Bah Humbug

Bah humbug is kind of how I felt about Halloween this year, but I did make some effort.  At least the dozen trick or treaters we had made off with a nice, contact free, candy haul because I'm not a scrooge.  And even though I didn't go all out this year, I refuse to put away my decorations until I'm good and ready because they bring joy to my cold black heart.  

I'm slowly working towards a metal punk vibe.  The punk vulture has been around awhile, as has the spiked pumpkin, but the coffin guitar case, newly acquired this year, kind of cinched it.  That was really when the other skeletons started talking about getting a band together.  My frogs aren't done...yet. But at least I managed to finish their hair so they are presentable.  Froggy Rotten is sporting the red mop and Phib Vicious has the green hawk. 

I have a few projects to post about that are pictured and a few just out of view.  This year has been a lot of home improvement projects, but I have been squeaking in some time to knock a few creepy projects off my list.   

And now all the Turkey Day decorations are up...so I guess I'm set until Creepmas.  

 

Pumpkin Spice Orange Cheesecake Cupcakes

So here's another recipe I've bastardized beyond all recognition.  

This is the original recipe for  Pumpkin Spice Bread which makes two loaves.  I've halved the recipe to make 24 muffins.  I left out the nutmeg, because I despise it, and increased the cinnamon a tad, because I have nothing but love for cinnamon.   I used a mix of white and brown sugar instead of just sugar and a mix of vegetable oil (generally I use coconut) and butter instead of just oil. I substitute orange juice instead of water.  

In past years I've made this with an orange cream cheese frosting, as noted in this post about pumpkin truffles.  The pairing, while delicious is too sweet in my opinion.  With frosting I always feel like the amount of powdered sugar needed depends on the consistency desired rather than the taste. 

By substituting cheesecake instead of frosting, I still get all the flavors I love without the overwhelming sweetness and the family agreed these were better. Normally my making two dozen cupcakes implies a party, but this year sucks.  Instead I dropped off a little cupcake love with the neighbors.  

Pumpkin Spice Orange Cheesecake Cupcakes

cupcake ingredients:

3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup butter softened
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup solid pack pumpkin
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda 
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 cup orange juice 

cheesecake ingredients:

8 oz cream cheese, softened 

1/3 cup white sugar

1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp orange extract

zest from one orange (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Beat the cream cheese until smooth.  Add the sugar, egg, extracts and zest and beat until creamy and smooth. Refrigerate until needed.

In a large bowl, beat sugar, oil and butter. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add pumpkin and mix well. Sift dry ingredients together and add to the pumpkin mixture alternately with the orange juice. Spoon batter into 24 prepared muffin cups. 

Spoon in cheesecake mixture. 

Bake for about 20 minutes.  The cheesecake should be set but not brown.  Cool in pans 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack; cool completely.

Pictures can be deceiving, I should have cut this in half to really see. The pumpkin mixture domed so it's not like that's all cheesecake sitting on top, but rather a modest layer coating it.  You could run a knife or toothpick through the batters before baking to marble it. 

Thrift Store Finds or Barely Crafting

I decided to take pictures of some of my thrift store finds from last years adventure as I was reorganizing after Halloween.  The first couple I barely did anything to enhance them, in fact it could be argued they would have looked just fine without my interference.  The latter two I left alone, not trusting myself to not muck them up merely for the sake of feeling I had to do something to them.  

I love this owl lantern, especially with the red tea light.  As you can see below it was fabulous all on its own before I came along.  It was nicely aged with dirt and rust, giving it a suitably eerie look.  I might have done it a disservice by cleaning it up, but I can't abide by having other people's dust and crud, preferring to start fresh and build up my own.  I painted on a faux patina with acrylics. I fear I might have made it a bit brighter and cheery looking.  Thankfully nothing can diminish it's evil scowl.  

Next are these metal candle holders ranging from 5 to 7 inches tall.  Nothing special, but these sort of things are always handy for displaying not only candles, but pumpkins, skulls or severed heads.  Again I could have left them as is, black is always stylish and they would have functioned just the same.  

Instead I added little skull danglies made from chain, which was procured during the aforementioned thrifting spree and some after Halloween clearance beads I've had forever.  I toned down the black with a few Gunmetal Gray highlights, to match the beads and chain.  

Seriously I scored all this chain for about $5. When it comes to making jewelry I like to know exactly what metals I'm dealing with, but for art projects it matters not. 

The following stand I didn't change one bit and maybe it looks a little too shiny and nice.  And that might have to change, but it looked nice with a severed head this fall. 

I have a cosmetology head from the days when my daughter was all about practicing fancy braids which was nothing short of frustrating on one of those stupid Barbie heads.  Later I came across this tutorial for turning it into one of the undead, but I can't bring myself to cut it up.  Instead I have a handful of simple masks, so she can change up her look from year to year.  It's the best of both worlds, princess by day, ghoul by night.  I rather like the pretty eyes behind the mask, it reminds me of Eyes Without A Face.

I haven't done a thing to this one either, but it calls to me.  I like it plain, in a merely supportive role, but the urge to add textures is strong.  I just don't want to overdo it and have it competing with whatever it's displaying.   

Homicidal Maniac Meets The Last of the Zucchini

Ding dong the vine is dead! I am plagued by zucchini no more, (five metric tons of shredded zucchini in freezer conveniently forgotten.) The remaining survivors have been sliced, stabbed, poked and gutted.  Their tiny little heads on display as a warning to other squash, summer or otherwise.

I remembered I had pumpkin carving tools and while I tend to snap those flimsy little saw blades on real pumpkins, they are quite perfect for the soft flesh of the zucchini. 

From left to right: Plastic Eyeball Zucchini (because original carved eye looked like crap), Held Together By Toothpicks Zucchini (because froze and cracked on vine and then was dropped on the way outside after carving),  Fires of Hell Zucchini (sadly not fires of hell, just a red tea light), Pomegranate Aril Iris Bug Eating Zucchini (just because), and last Broken Pasta Teeth Zucchini (because there was no way I was going to successfully carve that itty bitty zucchini, and I got lazy).

It's hard to believe that isn't really hell fire and just a mere tea light. Scratching the surface of the zucchini with the saw blade gave some nice texture.  

And just because I love my daughters mini pumpkin
and it's evil grin in the faux hellfire glow.  

Also I discovered too late there is a
National Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day

If I ever get zucchini amnesia and plant another one,

I want to hang with these ladies on zucchini day. 

Disco Pumpkin

I lack the photography skills to adequately show just how awesome this pumpkin is, so you’ll just have to do your part and use your imagination or better yet make your own because it’s super easy.  What makes this pumpkin extra special is it’s illuminated with a color changing LED light. Here are a couple of stills of that color changing awesomeness.

I bought the Pumpkin Masters Star Studded Pumpkins kit years ago. According to this website it was released in 2004, which sounds about right.  It came with this handy dandy little tool, but I’m sure a drill would work just as well, probably better. 

 

In this video they use a drill and real pumpkins, and show some neat designs.

To make a pumpkin like mine you will need a fake pumpkin, white paint and other assorted paints, clear marbles, drill or other tool of choice to make holes, color changing LED light and again your tool of choice for carving out the bottom of the pumpkin. 
 

Start by carving an opening in the bottom of your pumpkin. My light isn’t very thick, so by making the opening more of an oval shape, I can insert it sideways and then once it’s lying flat it doesn’t fall out. I like to move things around.  Making a hole wide enough that you can set your pumpkin over your light source works too.   
 

Paint the inside of the pumpkin white.  I like spray paint for this. I used a pumpkin from Michael’s without any problems, but spray paint can eat into foam, so another brand might react differently.  Just something to keep in mind.  The reason for this step is so your light colors stay true and don’t reflect the orange hue of the pumpkin.  It makes a big difference, I speak as one who had to pop all the marbles out and paint a pumpkin full of holes after the fact.

After the inside is painted, then paint the outside however you like.

Mark where you want your holes.  Then poke, scrape, twist, drill, use the force or whatever your method of choice is to make holes.  Just don’t make them too big, you want the marbles to fit snug.

After you’ve made a hole you can give the marble a little twist to wedge it in. I think it looks best when the marbles are sticking halfway out, they look really cool when they light up. I also like the look of using different sized marbles.

That’s it, light it up!

Zombie Pumpkin - Part Six, The Final Touch

The first thing to do to finish this off was the lighting.  For this project I used Micro LED Christmas lights, similar to these.  There are 15 LED’s on the strand, it only uses 2 AA’s so the battery pack is nice and small and there is a twinkle setting. I used a low temp glue gun to secure them inside the top of the pumpkin and run the cord down the side where they would be hidden behind the tree.  I notched a trench into the side of the Styrofoam base for the cord to run through and cut out a small hole in the bottom of the pumpkin to access the batteries. 

 

One of the limited pictures I managed to take.

Once the lighting was done I did as much assembly as I could with the base outside of the pumpkin. I laid out the headstones and glued most of them in place, the couple of taller pieces had to be added afterwards. I added a gravel path or the start of a gravel path since the rest of the cemetery has become overgrown. To make gravel I took a hammer to a piece of our stone mulch, it’s called Shimmering Smoke, so it has a little sparkle. Then I covered the Styrofoam using pieces of sheet moss that had some nice autumn colors.

 

Testing to make sure the fence will fit. 

The hardest part was finagling the tree and the base into the pumpkin at the same time. There wasn’t enough room to put one or the other in first and then add the second. I angled them in at the same time and once they were both in the pumpkin there was some room to adjust. I won’t lie, it wasn’t easy, but once they were inside the base fit nice and snug, and the tree top curved with the top of the pumpkin creating a nice branching overhang and the tension from the copper wire keeps it firmly in place. 

I moved the moss around the roots of the tree and glued on the remaining headstones.  The zombies had nice pointy feet, so I just covered them in glue and poked them through the moss into the Styrofoam.  Once all the miscellaneous body parts were glued down, I slid the sides of the fence in. Like the tree and the base, the fence isn't glued in but again with all the wire tension it stays firmly in place.  I can turn the whole pumpkin upside down and nothing moves. 

 

The final touch was to add a bit of antique brass chain around the gate and the bride’s severed hand trying to crawl its way out. 

  

A picture doesn’t really do it justice, so here’s a little video.

 

 

 

Zombie Pumpkin - Part Five, Wooden Fence

The fence was created with craft sticks, clothes pins and 22 gauge wire. I used the template to cut the sticks down to size and marked where the wire should go across. I also numbered them to keep them in order. I gradually decreased the size to try giving an illusion of distance in the back, I can’t really say it made a difference. I constructed the fence in halves, to make it easier to insert into the pumpkin, the split was hidden behind the tree after it was all assembled. 

To wire the pieces together you’ll need four lengths of wire three times the length of the section of fence. Fold each of the wires in half. Start with the longest craft stick at the center of the gate. Twist each of the wires around the stick at the marked intervals. Give each wire two or three twist depending on far you want to space your sticks. The wire needs to be snug enough that the craft sticks won’t slip out. It’s easier to keep things tight if you do your twists with a small pair of pliers.
 
For the large clothespin posts you still have to wire in a short craft stick and then the clothespin slips right over the top.  

After it’s all wired together, you can paint it. My M. O. for painting just about anything is to start with a base coat of flat black and then randomly slap on other colors until I make pretty. In this case I used copper and silver.


Coming up next will be Part Six, Finishing Touches.
 

Fence Template

Zombie Pumpkin - Part Four, Wire Tree

I hijacked this idea from Martha Stewart’s Glittered Halloween Tree. She has a nice video, and I just have a few crappy pictures, so you should watch the video. I just made the copper tree portion.  I used a little under three feet of the 7 stranded wire for a ten inch tree.  Since it was going in the back of the pumpkin I left the back flat.  I wanted it more tree like and less shiny so I wrapped it in brown floral tape. 

Coming up next will be Part Five, Wooden Fence.

Zombie Pumpkin - Part Three, Clay Headstones

I made the headstones using air dry clay.  Until this past year I hadn’t used clay since I was in elementary school.  That was back in the day when we made our parents ashtrays for Christmas, whether they smoked or not.  I’m pretty sure you’re not even allowed to say ashtray or Christmas in school anymore.

What I’m trying to say is that it doesn’t take a lot of skill to make simple headstones.  And less is more, it’s an old cemetery so they’re weathered and dilapidated, it’s only natural that a lot the detail has been lost.

I rolled and cut out the big pieces using Play-Doh toys.  I used a hat pin for the lettering.  For the taller headstone with the cross I got really fancy and used a Play-Doh press with different attachments for the base and trim details.

I dried the headstones flat separate from their bases, scoring both pieces a little where they would later be joined.  Then I glued them together with a little bit of slip applied with a paint brush.  Those are all the big words and techniques I remember from my ashtray making days. 

I painted everything flat black, pushing paint into all the little crevices and then sponged on some dark grey and then some light grey.

Coming up next will be Part Four, Wire Trees

Zombie Pumpkin - Part Two, Pint Sized Zombies

If you’re not familiar with Polly Pockets they are little dolls about three inches tall.  Sometimes they break.  Some might be inclined to just throw them away when that happens, but I know teeny tiny dismembered gold when I see it.  All they need is a little makeover. 

At my zombie spa salon they all received an acrylic paint skin treatment to give them that mottled green, grey unhealthy hue.  Wounds were decorated with bits of tissue, painted dark maroon with a bit of copper mixed in to add sparkle.  No, this is not the first time I’ve blinged blood, but I can think of worse ways to accessorize, like with sparkly vampires. 

Then onto wardrobe where they received custom fit garments, cut from scraps of fabric and glued on.  The clothes also received a few sparkly blood accents.   

Moving on, they had their hair done.  I used two types of dolls, the Polly Pockets that I’ve already mentioned and the Disney Princess version, both types are probably four or five years old, so this information is dated. The only real difference between the two is the hair.  Both have plastic molded hair but with the Disney dolls it’s a separate piece from the head, that you can just pop off.  The one got some scraggly hair I snagged from my daughter's doll brush and a gushing head wound. The other, the blushing bride has a special do. 

When I was little I decided to give myself a haircut.  Apparently I didn’t do a very good job, but it wasn’t a total loss. My mom made these little people with corncob bodies, googly eyes, and little felt clothes and of course they were all sporting chunks of my hair.  My daughter only cut off a lock a hair with her trusty pair of safety scissors, but it was enough to give my bride soft beautiful hair.  Now you know where my thrifty craftiness comes from and also that I may be genetically predisposed to create voodoo dolls. 

For the Polly Pockets I glued little snippets of doll hair to their heads to give it a little texture. 

The very last touch was to give them red glittery eyes. Yes, more glitter. I’m sure I can stop anytime, I just choose not to.

Coming up next will be Part Three, Clay Headstones.

Zombie Pumpkin - Part One, The Pumpkin

 

Most of the pictures you are about to see are from my "Dinner Party" pumpkin.  I didn't have the foresight to take many pictures and it's easier to dismantle for instructional purposes.  The basic techniques are the same.

 

The first thing you need is a fake pumpkin.  I like the fake pumpkins from Michaels. Except for the thicker band that runs around the middle they are a fairly uniform quarter inch thickness throughout. I haven’t worked with a Funkin, but I did feel one up at the store and decided it wasn’t for me.

 

The next thing you need is a hole.  The hole will need to be large enough to accommodate the false floor.  I estimate the diameter of the pumpkin at its widest point and go from there.  If you take advantage of the length between the opposite corners of your opening, you can make it a reasonable size and gently angle the floor piece in. 

I design the shape of my opening on the computer, which usually spans more than one sheet when printed. From here I treat it like a real pumpkin. I tape my design on the pumpkin and use those one of those pokey tools to dot along the lines to mark the layout. Then I take off the paper and cut along the dotted line. Those cheesy little saws that come with the carving kits work fine, but I might break out the Xacto knife if I hit a tricky spot.

To make your false bottom, set the pumpkin on a sturdy piece of cardboard.  Hold your pencil against the widest point of the pumpkin to trace around it.  This will give you the general shape.  Since we’re tracing the outside of the pumpkin, but we want to fit this for the inside of the pumpkin you’ll have to guesstimate and cut your cardboard a little smaller than the shape you drew.  I find it’s usually about ½ inch decrease all the way around. It also depends on how low you want the floor to sit. 

Always error on the side of caution, cut a little, see how it fits.  It’ll take a few times and after your initial cut, just trim one small area at a time.  I like to mark two guide lines on the floor and the inside of the pumpkin with a Sharpie so that after each fitting I’m still lining it up the same way. You’ll rotate your floor piece maneuvering it in and out and it’s easy to lose your place. I also mark what I think needs to be trimmed, cut it off and try it again. Once it’s fitted properly it will fit nice and snug without any adhesive or additional support to hold it in place.  For the graveyard I added an inch of Styrofoam, so that meant my cardboard base had to sit an inch lower than the bottom of my opening.

I don’t like Styrofoam, its handy stuff, but purposely buying it makes me feel a little dirty.  So whenever we get something that’s packaged with it, I save it to use later.  I glued the cardboard base onto the Styrofoam and then cut the Styrofoam about ¾ of an inch away from the edge of the cardboard.  Then I cut the side of the Styrofoam at an angle from the edge of the cardboard to the edge of the Styrofoam to accommodate for the pumpkin widening as it went up.  Just like fitting the cardboard, I went through the same process with the additional layer. 

After it was fitted, I mixed up some dark green acrylic paint and coated the top and sides of the Styrofoam. Even though it would eventually be covered with moss, I didn’t want any glaring white showing through. 

On a side note, if you are curious about the tile floor I did for the dinner party pumpkin, it’s made out of counter top samples.  Before you begin you might want to don a pair of safety glasses. Then using large pliers, break pieces off.  You will want to sand the edges to make them look nice. 

It helps to arrange your pieces on the cardboard, starting on one side and working your way over.  Trace around them to help with placement later.  You might need to create few custom pieces for those last few hard to fit areas.  

To make colored grout add a little acrylic paint to glue.  I really like Aleene’s craft glue, it’s nice and thick.  Pick an edge of the cardboard and spread a generous, even layer of the colored glue on a small area.  You won’t be able to see your lines after you cover them, so just do as many at a time that you’ll remember where they go.  For my short term memory, that’s about five.  Gently press the tiles onto the glue and keep going until the whole thing is covered.  After it was completely dry I went over the grout lines with black glitter glue, because it’s sparkly and I can’t help myself. 

The final step in pumpkin preparation is to give it a good paint job.  I use acrylics on the outside and the cut edge, but the insides of the Michaels pumpkins are really slick and don’t hold paint well. You could use a primer, but I like to decoupage tissue paper to the inside for a little texture.  For the graveyard I used black tissue paper and highlighted it with midnight blue paint.

Coming up next will be Part Two, Pint Sized Zombies.

Zombie Pumpkin Graveyard Scene

 

The Zombie Pumpkin is one of my favorite projects.  Each component is a project in itself, so I'll be breaking it down over the next few posts:

 

• Prepping the pumpkin
• Pint sized zombies
• Clay headstones
• Wire trees
• Wooden fence
• Finishing touches