I don't know about you, but I've been dreaming of cooler weather.  It's been beyond HOT here in Texas and fall just can't get here soon enough for me.  Along with cooler temps, comes our first fall holiday, Halloween.  Trick-or-Treating means bite-sized candy o'plenty and as a candy-addict, I look forward to the start of treat season every year.

Jennifer Allwood at The Magic Brush inspired me with her back-to-school {AKA Brown-Nose} buckets and it got me thinking how I could make some themed trick-or-treating buckets for Halloween.  

My son can't get enough of Star Wars and all my friend's daughters feel the same way about Frozen.  Still.  For the love it might never end.

So, choosing a theme was easy.

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

• Empty paint bucket(s) - (available at Lowes or Home Depot)
• Scrapbook paper (2 pieces for the bucket and 1 for the top)
• Decoupage medium (I used Americana Decoupage in matte)
• Hot glue gun
• Foam brush
• Knob for lid
• Accessories/embellishments to decorate your bucket 

I choose two complimenting snowflake scrapbook papers from Hobby Lobby.  One for the bucket and the other for the lid.

It was easy to find snowflake accessories in the Christmas aisle at Hobby Lobby.  Bless them for merchandising the holidays early.  Wait 'til you see how I used this snowflake garland!

My original idea was to buy some tulle fabric and wrap around the bucket as a skirt.  And then as crafting fate would have it, I found this tulle skirt at the Dollar Store.  Total score since there's no way I could have bought fabric for $1 and this was the perfect size already.  

First, I measured the height of the bucket and cut the scrapbook paper to size.  To accommodate the handles, I cut two holes so the paper would fit right over the holders. If you plan on doing more than one bucket, you might make a template to save time.

Using my decoupage medium, I glued the paper around the bucket.  I waited about 20 minutes or so and then sealed it.

Next, I slid the tulle skirt around the bucket and hot-glued in place. After measuring the length of the skirt, I began cutting the snowflake garland into sections.  I glued the top of each snowflake dangle around the entire waist of the skirt.

So they all weren't dangling and jingling making me crazy, I also glued down the bottom snowflake to the hem. I found some silver Christmas ribbon and tied it around the top of the bucket and adorned with a giant snowflake ornament.

I used the second snowflake paper to cover the lid.  Triple Threat drilled the hole for that pearl cluster knob.  Doesn't it look like a giant snowball?  LOVE.

My neighbor loaned me Elsa and Anna.  I think they approved of this Frozen-esque trick-or-treating bucket.

Reminds me of the ice castle in Frozen.  What do you think?

Now, for the Star Wars themed bucket.  My son is a huge fan of R2D2 so I went with it.  I found the perfect template at Catch My Party to use as the scrapbook paper.  The template was created for plastic cups so I enlarged using Picasa and then printed on cardstock.

Cardstock is such a great paper to decoupage with because it doesn't wrinkle!  

I used the template for the cup lids from Catch My Party on the top of the paint can.

My son had a few extra R2D2 toys, so this lucky guy got picked to be the 'knob' on top.

Which one is the real R2D2?  {grinning}

May the force be with you!

You can follow these same steps and create any character-themed bucket.  These buckets are so fabulous, you can use them even beyond Halloween to store Star Wars or Frozen small toys.  

If these Star Wars and Frozen trick-or-treat buckets inspired you, I hope you'll pin and share away!  

Until next time, I'll be Crafting it, Painting it and Restyling it.