Candy Corn and Popcorn

I've been addicted to caramel candy corn lately. It's just utter fabulousness. I cannot get enough of these little suckers!

I'm seriously going to have to visit the dentist after all of the sugary abuse that I'm putting my teeth through ;) Today, I had a hankering for something salty and then right after, I started thinking about my beloved caramel candy corn again.... which of course got the wheels in my noggin turning. "What if, I threw a hand full of candy corn into a steaming hot bag of popcorn???" That seemed like an easy idea, but I had soft, oozey texture in mind for the candy corn so, I then wondered; "Can one MELT candy corn?" I mean, why not, it's sugar right? Maybe a little bit of wax??? Is that just my own conspiracy theory? That's when I when to my favorite search engine and typed in 'melted candy corn' and guess what kind of recipes popped up?!? Melted candy corn over popcorn! BINGO!!!! Here's a recipe that I found appealing:

Candy Corn Popcorn Balls

Popcorn balls made with candy corn. I've never made popcorn balls before, so I had no idea that it was basically like a rice krispy treat, except that popcorn substitutes the crispies.

In turn, that got me thinking even MORE and that's when I started wondering about creating candy corn rice krispie treats!!!! I couldn't find a recipe that actually utilized melted candy corn to make rice krispie treats, but I'm figuring that I could use the same method that the blogger did for the popcorn balls, basically, melt the marshmallows and candy corn together and then pour over the krispies... sounds legit?

I'll let you know how this turns out...sounds like a Frankenstein project if I've ever heard of one! Hope my treats don't have an irrational fear of fire... hmmmmm ;) I have a lot of treat making to try out over the next two months! Let me know if any of you have tried either of these before and I'll try to document my trials and tribulations =)

I can't wait to sink my fangs into some popped/krispie candy corn goodness!

Grin

Michael's 2013

*Tried to post this two weeks ago when my typing problem started! Here's a few fun things that I found during one of my recent trips to Michaels :) Hope you enjoy!

The Spooky Town collection has really stepped it up this year, with more traditional Halloween themed pieces, unlike the last few years, where everything was really brightly colored carnival type pieces. There's a really neat bell tower with spinning gears and a fun wedding chapel of sorts that plays a quirky little tune that I just can't get enough of :) So far, I've purchased a very cool Angel of Death monument, which has flapping wings and wicked lighting :)Of course all of the pieces are pricey and I was fortunate enough to find a 50% off coupon when I bought my piece. Full price was $50.00. I think that they've gone a bit over-board with pricing these pieces. Their assortment of paper mache pieces this year are fun too. I'm really digging the little paper mache JOL pails, like the one in the last picture. I may have to get a few to paint a la Pumpkinrot/Pumpkin Hollow style, with the burnt out looking eyes and mouth. I think that would look really neat. I might even add a flicker candle to the inside for extra effect :) More pictures to come!

WTH?

I haven't been able to post lately and I cannot figure out why. It's been very frustrating! Maybe you guys can help me out. When I'm trying to post, I cannot get the cursor to even show up in the typing field unless I change the field to HTML. Any ideas? I miss being able to communicate with the haunty community :( If this is the only way that I can do it, so be it. At least I've figured this much out :) Happy Haunty Blogging!

Master Sculpters

PumpkinRot had posted a link this morning to a YouTube video featuring the making of the Pumpkinhead creature from the movie, Pumpkinhead.  I LOVE seeing this type of behind the scenes work so I watched video after video that was on this stream.  I had no idea that the creative team behind the Pumpkinhead creature, also created the amazing creatures in the Alien movies as well as the massive dinosaurs in Jurassic Park!

I just subscribed to this stream.  Lots of inspiration here and it looks like some how-to's.

Hope you enjoy!

Stan Winston School YouTube Stream

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Plague Dentist

Happy Monday to you all!  I know, I know, I'm trying to be positive about Monday, but I'm just as tired as you guys are and on top of that, I have to go to the dentist this afternoon =P

But, it could always be worse...I could be the dentist, digging around in people's mouths all day long.

I often wondered if dentist's masks are scented to mask any bad breath that they might come in contact with.  I know that if I were a dentist, I'd want to stuff my mask with potpourri or something... much like the plague doctors did.

Could you imagine, a dentist with a plague doctor mask performing your dental work???

Now that's a scary thought!

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Home Haunter's Awards 2012 Winners

Friday, the winners of the 2012 Home Haunters Awards were announced and I'm very excited and honored to say, that 2nd Street Cemetery earned another golden skull this year! 

Much to our surprise, we were awarded with the Best How-To Video. Neither of us had considered that our video fell into that category, until we went back and watched it again.  That's when we realized how much of a How-To Video it really is =) 

I'd say that 90% of my Halloween pictures each year, are of all of all of the various building stages of props.
I love showing how much work goes into each individual project and I like showing the finished product in the yard. I also like looking back at the pictures myself to see how each project progressed and how I've grown and what I've learned as a prop builder.

 Chronicling the stages of prop building is like chronicling the life of a child.  It begins with taking snapshots through various stages of development, the first being the ultra-sound, which is fuzzy and it's difficult to see what the subject in it is actually going to be and then following them through the awkward tween and teen years and then finally the college graduation picture. 

Halloween projects are much the same way in that, they start out as a jumble of supplies and sketches that resemble nothing of the finished project, then things start taking shape but are still awkward silhouettes of what it will be come and then the final and most gratifying part is when it's complete placed in the yard for everyone to see =)

So, thank you to the judges, who realized what our video was all about, even when we initially didn't :)

I think this is going to finally give me the kick in the butt that I needed to do a couple of tutorials this year.  I have PLENTY of pictures to get that project started ;)  I'm very excited about that!

I want to send out a big  CONGRATS to all of the other winners! As well as a big thank you to  Chris and Jeff Davis, for putting this whole thing together, to all of the judges for taking on the task of judging every one's haunts and to Hellmouth Haunted House for putting together the Awards show :)

If you'd like to see the awards video, you can view it here.

Here is the entire list of winners:

2012 Haunters Video Award Winners
Best Yard Haunt Canyon Trail Cemetery
Jim Slanker
Carol Stream, IL

Best Yard Haunt (Vanguard) Spider Rider of Dun Ringill
Steve Parmley
... Sacramento, CA

Best Indoor/walkthrough Haunt The Butcher of Provincetown Haunted House
Brad Goodspeed
Scarborough, Ontario, Canada

Best Indoor/walkthrough Haunt (Vanguard)Hellizondo Carnival of Risk
Craig Schriber
Simi Valley, CA

Best Static Prop IHauntU
Grant MacDonald (Cemetery gate)
Edmonton Canada

Best Static Prop (Vanguard)Deadwood Cemetery
Michael Braun
Gurnee, IL

Best Animated PropHellizondo Carnival of Risk
Craig Schriber (meat grinder)
Simi Valley, CA

Best Animated Prop (Vanguard)Bates Haunt
Dave Bates (house projection)
Utah

Best Party Haunt Valridge Manor Place
Stacy Saman
Ancaster, Ontario Canada

Best Video Production The Butcher of Provincetown Haunted House
Brad Goodspeed
Scarborough, Ontario, Canada

Best How-to2nd Street Cemetery
Heidi & Donnie Rauber Jr.
Covington, LA

Propmaster Award Hauntcast/Village Mire Yard Haunt
Chris Baker
South Yarmouth,MA

 

Happy Haunting everyone!!!