Are you from a generation that had to work for their candy on Halloween? Were you allowed as a child to wander around after dark without parental oversight? Do you remember when getting a small chocolate candy was a treat instead of a disappointment?

It is sometimes difficult to admit how old I am because, at a certain age, birthdays become more of a nuisance than a cause for celebration, but one upside to aging is nostalgia. Wouldn’t you agree? That’s why young people find us so annoying. 🙂

Sometimes, after you have circled the sun as many times as I have, you start to think about the “good old days.” So forgive me if you are under 40 or even under 50 because I am going to talk about a time before you were born.

I remember roaming the neighborhood with my friends getting lots of single hard-wrapped candies, homemade popcorn balls, and in one instance, pennies from a sweet little apologetic lady who had forgotten that it was Halloween.

There was no trick or treating from trunks of cars. There were no party stores or pop-up Halloween shops with every conceivable costume ready to rip open and wear immediately.

My dad would spend hours making me the most imaginative and elaborate costumes, mostly fashioned from cardboard boxes and scraps of wood.

So you see, upcycling is in my DNA. 🙂

Several blocks away was a special Halloween treat in my neighborhood, and every year my friends and I would enthusiastically make the long trek to the home of the Talking Pumpkin. Children would line up at this house for a chance to speak with this giant and mysterious jack-o-lantern.

We were mesmerized as he would ask us questions and then distributed candy which we would have to retrieve from inside his mouth. It was exciting and a little bit scary.

Looking back, I realize that we didn’t seek out the talking pumpkin for the candy as it was the least desirable option of all sweets and also probably the least sanitary.

My adult mind having processed this experience, pictures the homeowner peeking out the window talking through a speaker and, once satisfied with our answers, dropping 5 or 6 loose jelly beans down a tube where all of our grubby hands would eagerly take our turn and snatch this sugary offering.

So it wasn’t the candy that brought us there. It was the magic. Trick or treating was an adventure. I hope children today regard it with at least some of the awe that I did as a child when the world seemed safer and simpler.

If by some chance you are under 20 and you are wondering what nostalgia feels like, try to picture yourself explaining to your grandchildren that people didn’t always trick or treat by sending candy to a 3D printer and that costumes were real clothing and not virtual. You can share with them while you remember fondly those nights your parents drove slowly behind you while you knocked on strangers’ doors asking for candy.

I don’t always decorate for the holidays, but I was in the mood this year, so I made a few new items for our porch display.

Eyeballs

If you’ve seen some of my other projects, you know I’ve used a lot of the side pieces of the can, so I’ve collected a lot of bottoms and tops from all of my other projects, and for each eye, you need two bottom pieces and one top piece. The top of the can has had the center removed with a tool called Draft Top.

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Step 1 – The first step is to remove the excess metal from the bottom pieces and cut a small notch in one of the pieces. To do this, I used some tin snips.

Step 2 – Next, I used hot glue to attach the two bottom pieces with a long wooden skewer sandwiched in between.

Step 3 – Don’t worry if the pieces don’t fit perfectly. I used a thin piece of metal tape to cover the rough edges and gaps. I made several eyes, so I repeated this process multiple times.

Step 4 – Once all the pieces were assembled, I added a coat of white spray paint.

Step 5 – To make the eyes, I printed the irises onto some sticker paper and attached them to the can pieces.

Step 6 – I added a sealant to the top because my display will be outside. Again, I used DecoArt DuraClear Gloss Varnish.

**Just a note here this isn’t the best product to use on an inkjet printer, but if you’re careful not to brush the product on and just dab it on gently,y you can keep the ink from smearing too much.

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Step 7 – To finish the eye shape, I used the top piece of the can that I bent into an oval shape.

Step 8 – I removed half of the excess metal from the ring and cut tiny slits in the remaining aluminum to form the eyelashes. All aluminum was removed from the ring for the second style.

Step 9 – The final step is to spray paint the ring pieces with black spray paint and attach the pieces with some E6000 glue.

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Beware Sign

Step 1 – I used A scrap piece of wood for this next project. I gave it a quick sanding.

Step 2 – I added my simple paper towel painting technique and sealed the paint with the DuraClear gloss varnish. You can check the video below for more information on this painting technique.

Step 3 – I added a dollar tree cut out and an old rusty chain to finish this simple project.

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Metal Yard Sign

For my last project, I went back to the aluminum cans. I used flat sheets for this project. Check out the video below if you want to know how I flatten aluminum cans for my projects.

Step 1 – I needed larger sheets for this project, so I folded the long side of two cans using a metal ruler.

Next, I added tiny pieces of mounting tape to the folded area and then overlapped the folds.

To set the creases and flatten the sheet, I used the side of a sharpie to press the fold into the aluminum.

Step 2 – The next step was to cut out my pattern.

Step 3 – To add some dimension and stability to the pieces, I embossed around the edges of my letters.

Step 4 – The final step is to paint and seal the pieces with the same process as the previous project.

Happy Upcycling,

Cindy

This spider’s web is a few years old, but I still think it is one of my most inventive projects made from plastic grocery bags. You can find the tutorial here.