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Archive: Halloween
October 29, 2009
Favorite Halloween Costumes from the CRAFT Editors
The CRAFT editors share with you their favorite Halloween costumes that are handmade or put together with some crafty ingenuity!
Natalie Zee Drieu / Princess Leia
As a kid, I was (and still am) a huge Star Wars fan. I was obsessed with everything Princess Leia. When I was 7 (in 1979), my mom sewed up a Princess Leia costume for me using a store-bought pattern. I liked how she improvised on the belt part and used different colored yarns to make up a braided belt. I ended up wearing this costume over and over around the house for play time. My favorite part was the hood on the costume which I would wear over my head and replay the scene of Princess Leia's stored R2D2 message to Obi Wan. Nerd alert!
Shawn Connally / Bookworm
I was called a bookworm for much of my childhood; I really couldn't travel in a car for more than 12 miles without making sure I had a book with me, and if I wasn't outside playing in the forest or riding my horse, I was curled up with a book. Anne of Green Gables was a big hit, as was The Hitchhiker's Guide series. When I was 10 or 11 my mom suggested that I be a bookworm for Halloween, and the costume shown here was created. We chose Alfred Hitchcock's Stories that Scared Even Me as the book, which still strikes me as a stroke of brilliance (thanks, Mom!). My mom drew some scary images on a butcher-paper covered box we got from the appliance store. We added the title and author, popped some holes in the sides and top for my arms and head. I wore all green, painted my face to match, and added a top hat and gloves to finish off the costume. It's still one of my favorite costumes!
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Posted by Natalie Zee Drieu |
Oct 29, 2009 03:00 PM
Halloween |
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Halloween Cakes, Because We Need More Sugary Treats
I'm not sure who decided that Halloween cupcakes, cookies, and regular-sized cakes were a good idea for Halloween, but I'm not the one to buck tradition, especially when it involves frosting. And creative decorating.
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So over the years I've made quite a few graveyard cakes, and in recent years I've branched out to spider cakes, ghost cakes, jack-o-lantern cakes, and dirt cakes. I do, however, refuse to make a litter box cake, no matter how many times I get sent the photos, links, and recipe. Apparently, imitation cat poop is where I draw the line.
Ive figured out that donating the majority of the cakes to the local Halloween Carnival helps reduce sugar consumption. Well, until my kid wins a cake in the cakewalk and brings it back home. But at least I tried!
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Here are some hints for making fabulous Halloween cakes, if you dare!
- For glowing eyes on the Ghost Cake, use halves of egg shells, rinsed off and dried. Then place a sugar cube in each half of the shell, poor a very small amount of lemon extract on the sugar cubes, and light that sucker. Don't leave this unattended!
- For the ghosts on the Graveyard Cake, I've used cut-and-slice cookie dough, cut out sugar cookies, and lollipops wrapped in white cloth. Whatever you've got around will suffice.
- For legs on the Spider Cake, find some Pockys, which are delicious cookies from Japan. I've found them at Cost Plus and specialty grocery stores. I also thought Pirouette wafers might work, or maybe even Twix bars.
- For all the cakes, don't be afraid to substitute Skittles for M&Ms for Reeses Pieces for Gummy Bears. Most anything will work when seen in context -- you're bound to hear "Oh, those are the spider's eyes," or "Oh, little bears are lining the walkway, how spooky!" (As opposed to, "Why did you use Skittles instead of M&Ms? That doesn't work at all!")
Posted by Shawn Connally |
Oct 29, 2009 11:15 AM
Food, Halloween, Holiday projects |
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Halloween Baby Costumes on Martha
The surreal nature of these Halloween baby costumes on Martha Stewart is shorting things out in my brain; they're so creepy and hilarious! [via Extreme Craft]
Posted by Becky Stern |
Oct 29, 2009 09:00 AM
Babies, Halloween |
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How-To: Owl Costume
Even though we're just a few days away from Halloween, there is still time to whip up this fantastic owl costume. Ellen from The Long Thread shows you how over on Alpha Mom, and includes templates for the mask and feathers. I love it!
Posted by Rachel Hobson |
Oct 29, 2009 08:00 AM
Halloween, Kids |
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How-To: 3D Blood Spatter Halloween Decor
Meg from Threadbanger's Decor it Yourself is on this week's Etsy How-Tuesday to make some 3D blood spatter decorations for Halloween, like in the TV show Dexter. Bring a little forensics to your Halloween party!
Posted by Becky Stern |
Oct 29, 2009 07:00 AM
Halloween, Home Decor |
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October 28, 2009
Meatloaf Hand
Halloween is a great excuse to get a little greusome in the kitchen, and this meatloaf hand is a perfect example of that. Megan of not martha shows how she created the meatloaf masterpiece, complete with onion slice fingernails and wrist bones.
Posted by Rachel Hobson |
Oct 28, 2009 08:00 AM
Food, Halloween |
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October 27, 2009
Flashback: Gory Ghoul Makeup
Zombies and ghouls are all the rage this Halloween, and adding some macabre makeup to just about any getup will immediately zombie-fy it. I have a friend who is a forest ranger, and he's going as the zombie ranger, by just donning his work uniform and adding some gory makeup and some dismembered limbs coming out of his backpack. Maybe I'll just have to be the zombie backcountry snowboarder. This week's flashback is another excerpt from Make: Halloween Special Edition, a 2006 collaboration between the editors of CRAFT and MAKE, our sister publication. Courtney Mault and Max Sparber, experts in horror makeup, wrote an entire Macabre Makeup DIY section for the issue, incorporating simple, kitchen-inspired techniques from master makeup pioneer Dick Smith. I say kitchen-inspired because Smith used Karo corn syrup, unflavored gelatin, and bread crumbs to create many a gruesome look. For this DIY, get out the bread crumbs and get gory!
Macabre Makeup: The Ghoul
By Courtney Mault and Max Sparber
The corpse-eating ghoul is where your kitchen supplies come in handy, because this is a piece of makeup that requires bread crumbs. And if you do a full-face coat of liquid latex, when you're done, you'll have a particularly weird-looking mask that you can reuse.
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Posted by Goli Mohammadi |
Oct 27, 2009 05:00 PM
Halloween |
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Light-Up Dog Costumes
Alison at Switch appeared on Martha yesterday and showed off how to make this light-up dandelion dog costume and the illuminated porcupine dog costume (below).
Posted by Natalie Zee Drieu |
Oct 27, 2009 10:00 AM
Halloween, Pets |
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How-To: Polymer Clay Candy Corn Earrings
In theme with the soap cupcakes I posted earlier this morning, here's another tasty-looking craft project. These polymer clay candy corn earrings from the Polymer Clay Cookbook look like a good beginner project, and one that could be translated in to a handful of other halloween uses.
Posted by Rachel Hobson |
Oct 27, 2009 08:00 AM
Halloween, Jewelry |
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How-To: Photograph Halloween Costumes
So you spent all that time making your kid (or yourself) that awesome Halloween costume, make sure you can preserve it in photographs with noahw's tutorial! The photo above is atozfriendly's disco ball costume from last year.
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Posted by Becky Stern |
Oct 27, 2009 07:00 AM
Halloween, Photography |
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October 26, 2009
Free Sock Bat Doll Pattern From Heather Bailey
Heather Bailey has created a free pattern for this cute bat doll that's made from a sock, wool felt and scraps of fabric.
Posted by Rachel Hobson |
Oct 26, 2009 08:00 AM
Halloween, Sewing |
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How-To: Yoshi and Mario Toddler Costumes
Instructables user craineum made these really incredible Yoshi and Mario costumes for his toddlers. You may remember him from last year's Mega Man costume. Those are lucky kids! I remember one year being Tweety Bird, and my mom made a similarly large mascot-style piece of headgear. Who needs peripheral vision when you've got candy?
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Mega Man costume looks powerful!
Posted by Becky Stern |
Oct 26, 2009 07:00 AM
Halloween, Kids |
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October 23, 2009
Chocolate Human Skulls
These chocolate skulls are made in molds cast from real human skulls. Available in your choice of chocolates, including "bone chocolate," "delicious blend of Belgian milk and white chocolates, resembling the colour of freshly cleaned human bones." [via Neatorama]
Posted by Becky Stern |
Oct 23, 2009 04:00 PM
Food, Halloween |
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Headless Marie Antoinette Costume
Make our Headless Marie Antoinette Costume from Nicole Magne on Etsy's The Storque. This creepy cool project was featured in our special MAKE Halloween issue is available now in the Maker Shed.
Posted by Natalie Zee Drieu |
Oct 23, 2009 10:00 AM
Halloween |
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Threadbanger's Roundup of Knit and Crochet Halloween Costumes
If you have nimble fingers, you should be able to whip up one of these knit or crochet masks in time for Halloween. Lee Meredith at Threadbanger has gathered up the coolest and weirdest knit and crochet costumes for the season.
Posted by Becky Stern |
Oct 23, 2009 07:00 AM
Crochet, Halloween, Knitting |
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October 22, 2009
Jeffrey Thomas' Dark Princesses
Since Disney bought Marvel comics, there have been a number of artists offering up creative image mashups. Perhaps my favorite is character designer/story artist Jeffrey Thomas' Dark Princesses series. Thomas reinterprets iconic Disney female characters with a seriously dark twist. Looking at these is providing me great inspiration for twisted Halloween costumes.
Posted by Goli Mohammadi |
Oct 22, 2009 05:00 PM
Arts & Design, Halloween |
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Ruff Roundup on Coilhouse
Coilhouse recently ran a roundup of ruff collars full of enough inspiration to get you moving to the ribbon isle at the craft store, plus a collection of awesome how-tos for making your own ruffs. Warning: there's one NSFW fashion image, all the way at the bottom of the page. [Thanks, Gareth!]
Posted by Becky Stern |
Oct 22, 2009 03:00 PM
Fashion, Halloween |
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Halloween T-Shirt Trick or Treat Bag
Halloween T-Shirt Trick or Treat Bag
By Future Craft Collective
Halloween season is here! Time to break out the pumpkins, the masks, and the scary makeup, and get out there to do a little trick or treating. When I was a kid we used pillow cases for our candy collecting, which were good in size but weren't very easy to tote around for the several miles we did of door-knocking. This super simple project will serve as your pillow case replacement. And after Halloween you can use it all year long as a handy tote for all of life's sweet tote-ables.
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Posted by Natalie Zee Drieu |
Oct 22, 2009 12:00 PM
Columns, CRAFT Projects, Halloween, Refashion |
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Homemade Kid Costumes
For years I didn't consider myself a crafter or even very creative. Sure, I always decorated the house for holidays, did crafty projects with my kids, made my own gingerbread houses and face masks, loved to try new recipes, and shunned store-bought costumes for what I think are way better homemade creations, but a crafter? Not really.
These days I'm trying to convince myself that I am indeed a crafter. And when you're surrounded by knitters, crocheters, professional seamstresses, painters, and soft-circuit mavens, you need lots of convincing! I recently went back through photos of the kids in their Halloween costumes that I've made, and gosh darn it, I am a crafter (of sorts). Enjoy the photos after the jump!
PS: Two of the costumes shown were store-bought, or mostly purchased at a store and then embellished with homey touches.See if you can spot them. And one of the boys is a former intern, not one of my kids, exactly.
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Posted by Shawn Connally |
Oct 22, 2009 11:00 AM
Halloween |
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Fabric And Felt Halloween Silhouette Curtains
Heidi Kenney of My Paper Crane came up with an awesome way to create silhouettes on her windows for Halloween. She's combined a "sturdy yet gauzy" orange fabric and black felt cutouts to create these curtains that can work their magic both during the day and at night. Brilliant!
Posted by Rachel Hobson |
Oct 22, 2009 10:00 AM
Halloween, Home Decor |
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