so, i've never really decorated for halloween because i just thought it was kind a silly "holiday" if you will. and mostly because i've never really cared for the decor found in the stores. well this year i was flipping through better homes and garden magazine and they featured an interior decorater whose entire theme was black and white! i loved it! immediately i started brainstorming ideas for my mantle. so, this is what i came up with. everything on my mantle aside from the bones, cheese cloth, and black crows, were things i already had...so it made decorating even better! my friend brought over her silloette and she cut out the bats and letters for us. i made the paper bat garland with simple twine. the window was something i had and i just draped the cheesecloth over it and threw the letters on and tossed in some spiders. for the twig and bone bouquet, i already had the twigs, vase, and ribbon. i put some moss in the bottom of the vase and added the bones and twigs. the crows are by far my favorite part! i found them at the dollar store!!!! they are great because they have wire attached to their feet so you can place them any way you like. for the art work on the sofa table, we placed newspaper in frames that we already had and used the silloette to cut the bats and letters, i didn't even glue mine down, just placed them randomly in the frame and put the back on. i thrifted the silver candlestick and taped the skeleton head to the top and spaced out some leftover bones on the table. i found mr. skeleton at walmart for $10. in the glass bowl is another cute little crow sitting on top of some moss, i'm bummed because you can't see him very well in the picture, but he's my absolute favorite part!