They're creepy and they're kooky...

...mysterious and spooky. You know you want to bring a little Adams' family decor into the mix around your house. Sure you do!

It all started with the new Ballard Designs catalog. I was just flipping through it when, for some strange reason, these chandelier accessories caught my eye. And then the price caught my eye....$39 for three of them. Yeah, they're glass. Yeah, they're handcrafted. Really? $39 + tax + shipping?

So for no other reason, than to attempt to see if I could make them for less than $39, I decided I needed a craft challenge. They're not something I would necessarily buy on purpose, but now that I have them I would definitely use them if I had a party. They're cute and understated and I'm down with both of those things.

At Michaels, I bought these extremely strong magnets and a pack of vase filler. Using the store coupon I had, you're looking at about $5 in materials.

Here are the contents of the bag of vase filler. Ghosts and bats. They're plastic not hand-blown glass, but then again they were $3.

I took the bats and the ghosts and just hot glued a jump ring on the top of each. I had those jump rings in with my jewelry making supplies, but you can get a pack of a zillion for a few dollars at the craft store in the jewelry section.

After that (and I need to get better with this whole photo documentation thing), I determined I needed 6 for my dining room light. I just made clear bead strands for the bats and ghosts to hang from, just like in the Ballard Designs photo. That's just a beading pin that has one loop at the bottom (they come that way in the box), then you add the bead, and then you make another loop at the top. Then you link them together. You don't even have to glue the magnet to the top of the strand of beads. Just stick the magnet to the place on the chandelier where you want them to hang, and then hold the end of the strand of beads near the magnet and it will snap it right into place.

So for less than $5 (maybe up to $7 if you don't have a pack of clear beads and some jewelry pins and rings), you can have what would cost you $80 ($39 for THREE x 2 for three ghosts and three bats) from Ballard Designs. Ha! I win! I win!