a red marker and gave it to me, calling it a "blood egg". Yeah, the blood egg needed to go on the tree too. I love my creepy little daughter. I gave her another egg to make into a blood egg, because you can't just have one solitary blood egg on your tree, now can you?

I threaded a loop of black embroidery floss through the holes in the skull using a special needle that I made from a length of 16 gauge wire with a small loop on one end. I accidentally dropped one egg and smashed it, so in the end I ended up with only 6 skulls and 2 blood eggs. Not too bad, but I recommend buying another dozen eggs if you're planning on doing this project yourself and want some extras in case you screw up. And you will. Trust me.

I decided that the base of the piece should be a pumpkin. I cored and scraped out the inside of a small one and Eleanor helped with the gutting process. I saved the seeds and cleaned them off to roast later.

I found a fallen branch in our backyard that I liked and decided not to paint it because it looked so fantastic au naturale. I stuck the branch into the pumpkin and put the top back on because it made it look more finished. Spanish moss would be a nice alternative.

Verdict: Oh my God, yeah! I love my skull/blood egg tree! This might turn out to be a new Halloween tradition in my family. It's easy and fast to put together, Eleanor thought it was fun, and there's the extra bonus of a built-in snack! I loves me some pumpkin seeds.