Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Quilt Panels



One of the projects that I had hoped to do (but figured I wouldn't have time for) was to fashion 2 hanging panels out of some of the awesome Halloween fabric I had collected.  I finally sat down a few days ago and just got them both done with a few hours work.  Turned out well.  And I hung them with clip loops so that they could potentially be used as a table runner if I want to change them up a bit.

Monday, September 28, 2015

Comic Con 2015

 Took 3 days off to go off and do Comic Con immersion.  Lots of fun, lots of people.

Hanging out with friends

Friday, September 18, 2015

Pillars and skulls and tombstones, oh my!

Day 1

Today was the day I hunkered down on the pillar project.  I needed a better fence system, and I decided on the concrete tube form with styrafoam topper.  Pretty basic, but I'm planning on adding a couple of skulls, possibly some chains.  Not sure yet.  Maybe dry lock them?  Have to see.  I ended up with 6 of them.  Definitely need at least four for the yard, at least one for the medusa bust on the porch.  Will probably put the last one in the yard, unless needed elsewhere.  Also have to do a bit of a stability check to make sure they're not going to totally tip over in the wind.  I can always add a wood bottom if it's really needed.  I also picked up a pack of black hooks so that I can attach the chains between them--though will probably need another pack if I use more pillars.  Each tube is 8" diameter, 4 feet tall.

Hoping tomorrow to attach the extra stuff and then paint them, as well as the tombstone plaques that just need the gray on them.


Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Thestral Prop

So I'm going to Comic Con 2015 as Luna again, partly because there will be Harry Potter guests coming, but mostly because it's a cool costume and is an especially good one for a con...and I don't have another inspiration for a different costume.  SO.  Not wanting to be completely lazy, I decided to try and make an addition--a baby thestral!  
This was the face I was using for a model 
by jessburnett at Deviant Art
My first plan involved visions of taping together water bottles and copious amounts of masking tape.  Then Sarah's voice kicked in that it might be easier to try and find a basic horse toy/form first.  So I ended up detouring to Savers today on the off chance they might have something.  This was after doing internet research and finding that a large-ish horse form was going to set me back ~ $40 (no thank you).  But Savers was on my way to the grocery store, so I figured why not stop in, not really expecting to find anything.  

And there it was.  In the toy aisle, smudged, and tossed in the back, was the PERFECT sized horse.  The color didn't matter, as I would be spray-painting it.  It. Was. Perfect.  Even more perfect when I found that it was $1 !!!!

I was stunned that I had found it so quickly.  So tonight was the first round of starting to shape it into a more thestral-like form.  I wish I had taken a before pic, but I was just too excited to get started.  First thing that had to go was all the hair.  Next, I took a piece of long wire to serve as the tail and poked it up into the backside where the tail hair had been, then glued it in there.  Not sure if i'll end up doing paper mache, or masking tape on it, but the length will give me a place to start.  

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Fence score!

Whose mom is the best at finding random things for Halloween?  MINE.  Mine is the answer.  Mom rescued this very Halloweeny looking bed frame from the junk pile.  It's gonna be part of my new cemetery fence.


Friday, September 4, 2015

Gargoyle--Abaddon

So this year's (severely cut back) Halloween decorations are going to feature some Gargoyles, and kind of gothic themed elements.  But mostly with the idea of getting back to basic Halloween features, hedging away from a theme really.  That way I can use some of the old Halloween decorations that have had to take a backseat the last couple years.

First up was to make some sketches to try and figure out what kind of look I wanted.  Here were some of the earlier ideas.  (which kind of suck a bit cause I can't really draw, but mostly it was an attempt to figure out what I liked)