Craft this Halloween Candy Bowl from an inexpensive pumpkin-shaped fish bowl!

(click here for a larger Halloween Candy Bowl craft image)

Our 'fishy' Halloween Candy Bowl is decorated with a playful 1907-vintage jack o'lantern and the faces of excited children. The shimmery autumn colors are squares of crepe paper, decoupaged onto the glass. And since the decorations are all applied on the inside of the bowl, you can easily wipe off the guilty, chocolaty fingerprints you'll probably find on the outside.

This craft began with an 8" high, oval fish bowl we found in a thrift shop. You may already have one in your attic, haunted by the little souls of bygone goldfish. What better start for a Halloween keepsake?

Materials for this Halloween Candy Bowl

• Vintage Images (FREE PDF download) printed twice on lightweight photo paper or presentation paper.
• Oval fish bowl, 8" high (see Tips).
• Crepe paper streamers in yellow, orange, gold and brown.
• 25 pom poms, 3/4", red or coordinating color.
• Two chenille rods, red or coordinating color.
• Optional: Ribbon, yarn, cord or raffia in a coordinating color.
• Clear spray varnish.
• Decoupage medium (like Mod Podge).
• Hot glue gun.
• Pinking shears.
• Paint bush or foam brush, about 1" wide.
• Decorative edge scissors.

Instructions

1. Print two copies of the vintage image on the photo paper or presentation paper. Spray a light coat of varnish over the face of the images and let it dry (this will prevent the printer ink from blurring when moistened by the decoupage medium).
2. Trim around the illustration with decorative edge scissors, leaving about a 1/4" border.
   
   
3. Cut a 6' length of each color of crepe paper streamer, yellow, orange, gold and brown. With pinking shears, cut the crepe paper into square pieces.
   
   
4. Coat one flat side of the inside of the fish bowl with decoupage medium. Brush decoupage medium on the face of one of the trimmed images. Lay the image, face out, on the coated surface inside the fish bowl. When it is positioned correctly, press and smooth the image onto the glass, working out all bubbles and blobs. Repeat this with the second copy of the image on the other side of the fish bowl.
   
5. Apply decoupage medium to a small section inside the bowl, press squares of overlapped crepe paper onto it, and brush with more decoupage medium. Apply only one layer, allowing the crepe paper to just overlap the border of the images (avoid placing the crepe paper, especially the darker colors, behind the images, because they will bleed through. Work quickly, section by section, and don't over-brush or the crepe paper colors will run. Let it dry for a day.
6. Clean stray decoupage medium off the face of the bowl with a razor blade and a damp sponge.
7. Join two chenille rods together end to end by twisting them. Trim them to fit tightly around the neck of the bowl with a 1" overlap. With the hot glue gun, attach the pom poms in a line to the chenille rods, leaving 1/2" bare at each end. Wrap the rod around the neck of the bowl, twist the ends together tightly, and tuck them under. Alternatively, you can wrap the neck of the bowl with ribbon, cord or raffia, and tie a jaunty bow to one side. 
8. Fill the bowl with candy (or a potted autumn flower or wolf bane), and let the Halloween festivities begin.

Tips

• Didn't we all have a fish bowl like this when we were young? If you can't get your hands on one now, you can use almost any large flat-sided glass container. It should be cylindrical or square, because it is very difficult to decoupage a large image onto a concave (or convex) surface without wrinkles or puckers.