Haunted House Silhouette

Here are a few quick pictures of the Haunted House silhouette that we display on our mantel every few years.  I don't have it completely set up, but thought I would add some pictures while I am thinking about it. I made this 10 or more years ago and unfortunately, it is really starting to show it's age.  

This is a large two piece silhouette, which was cut out of heavy duty poster board.  The tree (on left), small hill (that you can barely see on the right) and small flying bats are part of the back piece; which is placed against the wall.  The house, grass, gravestones and fence pillars are part of the front piece; which is placed about 5-6 inches in front of the back section.  It is lit using a long light, which is sandwiched between the front and back sections. 

It's been 10 years, and I still remember this silhouette being a CHALLENGE to make.  The poster board was thick and really difficult to cut through.  OMG, cutting out those fine details...let's just say, I remember learning several new swear words while working on it.  I can't imagine having to eventually redo it.  Oh, I do love it though!

 Blessings, Tracy

Psycho Bunny Lives!

So....(I think) this guy is pretty much done.  You may remember his humble beginnings in this post.  Not sure how I feel about him, but I do think he may be a little too cutesy for my taste.  I guess I'll just have to see how he looks, once he is lurking out in our garden at night.  I may have to go back and distress him...possibly add some dried blood and just make the poor thing look a little CrAzIeR.  I would rather he looked rough, like he just spent a long night digging himself up.  If  I have time,  I will try to get some better shots later. These pictures don't do him justice, since he really does look better in person.

All we have to do now, is find him a nice, yet creepy, spot in our garden to hang out.

 Blessings, Tracy

Spooky Halloween Wreath LOVE!

I recently ran across this wonderful idea for a Halloween wreath.  When I first saw it, I immediately knew I had to try to make one for my very own.  The original wreath idea came from the very talented Karen, over at "The Art of Doing Stuff".  I found her tutorial to be very detailed and easy to follow.  Oh yes, and the pictures, for those of us who are a little more visual (like me)...they are great.  Can't say enough good things about this whole project.  I LOVE how turned out.  Go over and check out her tutorial if you have a moment. 

I highly suggest using her tutorial as a guide, but here is my (quick) footnotes on this project.

1. Like Karen, I made my own wreath base out of three layers of glued together Styrofoam.  The wreath bases I found in craft stores, were too small and really expensive.  Hello...a 4x8 sheet of 1 inch Styrofoam was about $4.  I have a lot of leftover Styrofoam, which is a good thing, since I will use it on some project in the future.  When I finished my Styrofoam base, it measure about 21-22 inches across. After I cut out the inner circle, the ring of my wreath was about 6 inches wide.  
2. I couldn't find the glitter skulls she used anywhere.  I ended up buying 3 small Styrofoam skulls at Michaels.  I think they were $1.49 each.  I poked a short piece of dowel into the back of each of their heads and then painted them black. Once dry, I painted on a thin layer of glue and sprinkled with Martha Stewart's Onyx glitter. After they were covered with glitter, I gave them a light dusting of Martha Stewart's Black Licorice glitter to accent the Onyx.  The black Licorice glitter has flecks of blue and green added to black, which sparkles nicely in the light.  
3. Karen used 6 boas, I think I ended up using 8 to cover my wreath.  
4. When it was time to attach my skulls, I cut a few triangles of tulle/netting and stapled them together a few times to form a half clown collar; similar to the ones her skulls have.  And yes, I used a normal stapler.  The staples won't show, since they will be buried in feathers, so no big deal. I had two different scrap pieces of tulle on hand, one fine and one regular weave, so I used a little of each to give it more interest.  I also added three short pieces of ribbon to each collar.  After I attached the skulls to the wreath, I grabbed a tulle and ribbon collar and pinned it just under each skull; to look like it was attached.
5. My finished wreath is HUGE...about 25 inches wide.  LOVE IT!!

Completed Styrofoam base.

Skulls before paint.

Paint drying.

Glitter drying.

Netting that is draped on finished wreath.

One of the Tulle fabrics (fine not pictured) & ribbon that I used.

Close up shots of glitter skull on wreath.  The photo makes them look silver, but they really are black.

Blessings, Tracy

Here we go....

Jennifer Davenport, over at Decorating Ideas Made Easy, has been nice enough to feature our Witch's Urn as part of her recent "Halloween Ideas" post.  This post showcases the ideas of several talented folks who share our love for Halloween AND have some truly clever ideas.  If you have a minute, take the time to go check it out.  
Blessings, Tracy

Halloween

Blessings, Tracy

WE CAN SEE!!!

We had 3 extra 26mm doll eyes (1 single & 1 pair) left over from other projects, so we decided to give Mr. Bones and his front porch friend some new peepers.  We were also lucky to have an eye patch lying around (don't ask me why), so that made up for the missing fourth eye. We attached the eyes in the skeleton's eye sockets with poster putty, since we may eventually need to remove them to use in new projects.  
Now, Mr. Bones and his front porch friend can keep a closer eye on those sneaky Trick or Treaters.

 Blessings, Tracy

Love Jimmy Fallon's October Set Design!

I caught a little of Jimmy Fallon's show the other night. Although I don't catch it that often, his show has really grown on me.  I think he has some pretty good interviews, they have some funny regular bits/skits and I think it is funny how he always seems to be on the verge of cracking up.  One criticism, I do think he does take a few of his skits a little too far at times. Overall though, I think he does a good job.
BUT, the reason I am posting is.....I really love the Halloween-ish backdrop (behind his desk) and the ripped up curtains they are using on his set this month.  I'm thinking about trying to make the desk backdrop (tree with bird silhouette) for Halloween next year.  Now, if I just had a window to put it in....

You can get a better or full view of this silhouette, by watching some of his recent interviews on his show's website.

Blessing, Tracy

Metal Crow

Blessings, Tracy

Cat Silhouette

Blessings, Tracy

Halloween Window Silhouettes

Our Halloween Silhouettes lit up and shot from outside.  You can see another close up view of these silhouettes here and here.   You can also see our large "Witch on Broom" and "Fading Ghost" silhouettes here.

  **See below for updates & a brief "How To".

**Update - Several people have asked me where we purchased these Halloween silhouettes & if the were vinyl.  All of our silhouettes were painted on cheap white fabric.

For these silhouettes - 

1. We cut cheap white fabric into long panels.
2. We traced the design onto fabric.
3. We painted the silhouettes using "dark gray paint" (Martha Stewart tip). The gray paint will appear black when lit.  Make sure you paint the silhouette on the side of the fabric that faces towards the outside. Also, make sure you protect the surface that you are painting on, since the paint can bleed through the fabric.
4. We hung the silhouettes in our windows like curtains, using a small/thin peice of dowel at the top. Our windows are vinyl & just happened to have a small pocket at the top that works perfectly for hanging these.  To hang, we just slightly flex the thin piece of dowel & feed the ends in these pockets.
5. I usually light my silhouettes with either clip on work lights or table lamps. The window silhouettes in this post were lit using table lamps. I placed the lamps on the floor & centered at the base of each silhouette. I removed the lamp shades & replaced the regular bulb with colored spotlight bulbs. You can purchase these bulbs at places like Home Depot. I use two lamps for the witch and caldron silhouette, since these windows are really large & one lamp did not light it well enough. 
   ** Be careful that your lamps are not placed too close to curtains & that they do not get tipped over! These spotlight bulbs tend to run pretty hot. I close the bedroom doors when these silhouettes are lit. Even though I use sturdy lamps, I wouldn't want to risk our cats accidentally tipping one over or burning them selves on the open *hot* bulb.

I get a lot of people on my site looking at our Halloween window silhouettes.  If you would like additional silhouette ideas, I stumbled upon a great DIY site with some awesome Haunted House Silhouette ideas.  Take a minute & go check them out.

Blessings, Tracy

UNCLE...UNCLE...I give up!

I have failed.  I took on a little more than I could chew this year regarding Halloween projects.  My "normal" life has been much busier than expected, and I just didn't have the time to devote to working on Halloween projects as I would have liked.  I just ran out of time.  Here are just some of the projects that are being pushed to the back burning and will not be gracing our Halloween display this year.

1. Mosaic Skull -
Finished him about half way.  Had to order Millefiori and this created delays with finishing this project.  You can see his humble beginnings here.  

2. Large Psycho Garden Bunny with Glowing Eyes -

"Eek...I don't have arms!"  This guy still needs a lot of work before I can even start the painting process.  I saw some smaller bunnies similar to this in the Magazine, Cloth Paper Scissor.  The bunnies in the magazine where made by an artist named, Debb George.  Hers were dressed in formal wear and were really adorable.  I wanted a simple "crazy looking" bunny (with creepy glowing eyes) poking around our large front garden as the kids arrived to Trick or Treat.  This guy is actually turning out a lot "tamer" looking than I had hoped.  I may make a few more nuttier looking bunnies over the next year. Yep, a family of Psycho Bunnies!

Wasn't able to get a good shot of his glowing eyes, since it is so bright outside.

3. Don't even ask what this was going to be.


4. & 5. Didn't even get a chance to buy the supplies for these projects.

Blessings, Tracy