Let the Wild Rumpus Start!

When I found instructions for a Mad Hatter costume on Threadbanger, I immediately decided that someone in our family needed to to make it for Halloween.



Our brother Tommy went for it (with some help from his big sisters, of course) and it was fantastic! He was even done with it for a party 2 weeks before Halloween.

Craziness.



One Note about their instructions if you want to try this yourself... in the video, they suggest using thick material to stretch over the form for the hat. Don't do it, unless you want to end up with unwieldy wrinkles (something I discovered as I attempted to hot glue the entire thing together for the first time. Grrrr). Use something stretchy instead. Jenny and Tommy found a gray knit shirt and a black stretch lace shirt at the thrift store to cut up and use.

Also, instead of using wire to create the brim, Jenny had the brilliant idea to just form the top part of it right over a black velvet cowboy- or pimp- hat. Amusing that I can't tell the difference between the two. I guess when you're dealing with black velvet, everything takes on nuances of pimp.

Since Tommy ended up staying in and watching scary movies on the actual night of Halloween, I got to borrow the costume.

Joey completed the theme as the Cheshire Cat. I am so kicking myself for not thinking to use glow in the dark face paint for her smile. Then she really could have disappeared in the dark just like he did.



I love Jaden and Aurora as Coraline and the Other Mother. Notice the black nylons stretched over a pair of circular glasses for the button eyes.





And Kam was just about the cutest Max that ever there was. His Gram D made his costume using McCall's pattern #5956. And a cut down, spray painted, inside-out Burger King crown worked perfectly to complete the outfit.





Oh, sweet boy, "I'll eat you up, I love you so."

Halloween Meringue Cookies

I'm just going to pretend like I haven't been away from this blog for an entire month. If you all could just enable me with this charade, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

What I do have for you is a very kid-friendly project that could easily be adapted for any time of the year.



I made up a super quick batch of meringue batter (... dough... whipped air?- I have no idea what to call this stuff) from this Cook's Illustrated recipe. Then let the girls have at it with piping bags, instructing them to make everything about an inch tall.

Note- Closing the top of the bag with a rubber band is way helpful for little ones, as well as those of us who are not so little. Heh hem.



The girls chose to ignore my advice against writing words and instead focused their efforts to create 3 layers to make them tall enough so that they didn't burn. This one was definitely a success, even though it was only about half an inch tall.



Using a #2 tip, I piped a bunch of brains, like from Martha's cupcakes, but from this angle at least, they look a bit like toupees.



And here's a little slug and a pile of poo.



What collection of Halloween cookies would be complete without those?

Contest Winner and Potato Foot

Congratulations!!!

Seville83 has left a new comment on your post "A Giveaway!":

And I'll be making the produce bags for a friend of mine too. He's going to love them :)

Send me an email at mamagay74 at comcast dot net to get the ball rolling on your new stamp.

Also, I thought you all might like to know that I've sprained my ankle, a word which does not do justice to the initial snapping sound I heard (and felt) when it happened (along with the crying and cursing) nor to the swelling, bruising or general inability to put the least bit of weight on it. No, to me the word sprained is equal to "tweaked" or "mildly injured and unable to jump on a trampoline" kind of injury. Not the "lying in bed with my foot constantly elevated" and "yelling loudly from the bedroom for simple things like refills of water and can you please bring me some Kleenex?" that my incredibly patient family is now experiencing.

I'll be honest, the first 24 hours of this (along with hours of uninterrupted time to read) was pleasant enough. But I'd like to be done now, thanks.

I'm so frustrated with my crutches that I've taken to crawling from room to room on my hands and knees. Strangely it keeps reminding me of this scene in Top Secret.



K, that's enough for today. My potato foot (Joey's accurate description) is starting to throb.

Watch Out it's Like Farting Again

Whenever Kam sees Joey shuffling cards, he lays down in front of her and asks her to shuffle on his back.



And since they spent the weekend playing with some inherited games from our childhood (this Sorry game is from 1964), there was plenty of shuffling to be done.

Apparently he likes it for the sound effects.



Fart jokes. Always popular with the kids.

How to Clean Vintage Pyrex

So in addition to Mason jars, I also have a bit of a thing for older Pyrex.

If it's a reasonable price, I will buy it no matter how grotty it looks.

I know that there's a good chance I can clean it up with a cleanser called Bon Ami. I've seen this stuff for sale at the grocery store and the health food store and even the hardware store, so there's no need to buy it from Amazon. I just needed a link to show you what it looks like. It has a baby chicken on it. Who, apparently, is your good friend. And also French.

We've used this stuff for years (for the sink and the stove and pots and pans) and I thought I was so clever to have figured out how well it works on marked up Pyrex and other plates and dishes. I honestly didn't even notice the endorsement by the Pyrex people until I took this picture.

Because I am just that observant.



This bowl was pretty bad and I wasn't actually one hundred percent sure I could save it. But you can see the part of the bowl that I did clean compared to the part I left alone.


(And yes, after I took this picture, I actually went back and cleaned the whole thing. Why do you ask?)

What about all of these darker lines on my favoritest green bowl? They look like scratches, don't they? Oh, but they're not.





Like magic I tell ya.

One note- I would recommend that you rub very gently and not make a habit of this because even though I haven't noticed any problems while using it, I can't imagine that these glazes could stand up to maniacal scrubbing.

OK, one more picture (this time of a halfway cleaned bowl) because I'm diggin the infomercial-type vibe I've got going here.



But not the kind of commercial where they cut to the black and white video of the totally inept cook who can't even manage to flip a pancake... oh, if only she had some kind of device that could hold the top of the pancake as she flipped it... that would make her life ever so much better... only 19.95 (plus shipping and handling).

I may be inept, but I can flip a pancake.

Wait, what are we talking about?

Do I Look Crazed or is it Just my Imagination

Every time I look at this jack-o-lantern, I can't help thinking that it looks like I'm about to go for somebody's throat.

Note- In case you think this project is ridiculously complicated, I've also got some tips that will make it easier to use the simpler templates they sell in kits at the store, if you'd rather stick with those. (Also, just so you know, my early attempts at carving faces were far from perfect. It definitely gets easier with practice.)



This project has brought me such amusement, despite the fact that I almost gave up after just an hour into it because my chin was starting to remind me of the movie Mask. When I informed Jeff, he wanted to know which movie I meant, the sad Eric Stoltz one or the funny Jim Carrey one.

But I kept at it and it turned out more like librarian Medusa and less like Rocky Dennis (only a slight hint of a goiter left). Since finishing, I've sat and stared at it for minutes that have probably added up to hours. And you wanna know what my favorite part is? The nose piece on my glasses. I know. I'm a dork. But that little detail just does me in every time. Because it totally looks like the nose piece on my glasses!


(It starts to get trippy looking at yourself for this long. And talking about trippy, just how huge are my hands?)

If you'd like to try this, I suggest reading the tutorial here to get yourself familiar with the process of carving pumpkins this way. What follows are my modifications and tips.

Tools
-Metal pottery scrapers work really well for cleaning out the inside of the pumpkin and getting it to a nice, even surface.
-Champagne cork, needle and pliers (or just a pushpin)
-Linoleum cutters or wooden carving tools are excellent for working the design.
-Don't forget that little knife that comes with the standard carving kits. Despite its cheapness, it is actually pretty useful.

Clean the Pumpkin
-You know, cut off the top, remove the guts, smooth the inside.
-The part that you're carving should be about half an inch thick and a fairly consistent thickness.
-It's not a bad idea to cut an inch-wide hole in the bottom back of the pumpkin and a big one in the lid for airflow, especially if you don't have a lot of white space in the design.

Create the Pattern (I had forgotten that a good chunk of this part originally came from Photojojo. Thanks guys!)
-It's best to have a high-resolution photo with a dark background. (Aurora took this one while I was weeding, during our garage sale, modeling a vintage sports coat, oddly enough.)
-Using photoshop Jenny helped me convert the picture to black and white and cranked up both the brightness and the contrast.
-Then used the poster effect in the Filter Gallery.
-You might need to mess with the levels a bit in order to get it to something you think you can carve.
-A level of 3 will give you black, white and one shade of gray; this will be the easiest to carve.
-My picture below was a level 6, with some black, some white and four different shades of gray. This makes it much more complicated, but also, much more realistic.



Awesome Tip #1- I printed this out on a laser printer (but a Xerox copy would work too). If you want, you can go ahead and print it with a regular inkjet and just tape it to the pumpkin, but it might be worth the time it takes to get it printed up at the copy center (if you don't have your own laser printer). That's because laser printer ink is not soluble in water and, here's the important bit, it does not smear when it gets wet. Which allows you to mold the pattern perfectly over the pumpkin. Like so.


(Spray the paper evenly with water, let it soak in for a bit and then gently form it onto the pumpkin, pressing it into the cracks. It works best if you can find the smoothest pumpkin possible, without deep grooves. Also be careful not to rub it too much or you'll rub the design right off. You can do this with most of the store-bought patterns out there. To test it just lick your thumb and run it over the ink; if it doesn't smear, you're good to go.)

After the paper is molded to the pumpkin, you can either let it dry or just tape over the entire thing with clear packing tape. If you try to poke holes directly on the wet paper, you will rip little tiny holes with each pin prick. Makes it hard to follow the pattern.

Awesome Tip #2- In years past, I've just used a pushpin to poke the holes around the pattern, but this year I created this poking tool using a champagne cork and a needle. I just shoved it right in there using pliers. You wouldn't believe how much more comfortable it was to use this thing. It does make smaller holes, which was good for me because of the detail involved. But if you have a hard time seeing the holes, you may want to try a thicker needle or just stick (heh, heh) with a pushpin.



Transfer the Pattern
-With the needle, you'll want to poke holes around the lines that separate the various colors.
-This one was way complicated so I didn't poke holes between a lot of the different shades of gray.



While I had the pattern still stuck to the pumpkin, I went ahead and skewered the white circles of my eyeballs (like literally, with a wooden skewer). You can also use a drill, but I couldn't find mine and this worked fine (after I poked the plastic a few times with the needle to get it started).



Carving (you can see what it looks like unlit here)
-Leave the skin intact for all black areas. I lightly carved around these using the smallest blade on the lino cutter.
-Remove all white areas completely with the little saw. If the area is particularly small, I'd suggest going around the inside of the line with the smallest lino cutter blade and then following that line with the saw. It'll be much cleaner that way.
-Use the gray areas on the pattern as a guide for how thin to carve the flesh (the lighter the color, the thinner the flesh). This is where the carving tools will come in super handy.
-Once you're mostly done (or having any trouble in a particular area), add some candles, sit in the dark and refine that way. You'll be able to easily see where it needs to be lighter.
-If, overall, the entire thing looks too dark, just take the pottery scraper and from the inside, thin it out evenly.

As soon as I saw this one in the dark for the first time I actually cackled, making exactly the sound that you'd expect to come from someone with eyes like that.

And unless you live with me (or have talked to me on the phone) you have no idea how much this thing cracks. me. up.

ADDED NOTE (Sept 27)- My integrity has just been called into question. And instead of being offended, I'm taking it as the best compliment ever. Yes, it is a real pumpkin. No, it is not a photoshop fake.

But thank you!



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A Giveaway!

Just a quick note to let you know that I've updated the portrait stamp tutorial with a new trick for transferring the image. It gives a much cleaner picture to carve from.



And since a couple of you seemed less than 100% confident about your ability to carve a portrait stamp, I've decided to make one lucky winner their very own stamp. From their very own picture.

How exciting is that?

(Really, how exciting is it? I have a hard time judging these things. I am easily amused and often excited about things that no one in their right mind would find interesting.)



Um yah. Anyway. To enter the contest, just leave a comment here telling me if you've actually tried any of my tutorials or if there's anything that you plan to try one of these days. Or feel free to let me know that you don't like any of my tutorials, but just want a free stamp, damn it. (I'm pretty sure the random number generator won't hold it against you.)

I'm going to keep the contest going for two weeks, ending on October 7th at midnight. You can enter once a day, but you've got to list a new project for each comment.

Good luck and tell your friends (I've decided to give you an extra entry if you link to it)!

Also- Remember to leave your email if your comment doesn't link back to your website. Or just be sure to check back here after the contest is done. Just in case you're the wiener.