Oct 20, 2012

CELEBRATE: Fun Fall Festival!

Step right up, don't be scared! COME ONE, COME ALL for one time ONLY to witness a fun FALL FESTIVAL! Creepy concessions crawling with spooky sweets, graveyard games with trick-or-treat prizes and costumes were permitted. Fall is my favorite season and every year locations nearby celebrate it by hosting events such as the Pumpkin Festival, Moonlight Madness, Autumn Fest, Fright Night, October Fest, Spider Hill and Witches Walk. This year I decided to join the fall fun by converting my own garage into a Fall Festival for family, friends and neighbors. It's totally up to you if you want to alter the decor of your event to be more cute kid-friendly autumn (Fall Festival/Carnival), scary adult Halloween (Haunted Carnevil) or happy family Thanksgiving (Harvest Fest). Just keep in mind your target audience and spend less money by using decorations you already own. If it is for a neighborhood block party or charity event, don't hesitate to pass out flyers asking for decoration donations. The Dollar Tree, Goodwill and Party City definitely helped me keep mine under budget. The two key ingredients to keeping my decor very affordable was crepe paper streamers (cheap) and fabric from my sewing stash (free). I utilized every single piece of fabric I owned that was either white, black or orange. Streamers were used in the maze, cover chairs, decorate cups, make spider legs and treated like ribbon for accents. Creepy concessions were based off of traditional carnival food that were all given a Halloween inspired makeover. Graveyard game ideas was probably the funnest part of the event planning- once I started, I couldn't stop! I have provided a list of many games below, unfortunately I was unable to fulfill every idea that came to mind due to lack of space. Maybe next year I can change it up a bit and create the games that got left out. A BIG THANKS to my mom, Sheila, for dressing up as a "Scarecrow Clown" and making lunch! She used to be a clown for parties when I was a kid and I couldn't help myself asking her to do it again. Lol!








CREEPY CONCESSIONS:
Spider Web Popcorn
Candy Corn Cotton Candy
Sprinkle Pretzels
Circus Peanuts
Mummy Hot Dogs or Pizza
Caramel Apple Slices
Crackling Chips
Apple Cider Shake-ups








COSTUME IDEAS:
Vampire Ringmaster
Scarecrow Clown
Freaky Fortune Teller
Skeleton Ticket Seller
Zombie Farmer Hayride Driver




GRAVEYARD GAME IDEAS:
Witch Pitch - (Supplies: Witch hats & rings)
Bone Fishing - (Supplies: Bucket, water & plastic bones)
Spider Splat - (Supplies: Balloons, tacks, tape, streamers, styrofoam ball, google eyes & poster board)
Leaf Hop Scotch - (Supplies: Large leaves & tape)
Candy Corn Maze - (Supplies: Cardboard boxes, streamers, sheets, balloons, boards, scrapbook paper & rod)
Bobbing for Mini Pumkins - (Supplies: Large bucket, water & mini pumpkins)
Eyeball Bowl Bounce - (Supplies: Bowls, water, bouncy balls)
Ghostly Bowling - (Supplies: Bowling pins/ball, white napkins/fabric, rubberbands & google eyes)
Scarecrow Spin or Wheel of Misfortune - (Supplies: Large wheel)
Pin the Pumpkin Face - (Supplies: Pumpkin, stickers & blindfold)
Pumpkin Patch Punch - (Supplies: Large cardboard box, tissue paper, glue, scissors & treat bags)
Mystery Bowls - (Supplies: Covered bowls, various food & blindfold)
Halloween Tarot Card Matching
Skull Toss
Pumpkin Decorating/Carving
Pie Eating Contest
Haunted Hayride
Bouncy House
Temporary Tattoos
Face Painting
Costume Parade










DIY PROJECTS:
Googly Eye Chairs
Mummy Chip and Drink Cups
Trick-or-Treat Tree
Candy Corn Cotton Candy Cones



Credits:
Party Styling & Photography - the Creative Orchard
Printables - the Creative Orchard
Food & Clown Entertainment - Sheila Force

Product Sources:
Printables - the Creative Orchard Shop
Prizes - Party City
Gauze, Orange Fabric, Plates, Napkins, Cups, Candy - Walmart
Popcorn Boxes, Sprinkles, Pumpkin Treat Bags (Martha Stewart), Lighted Branches - Home Goods
Paper Streamers, Spider Web Clings, Popcorn, Pretzels, Cotton Candy, Blow-up Toys, Skeleton Straws, Orange Punch, Clown Props, Black Poster Board, Candy, Pumpkin Stickers - Dollar Tree
Lighted Spider Web, Lighted Gauze Penant Banner - Kroger
Tea Cart, Kids Table, Costumes, Embroidery Hoops - Goodwill
Google Eyes, Ribbon, Baskets - Michaels
Pumpkins - Local Pumpkin Patch
Umbrella - Gordmans

PHOTOGRAPHY POLICY: I am giving you permission to share 1 to 3 photos online from this specific blog post ONLY, but PLEASE give CREDIT to the Creative Orchard and provide a LINK back to www.theCreativeOrchard.com. Do NOT REMOVE photo watermark. For personal use ONLY
Thank you! - Renee Hagloch.