Having a Halloween party? Want to Steampunk it up? Here are a few ideas that won't break your wallet (gotta have money for all that candy right?)! Jars of candy are a given for any Halloween party--to add just a touch of mystery & oddness you can attach labels like the one below from VectoriaDesigns. They are much classier than your average Halloween labels, indicating the jar's contents are brains, zombie boogers, blood, etc. VectoriaDesign's labels, for instance, help set a Steampunk/Sci-Fi mood with labels like: Anti-Time Tablets, Steam Engine Oil, Octopus Ink, and my favorite Time Traveler Pills to name a few.
The labels are a digital download. Total cost: $3.50 label images (15 total), $11.99 label printer paper...$15.49
Another great digital downloadable decoration for your party are Victorian style paper dolls with a Halloween & Steampunk twist. My favorite paper doll artist is RhondasOrignials. Her dolls are by far the most unique and strikingly odd. She has over 50 paper dolls for Halloween alone. These dolls make excellent centerpieces for your table or to fill up empty space on your mantle or shelves.
What makes Rhonda's paper dolls so special is the accessories that come with each doll and the characters that she creates. You can download her dolls on her Etsy shop, click here to follow the link. Rhonda also has specials where she bundles a number of her dolls together for Halloween. The bundle costs $23.25 or you can purchase individual doll patterns for $6.00 each. The instructions on how to assemble your dolls is very easy to follow and the colors are true to how they print on your home printer. Total Cost: (for a bundle) $23.25, brads (found in your local arts & crafts store in the scrapbooking aisle) $1.39, Aleene's Tacky Glue $2.50...$27.14
Aside from digital downloads, hit your local flea markets, garage sales, and estate sales for old jars & bottles. You can fill these bottles & jars with an assortment of items to fit the mood of your party. Inkling for a bit of twisted romance, dry some red roses beforehand and place them in your jars for a pretty bit of decay to display or paint them black (how very Alice in Wonderland of you to do so!). Want your party to look like a Mad Scientists Laboratory, fill those jars up with an assortment of colored liquids & place glow sticks inside so that they give off an eerie luminescence. There's also my DIY on steampunk candles--they're perfect for a Hallow's Eve Bash!
There are other items you can make to give your party a steampunk feel. Craft recently posted a DIY on how to make your own miniature hot air balloon.
You can suspend them from the ceiling to give your party-goers the feeling that they are on an airship deck among the clouds--you can even make clouds! Click here to find out how!
If you do not have a specific steampunk theme in mind, you can be more general and decorate using broken machines, machine parts, clocks, and other mechanicals you may already have or ones that you can thrift. Great items to pick up: tea cups & saucers, china, clocks of any kind (you can line them all up on your mantle, table, or along your stairs), jars of light bulbs, globes or old maps, or springs (to make a garland to hang in your doorway or off your fire place).
These are just a few ideas to get you started! Stay tuned for the rest of October for my Steampunk Halloween DIY series and get ideas on steampunkins and how to make your own steampunk halloween costumes for adults & kids.