I found two Creepmassy South African Christmas traditions, but the references to them were only short blurbs in lists about weird holiday traditions. Now it could be that no one is writing about them in English. South Africa has 11 different official languages, which makes searching difficult even with translation tools. But I found some Creepmas gold while I was digging, so it was worth the trip down the rabbit hole.
Alright so maybe these are legit traditions or maybe all the lists I read are repeating the same misinformation. I would love to have someone confirm or deny, but until then, taken with a grain of salt...
The first tradition is the telling of the story of Danny the ghost. He was a naughty little boy who ate the cookies set out for Santa and for this trespass he was beaten to death by his grandmother and now he haunts around Christmastime to discourage other would-be cookie thieves. Again I only found references to this and none actually sited any sources.
The second tradition is to eat Mopane worms, the caterpillars of Emperor moths for Christmas dinner. I did find what seems to be an authentic reference and recipe at The African Gourmet. That was the only one I found that mentioned Christmas, though there is no doubt that mopane worms are readily eaten in general, either dried as a snack or in stews as a meal.
This video shows the caterpillars being picked, the guts are then squeezed out and the skins are cooked until crispy. A restaurant scene at the end shows the skins being cooked up with a sauce.
This video shows trying them both dried and reconstituted in a recipe. I appreciate how she describes the flavors and textures, like you would expect someone to do when trying a new food and not being all weird about it, like I would be. Also she mentions doing a thing she calls Bugmas...
…so of course I had to check out her channel emmymadeinjapan and Bugmas is counting down the last five days until Christmas by eating bugs. She also changed it up and did Gutmas one year. There's your Creepmas dinner menu all planned out.
I can't eat meat. I don't care what animal it comes from, the smells, the textures and the flavors, they make me gag. I can't even eat fake meat that closely mimics the real stuff. I'm even picky about how I prepare vegetables because of texture issues. So people like this, that can objectively try anything, kind of amaze me.
Funny caption picture aside, she really does take a neutral approach to trying different insects for Bugmas, no drama. I like that she doesn't play up a gross out or shock angle, just an honest food review.
She also does a video on lutefisk and lefse which I guess are a thing here in the Midwest but I've never had them. The lefse isn't gross, from what I understand it's like a potato crepe, but lutefisk sounds nasty.
When I was a kid, a common phrase used in conjunction with offering various foods that always looked as bad as they smelled, was "You should eat this, it'll put hair on your chest." I'm curious now, do people say that outside the Midwest? Is it a uniquely Wisconsin thing to say to an eight year old girl while offering her a jar of pickled* herring? Or was it just my weird family?
There was a time in my childhood that I actually enjoyed eating cheese curds dipped in horseradish, but it did not produced any chest hairs as promised.
*Pickled things seemed very popular when I was a kid**. I remember bars (or more correctly, taverns) always had large jars of pickled eggs and pickled pigs feet. I never actually witnessed anyone eat the latter, but I always watched the consumption of pickle eggs with a sort of horrified fascination.
**Yes as a kid in Wisconsin I spent a lot of time in bars, that's where everyone gathered after church and for Friday fish fry's.
I don't like to brag, but I didn't have to make Dirt 'n Worms for Mother's Day this year. Either my children have finally outgrown it or just forgot because we're all in this weird limbo of depressing Covid19 funk. Don't get me wrong, I am truly grateful to be riding this low grade fog of gloom. It means that so far we've been spared the horrors that so many others have faced.
I am also grateful my kids are old enough to be self-sufficient, but still young enough to be here at home with me. Not that I normally go for a bunch of fanfare, but this Mother's Day was definitely more subdued than usual and it wasn't because of the absence of gummy worms. But there's two things worth mentioning as they pertain to this blog.
First, my son got me the Pumpkin King. I haven't paid attention to the Disney line of minifigs, because I could care less about princesses or Mickey Mouse. That it would also include The Nightmare Before Christmas, never crossed my mind. It's a good thing my son is looking out for me. He also special ordered the white spider web with the clear blue spider because he thought it went with the theme. Obviously he has good taste. You'll be sure to see a reappearance of Jack this Creepmas. I do hope they come out with a Zero minifig.
The second thing is a request I got from a friend. She had a last minute Mother's Day gift idea and wanted to know if I had any bottles of a certain size that she could use. I might have had a few... Can I just take a moment to say it's not hoarding if you put it to good use? Maybe one more time for those in the back row? IT'S NOT HOARDING IF YOU PUT IT TO GOOD USE! Obviously my super power is holding on to things until the universe requires their services.
So this what I, and a number of other mothers who are lucky enough to know this wonderful, creative woman received for Mother's Day. I almost feel bad that every Halloween I practically make her pee her pants by scaring her. I said almost. Her screams are much too delightful to give up.
I still had to get gummy worms and sour gummy worms, because my children obviously got their taste buds from the postman. I even had to get gummy sharks. So watch out for land sharks the next time you're gardening because apparently that's a thing.
It just doesn't feel like the holidays until you've read a lovely tale with poetic phrases like, "weaponized maggot-shooting vaginal gun." No, I'm not trying to peddle Creepmas smut again. It's actually rather extraordinary the biological machinery that goes into enabling the Reindeer Snot Bot to discharge larvae mid-air and you can read all about it at Wired.com.
It's a very interesting, albeit disgusting read about a species of fly that shoots it's larvae into the nostrils of reindeer which then burrow into the sinuses and throat. Once grown they work their way back up to be coughed or sneezed out. Makes you wonder why there isn't already a Christmas song about reindeer and snot bots doesn't it?
It doesn't seem that they do any harm to their hosts, but I can't imagine...actually worse, I can imagine coughing up phlegm full of maggots. Or on the other side having been sneezed on by a horse or two, which is utterly gross without maggots, I can well imagine what it would be like to get a face full of infested reindeer snot. This is all more terrifying than any holiday horror film.
Just because this particular snot bot likes reindeer, doesn't mean that they always get the right species. Wired's article mentions a woman that received an eyeful of ejected larvae and if you click on the links there's one about some kids that were infested after visiting reindeer herding areas. That sounds like Halmark holiday gold, go for the reindeer, stay for the maggot infestation.
The Natural History Museum of London has a nice video hypothesizing that maybe Rudolph's nose is red due to bot flies. The process is explained by Erica Mcalister, accompanied by some lovely pictures. Some of them are actually lovely, the bot fly looks like a cute fuzzy little bee. It was an interview with Erica on Science Friday that first turned me on to the reindeer snot bot. There was such joy and adoration in her voice as she discussed that and many other disgusting but fascinating things that flies do to enable their survival. It was quite infectious listening to her. I may have to put her book The Secret Life of Flies on my Christmas list.
Now if you hear the pawing and prancing of each little hoof, you'll also wonder if Donner and Blitzen are depositing some writhing maggot phlegm up on your rooftop as well.
Speaking of writhing, have you heard of the iceworm? As the name implies they live in ice or glaciers to be exact, this link has more information and a short video. And Cordova, Alaska has been home to the Iceworm Festival since 1961. Over the years it has evolved into a week long event. There's a lovely article about the "Mother" of theCordova Iceworm Festival.
I love this entry for the iceworm cake competition. I could see doing something similar for a Creepmas cake.
My first thought after reading about the Iceworm was that it would make a great X-Files episode. Maybe because almost 30 years ago I saw that X-Files episode. Geez I'm old.
Know what else lives in the ice? "The Thing". I wonder if it's jealous it doesn't get it's own festival, although there is a movie marathon tradition that happens at the Sole Pole every year.
source: Australian Museum
And in Australia, Christmas is heralded in by Christmas Beetles. The Australian Museum held a contest to come up with common names for various species. I rather like the Furry Tailed Prince pictured above.
Today boys and girls we will be learning how to slime our caramel worms.
This episode is brought to you by the letters "S" and "W" and by the number "13".
Does anyone remember the adorable worm, Slimey?
The truest test of a grouch's character is how he treats his worm.
Worms breathe through their skin which needs to be kept moist and that's why they are coated in slime. And now you can eat that slime. I modified a basic Edible Slime recipe from PBS.org or at least I thought I did until I realized their recipe says teaspoons, not tablespoons of tapioca starch. Oops. Oh well, I love the way my mistake turned out and it actually tastes pretty good.
Tasty Worm Slime
1 cup cold water
1 tablespoon tapioca starch (same thing as tapioca flour)
1/4 cup sugar (finely ground will dissolve faster)
1/2 tsp vanilla
Combine water, sugar and tapioca in small saucepan, stir until combined. Cook over medium-high heat while constantly stirring. It's done when it starts to thicken and turns from opaque to clear. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Transfer to small bowl and let cool. It will thicken as it cools. Cover, refrigerate and use within 3 days for best results.
I think the flavor and consistency improved after sitting overnight, so I would recommend making it a day in advance. At the very least it should be completely cooled before dipping any worms.
This will produce a slime that is very close in consistency to what I've observed on real actual earthworms. If you want a slime that's a little more substantial doubling the starch to 2 tablespoons will give you a more jelly-like thickness.
A few notes for people who cook as badly as I do:
Stir constantly. Not stir, go do something "real quick" and then stir some more. I'm awful about that, I get sooo bored mindlessly stirring. You just have to suck it up and stay focused. You can do this, it's only for a few minutes. At least that's what I kept telling myself. Otherwise it gets clumpy and nobody wants clumpy slime.
I always get confused with starch puddings and such that say to constantly stir, and cook for a certain amount of time after it starts to boil. If you are constantly stirring, you stir away the telltale bubbles that indicate it's boiling before they get a chance to form, so how can you tell if it's boiling unless you stop stirring? Which is why I didn't put any of that nonsense in my recipe.
This slime took a total of 8 minutes to cook. After 5 minutes steam was rising up from the pan and it was just starting to turning clear. 2 minutes later it was clear and then I cooked it one minute more, just because. My daughter said it looked like egg whites and it had that same thick but runny consistency. When it cools it will be very stretchy, shown below in Zombie Victim Red.
I think opaque is in the eye of the beholder. To me, once it becomes clear it still looks a little opaque when it's all in the bottom of the pan. Take your spoon or my favorite tool, the spoonula and lift some up out of the pan, you'll see it is indeed transparent.
If you're thinking well I have cornstarch I'll just use that. Tapioca starch produces a clearer slime. I did read that cornstarch is more stable, but I didn't do a side by side comparison. I can say that this slime only keeps for a few days. I kept some on the counter at room temp and some in the refrigerator, both lost their elasticity by the fourth day.
The next part is sliming up the worms. This proved to be more challenging than I expected. The moisture from the slime will break down the caramel. The first few worms I slimed and then put in air tight containers got really mushy. It doesn't affect the flavor, but I thought the texture was off-putting. The outside of the worm was the consistency and flavor of caramel sauce and the center still firm and chewy. Maybe that doesn't sound terribly horrible, but it was. Also the segment details were lost.
If you remember Shanes Killer Cupcakes, she used a thin glaze to make her worms look wet. Depending on how you want to use your worms, that might be a better option for you. But the challenge here was to make slimy worms, so...
...I did a little experimenting. I won't bore you with all the details, just the important stuff:
- For instructional purposes a "lightly" slimed worm is one that is dipped in slime on a fork and then the fork is tapped over the bowl to let the excess slime drip off.
- A "moderately" slimed worm is removed by fork but the excess is not tapped off.
- A "heavily" slimed worm is one that is completely submerged in slime. That will quickly result in worm soup and is not recommended unless you actually want worm soup.
- It's easier to slime the worms with room temperature slime.
- Do not keep the worms in an enclosed container. In an open container the slime will eventually, hours later, dry out. A lightly slimed worm will dry to a tacky sheen. A moderately slimed worm will be tacky on top, laying on a thin sticky layer of it's own caramel goo.
- For the first hour there isn't much change whether the slimed worms are refrigerated or sitting out, in fact it isn't until about the third hour that the refrigerated worms are noticeably less deteriorated than room temperature worms.
After my experiments I took my two control worms that hadn't yet been slimed. The one on the left was then lightly slimed, the one of the right moderately slimed and laid on cookie crumbles to simulate possibly one day performing in a Broadway production of "Dirt 'n Worms".
After the worms started to break down I added a tiny bit of raspberry to spots with oozing caramel just for fun. That was taking it too far. It looked way too much like worm guts squishing out.
Seriously, I had to take a deep breath, and mentally prepare myself to eat them. Texture wise they weren't bad. The lightly slimed one was firmer, but even the moderately slimed one wasn't terribly mushy. I think the cookie crumbs absorbed some of the moisture.
I didn't have high expectations for the combination of cookie crumb and slime. It was edible, but I didn't like the two textures together. While the slimed worms were fun, for Dirt 'n Worms, I will use plain caramel worms. I think the slimed worms would make a nice garnish, maybe resting on some lettuce leaves. Throw in a few edible flower accents and you would have quite the Martha Stewart array.
I didn't care for the hint of raspberry with the caramel either. A bit food coloring might work better, but I would not suggest trying. *Don't make edible worms with their guts oozing out, it looks way too disgusting.* The only reason to do this would be for a short film or photo op or to eat in front of someone just to gross them out. Like take them to work and eat them for lunch on April Fools Day. Or if you really like caramel and don't want anyone else to eat them, then by all means go nuts on the guts.
The bottom line is if you are having a fancy dinner party and want to serve a plate of slimy worms for hors d'oeuvres, you should make the slime a day in advance, but not more than two days, bring it to room temperature before using and then wait until right before serving to slime and plate the worms. If you have to make them in advance, refrigerate them uncovered.
[Update] I had an epiphany in the shower. That's where get a lot of ideas, the one place I can't write them down. I suppose that's alright, the lesser ones wash away down the drain forever forgotten, but the ones that survive are usually keepers. It occurred to me that you could just serve the slime separately, like a dipping sauce, in tiny containers with a couple of worms on the side. I think the under 12 crowd, would probably be your target group for this method. Also I'd probably serve them outside, because I see this getting messy. Fun, but messy.
All this worm testing reminded me of How To Eat Fried Worms , a book I thoroughly enjoyed as a child. It's about boy who has to eat fifteen worms in fifteen days to win a bet. When it starts to look like he just might do it, the losing side starts to play dirty and shenanigans ensue.
In middle school I read Squirm, a very different sort of book and instead of eating worms, the worms eat you. It was years later that I stumbled on the movie that the book is based on. The movie is pretty cheesy, although at the time I thought they used earthworms. I had no idea the actors were working with fanged venomous worms, which makes the movie a lot more horrifying. Here's the abridged MST3K version, which if your squeamish doesn't show the scenes using thousands of Glycera Worms [This link on the other hand does have a short video showing one of these worms baring it's fanged proboscis].
If you make enough worms, you can make words. Worm words.
So...after I posted about Dirt 'n Worms and complained about the worms, because gummy stuff is gross and super gross when mixed with chocolate, Lady M suggested we should figure out how to make slimy worm candy. I decided to tackle it before I forgot and found myself on the cusp of yet another Mother's Day with nothing to show for it but a lousy bag of store bought gummy worms.
I found many wonderful things on the internet, none of them quite what I wanted, but still very inspiring.
In the best looking worms category I give you: Shane's Killer Cupcakes - Maggot & Worm Cupcakes. By far the best looking worms, but alas they are made of fondant, which is icky. I do wonder if the Scuptable Frosting that I used for my Krampus and Zombie cupcakes would work if you added a bit of cocoa powder for coloring. Cocoa powder might even cut the sweetness back a little.
In the categories of best tasting and easiest to make, check out: Good To Know - Halloween Worm Cupcakes. Rolling out caramels and making a few indents is about as easy as it gets and they look pretty good. It goes without saying that the flavor would marry nicely with chocolate.
Honorable mention goes to this cake just for looking awesome: A Little Piece of Cake - Worm & Maggot Fear Factor Cake. This uses modeling chocolate for the worms. I haven't used modeling chocolate, which is a bit of misnomer since most of the recipes I found use corn syrup and candy melts, no actual chocolate. Sugar Geek Show does provide recipes for both the candy melt and a chocolate version in this post, but most of the information and pictures (Go look at the pictures, she does amazing things with this stuff.) seem to be using the candy melt one.
I went the easy route and used caramels. I also think the flavor will go well with the dirt 'n worms. I borrowed from Shane's worms and made the signature band (clitellum) around the worm. Did you know that the band indicates a sexually mature earthworm? Now you do. It is also generally located about a third of the way down the worm's body if you are wondering about placement.
For more worm info this is an interesting read. If you just want a worm fact quick fix try this FAQ. I was surprised to learn a few years back that earthworms are not native to Wisconsin, and are actually bad for the forests. I still love seeing big adorable earthworms in my garden. Thankfully I haven't seen the super invasive Jumping Worms. For a visual on why they are called Jumping Worms check out this quick video. This video is a short claymation film that shows just why they are so destructive.
Ok class time is over, on to making worms. I tried both Werther's and Kraft caramel's. Oddly despite the fact that the Werther's where harder to roll out, they didn't keep their shape and spread out over time. Just to make sure it wasn't because of my manhandling I unwrapped a Werther's and set it out. Sure enough even without me doing anything, the caramel slowly spread. It's a shame because I think the Werther's tasted better, and I was excited about having two different colored worms.
Caramel Leeches?
The Kraft caramels are much easier to roll and keep their shape, so that's a win, win as far as I'm concerned. The lesson here is that whatever the brand you use, leave a piece sit out unwrapped for a few hours and see what it does. It would be a shame to make twenty worms and have them all flatten out before your eyes. Should you not heed my warning and your worms spread, maybe you could call them leeches.
Making worms is super easy. Start to roll each caramel into a log shape. Cut off a little piece and set aside. Continue rolling out your log until desired length and width and make sure the ends are smooth.
Now press the little piece you set aside into a small ribbon, make sure it's long enough to wrap around the worm. Remember this will be placed about a third of the way down.
To make the segment indents use the dull side of a vary thin paring blade. If you push gently you can roll the worm with the back of blade as you make the indents, thus getting your lines to go all, or at least almost all of the way around. If you don't worry about perfection it goes really quick. If the worms are too soft to roll nicely, refrigerate for a few minutes to firm them up.
These are the types of knives I'm talking about. I have those exact ones in fact and wouldn't recommend getting that brand. I've had two handles break, more like disintegrate, in my hand. I lost my good ones and I can't remember where I got them.
Add the clitellum. Place the worms with the clitellum seam side down.
I think the worms look really good, maybe even a little too good. It took some convincing to get my son to try them, after which he pleasantly surprised. No amount of coaxing, begging or "Look your brother likes them." will get my daughter to eat one. She says they look too gross. My kids are teenagers. I think younger kids, at least the twisted ones, would gleefully enjoy the gross out factor.
One last thing, a word of warning. Searching for pictures using variations of "chocolate", "caramel" and "worms" is not for the faint of heart. Once I eliminated "gummy" from the search I had to wade through a lot of pictures of larvae infested confections.
Not quite as prevalent, but just as graphic, are candies made with real insects and larvae. I realize that they are not only a viable food source, but a healthy one at that. Marcus Leach has an interesting read on eating insects along with recipes. The Mealworm Fudge doesn't look half bad, but I think I'll cling to my vegetarianism. Which is really just an illusion, insects and larvae are probably the least disgusting things that I am already unwittingly ingesting.
Average is 60 or more insect fragments per 100 grams when 6
100-gram subsamples are examined
OR
Any 1 subsample contains 90 or more insect fragments
Rodent filth
(AOAC 965.38)
Average is 1 or more rodent hairs per 100 grams in 6 100-gram
subsamples examined
OR
Any 1 subsample contains 3 or more rodent hairs
Shell
(AOAC 968.10-970.23)
For chocolate liquor, if the shell is in excess of 2% calculated
on the basis of alkali-free nibs
DEFECT SOURCE: Insect fragments - post harvest and/or
processing insect infestation, Rodent hair - post harvest and/or processing
contamination with animal hair or excreta, Shell - processing contamination
Significance: Aesthetic
Feel free to peruse the rest of the handbook later, maybe if you have free time during lunch. It's always nice to keep up on your egg, larve, filth, excreta, rot and mold consumption.
I do have a box of spicy larve, because I think it looks cool. I've offered to share but oddly no one has been tempted to try them.
Last week we had Dirt 'n Worms for Mother's Day, again. It's one of those things I started innocently enough and now I'm contractually obligated to make every year. I changed it up a little this year to keep things interesting and it was declared to be the best dirt 'n worms ever. Which probably means my contract has been amended to say "Deluxe Dirt 'n Worms".
I added a layer of brownie at the bottom and some sour gummy worms (not pictured).
This is the basic Dirt 'n Worms recipe and this is the Best Fudgy Cocoa Brownie recipe, from CafeDelites.com that I used. My brownies were baked to perfection in 20 minutes. These are not cake brownies, these are ooey gooey with a nice crust brownies. For the tablespoon of oil I used coconut oil and it gave the brownies I nice mild coconut flavor, if you're into that kind of thing. I kept the brownies, pudding mixture, worms and cookie crumbs separate, and assembled single portions right before serving.
I'll admit I'm not a huge fan of gummy anything, so my opinion is completely biased, but I think there should be laws against combining gummy worms with chocolate. And sour gummy worms with chocolate? I don't even want to think about it. But my spawn likes the gummy stuff and loves the sour gummies even more. For actual consumption I recommend dirt 'n worms without the worms.
But the visual aspect of the worms is undeniable. I think I like the way they look laying across on the brownie,sticking out from under the pudding goop, better than the traditional route of sticking them on top.
Of course if all the worms were under the goop, you would need something to decorate the top. A tombstone perhaps? I've seen where people use Milano cookieswith iced epitaphs as gravestones . Wouldn't it be fun to honor horror Moms? Bates, Voorhees, White...
So brownie, worms, pudding and whipped cream mixed together with crush cookies, topped with more crushed cookies, topped with yet another cookie decorated with icing. Nope, that doesn't sound excessive at all.
Speaking of Creeptastic Moms...Watching mother themed movies for Mother's Day isn't something I had considered before, but some channel was promoting their marathon of mom related movies of the overly contrived lame comedy variety, which I felt was decidedly lacking. Especially when you can catch the aforementioned moms in Psycho, Friday the 13th and Carrie. Not to mention kickass Sci-Fi moms, like Sarah Connor. And what would the whole Alien's franchise be without a mother's love? [I love this Aliens Mother's Day card by the way.] For those that truly just want a light hearted comedy, they could always binge on Santa Clarita Diet.
We went middle of the road with the creepy, but not gory, ever fabulous Coraline. It's a great movie to watch with the kids, because no matter what your failings are, as long as you are not a soul sucking monster who likes sewing buttons on children's eyes, they'll be grateful that you're their Mom.
Every year I hold a creepy craft party early in October. I always fail to get photos of everything, but I did capture quite a few creations this year.
I think we have some of the most unique and glamorous voodoo dolls. A little sass and a lot of style, much like their creators.
The plan was to make some glass eyes and this is what I love about these parties, folks deviated from the plan. I had thrown some catalogs with Halloween stuff in with the potion bottle labels, thinking some of the pictures might look cool on a bottle. I never thought to use them with the flat marbles, but here we are. From striped candy to skulls, it's interesting how a bubble of glass adds so much depth. The animal eyes are from orestesgraphics.com. I can't remember where the human eyes are from but this tutorial has a nice one to use or just search on "iris texture"
We went through a lot of bottles this year. The kids always like making really gross potions. Some of the stuff is Halloween novelties I picked up on clearance the year before, some of it is just old stuff I cleaned out of the pantry. I'm always sickened and delighted with their disgusting concoctions.
I remember as kids how we used to make "witches brew" in the bathroom sink, mixing a little bit of everything we could get our hands on. A lot of it was benign like shaving cream and toothpaste, but we mixed in all sorts of cleaning products too. I can't believe we didn't gas ourselves. It might be possible we were smart enough not to mix in anything with a Mr. Yuk sticker, more likely we were just lucky. These jars are a lot nastier looking than anything we ever made, but probably a lot safer. I say probably because I think at some point organic material fermenting in a closed container becomes a bomb, especially the ones that contain dried beans. We don't keep those around very long.
On the far left is a galaxy bottle. I love the pumpkin puke. Pumpkin guts are my husband's kryptonite, just the smell is enough to make him gag. I don't think whoever made this knows that, but that's what it made me think of. The label on the right is from spookshows.com.
I admire the usage of our eye craft on the bottles below, the earthworm tie cracks me up.
The bottle on the left contains among other stuff large pearl tapioca and soba noodles which both look pretty repulsive, I highly recommend them. What is that awesome looking black substance on the middle bottle you ask? I made some galaxy slime (liquid starch & glue), in black, purple and plain white. After sitting in a container for a few days it all turned black or maybe the black slime ate the other colors. Remember Stephen King's "The Raft"? I made the slime to go in the bottles, but you can't trust kids to use things for their intended purpose. Which is great, because it turns out it's pretty awesome on the bottles too. That's a plastic ant on the lid and the then the slime was laid over the top and it oozed down the sides a bit before hardening. Genius.
These lovely concoctions contain various combinations of Spanish moss, slime, noodles, tapioca and rubber worms. That bottom one got me. The worm was lurking beneath the surface and jumped up when I moved the jar.
These were left behind and no has claimed them so I tried copying the ant jar. The bat and skull were cut off plastic rings. I hot glued them on, and some moss to the top of the jar in the back and topped them off with slime. Next time I'll leave the glitter out of the slime, I thought it detracted from the overall effect.
The adults were more into making jar lanterns this year. Here's the tutorial that we more or less followed, they have silhouettes you can download. The cat and zombie are from Dave Lowe, the owl is from pixabay.com, the pumpkins are from free-illustrations.gatag.net and the tree is from Viktoria Lyn.
We've been doing glitter bottles the last couple of years. They're so pretty and sparkly and mesmerizing...Anyway we did some of those, but we did some new stuff too.
We made galaxy jars which consist of layering colored water and cotton balls, with a few sprinklings of glitter. I had no idea we'd go through so many cotton balls and we used small bottles. For these and the glitter jars, those single serve plastic wine bottles are great. The big bag of cotton balls I bought was not even close to being enough. My neighbor went home and got hers and another friend that was coming later picked up a few bags on the way. We easily went through 600+ cotton balls. Another thing to keep in mind, they don't stay pretty forever, even if you really pack in the cotton balls the colors still muddy together. We do have one bottle that still looks good, but I think it was made with the glitter glue solution. It warrants further experimentation. There are so many tutorials out there for this but I like this one and I'm intrigued about the diaper method, maybe next year. One last note I picked up an 18 pack of Wilton squeeze bottles, with a craft store coupon you can't beat the price and they work great for both the glitter glue solutions and colored water.
In my search for galaxy jars I found this tutorial which mixes baby oil with colored water. I wasn't too keen on using baby oil, even if it does smell like freshly squeezed babies. And I definitely wasn't crazy about the idea of cleaning up an oil slick in the house if things went wrong. Then there's the issue of poor labeling. Maybe it's just me, but how do you even tell if they used free range babies? Were they organically breast fed? Cold pressed? Is it even a 100% baby oil? I don't know, I just bought the cheapest bottle and hoped for the best. I used a Wilton squeeze bottle for the baby oil too for ease of use. And then it happened again, unscripted creativity...
...someone added glitter and it is the coolest thing ever! The glitter sticks to the baby oil. It reminds me of mercury the way it moves, or the terminator from T2. The finer the glitter, the cooler the effect. FYI, the far left bottle contains a jelly fish.
Below is a bottle I did with contrasting colors. I think red glitter would look even better, like alien blood or black water with silver mica powder.
I made the obligatory rat and eyeballs. I tried a few new recipes, some were gruesome flops, some semi-flops and a couple that turned out as expected. I'll post recipes for the good ones like Alien Fish Eggs later.
So that's what we did. Thanks to everyone who helped make this another successful year.
