Saturday, September 6, 2014

Distraction in production

Well there was a mild hiccup in finishing the headstones over the last couple days coming in the form of a teeny tiny cutie I've named Pippin. With the full name Pippin Pipsqueak ( can you tell we home he stays small)
Pippin on his ride home in a basket
 
Got this little cutie pants from a local farm that was hand rearing him and his 5 siblings but he is the runtiest of runts and probably the smallest rescue I've taken in. I'm not sure how much he weighs ( we'll find out Monday when we take him into the vet) all I know is to me he doesn't feel like he weighs anything and is a bony little snuggle monster who needs some extra love and attention for I'm sure he wouldn't have probably survived the natural course of being in a litter. At the moment when he's walking around he's no bigger than a grande coffee from starbucks so we can hope with some time and lovins  we will be adding our smallest haunter to Halloween night. Tiny Bat costume any one?
Pippin sitting by a Grande starbucks cup in petsmart
 
The good news is he likes to sleep snuggled in the basket when people are doing things near by so on the plus side hopefully if tomorrow is warm enough I can take him outside and finish of some haunting props.



Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Cemetery Walk/ Headstone Production Part One.

  I really wish people would come to see how easy decorating can be and how much more lively the neighborhood becomes because of it. Sadly, my neighborhood has usually about 5 houses decorated, and I mean DECORATED, in a 10 block radius. For a well known "Art Town" I find that  rather pathetic. Now, I'll give a passing nod and smile to most anyone who has more than a pumpkin on their porch because they at least give the image of trying to do something. Even if its more of a fall inspiration and not Halloween themed. I'm just as easily pleased with straw bales, scarecrows, leaves and jack-o-lanterns as I am if they completely cover their porch in webs and put up lights but to me that's a grand effort around here since there aren't any other haunted homes like ours.  If people sat aside one day at the beginning of the month they wouldn't really have to worry about it until it was time to take them down much like Christmas decoration.

There is truly nothing easier to gussy up your front yard with during haunting season than Tomb/ Headstones( depends on your preferred term) and creating a cemetery walk. Whether it's your lawn fully decked out in a number of them and Tots (Trick- Or- Treaters) wondering up your side walk or if you do a fun winding path through them across your lawn lit with a fence of lights, it adds a wonderful air of fun and uniqueness to your home. To do this you have two very simple options. You can purchase premade ones from Walmart, Spirit Halloween, Halloween City or where ever else  that look similar to the one below
 
All of these mass produced  headstones do make wonderful props but there are down sides. There are so many of the same one. Now if you have a large cemetery (like we do) you can cover this up a little better by spreading them around. They are thin and light weight. For packing them away that's not a terrible thing but if you live any where that's not nice like California and Arizona and get a lot of weather and wind like here in Colorado they get damaged, broken and often times rip away from the flimsy little stakes designed to hold them into the ground. If you decide to go this route I recommend looking into a piece I did about reinforcing them which has helped us a lot!
 
Your next option if you want to go over the top of have fun customized tombstones is to do them yourself! At first I was a wee bit intimidated by what some people can do with the blue insulation foam sheets at home depot because man do they have pro status talent in creation. I stayed very basic (other than the complicated fonts on each that have made me want to smash my head into a wall).
 
To start you cut out the shape you want your tombstone to be. I am aware my foam is purple and not blue, they were out of blue and color doesn't matter.
 
Then from your computer you type up an Epitaph to go onto said tombstone. Most of the fonts need to be in the 100's size wise to be worked with but that will also depends on your tombstones size. Once you have it all typed out and printed up you have the fun of cutting it out and taping it down however you want as a template. Or if you prefer to hand draw them go for it!
 
 
The time consuming part of this comes after everything is placing and you get the grand pleasure of tracing around everything and pulling all the paper off. If you need to trace over your lines in pen so you can see them better


 
 
 
After the tracing is done the next round of meticulous comes knocking with either a drimmel  or a soldering tool/ wood burner. You Have to cut out everything inside the outlines. This is where I recommend a very basic font to do your first practice.
 
 
 
I'm going end it here for the evening and continue the rest tomorrow. As much as we haunters love the dark it's hard to work and the neighbors don't like power tools late into the night.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Blog Resurrection

I'm a truly crappy blogger for sure in the fact that I can never seem to keep up with the concept of always needing to post things (I'm way worse at keeping track of my day to day life in a journal, imagine the random gaps in there!) As always I seem to remember my blog close to the time of haunting so people can budget create wonderful things for Halloween.

I ( along with family) have been working like crazy people to get our expanded haunt props ready for this year. We've added professional fliers and a large yard sign for advertising to try and amp up numbers from last year which was a pretty steady stream for about 3 hours. The newest creations include a 9 foot walk in mausoleum, Jars upon jars of props and custom tombstones geared toward friends and family. There is always so much to do and no time to do it in!

I end this quick post with a photo of the one true proof that our beloved season is coming

 as well as a link to a quick yummy happy snack that is sure to be speedy and easy on the pocket book not to mention to stinking cute for their own good!