Favorite Halloween Decoration

Years before I ever became a home haunter, years before I even knew that Halloween forums existed, years before I was even concious of my Halloween obsession, I was obsessed with Halloween. I remember my parents or grandparents strolling up and down the isles of decorations at K-Mart, letting me take it all in. I have the best memories of our paper Halloween decorations that my Mom would put up in our house every year. I remember breathing in the smell of old paper, when we'd open the boxes that my dad pulled from the depths of the mysterious attic. A few of my favorite paper decorations included: A jointed skeleton like this guy, that we always hung on the front window or glass door.

There was this collection, which I always loved the colors of.

There was also this collection, in which the flaming, florecent colored skull always frightened and fascinated me... how did his eyeballs stay in the sockets!?!

Then these guys would have to be my 2nd favorite... glowing ghosts! So creepy and awesome... just because they glowed.

But the one that always stuck with me, was one that I just had to have when I was about 5 years old. My kindergarden teach decorated the classroom for Halloween and when I got home, I INSISTED that we find this paper skeleton decoration that she had. I don't know how long it took my mom or grandmother or both to figure out which skeleton decoration I was jabbering about. But I remember being very persistant about finding it and we did :)

Much to my delight, the skeleton stayed with my family for many, many years! He survived my years of dancing school, when I'd come home and stick my foil star stickers that I had earned for being a good ballerina, on his hands and feet, years of crazy cats playing with and ultimatly ripping off his appendages, and having said appendages taped and stapled back on. Actually, we kept that skeleton for 20 years. Up until hurricane Katrina swallowed him up, along with all of our other decorations, in 2005. To this day, this has been one of my all time favorite Halloween decorations. I think because it was simple, creepy and quirky, because it was the first Halloween decoration that I became obsessed with and because it displayed the signs of years of love, all over it's honey comb, paper body. Luckily, there is the fabulous web store, Retroween (http://www.retroween.com/) where I have been able to purchase a few of my favorites that I had lost, like the glowing ghosts and the jointed skeleton. They've never had my honeycomb skellie, but every now and again, I see one pop up on Ebay. I really need to just order one! So, what's you favorite Halloween decoration?

Fantasia Ghost

The Night on Bald Mountain segment in Disney's Fantasia, has always fascinated me, especially the ghosts. Ever since I've been haunting, I've wanted to incorporate these ghosts. After failed attempts at projecting similar haunting images, I decided that I'd try my hand at building one out of cheese cloth. This ghost has always been my favorite and is my inspiration for the piece that I'm currently building:

I decided to try the method of stiffened cheese cloth to get the shape and to keep the gossamer look of this guy. In order to get the wavy shape on the ghost's cloak, I created a really wonky looking armature out of a foam head, pvc and foil... yes, foil ;)

 

 

Even made the arms and hands completely out of foil, in order to keep them light, since I want them positioned this way.

 

I brushed fabric stiffener and Elmer's glue onto the cheese cloth, in an attempt to get the cheese cloth to hold the shape that I created with the foil.  After it all dried, I removed the foil and the cheese cloth wasn't quite I the shape hoped that it would hold, on it's own, but leaving it draped on top of the foam head, it looked perfect.

This brought me back to the drawing board.  Finally I decided that it was going to need a frame in order to keep the shape that I wanted.  So, to get the effect of the ghost looking "faceless" I draped a piece of dark colored fabric over the foam head, letting it cover the entire PVC armature.

This created the effect that I wanted! 

 

I turned on the black light and this is was the result :)

 

 

 

This weekend, I tested gluing cheese cloth on one arm. Hoping that it would make the arms more visible in the black light and here is the result...

The arm on the left side of the picture is the one covered in cheese cloth, the one on the right is not.  Obvious difference.  I'll be coving the other arm now that I know it looks good :)

 

Hoping to get this guy finished soon!

 

I'll post more as I progress :)

 

Happy Haunting!

 

 

Back in Action!

Posting has become kind of a pain lately, since I can only post in html from work. Finally got a handy laptop at home, so I'm back in action, ready to post all of the fun stuff that's been going on at 2nd Street Cemertery =)

Another Candy Corn Recipe - The Obsession Continues

My sister-in-law sent me a link to this recipie last weekend. Looks like I'm going to have to borrow an ice cream maker soon. I'm going to have to double my visits to the gym this fall to keep up with all of the delicious recipes that I keep coming accross! So, what do you guys think? Will candy corn ice cream be a winner or an epic fail?

Candy Corn Ice Cream

Friday Fun - Halloween Cartoons

Last week, my dad sent me all kinds of youtube links to old Halloween cartoons that I enjoyed as a kid and still enjoy! So, I thought I'd start sharing them with you guys! Here's Mickey and the Haunted House!

Thanks Dad!

Scary Stories To Tell In the Dark and More!

Here's something fun to listen to while prop building :)

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

More Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark

Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones!

Happy Sunday Haunting!