Zombie Make-up Results

In between trick-0r-treaters last night, I decided to mess around with the zombie makeup trick I posted about earlier this week. I had none of the materials but I did have some white glue.

The results were OK.

Main problem was trying to get a good look with my wife's makeup. She just doesn't have a good selection of stage makeup. The white glue worked but I think latex would look more like skin when you tear it?

In good lighting, it looked pretty fake. Turn the lights down some and the results were much more creepy. Of course, isn't everything just a little more creepy when you turn down the lights?

Pumpkin Saw

My wife bought one of those pumpkin carving kits with cutting blades included. Everytime I use the plastic handled tools, I usually say something along the lines of, "Next year, I will make my own saws. These things are awful."

But I never do. I'm a big Halloween talker. But, I'm all talk and no-do.

Saw this post on Make and am now thinking I could whip up a simple pumpkin saw with just a scroll saw blade laying around in my garage and some duct tape. Minimalist. Workable. Better than the plastic junk that hurts my delicate fingers.

Next year I will be ready!

[via Make]

[Image captured from Make: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/quick_and_easy_pumpkin_cutter.html]

Space Wolf

Check out this Graham Annable's other animations at his YouTube channel.




[via Miss Cellania]

A bunch Halloween Projects

HauntProject.com many projects you can build. Some easy. Some hard. Directions vary from easy to follow to pretty obscure but all of it pretty interesting and inspiring. Site is essentially a link dump to many other project sites.

Never knew you could use a wiper motor to create so many cool things. Including this ghoulish groundbreaker corpse found at the Garage of Evil.

I had a ton of Halloween fun looking at all the projects.





[via Make]

Halloween Sugar Cookies

These Halloween sugar cookies look great. Head over to Annie's Eats to see closeups of the cookies shown here. The recipes for the icing and the cookies are at the bottom of her post. She uses Royal Icing to decorate the cookie, something I've never used before.

The frosting calls for something called meringue powder. I found several sources for it online and many people say it is available from cake supply stores and craft stores like Michaels. Seems that originally the frosting was made with real egg whites, but folks are nervous about raw egg now-a-days.

[Image from Annie's Eat: http://annies-eats.com/2009/10/29/halloween-sugar-cookies/]

Halloween costumes for your pets

Not usually a big fan of costumes for my dog. Although every year my wife wants to dress our pup up as a vampire or some such thing.

"Oh honey, it's so cute!" She says.

"Grumble....crazy....grumble." I reply.

I tend to side with the dog....that is until I saw this cool three-headed dog costume. I may have to re-think my stand on dressing the dogs up for the holidays. I'm thinking my Shitzu could be Cerberus and I could be Hercules.

I wonder if Hercules had a pot belly?

[Via Sci Fi Wire]
[Image captured from Sci Fi Wire: http://scifiwire.com/2009/10/pet-costumes.php]

A better way to cut a pumpkin top?

Saw this on the Make site. Michael Williams came up with the idea as a way to make it easy to light the candle inside.

I'm willing to give this a shot with one of the pumpkins we carve this year. It also looks like it might help during the carving?

I'll let you know.




[Image captured from Make: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/a_better_way_to_slice_a_pumpkin.html]

Learning about Halloween

Larry Ferlazzo has a post called, "The Best Websites for Learning about Halloween". Bound to be something in here you can use.....or just enjoy on your own without ever sharing it with your students.



[Image captured from New York Times slideshow about Mexico's celebration of the Day of the Dead: "In Mexico, Celebrating the Day of the Dead": http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/11/03/travel/20071003_MEXICO_SLIDESHOW_9.html:

Halloween Party Food

If I was the party throwing kind, I'd definitely be having a Halloween party with all kinds of creepy, spooky treats. Here are a few that would be a hit at any gathering of ghouls and Twilight wannabes.





[via Mental Floss]

[Image captured from Mental Floss: "Creepy Halloween Party Foods" : http://scifiwire.com/2009/10/pet-costumes.php]

Latex Zombie Mask

The folks at Gryphern who brought you the Werewolf mask and a biting snapping puppet thingy, now have directions for creating your own latex mask. If you act today, you'll be ready by Halloween.

Their videos are always informative and easy to follow. I remember wanting to make a latex mask when I was a boy. If only Gryphern had been around when I was young.



[Image captured from the video]

Extreme Pumpkins

I love carving pumpkins for Halloween but I hate those little wimpy carving tools you can buy this time of year. I've often thought of rebuilding them using heftier parts from the metal-things-that-can-cut aisle of the hardware store. I was searching the net for someone who might already have done the initial design for sturdier carving tools when I discovered Extreme Pumpkins. Tom Nardone doesn't mess around. He went straight to the garage and pulled out the power tools. Why didn't I think of that?

The site has lots of helpful hints and ideas. There are a few patterns you can download. He has some patterns you can buy and links to the two books he's written on the subject. There is also some video, including the video of a pumpkin lit with a toilet paper roll soaked in kerosene that was making the rounds last year.

Lots of great examples of pumpkin carving here but be aware that there are some links to adult oriented products from this site. Plus there is the use of power tools, fire and extreme patterns. I wouldn't recommend opening this one up in your classroom or sending your students here. My guess is you'd have one of those uncomfortable meetings with your principal and a slightly charred set of parents that starts with, "Just what in Sam Hill are you teaching in that den of evil you call a classroom?"

If you do these kinds of activities with kids though, you will find lots of useful ideas you could safely share. I think I might lock up the power tools if I caught my 9 year old watching this on his own. (I have no nine year old....so I'm not too worried but my wife has hidden the kerosene for some reason!)

[Image was captured from http://www.extremepumpkins.com: It is a picture of a contestent for his annual pumpkin carving contest]

Costumes for Dogs

Every year my wife wants to dress up our dogs in costumes. I'm not sure why as I don't think the dogs like it and she never takes them out trick-or-treating. If they could beg for little chocolate covered bones at the neighbors, it would make more sense to me. After my wife see's this tutorial on making Star Wars costumes for dogs, their little doggie lives will never be the same.


[Image: Captured from Cratfzine.com: HOW TO - Make Star Wars Halloween Costumes for Dogs: http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2008/10/how_to_make_star_wars_dog_cost.html]

Fake Snot

I will never admit to my students that I would consider making fake snot. It is gross. It's disgusting. It's the kind of thing that some man, who in his youth, spent hours trying to perfect the formula for fake vomit might enjoy. I am not that man. I am above that kind of thing.

When I mentioned the possibility of making fake snot to my wife because I thought she might find it entertaining, she gave me a look of incredulity and said, "Why on earth would anyone want to make snot?"

Taking the Devil Advocate's position I said, "Because it's Halloween and maybe a person might have it oozing out of their pumpkin or use it to gross out your, errrrr their eighty year old mother." I thought for a minute longer and added, "And because it would be fun. Don't ya think?"

She said, "NO" and glared at me with that look that pretty much says "You are not the man I married. You are a doppelganger put in his place at some point to torment me and possibly cause the end of the world as we know it. I could not ever, not possibly ever, have married a man who behaves the way you do. Get thee back evil doppelganger!!"

I needed to get her mind off those doppelganger thoughts and said, "Honey I wouldn't ever make fake snot. I am just doing research for my blog. The people. The Blog-o-lites demand to know these kind of things."

"There is something wrong with those Blog-o-lites. The first being, who would call themselves Blog-o-lites. And, two, what kind of nut job wants to make fake snot?"

"Blog-o-lites is the official name of people who read blogs. It's better than Blogerines or Blogos which were the runners up in the official "What do we call ourselves" contest last year." I shrugged my shoulders. "They're my people and look to me for guidance."

"That doesn't excuse these snotty obsessions! Besides why would I make snot when I could just use raw egg white. Isn't that snot-like enough?"

"That's brilliant. Just brilliant. But wouldn't you run the chance of getting salmonella?"

"When you play with snot, fake or otherwise, you just have to take your chances."

The conversation ended with me going to the kitchen to crack a few eggs... For breakfast.

Anyway, if you are one of those "nut jobs" who might want to make fake snot here is a recipe. My favorite line in the directions is the last one that reads:

5. Wash your hands after playing with your snot.

Good advice for all of us. Happy Halloween!

[via Boing Boing]
[Image: Captured from "How to make fake snot": http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howtos/ht/fakesnot.htm]