Project Pictures

I promised some pictures on the projects I am currently working on and here they are....

The first is my zombie head! Keep in mind this is my very first time using chicken wire. Tools I used was a wire cutter and needle nose pliers. I took the chicken wire and made the formation of a head, using the pliers to bend the ends to close it. Covered it in newspaper, use newspaper and some tape and wrap it like a present. Take your papier mache and go to town. Note: I have done these in all separate steps. One day I made the zombie body (you will see below), another day I started my first layers of the papier mache, and just over the weekend I built the eyes and nose. How I built the eyes and nose, was I took the cover of the phone book bent it into the shape of a circle and taped the end, then taped (masking tape) it to the face, same thing for the nose. Then papier mache and build up the sides of the eyes and nose. That's where I left off as you can see below. This weekend I will make a mouth and build from there until dry, at that point I will paint his face.

This is the zombie torso and arms. I created with chicken wire. Really easy. I'm on the fence right now about doing papier mache over his body or just leaving it be and covering it with his clothes. Depending on what it looks like I don't think I'll have to take that extra step with the papier mache. I'll keep you posted...

Here are some of the mannequin heads we found on craigslist. In the meantime I've placed some cheap fun wigs on her. Still haven't decided exactly what I want to do to her just yet. She eventually will be a zombie but not sure if I want to make it more permanent or use face paint wherein it could be washed off when I'm done and can do something different to her in the upcoming years.

Below is the papier mache skull. I used a plastic skull for the base and wrapped it up in tin foil. The tin foil will keep the papier mache from sticking to my mold. I have done about 5 layers here, I will do a few more to be complete. I will then take an x-acto knife/razor blade and cut the skull in half to remove my mold. Hot glue the skull back together and papier mache it just several more layers until complete. I will then paint it and seal it. Pictures will follow when completed.

Last but not least the cheesecloth! Right now it's folded up. I explained my dying process in my previous blog. I will wait until the 6 storage containers are out of the garage and everything is set up outside to be displayed before I cut/shred it up. I think I'm going to use some on my zombie too.

Hope your all having a ghoulish week!

Cheesecloth and Papier Mache

This weekend I worked on dying the cheesecloth. A fellow witch named Cynthia gave me a great idea to put the cheesecloth in my cauldron and add some tea bags for an old yellow/lt brown look. I added 6 tea bags into the cauldron, 5 yards of cheesecloth and left it sitting overnight. The following morning I took it out and it wasn't as dark as I would have liked so I just added some more tea bags. Thanks to Cynthia I saved a few bucks buying tan/brown dye. :)

I had picked up some black RIT several weeks ago and put that into my sink and added the other cheesecloth's that I had and that came out a really neat grey/purple color. I had about 9 yards in there and left it sitting for about 30 min.

Started back on my papier mache zombie face. I added eyes and a nose and more layers to the head.

Cleaning out your fridge makes for good halloween finds too! I took several condiment glass jars that were almost empty and maybe had one or two pickles left in it. I think I had about 3 glass jars of pepperoncinis. I cleaned them out, submerged them in hot water and let them sit for a while, until the labels came off. Glass jars make for great witch potion jars and/or specimen jars for a lab scene.

On Sunday morning I was helping one of my ghouls organize her room. In her toy box I found some rubber snakes, rubber roaches and some vampire teeth! I was excited and thought it would make great additions to some of my skeleton projects.

So pictures will be uploaded this week. My Frankenstein left the cord to the camera at his work but, will return it this evening so I can upload some of my projects thus far. Can't wait to share!

Until next time... happy hauntings!

Hunt for Halloween

This past weekend I took the kids on a Halloween Hunt, we basically hit every store in town for Halloween goods. The big stores, like Target and Walmart only have "fall" stuff out. No Halloween goodies but, low and behold Michael's had all their stuff out. We checked out Big Lots and Dollar tree too. Big Lots and the Dollar Tree just started to put their stuff out. So there was little on the shelves.

We picked up some black crows from Michael's because it was 30% off. Michael's had some ok stuff. Not worth buying at the original price though. If you buy something from Michael's they will give you a coupon with your receipt to come back the following week for 40% one regular priced item. Not bad... Or you can even go online, sign up for their newsletter and every week they will email you with basically the same coupon. Sometimes they email you with a 50% off coupon or like Sunday they had a 25% off your entire purchase coupon. Oh and by the way they had a Martha Stewart Halloween collection of craft stuff which was actually pretty nice... we all know Martha is a true goth at heart!

The Dollar Tree simply amazes me. We picked up some cool skeleton heads, more moss, fall leaves, Halloween signs, a bag of plastic bugs, skeleton garland (which was super cool), and the most amazing was the butchered bloody hands and feet. Those things are at least $10 at Spirit or Party City. Oh and picked up some super kewl skeleton plates, bowls & cups - cause that's just good all year round!

Last place we went to was Home Depot, we picked up some cheesecloth which was $2.59 for 4 yards! They sell that at Michael's for at least $6.99, not even as big. We also picked up some wooden stakes to build our fence for the cemetery. The cost on the fence will run us about $34 (which includes fence, posts, nails, and black flat spray paint.) Oh and I picked up some chicken wire, because I started making the body to my zombie. Pictures will soon follow....

On Sunday, we went to this ladies house and picked up mannequin heads. She was selling them for a few bucks a piece so we picked up 6. They kinda look like Trya Banks but we will morph Tyra into a zombie. Pictures to follow...

So word of advice for today is: If you shop at a particular store, go online and sign up! They will email you coupons! Check your local dollar tree store for creepy good finds! Last but not least, do your homework on the smaller stuff like for instance the cheesecloth. Gives a super cool effect to your haunted house/cemetery and adds great ambiance. Buying things at the hardware store is MUCH cheaper, maybe you have to put some of your time into it but, think of the quality time you get to spend with your ghouls at home putting it together.

Happy Hauntings!