Friday, October 28, 2011

4th Night of Carving

Following in a general theme of old time movie creatures, tonight's first carving was of The Wolf Man:

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

3rd Night of Carving

This I learned from last year--gut first, carve later. I find that if I gut both pumpkins that I want to do, take a rest, carve, rest, then carve, I'm not nearly as tired. So the third night had me trying out a new pattern from Zombiepumpkins.com--this cute little spooky scene--very easy.



Followed by the Creature from the Black Lagoon...


Tuesday, October 25, 2011

2nd night of carving

So the tombstones went up today--I made a space in the back to put the blow up spider but figured since I wasn't going to mow anyway between now and Halloween--the tombstones might as well go up.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

It begins...

Had some time tonight, and I've been itching to start carving. Decided to start out with the more complicated patterns first, which usually ends up being a good idea--by the end of the week, I'm usually more tired and my hand will have cramped up, so best to do them in descending levels of difficulty. First up was NPH as Dr. Horrible.
Much easier than anticipated--though the nose turned out a bit off. Next up was (of course) Captain Hammer



This pattern seemed to have been designed by rabid squirrels--super hard turns and awkward hair; it turned out...okay, but I was hoping for a bit better *sigh*. And so, the dynamic duo side by side:


Saturday, October 22, 2011

Pumpkin Trivets!

Yay for trivets! These have been super easy to do, and oddly soothing. Plus, decorative and functional:)


Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Lickable Eyeballs

One of the projects I've been wanting to do for a couple years was finished today--the ball of eyeball suckers!


Saturday, October 15, 2011

Inflatable Spider

So the first official test of the inflatable spider was conducted. He was very easy to inflate and his movement is pretty frickin awesome. Drawbacks? A bit noisier than anticipated, but not overly annoying. Had originally thought to lay him on top of the spiderweb bedecked trellis, but there are structural issues. Instead, he'll go on the lawn and be guarded by tombstones. I'm just really hoping some little twerp doesn't get it into his head to pop him. The lights inside help to see his eyes and back, but I'm considering setting up a portable strobe light I have to make him a little more visible--at a low setting though, not so much that people would be in danger of seizures.

Picture isn't great, but he's on the lawn and the three glowy things are his eyes and back.


Spider Lair

Itchy is the watchword. That and, you know, spiderweb. The ceiling layer of the spiderweb went up today. Placed it a good 6 inches below the green lights, which brought the ceiling down to a slightly more claustrophobic height, and the web has still got a green glow. Naturally the egg sacks made years ago went up--white leggings + stuffing + small plastic spiders. The flashing green ice cubes may or may not be turned on in them this year. And of course my spider mummy addition of last year got strung up. The big spiders went up--animated guy went up right near the doorway, and plushy/poseable guy went in the corner.


Still have yet to put up the various sizes of plastic spiders I've acquired, but that's more like throwing confetti around--the hardest construction (aka, getting up and down a ladder) is up!

Monday, October 10, 2011

Mantle of Boo...2

The mantle had needed some tweaking, so I added some random pumpkin things I found in the boxes, added some fabric covered boxes to get some height, and voila, complete mantle.


Saturday, October 8, 2011

Stocking the Witch Kitchen

Label project! Printed out some labels, crumpled them up, and soaked them in some black tea.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Mantle of Boo

Yay, the mantle is looking not quite so much like Martha Stewart threw up on it! Cleaned up the area a bit (the light strands were threatening to take over the room), and since I had rummaged through some of the Halloween boxes, I found some old Halloween necklaces that I had never gotten around to using. Cut a couple up and strung them from the hooks under the mantle, rehung the "Boo" sign, and then took a length of ribbon ($1 store's finest) and taped it all around the edge of the mantle. I like this effect much better than if I had done a mantle scarf/doily, which I had been thinking of using. I'm always afraid if one corner of it goes down, it'll bring everything else down with a crash. This way is much easier, cheaper, and much more easily changed if I find something else. Definitely going to try it again for Christmas.


Cauldron of Polymers

So the red polymers ended up looking much better than the opaque/milky ones. Turned out a much closer color to what I was going for, especially in brighter lighting. The wee little packet at Joann's said it made a gallon, so I dumped them in a large 3 liter water jug.



                                     After about an hour........................and around 24 hrs.

Also got a clear glass candle holder/plate, which lets more light through from the bottom from the ice cube lights. The result is a much brighter, richer colored cauldron. Plus...squishy:)

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Witch Kitchen

New display for Halloween (insert cackle here)! Got inspired by a couple of mantle displays that went the route of a witch's lair. I think growing up with a scientist skewed my vision of labs being only for the mad scientist, so I haven't really tried to do a witch's kitchen in any more than a half-hearted way. Anyway, put to use a couple of small display boxes/cabinets that were around the house not really doing anything, and the first draft looks like this: