Handmade Halloween [Hardcover]

Zazel Loven (Author), Country Living (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Country Living | Publication Date: September 1999

Cool days, shorter evenings, the spectacular display of foliage--all remind households with youngsters of any age that the season of hobgoblins and pumpkins is in the offing. Yes! Halloween, now solidly established as a favorite among American holidays.

So what to do this time?

The pages of Country Living Handmade Halloween provide many delightful and practical answers. Included are more than 40 projects, with 30 accompanying photos, as well as recipes for holiday entertaining. Projects such as costume making and decorating come with easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions.

The technique of perfect pumpkin carving is explained, showing what tools to use; how to create silly or scary faces; even how to carve stars and moons into white pumpkins.

These clever suggestions from the editors of Country Living go beyond the usual fare: use skeleton luminaries to line a driveway; string crab-apples into a garland; use a row of miniature pumpkins as votives lined along the mantel; create festive napkins and tablecloths.

Then there are recipes for treats like candied apples, roasted pumpkin seeds, and butternut squash soup--in themselves scrumptious reasons to own Country Living Handmade Halloween.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... has directions, illustrated with plenty of color photos for making wreaths...candles...decorations... recipes from spiced ham to candy acorns." -- Associated Press, October 20, 1999

"... inspiring projects...papier-mache witch's head for passing out treats...skeleton luminaria to light a pathway... whimsical Halloween costumes...." -- Worcester Telegram, Oct. 18, 1999

"...full of cool, creepy ideas for decorations, costumes, parties, and more." -- Copley News Service, August 25, 2000

"Abrim with ideas for decorating...planning parties...making jack o'lanterns. The ideas are...oh-so-effective in creating a festive atmosphere." -- Bergen News, September 29, 1999

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Hearst Books; First Edition edition (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688167756
• ISBN-13: 978-0688167752
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 8.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,301,128 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Handmade? More like Ho-Hum, August 31, 2009

By 

Cherrybomb - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Handmade Halloween: Ideas for a Happy, Haunted Celebration (Paperback)

Halloween plus Handmade usually equals my kind of book, but this isn't it. Nothing featured even caught my attention in this run-of-the-mill Halloween how-to. The three chapters presented focus on haunting up your house, making jack o'lanterns, and preparing costumes. I was really disappointed in the crafts featured (luminarias, tissue paper ghosts, cutout garlands...) and the costume suggestions were worn out even when this book was published in 1999 (a red riding hood cape, a witch, skeleton on a sweatsuit...)

Save your money and find something a little more inspiring like Bethany Lowe's Folk Art Halloween or Halloween: The Best of Martha Stewart Living.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Glad I got it on sale, July 29, 2009

By 

Melissa S. "HalloweenGeek" (Detroit, MI) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Country Living Handmade Halloween: Ideas for a Happy, Haunted Celebration (Paperback)

I know this is OOP, but just in case someone else is considering it... If I had kids, the things that would have made this book worth the (used) purchase price would be two of the felt costumes (devil (on cover) & skeleton). Because I live in Michigan, and it has occasionally snowed here on - or just before - Halloween, I think the idea of costumes with cozy hoods (made out of fleece instead of felt) and sweats would be a great idea. Sadly, that's the extent of usable projects.

At least one project (lampshade) is only a Halloween project because it's black & orange. Make it any other color, and it's just a lampshade. There is actually a project for "tissue paper ghosts" and trick-or-treat items that are a handful of jelly beans wrapped in cheesecloth or paper napkins. Even if you live in the kind of town where parents will allow their kids to accept unwrapped treats, a handful of jelly beans?

Most of the projects are things that would please a child, but aren't crafts for children to make. Another reviewer mentioned the fact that only one of the recipes has a photo. I could go on. What's kind of freaky is that I've seen projects very similar to many of these in other magazines; however, I don't know which came first.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Best Witches, January 31, 2000

By 

Renee Bekking "Renée B." (Amsterdam , The Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Handmade Halloween (Hardcover)

First I start with what I did like in the book and that was the decorations,wether it was for keepsakes or temperarely projects,they are nice and fun to do.The recepies however were not halloween minded enough to my liking and of the 18 recepies there was only 1 with picture.Surely as this is a book "full" of ideas they could have shared more ideas on how to present the food.Plenty of pictures though of the costumes wich I found very childish.Granted,they are childrens costumes but they lacked imaganation I thought.It's a shame that there aren't any costumeideas for adults in the book.There's a great book on my bookshelf about decorating your house for halloween and that is 'Halloween decorating'by Arts & Crafts for Home Decorating.Its less childish than Handmade Halloween.ISBN 0-86573-415-1.It was rewarded with the Benjamin Franklin Award and is clearly the best book on Halloween crafts I have yet seen.