Last-Minute Recipes for Halloween Cupcakes

Irwin Weiner ASID - We know you're scrambling to find a few easy-to-make goodies for your upcoming Halloween party this weekend, or in a few days when Halloween hits us in the middle of the week. (Don't you just hate it when that happens?) In the following video, you'll see how to make Tombstone or Graveyard Brownies.

This recipe comes from YouTuber Sara Parker, whose 31 Days of Halloween videos include many wonderful ideas for costumes and parties and decor and recipes to help celebrate the spooky side of our holiday. Here's her Tombstone Brownies recipe.

WHAT YOU NEED

Powder sugar
Green food coloring
Brownie, Ding Dongs, or Chocolate Sponge Cake
Grahahm Cracker or Shortbread Biscuit
Chocolate letters
Nutella
Plastic skeleton

HOW TO DO IT

1. Mix Sugar Powder and "Green" food coloring with a tiny bit of water or use green frosting/icing.
2. Use brownie or ding dongs or choclate cake as the base.
3. Use Graham Cracker or Shortbread Biscuit as tombstone, make edges a bit rounder.
4. Cut a gap for the tombstone in the brownie. Place the tombstone.
5. Write something on the tombstone e.g. name of the person you invited. I used premade chocolate letters and used nutella to glue them on. You can use a sugar powder to write on it, too.
6. Add the green sugar powder mix as grass. Let it dry.
7. Make a hole for your skeleton and place it in there. Leave some dirt around it. I cut off the legs of the plastic skeleton.
8. Enjoy!

In the next recipe, YouTuber and cupcake lover Tammy, alias Yoyomax12, gives us her take on a Broken Glass Cupcake. Watch the video, and then afterwards you'll see how she found this recipe and the process.

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Tabletop Decorating - Under the Sea Children's Themed Party

Katie Berger - I have a 3 1/2 year old daughter who is obsessed with The Little Mermaid (not to mention every other Disney Princess). She covets her Ariel doll and sleeps with it every night. She is her mother's child because she has already started planning her birthday party (it's in June, just so you know ... not next week!). I thought I'd step away from weddings for a while and focus on an Under the Sea themed little girls birthday celebration ... and the idea that Emma is running with for her party. Oh my, I have a lot of work ahead of me....

The following photos and amazing idea comes from Courtney Dial at one of my favorite blogs, Pizzazzerie. 

Click here for a direct link to the Under the Sea party blog for complete details ... and trust me - there are plenty of gorgeous details.

I hope you enjoy the following photos and can dream along with my little Emma about her ideal birthday party! (In the meantime, adapt as many ideas as you can for wonderful tabletop presentations.)

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10 Home Lighting Tips from a Tony Winner

Irwin Weiner ASID - Go to an interior designer for all-things decorating, including lighting. But sometimes even the pros need to get a little inspiration from specialists in the field. One such font of wisdom is Kevin Adams, a Tony Award winner who specializes in lighting.

Here are some of Kevin's home lighting tips:

• At a dinner party, try not to have overhead lighting glaring down on your family and guests. "Light coming straight down on people is not flattering to the face or any object in the room."
• "Layers of light" will create the desired lighting for any party or special evening. Kevin uses table lamps of varying heights to create warm and friendly pools of light. The interplay of light and shadows is highly desirable.
• Install dimmers on all your lights to adjust the level of light at any time of day in your home. "Even the music sounds better when the lights are down."
• Put low-wattage light bulbs in your table lamps for parties - after all, no one's going to be reading a book!
• "People look very handsome in amber light." Kevin uses 13-watt amber-hued compact fluorescent light bulbs or CFLs - colored CFLs will produce a more saturated color than traditional incandescent bulbs.

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Weekday DIY Project: Make a Fabric Chandelier

Irwin Weiner ASID - We've been featuring weekend do-it-yourself projects lately on Design2Share, but we wanted to throw everyone a curve ball and feature an easy project to tackle during the week. A fabric chandelier makes a great DIY wedding decoration, or a fun accessory for a deck, patio, breakfast room, or children's bedroom. The project requires some scrap fabric; and you should let the eventual occasion and/or hanging location of the chandelier dictate the color and pattern of the fabric(s) you choose. Other tools are a good pair of sewing scissors, some embroidery thread and a needle, a ruler, and an embroidery hoop. 

The project also calls for some fresh greenery, but if you're going to use the chandelier as a more permanent indoor or outdoor accessory, choose dried herbs or decorative floral leaves to wrap the embroidery hoop - or simply wrap the hoop with the same fabric you're using to hang the chandelier. You can make several chandeliers for a more dramatic decorating impact at a wedding or outdoor party. Imagine several hanging down from a pergola or wafting in the breeze from the underside of tree branches! All the steps for making this chandelier are demonstrated in the following video, and you can go to the premiere

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