Halloween World Online

Halloween decorations made by The Beistle Company are some of the most popular collectibles among fans of vintage holiday decorations. Specializing in paper party supplies such as die-cuts, centerpieces and paper plates and cups, The Beistle Company has been manufacturing Halloween novelty décor and supplies since the beginning of the 20th century. Founded in Pennsylvania by Martin Beistle, The Beistle Company is still in business today and is one of the largest manufacturers of Halloween goods in the US. But for collectors, it isn’t Beistle’s new products that cause the most interest. It’s their highly sought after vintage Halloween decorations that have become highly collectible.

Some of the vintage Beistle decorations you should be on the look-out for if you are seeking to start or add to your collection are Halloween die-cuts, lanterns and other paper products for the table. Many of the Beistle decorations feature honeycomb tissue paper so you can find items like Jack O’Lanterns with arms and legs that bounce, but due to the fragile nature of the honeycomb tissue you will want to inspect any purchases carefully and also make sure you carefully store any paper products that you buy when they aren’t in use.

One thing to be aware of if you looking for Beistle Halloween decorations to add to your collection is the fact that some of their most popular vintage designs have been reproduced recently so you should be wary of unscrupulous sellers who are claiming the repro items as the original vintage products. All of the reproductions are marked with the year of production and the paper they are made out of is heavier than the paper Beistle used in the 1930s and 40s so if you are shopping in person it will be easy to spot the difference. But if, like most collectors, you are putting together your Halloween collection with online purchases and Ebay auctions, the best advice is to stick to well-known and reputable dealers who have a reputation to maintain and lots of positive feedback on their auctions.

Beistle has used various trademarks over the years and there are several to keep an eye out for when you are determining authenticity. Depending on what kind of product you are looking at, the trademarks will either be stamped, printed, labeled or embossed. The most common trademarks include: “H.E. Luhrs”; “The Beistle Company” printed signature, “Bee-Line” which may or may not include an image of a bee in flight; and the Beistle Diamond Trademark. On their tissue products you may find the “Art Tissue Westminster Bells” trademark.

Some of the most interesting of the vintage Beistle Halloween decorations available were made between the years 1900 and the early 1950s. Due to the fact that Halloween was much more of an adult oriented holiday than it is today, you’ll often find that early decorations had more of a spooky aspect than the stuff made for children’s Halloween parties and trick or treat outings today. So as you build your collection, it may make the most sense to stick to products manufactured in the early half of the century in order to maintain a consistent feel to your Halloween collection.

Designing Halloween arts and crafts is a good way to get children interested in arts and crafts making and discover their creative talents in the process. One can come up with easy ideas for the decorations by searching on the internet and then explain the methods to the children so that they can be creative and have fun making these items themselves.

One of the easiest art and craft Halloween decorations is the creepy balloon ghost, which is very easy to make. All you need is white balloons and plastic grocery bags. The bags should be plain with no writing on them. Here is how to create a spooky ghost: Cut off the handles of the grocery bag. Leaving the bottom of the bag intact, with the help of scissors, cut the bag into dangling strips up to about an inch from the bottom seam. In the same manner cut up another grocery bag. Fill up the balloon with air and knot it up. Tape the seam of one bag to the front and the other to the back, leaving the knot on top. Paint a scary face of the ghost on the balloon and tie a string to the knot. Hang up these creepy balloons to trees in the yard. You may also put a few bells at the end of the strips, so that they make a sound with the movement of the wind. Enjoy the haunting chimes of the ghosts moving in your yard!

Kids can easily make a decorative garland with bats, ghosts or pumpkins. These garlands can be hung around the house or the classrooms. The materials required will be either construction paper or fun foam, depending on your choice. The colors could be orange for pumpkins, white for ghosts and black for bats. If foam is being used, patterns will be needed for all the three items. Take care to leave a tab of paper that can be folded over the string and secured with a tape. Cut out the shapes and paint the faces on them. You may need to make several of these craft items so that you can have a long garland. String up pumpkins on green string, bats on white string and ghosts on black string. If you have all three patterns, then you could use any color string that suits your fancy.

Helping kids with their Halloween crafts projects will make you very popular with them. There are varieties of craft items that can be made, be inventive and creative and let your imagination soar. There is no limit to what you can achieve in the world of art and craft.

Need some quick Halloween decorations, that even the kids can help with? Here are three great Halloween decorating ideas using easy to find, inexpensive materials.

Craft Foam Creepies

Craft foam is sold in sheets at the craft store in a whole array of colors. It is similar to construction paper, but made of thin, durable foam you can easily cut with scissors. Trace simple Halloween shapes onto the backside of the foam sheets and cut out. Use contrasting colors and a glue stick to add details such as a jack o lantern face, red eyes on a bat, or the face of a silly ghost. You can make these cutouts as large or as small as you want. Hang them in windows or hang them with clear thread form curtain rods, doorways, or in your front entry. (This works really well with bats, hang them from the tips of each wing, and one place on the body to make them appear to be flying) These can even be used on protected porches as the foam is water resistant.

Graveyard

A graveyard near your front walk is a creepy and creative touch to the Halloween spirit. We used scrap pieces of plywood and siding and cut them into rectangles with the tops rounded, like a gravestone. We first painted them gray, then washed over them with a watery white paint for age and spook factor. We used black paint to add amusing names and epitaphs, such as “I.M. Gone” or “Ben Dismembered”. ***** a wooded stake to the back and pound into the ground. I like to group them together on an area of grass, then rope them off with chains, add a few pumpkins (and in my neck of the woods, tumbleweeds are a nice touch) and line the edge of your “graveyard” with lighted jackolanterns for Hallows Eve. My kids have the lost fun with this!

Giant spiders and webs

First of all, set the stage for your spiders by picking up some webbing…it is really cheap, and stretches a LONG way! Corners of rooms or porches, or stretched over a door are great effects. To make the spiders, pick up large black pom poms and large black chenille stems from the craft store. Take 4 chenille stems and twist them together in the middle. This creates the eight legs. Bend the stems downward about halfway down each leg. Now use tacky glue or a glue gun (glue gun is my choice as it sets almost instantly, but the adult must handle this!) to secure a large pom pom in the center of the legs at the twist to form the body. You can add google eyes as some do, but I prefer to cut scary red eyes from felt or craft foam and glue on. Set your spiders in their webs, and you can bend the leg tips to attach them to a picture frame or a lamp chain. Remember, with this project, the bigger, the better, so buy the bargest legs and pom poms you can find!

Three great projects for Halloween, make enough of any of these and you can turn your home into a haunted house without the huge price tag. (Don’t forget to pack them away for next year!)