25 days away...

This past weekend I decorated my witch wart off! At a few points I was overwhelmed with all of it. Bottom line is the grounds of my cemetery are kept, with a few minor adjustments to make (fixing broken lights). I will take some pictures over the weekend. Here's a sneak peak. Trick is to turn off the flash!

Back in August, Ama Lea from sunny California came all the way down here to Atlanta for some photoshoots. Low and behold Miss Ama Lea is a halloween enthusiast herself! Here's a teaser shot from our shoot. Makeup & Hair by the sweet, Cherry Dame.

Lastly, the halloween invite that my gal pal rock'n Jean made is pretty fucking killer! My wolf and I have been on the fence about costumes my mind has changed twice already... 

Happy Haunts! xo

Scare who?

I've got 4 more days till set up begins. It's been a long while since I last wrote. I have been busy, and with little spare time I have had, I've been finishing up the odds and end of my projects this year.

So we begin with this a corny-as-hell scarecrow. He came with a big lot of stuff I found off a craigslist add. Was going to ditch it, but decided to keep him and put him to good use. And I hacked him!

In my last blog you can see how I started his face. I used my son's vampire costume from 4 years ago. Stuffed his legs and got some corn husks for his feet and hands. The idea of the vampire came from watching Underworld when the head vampire burns his daughter for being in love with the werewolf.

Idea of the skeleton face came from the book "How to Haunt your House". See below on the beginning process but basically it was like the corpsing effect just neater and using paper towels instead of toilet paper with carpet adhesive. I painted him with craft paint and sealed him with polyurethane.

This is it for now. As I need to cook dinner for my bloody thirsty children. I will update hopefully tomorrow with the mounting I finished and keep you going up and through Halloween.

Motel Hell ~ Room 101

101 days till Halloween, 63 days till set up!

Time is coming near and it's starting to freak me out a bit. I have a lot on my plate for the next coming weeks up and through October. I did get to finish my corpsing and started on a new project (shown below). I also made a fog chiller out of items already in my garage! Next going to work on the peppers ghost. As well as re-vamping some of the store bought ground breakers.

This is me here with the last corpsed blucky!




This is a project I'm currently working on. He will be painted and attached to some sort of body. I will share my step by step instructions within the next week or two.




Last but not least, pumpkins are growing well, no actual pumpkins yet, flowers are there and they are just lush as all hell! My loving werewolf, Tim is also getting into spirit and is making a two headed skeleton 4 legged spider thing. It's massive! Not for halloween though, but just another oddity to add to the house.

I can't smell halloween in the air just yet, but damn it there are scarecrows and pumpkins on the shelves at the store already!

Love,
the madame

Werewolves & Vampires

Got my books in the mail last week. So excited, I totally fell in love with this one.
http://www.howtohauntyourhouse.com Low and behold the 2nd Edition came out just days later. So next on the list is to order that ghoulish delight too!

My werewolf, Tim also loved it. We are going to attempt the pepper's ghost! I'm so excited!!! The Werewolf also gave me a few ideas for this halloween as far as setting up props and bringing some out closer to the day of just to freak out the kids a lil more. I love my werewolf!

This weekend was gorgeous! Was in the garage and fixed my zombie and I'm still working on this guy, but came to the conclusion that I really need to purchase a soldering iron to finish the job.


I also fixed this large animated spider I picked up from one of those craigslist jackpot adds.

This weekend I would like to finish up the corpsing and work on the fog chiller. For you...117 more days to go for me set up starts in 79 more days!!!

You were wishing I was your vampire,
madame jen

Bibbidi Bobbidi BOO!

124 more days, but only 87 more for set up time! *insert witch cackle here*

Planted pumpkin seeds on July 11th, as of today's date this is what I've got. Vines are starting to come out. I'm either going to have a lot of pumpkins on my hands or a nice carriage for my prince to escort me in on Halloween night.


These are some more skeletons I worked on this past weekend with the help from my apprentice witch, Jade. Don't ya love the sinister grin on his face?




Oh, I went to Barnes & Nobel over the weekend to pick up some books I had a list of about 11. They didn't have one I wanted. So I ordered How to Haunt Your House and Halloween Prop Makers Handbook. Not like I need help how to haunt but extra ideas always come in handy! Hurry up mailman!!! *stirs cauldron*

Other than that I think I'm going to dive into the depths of my garage this weekend and pull out my zombie and the dead dude who needs a fix'n. Picked up a new motor at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago.

Last but not least I discovered some new (to me) websites via Twitter. By the way you can follow me on there if you wish... http://twitter.com/madame_jen - and please spare me your bullshit. I only follow those creative & like minded individuals.

Ta-ta for now mortals...
love the madame
xoxo

Corpsing is fun!!!

So thanks to some online haunters who have shared their talent. I have turned some of my plain ol blucky's into yummy fresh corpses. I started out with a blucky, because I would rather spend under $10 than $100 for a skeleton. I have purchased some of these from Big Lots, but actually got a few from the garage sales I went to. I went to home depot and picked up the carpet adhesive, two cans of wood stain. Already had latex gloves, toilet paper, drop cloth and a brush handy for the wood stain.

I give this guy credit for the wood stain color - http://www.theghostess.com/bluckycorpse.htm

You can truly get lost in the web searching for things, and come to realize there are so many people like myself. Even though I stole an idea or two from this guy and that gal, this was my personal technique. PS: I used a dremel instead of the box cutter because, people that shit is just plain ol dangerous!!!!

1. I cut out the eyes, nose mouth, around the rib cage area and bones.
2. I spray painted (flat black) inside the ribs and skull.
3. After the paint dried, I applied some cheese cloth around the eyes and nose.
4. Went to town with gloves on hands, and used the carpet adhesive spreading it all around the skeleton. I did one side at a time because it's very tacky/sticky.
5. Applied toilet paper to the carpet adhesive. Just play around with it.
6. Step 4 & 5 repeat after 1st application dries - process took almost a week.
7. When he's all dried up then take the wood stain. I used the lighter color first and the darker one to accent areas. Dabbing the excess with a paper towel.
8. Tim and I were totally grossed out and in awww at this point!!!
9. Just wait till he dries. ;)

Right now I'm trying to make my blucky into a ground breaker and mount him so he stays put. Still working on that but he's almost finished.
There are some other items I've been working on corpsing that were some odd treasures from the craigslist ads I came across that I'm working on. To me they looked a bit corny so I had to alter them to make it more gruesome.

Tricks and Treats

So I often snoop around craigslist for halloween stuff. I ran into another good one right before I went on vacation. I think I just might have hit the jackpot (again). Family was cleaning out their basement and the father was super into halloween. They had spent a good penny on the stuff, and I got it for next to nothing. Come October I will send them pictures, knowing their unwanted halloween items went to a good home. Favorites in these pictures is the entrance way to the cemetary, spirit ball (large), small coffin, creepy tree, life size bat, and some ground breakers. More altering and corpsing coming my way, and all unwanted items will be donated to my good friends.

So over the weekend I met a very nice lady via craigslist. She was selling all of her halloween decor for a whopping $50. She had one prop that was used once and still in the box that was worth $60, so the way I look at it is I bought one prop and got a shit load for free. Ok so I have a lot of stuff, but offered to go through the things this lady gave me and give to a few friends after I sort through it all. After all I don’t need the majority of what she gave me, yet then again I’m a crafter and will be revamping and or recreating with some of the stuff.

The thing that makes me peeved, is on two different occasions this weekend I had to hear that I’m a hoarder? Really??? Have you seen them shows? First off, it’s a hobby of mine, halloween, haunting, decorating and the entire essence of halloween excites me. I can recall my parents telling me when I was a child "you can have as many cats as you want when you move out into your own house". Well if by cats they meant tombstones and skeletons so be it! I take great pride in my halloween display and it takes a lot of time (my time with NO help from anyone). FYI: My house is clean, my bills are paid, food is in the fridge, kids are clothed, and I have a job. Most importantly my husband loves me and doesn’t have a problem with it, so mind your own fucking business. It would be like telling my husband he’s got too many paint brushes, or telling my son he's got too many video games, or my daughter she's got too many barbies.

So if your planning on having some type of talk with me or intervention maybe you should re-think this cause your not going to be happy with what I have to say in return... You can always take a step into the complaint department, there are two middle fingers awaiting your arrival.

On a good note there are only 187 days left till Halloween. Within the next few weeks I’m going to be corpsing my bucky’s, exciting!!!! Will post up pics when finished. For now here are some stills from my halloween jackpot I hit this weekend.

OCD

Only 7 more months till Halloween. Yes, I think I have OCD when it comes to Halloween. I've been thinking about Halloween for well over several months now. Where to find bargains online and how to build props of my very own. I want to improve my Halloween display and make it more realistic looking. I've been on this website non-stop http://www.halloweenmonsterlist.info/ gathering up new ideas. I love when people share their projects!!!

Rewinding back to October 31, 2009, we had a Halloween party that turned out great, I used dry ice for my very first time. Next time I wont make so many sweets. I had so many cupcakes and cake left over. All my ghoulish guests loved the hot food I served. A fellow witch by the name of Jessica shared her receipe for pumpkin seeds, they turned out awesome, I winded up making several to-go-bags. Since Halloween lands on a Sunday this year, I am considering having my party on the 29th or the 30th. Oh and note to self not to purchase so much candy, we still have bags hiding in a closet.

Shopping the weekend after Halloween to catch deals! I picked up some spine chilling stuff. Tried to hide most of the things and bought some more plastic storage bins so Tim wouldn't see. *witch cackle* A few items I purchased before Halloween but were broken items in the store I got for a steal, need some love n' care and will be worked on soon.

Last month the kids and I took a little ride through some old cemeteries in Fairburn. Seen some headstones dated back to the early 1800's! We just got back from Clermont, Florida this weekend and to my surprise there was spanish moss growing naturally on the trees. So much of it! The trees looked so creepy, I immediately took notice. Although I forgot to collect some for home, I would love to recreate the look for my tree out front. Make note.... I'll be back!!!!!

Here's a list of my projects for this year:
Corpsing my Bucky's
Making more of the fence I made last year, so the cemetery completely closed in.
Adding finials to the fence
Creating zombie ground breakers - goal is to make things move this year!
(this list will grow, and exists in my Halloween journal)

I think with a little help from Tim's crazy brain and his expertise in art, shits gonna be awesome this Halloween!!!!