POTIONSMITH: zombie

Showing posts with label zombie. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Merry Creepmas!

It's the first day of Creepmas and in one little spot in the midwest, there are a lucky few believers who are visited by the Creepmas Creature on this holiest of holy days.

This year called for a little extra flair, which is why there's a squid hat, wearing a Santa hat nestled on top of Krampus horns.

My friends and neighbors have always had a good sense of humor about the yearly visits from Creepmas minions (wearing masks since 2012, before it was cool), but this year was extra special. When you're pretty much bored to tears, having a weirdo friend is a perk. Seriously, it was awesome making people laugh and spreading a little Creepmas joy.

On this year's menu we had Krampus Balls, Peppermint Maggots, Elf Puree Bark, Festive Zombie Fingers, and Bloody Christmas Cookies. Recipes to follow, until then Merry Creepmas everyone. And don't forget to checkout Creepmas.com

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

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.

Monday, October 23, 2017

Zombie Zucchini Daiquiri

Last zucchini recipe...for now. I have to confess I've been pondering the creation of another diabolical confection, perhaps for Creepmas.

This summer I developed a bit of a reputation for bring zucchini dishes to social functions. Jokingly, I texted a friend that I would bring zucchini margaritas to her party. Her threat to send me home if I did was accompanied by a picture of a zucchini margarita. I had no idea such a thing actually existed. Well, since I swore I wouldn't bring zucchini margaritas, I had to come up with a recipe for zucchini daiquiris. In a double blind taste test, no one could tell these had zucchini and they were deemed very yummy. In fact when I confessed I put zucchini in them, some people thought I was lying just to mess with them.

Strawberry Zucchini Daiquiri

2 oz rum

1 oz lime juice
1 oz simple syrup*
1/4 cup frozen shredded zucchini
1/2 cup frozen sliced strawberries
8 ice cubes

You can just blend it all together, but I like to do the zucchini with the liquids first to make sure it's completely blended. And then blend again with the strawberries and ice. Freeze it for later and you can eat it like a snow cone. Repeat as necessary until you run out of zucchini.

*Simple syrup is just that, totally simple to make. Mix equal amounts of sugar and water and heat (stovetop or microwave) until the water looks clear again.

If you are making this in large quantities you can cheat and substitute one ounce frozen limeade concentrate plus one ounce water for the lime juice and syrup.

I used yellow 8 ball zucchini, because that's what I had, it tastes the same. I don't know how a normal green zucchini would affect the color of this drink. The strawberries definitely dominate both in color and flavor. I can only imagine if anything it would be even more zombie-tastic. But if you didn't want any green you can always peel the zucchini before shredding.

And here's a label for you to use. Font is A Lolita Scorned by AngeliQ.

Monday, December 12, 2016

Creepmas Crochet

Crochet, the perfect Creepmas gift, who knew?

Krampus by croshame

Santa Zombie by craftmommystore

Santa Cthulhu by Kutuleras

Evil Snowman by MadebyJody666

Jack Skellington by ToAlexWithLove

Mr Hankey by EcoCraftyDreamers

Lumi Reindeer by Knofletka

Little Santa Penis by badjamminmammie

Friday, December 9, 2016

Creepmas Zombie Lantern

I saw these fairy lanterns and had to try it for myself. Not totally stoked with how it turned out, but I see the potential and will definitely be making more. I'd like to make one with a Krampus silhouette also.

My first mistake was grabbing a crumpled piece of tissue paper from my papier mache stash. I usually like the look of wrinkle tissue paper, now I can see where a new sheet would've looked better.

Then I used big chunky flakes of glitter. It didn't look as cool as I thought it would. After it dried, I brushed off as much as I could and redid it with a medium sized glitter. That was better, but I think next time I will use fine glitter.

The zombie silhouette I used is from FreeGrunge. I printed out the size I wanted, taped it to a cereal box and cut it out. I used a glue dot to attach it to the inside of the jar so if I ever want to swap it out for something else, it'll be easy to pull off. The berries and fake greenery are from my very limited supply of "normal" Christmas stuff.

I used a mini strand of purple skull LEDs, mostly because I was too lazy to dig out the battery tea lights. The skulls are pretty bright and gave off plenty of light. I can see why the instructions say you need at least two tea lights.

Update: I purchased some red flickering tea lights from 100candles.com for a different project, but thought I would see what one would look like in the zombie jar. I don't know if other colors throw off the same amount of light, but one tea light definitely does the trick here.

This is what it looks like in natural light.

I made some evergreen style trees out of tissue paper to see if I could add a little depth. They look more tree like in person. Instead of trees, I think a couple more zombies smaller and farther back might look nice too.

To make the trees I just kept folding a piece of tissue paper in halves until it was about the width I wanted and then I folded over a little edge on one side and stapled it. I cut the tissue at a diagonal for a rough tree shape and then made little snips at an angle.