Halloween Craft Party 2018

Last year marked a decades worth of Halloween craft parties, this year called for a change.  It's funny when the kids were little they took their crafting seriously, hunkering down with their projects, only coming up for air to occasionally snack on some eyeballs.

The last few years as tweens they've been a bit less dedicated to the craft and more ravenous eating machines leaving a wake of discarded supplies and half finished projects.  Not to mention, they are sooo loud.  One can barely hear the demonic voices in ones head because of the din teenagers create with their endless chatter.  

So this year it was adults only, and it was fabulous.  Don't get me wrong, I treasure the many years of adults and children crafting side by side.  And those little adolescent brains inspired me more times than I can count and for that I thank them.  Certainly once they revert back into human form they can rejoin the fold.  But for now I will just enjoy the simple things, like not having to shout to carry on a conversation or wondering what kind of savage doesn't put the cap back on the glue.

I also split the party into two days, which is weird for a party.  But I wanted to give people a chance to play with texture paste, so we needed some dry time. We spent a Sunday afternoon creating diabolical things and the next Thursday night painting them. Prior to Thursday night I offered to paint a base coat on the projects.  Choices were either black or white, and that left more time for creative painting the night of.

Before the party I premixed texture paste. [ Note: As far as I can tell for this purpose gesso and paint are interchangeable, as is mod podge and glue. Also I had used up my spackle and switched to joint compound which is thinner than spackle, so I ended up adding baking soda as a thickener also.]

Joann's carries a brand of cheap gesso (really cheap with a coupon) that worked well for our projects, both mixed into texture paste and used straight up as a base coat. I bought a 32oz white and a 16oz black.

I had containers with thin texture paste (gesso, mod podge and joint compound), slightly thicker paste (thin texture paste with more joint compound and a bit of baking soda), really thick texture paste (thicker texture paste with a lot more baking soda). Then just for fun, sand texture paste (thin texture paste with actual sand texture, but you use any sand or even glitter to get a similar texture) and of course my favorite dried tea texture paste (thin texture paste with dried tea).

Also helpful is having lots of those small 1/2cup snack size containers with lids so people can take individual portions to their workspace.  That way you can keep the large containers covered so they don't dry out. Also it helps to keep the different mixtures from getting cross contaminated with other mixtures and other crafting detritus. And everyone can customize their own mixtures as needed and keep them sealed when not in use. Even when it's just me, I work out of separate containers, nothing worse than picking up glitter or feather wisps on your brush and not realizing it until after you just contaminated a brand new bottle of Mod Podge.

The one problem I didn't foresee, even though I knew better was the plastic bugs not sticking.  If you have all the time in the world you can work one side of your bottle at a time letting it dry in-between making sure all the creepy crawlies learn their place and keep their legs in line.  When you only have 4 hours and you are trying to work all sides of a three dimensional object you don't have that luxury.  In hindsight, if you are pressed for time, I would suggest hot gluing those little bastards on first and apply texture paste around them.

Even without the usual chaos I still didn't get pictures of everyone's creations, but this time it was because I was busy crafting, so I hope that rates me a pass.

I'll start with the easiest project, the spider shown above.  It started out life as a simple plastic spider from Target.  It's a nice tarantula size, inexpensive, it has lovely legs and other details that generally get skimped on. I painted everything but the eyes with a mixture of black gesso and dried tea.  The tops of the legs got a second coat to make them a little "hairier".  Otherwise all I did was add a little red to the eyes and coat them with clear glossy acrylic paint.  From drab to fab with a little texture paint.
 

This book was inspired in part by some of my texture samples.  There's texture paste, plastic scorpions, bottle caps, decoupaged glass marbles, keys, swirls of scrap wire, fake petals, tiny rhinestones and even a molded piece made from a button that a friend gave me from an estate sale.  

This bottle is wrapped in what used to be my daughter's swimsuit cover up.  It didn't really cover anything, it was more of a weird holey fishnet accessory.  The picture doesn't do it justice but the texture is absolutely amazing, there is something almost Lovecraftian about it.  In the center is a molded piece from the Ornaments Mod Podge mold.  

This bottle is topped with a plastic red gem set into a cork, the lip is trimmed with...well trim.  Again one of my daughters old shirts. The piece used is just a small part of a larger design.  When I saved it, I honestly had no idea how cool it was until I saw what my friend did with it.  The bee is another molded piece made with the Royal Mod Podge mold.

I love the texture of the fun fur yarn here, like so many tiny tiny little legs.  

Also another Ornaments molded piece.

The eye is a decoupaged glass gem.  

The image is from Orestes Graphics Creepy Eyes Vol. 2   

I love the folds around the eye. 

This is one of mine. Just for fun I wanted to use as many tea bag components as possible.

The picture in the center comes from the British Library collection. If you like vintage images without copyright restrictions this is a great source of material. This one in particular is in their Ghost & Ghoulish Scenes album.

The rest of the bottle is covered in tea bags. Had I covered the entire bottle it would have taken six tea bags to cover this 250ml bottle.  Yes, that's a question that came up.  No, I'm not entirely sure this information will help you gauge the number of tea bags needed for any given bottle.  I did paint over my tea bags but I would like to say they had a lovely tea stained color that would have done quite nicely on it's own.

On top of that in some areas is a mix of  texture paste with the dried tea.  Other areas are texture paste spackled over the tea bag strings.  The purplish color is from a hair color wash that was for my son's costume a few years ago. Watching a few of Marta's Junk Journal video's has really made me think of different ways I can use things.  And it's also made me more of a hoarder.  I did force myself to toss the actual trash items I had saved for the party that didn't get used.  And I am no longer saving my used tea bags, the practice of which had me feeling a bit like a Discworld goblin.

Here we have some more plastic bugs.  Those beautiful swirls were done freehand with hot glue.  There's another bottle, another friend did, with swirls of hot glue that I didn't get a picture of. So apparently this isn't an anomaly, being able to do detailed work with hot glue, but it's beyond my comprehension.  The only thing I can consistently do with a hot glue gun is burn myself, so I'm pretty much in awe of their skills.

This is the skull I did using stenciled texture paste on tissue paper and a few pieces made with both the Ornaments and Royal molds.  

I didn't take this picture, stole it from a friend, because it shows the lovely details up close.  The rim of the bowl is decorated with pieces of a necklace she desecrated.  I just love how it turned out.

And here are the crappy pictures I took that don't quite show how lovely all the textures look in person. Besides the bits of jewelry there are some skull beads, spiders, washers, yarn and some of paper that I had previously stenciled with texture paste.

This bowl already had some great texture to start with.  It was covered in thousands of tiny little holes, like something Cthulhu's mother would keep her dead sea flowers in. Added to that is a little texture paste with a few plastic spiders and some more skull beads.

My punk vulture is an old project, but he got some new bling this year.  My lovely neighbor brought lots of bits of old jewelry to share and I snagged a pair of earrings. I couldn't believe how perfectly eye-like the dangly pieces looked.  He just has the one sparkly eye and his twin, when I finally finish him will get the other.

Another craft party come and gone and once again I'm left with all sorts of new ideas inspired by my crafty friends.  This weekend one of those friends had a Halloween party and I got see some other really cool decorations she made after the party.  It makes me happy to see that creepy inspiration insidiously spread itself around.

Also I want to know how I get Ice-T on my guest list for next year. 

The man can craft.

Craft Party 2017

At the party someone asked me how many years I've been doing this and I couldn't remember off the top of my head.  Going back through old photos I realized this was our 10th year of official organized Halloween crafting. I guess I missed the opportunity to have a "10th Anniversary" party.  I can't believe I've gotten away with inflicting my addiction onto my friends for an entire decade.

The one thing you can count on every year is me not getting pictures of everything. This year I totally outdid myself and took crappy pictures besides.  I apologize to everyone who's creations look less than what they are due to my sorry photography.

It wouldn't be a Halloween craft party without potion bottles. 
There were glittery potions,

...disgusting concoctions,

...and just plain spooky bottles, 

 

Flowers might not seem spooky until you realize
that's a pile of bones at the bottom of the jar.

...and new this year, creepy bottles inspired by Russian crafters. Not that the Russian's are the only one's doing this, but more often then not I find myself on Russian craft sites.  You can check out my Craft Party 2017 pinterest board to see a few examples or search on "altered bottles".  This is what we came up with.

 

The best and worst thing about these bottles is you can use almost anything.  Sometimes having limitless choices can be a bit daunting, but this is a great way to use up odd bits of stuff.  These bottles used a variety of tissue paper, netting, twine, cord, beaded garland, old or broken jewelry, beads, glass gems, shells, dried lentils & seeds, faux flowers, and plastic critters & bones.  I am happy to see my salt dough skulls and wire components I made practicing with a wire jig finally getting used for something. 

Vampire Blood and Life Renewal labels courtesy of Love Manor. 

There were more fashionista skeletons this year.  I think the outfits were even more elaborate than last year if that's possible.  This a great way to use up fabric scraps and old Barbie clothes.  Nothing goes with gold pants like a Madonna style bustier and although it's hard to tell, the gal next to her is pregnant will a smaller rubber skeleton.  Congratulations, I guess?  

I like this bottle cap & cork top hat.  

Another great hat and who doesn't like furry gogo boots?

What this guy lacks in fashionable attire he makes up for with his interesting array of friends.  Bonus points for using a leftover piece of fence from an old project as a ladder to stand on (can't see in this picture).

There were also skeletons in jars.  Which is a nice way to display your favorite skelly, like this mermaid from last year's party.

A couple of our younger patrons came up with these jar ideas. 

The pictures don't do them justice, but I loved them so much I had to make my own.  I really like how the water doesn't cover the skeleton. I imaged it was low tide with the sea foam (sesame seeds) swirling around him.  I couldn't get the right sea levels on mine and ended up filling the jar.  Another nice thing about using jars, is the skeleton is protected. I had to snap a few joints to get mine posed right. They aren't broken all the way through, but they definitely wouldn't survive long if he was being man handled.  There was some leftover chain with tiny medallions that I piled up to look like treasure.  You can't take it with you, but that doesn't stop some from trying. 

This was a plastic bendy skeleton, partially spray painted. I like the two-face effect. You have to be careful when using spray paint on plastic, even if it's paint & primer or it says it's specifically for plastic. He's one of those plastics that doesn't play well with spray paint and as a result he will be forever sticky, but he looks so dementedly cool.  I'd be curious to see him sprinkled with black sand or glitter on the sticky bits for a little texture.

Here are some silhouette lantern jars.  Lightly spray painted in the inside and designs copied on the outside with black paint pens.  I'm glad to see more salt dough skulls finding a purpose.  I wish I wouldn't have tried to get the skulls into the first picture because it's not a good view of the four cats below.  The cat clipart can be found at ClipArtQueen. The "Eek" is from TheDiyVillage. The owl I found at FaveCrafts and the other cat is on pinterest.

One last creation is this Lost City. 

I forgot the actual name, but it's not Atlantis, because that's underwater.  

And now for the only reason my husband comes up from the basement while all this is going on, the food.

People brought some awesome goodies.  Monsters & mummies, spidery treats and other creepy delights.  There was a really pretty fall decorated cake, but I didn't think to take a picture until after I had already hacked it to pieces.  Seriously I shouldn't be allowed to cut cake, ever.

I have to admire these spider cookies, because I too once fell for the old “use a toothpick to drag out ‘legs’ from melted choc chips” and mine didn't turn out nearly as well as these.  There is a whole story about the photoshopped cookie that's plastered across the internet and has led to millions of chocolate chip cookies being decimated by toothpicks. 

I have zucchini up the wazoo this year, which is slightly more uncomfortable than it sounds.  So I might have made a few things with zucchini.  I'll post recipes later.  

I made Candied Lizard Skin (left) with one of my neighbors regular green zucchini and Frog Skin (right) with some of mine.  I should explain that mine is of the 8 ball variety, which as the name suggests is round and should be picked when it's about the size of an 8 ball.  This year my zucchini is having an identity crisis and has been more yellow than green.  

I also saved the syrup they were cooked in because it was bright green and purty.  I poured it into a beaker and set it by the food.  Halfway through the party I hear, "Mom can I drink this green stuff?" After I said yes I hear a bunch of others say, "Ooh I want to try it too!"  It wasn't until they had all tried it that I told them it was zucchini syrup.  Yeah, I'm a special kind of evil.

Alien Zucchini Ball

These are chocolate zucchini cake pops.

Since I had candy melts in other colors than the usual red and green, I decided to go for a bruised, decaying rat look. It ended up looking more like tie dye rat. 

And then I dropped the mold before I had poured the bottom, which wouldn't have been a total disaster, except this was "fancy rat" with raspberry blood, so it totally cracked and started to ooze. I sealed the bottom by laying it on top of a pool of melted red candy melts.  My husband had a great idea of adding more red candy blood to cover the cracks, which probably would've looked really good, but I think eating wise would've been too much candy melt.

Everyone at the party was very polite and lied and said my rat looked great and the cracks added character.

I do like how the raspberry blood oozed from the nostrils.
Too bad I would never be able to recreate that in a million years.  

I still had leftover purple and green melts so I decided to make Crunchy Beetle cookies in honor of Glenda Glinka:Witch-At-Large, one of my favorite books as kid. She's a bored witch who decides to amuse herself by turning into a little girl.  She's not sure what "PTA" cookies are so she decides to make her favorites in purple and green with lots of beetles.  I didn't actually want to bake anything so I dipped Oreo cookies and topped them with chocolate covered pecan roaches. 

One last thing just for fun.  I don't really decorate for the party.  Generally anything I display is a past project for inspiration or guidance.  Any other macabre stuff has probably been there all year.  The exception to that is the bathroom.  I saw this on Halloween Forum  and I knew I had to do it.

I used about 100 roaches.  Most of them are behind the door so people don't notice them right away.  There are a few strategically placed near where people would normally touch things like the light switch. Roaches are truly the gift that keeps on giving.  They freak people out even after they know they are there.  Roaches are magical that way. 

I use Loctite Fun Tak Mounting Putty. It comes cleanly off painted walls and does a great job holding the roaches. The only downside is it's blue and you can definitely see it from an angle, but trust me that's not what people see first. I did try Scotch Clear Mounting Squares, but they weren't strong enough.

And so that's what happened. I want to thank everyone for helping me make this a success year after year.