Boos and Booze 2015 (A Retrospective)

Halloween has quickly come and gone, but the memories of this years party shall live forever! (At least it will now. Sorry this post is so late, but I had to gather everyone else's pictures of the night since I didn't have time to take any. I hope this spooky beginning to your December holiday sparks ideas for next years Halloween!)

This year, we really focused on integrating some gags into our party. I really wanted the house to feel a little more spooky than usual, and I think that we accomplished just that.

The front of the house was adorned with our Dead & Breakfast Inn sign as well as our zombie hands and beheaded caretaker silhouette, but I wanted to add a couple of tombstones to give a little more dimension to our so-far 2D exterior. I grabbed some foam ones from the dollar store and Scott mounted them at the end of the walkway. His technique makes them reusable and less likely to fly away in high winds. It worked really well.

On the inside, I decided to break the house up into different areas and haunt each one accordingly. I started with the hallway. I borrowed some field dressing plastic from our friend Daniel and it stretched the entire length of the hallway, plus enough for a closure.

I then hung a clear packing tape ghost that Scott and I had made at the end of the hallway from the BASE of the smoke detector (not the mechanism itself. Don't do that!). Floating candles, made from toilet paper and paper towel tubes, hot glue, and white paint, were then hung with fishing wire sewn through the black plastic ceiling.

Each tube had a place for a tea light in the top so that it would safely glow while it "hovered". A doorway was created with draped black plastic to keep the hallway dark and a glow stick was attached to the "spine" of the ghost to add extra illumination. The end result was pretty awesome, but obviously, better in person.

We used the dining room table to serve food. I layered a spider web table cloth over a white table cloth to add a nice texture. Each dish was accompanied by a pair of fangs (spray painted silver) and a printed "scary" food name for each item.

The skeleton cheese plate was probably my favorite part of this table. It was super creepy, but still managed to be completely cleaned out by the end of the night! It's just a testament to people's love for cheese and crackers...

Above, you'll notice the TV bar is strung with KEEP OUT tape. This is where we put any bar ware that we didn't want people using throughout the night. It worked quite well, and all of our breakable/expensive alcohol and glasses were safe.

For a little added atmosphere, I hung the "scary" torn cheese cloth over the entry from the dining room into the kitchen.

In the "Salon", guests were greeted by my indoor Halloween "tree". I made it by spray painting branches from outside. It was leaned against the wall and the crows have wire in their feet that help them stand up (or fall over, depending on if someone bumps it). It was a very simple, cost effective piece of decor that everyone loved.

The pictures that normally hang on the wall were replaced with face-changing images that I found at the Dollar Store. (Honestly the Dollar Store is where I get 80% of my Halloween supplies. They sell everything from cheesecloth to crows, cemetery fencing to wall hangings, and it all costs $1!)

The table between our chairs was turned into a fortune teller's table. I used the bulb cover from one of our old ceiling fans and a glow stick for the "crystal ball", with wadded up spider webbing under it to hide the flat bottom. The Tarot cards are actually just printed off from a website online (for free!), and the book I made myself. The table cloth was a piece of scrap from Hancock Fabric for about $2, but a cool scarf would also be perfect.

The kitchen was a great space for taking pictures, so I grabbed some backdrop wall hangings from the Dollar Store and we used Command Strips to hold them up. Everyone seemed to have a great time getting pictures together with their costumes, so I know I'll be doing that again next year.

The living room had the bar, so I made sure to add a jack-o-lantern, small skeleton, and some bugs to keep it themed but not overwhelming. I also found some great signs to hang right under our shelf. In previous years, I've covered the bar top in spider webbing, but it always just gets gross and needs to be thrown away afterwards. This way, I was able to cut down on the mess and just let the blacklight overhead speak for itself.

I wanted to make another scary-ish gag for the living room. I wanted it to glow in the blacklight and really help set the atmosphere. I found some inspiration online from someone who had made a man eating plant out of a Styrofoam pumpkin. I used that as a base idea and ran with it. I couldn't be more pleased with how he turned out!

In the living room, we set up Scott's projector and showed old horror films on the screen, which was hung from the ceiling. I used two of our battery operated candles and placed them in some lanterns that I hung on either side of the screen with fishing wire. It gave a really cool old creepy drive in feel (but unfortunately, there were no pictures taken of it. Sorry!).

The garage was the last area. I thought that our work bench might be a great place for a mad scientist lab, so I started with some genetically altered giant spiders. I grabbed a bunch from the Dollar Store and spray painted them with florescent spray paint so they would glow in the black light.

I then grabbed a white sheet from Goodwill and cut a giant spiderweb out of it. This was stapled up around the workbench.

We put blacklight bulbs in our overhead work light, so the whole room was rigged to glow. I was then able to find things to populate the lab table, including vials and specimens.

Sorry for the fuzz. It was a little dark!

To finish it off, I made a simple structure with wood and covered it in towels to make the shape of a body. This was then wrapped in a white shower curtain and held together with twine. I covered the table with aluminum foil to give the "morgue" an extra touch.

This guy hung out next to the beer pong table and under a flock of glow-in-the-dark bats from the Dollar Store that "flew" around the ceiling.

Also hanging around the house were some cool origami bats that I made using this tutorial.

Last but not least were the trophies for the costume contest. I am usually known for making the trophies myself, but this year, I felt a bit overwhelmed with the rest of the decorations. My dad helped me out by creating some cool custom Zombie Snowmen as trophies and everyone loved them!

From left to right:
-Geekiest Costume
-Best Couples Costume
-Best Female Costume
-Best Male Costume

All of the guests were so excited about them that I kept having to check to make sure none had mysteriously disappeared before all the votes were in!

The night was great and I was so excited to share the house with our friends. Thanks to the Morri and Farrars for helping with all of the set up and keeping me sane!  I am also thankful to Jori and John for taking pictures while I hosted all over the place!

What's the greatest Halloween gag you've ever seen in someone's house? Let me know below!

I love GOOOOOOLD

Who doesn't?

That's why I figured I would once again show you guys out there in Blogland my steps for making our Halloween party costume trophies!

Last year, I gave a tutorial on how to create skull based trophies. The year before that, our skeleton trophies were my first attempt at DIY prizes for our little party. This year, though, I decided to go even different....er. In fact, there was no running theme between them aside from the color gold.

I started by making a couple of purchases at Michaels that I thought would be good bases for each trophy. First, I worked on the Best Couples costume. I found these two molded-clay skeleton hands for $3 each. I liked the idea of them holding on to each other in a helpful way. I played around with how they should be arranged until I ended up with this configuration.

You can see where I placed some hot glue in the thumb joint where they meet. I only found out later that the hot glue didn't really bond with them, so it fell off. Super glue worked perfectly and resolved this problem fast.

The second category I worked on was for Best Overall. I decided to go a little 'creepy Indiana Jones-type idol' style with this. I found a foam skull, plastic skeleton hands, and a base that I thought would do the trick.

I attached the first three hands to the base using hot glue (which this time held with no issues).

I then continued attaching more hands to create a sort of nest for the skull to sit in.

Being sure to add glue at all of the points of connection with the hands, I then attached the skull.

Since I had some hands left over, I gave this guy a nice high hand-bone collar in the back. I just made sure to use minimal hot glue at strategic points to give it stability.

I was ready to start painting. My other two trophies needed paint before they could be assembled. The mask is for Sexiest Costume and the pumpkin is for the Geekiest.

I know that I have touted the use of spray primer on many of my spray paint projects...but I am going to say it again...USE A PRIMER. In this case, I would especially recommend it because you are painting all kinds of different materials and it will make your gold paint much more saturated.

The difference between not using a primer and using a primer is painting over different shades of brown on the Best Overall trophy vs getting to paint essentially a blank slate. It makes a world of difference.

Once I had given the primer ample time to dry, I was finally able to start in with the gold spray paint. I use Rustoleum Metallic Finish Gold. After three years of making gold trophies (Three years in a row, four trophies per year, two coats each...you do the math), my can has finally run out of paint. That's not a bad investment is you decided you want to make this a yearly project.

I started with a light coat, then another to finish up the Geekiest, Best Overall, and Couples. I made sure (especially with the Couples) to turn the trophy over in order to really cover all the nooks and crannies. Here it is in the process.

Everything was given another couple of hours to dry. I was then able to start working on the Sexiest trophy. The inside of the mask was gold, but the outside was left white for decoration. This is just a $2 mask from Michaels.

I liked the sort of chalky look of the primer, so I was able to start in with the details. I began by penciling in my design. If you need inspiration for a sugar skull paint job, there is a lot of inspiration on the interwebs.

Using some craft paint and small craft brushes, I just covered my lines in my chosen colors. My biggest concern was just getting the design bold enough at this point.

Using more hot glue (because my life is held together by it, honestly), I applied rhinestones. I have decently sized nails, so they were a little tricky to apply. Don't add too much glue at one time before you're ready because it will harden before you can apply half of these small gems.

At Target, they sell pumpkin glasses, which are kind of reflective and cute. I purchased the pack they came in, chose the classic nerd specs, added a little ribbon to the center as tape, then added it to this adorable gold hunk.

They all turned out great! Everyone was super stoked to have won them and I even had one Instagramed at the party because the winner was so excited!

Geekiest Costume:

Sexiest Costume:

Best Couples Costume:

Best Overall Costume:

What worked out the best was the spray paint eating through the foam, leaving a creepy, melted look to the skull.

I really loved the trophies this year, but even more, I loved being able to give them to the winners. Here is a big chunk of the people that showed up, including our winners!

Geekiest: A Brony
Sexiest: A Moulin Rouge Dancer
Couples: Finn in pajamas and Fiona from Adventure Time
Best: Death (Who couldn't drink unless he had a straw because of his mask. Dedication!)

Do you have any big Halloween plans? I've got even more updates for later this week on how we tricked out the house (on a tight budget). Stay tuned!

Some Timey Wimey Costumey Stuff

Hi, my name is Caitlin. I am a Whovian.

If you aren't familiar with the term, allow me to explain.

Scott and I are both huge fans of Doctor Who. Though I enjoy the older ones, the newer episodes are really where my heart lies. We thought that the 9th Doctor was 'Fantastic', the 10th made us say 'Allons-y!', and Matt Smith as the current Doctor made us take a leap of faith with 'Geronimo!'

We enjoy the goofy timey wimey time travel stuff, the different companions, and the possibility of owning a TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space).

We are Whovians. Hear us geek.

When the time came this year for us to pick costumes, we knew what direction we wanted to go. Scott threw around a couple of ideas, but he ended up on wanting to be Matt Smith's incarnation of the Doctor. When that was decided, I knew my only move was to be River Song, his walking talking spoiler alert (LOOOOONG story...).

Matt Smith's costume was pretty straight forward.

Tweed jacket, sonic screwdriver, red bow tie. Not to bad considering the fact that Scott already had a white shirt and khakis.

We headed to the Goodwill and searched through many a sport jacket till we found a couple we liked. The entire process took about 30 minutes because the one we found that had the right look also happened to be the correct size for the hubby, so we threw it in the cart. $5.99 later, one piece of his costume was complete.

I then headed to Handcock Fabrics and took a hot minute searching through the remnants bin until I found a quarter of a yard of red fabric for a quarter. That's right. I was making Scott a 25 cent bow tie.

I cut my shape and sewed it together, but for a much easier tutorial on how to create a quick bow tie, check out this link. When I had finished, I just put a backing pin on it like you'd use for a broach and pinned it directly to his shirt. So far, we were lookin' pretty good.

I started getting really excited even with it just hanging up together! It was all coming together!

Next, though, was the sonic screwdriver. This is the device the Doctor carries to solve pretty much all of his problems (except for wood....it doesn't work on wood).

It is pretty much the Doctor Who equivalent of a lightsaber, so it involved making something unique. I started by raiding the Home Depot for small copper pipe parts. My base was 1/4 in. diameter, and that seems to be a good size to fit in your pocket and not be too clunky. I had originally looked at some 3/8 pieces, but together they created what I would refer to as 'the Fisher Price version of a Sonic Screwdriver".

Once I had fit them together in a cool, kind of random way, I took them apart again and taped off all of the threads. This would keep off the paint and allow them to thread back together for final assembly. I then hung all of the pieces I wanted to be silver on a ribbon between two stools to paint. I did the same with the rest of the pieces so that I could paint them black (sorry I didn't get any pictures of this process). Hanging them made sure I could get them from all angles and that they would dry really well. Be sure to use spray paint that sticks to metal when doing this step.

Then, I just waited for them all to dry and put it back together.

Done! Sonic screwdriver completed. The funny part was that there are instructions on how to make it light up online, but I didn't have time to put that together. We ended up snaking a glow stick through the piping and it worked great through the whole party! It really helps finish the costume, even on the hook.

And Scott looked great in it!

The River Song costume on the other hand had more gadgets to fabricate.

There was her gun belt, blaster, and time jumping bracelet. I actually wore brown jeggings (the shame!) for the pants, a long sweater for the top, and got a wide brown belt from Target to hold it all together.

The vortex manipulator (time bracelet) was made with pleather, a couple of swipes with the sewing machine, some hot glue, some cog parts, and two wooden circles (from Michaels). I even used some magnet clasps to hold it shut when I wanted the flap closed.

To make the blaster, I ended up with this gun from the dollar store that I modified.

I painted the entire thing white, then went back in with different amounts of watered down black paint to add some detail and blaster marks. I finished it off by adding in just a little watered down brown paint to really give it some grit. I think it really makes it feel like it has some weight behind it.

Next, for the holster, I cut out a long swatch from my pleather and made two rungs for my belt at the top of it. I cut a piece of pleather to go around my leg to hold the holster itself in place. I then used the glue gun to make a separate pouch for the gun to fit inside of, added a strap at the top of it to keep the gun in place, then glued the whole thing to the holster itself.

Casey also put my hair up in some curlers to get the signature crazy River hair. I feel like it all came together really well!

 Thanks for the picture, Katrina!

All in all, I'd say our Halloween was pretty Who-tastic. I'd say what really punctuated our accidental theme was when two of our friends showed up as Who characters as well! Not even planned! Between The Doctor, River Song, Captain Jack Harkness, and Rose Tyler, we were truly stylin' and time profilin'. Of course Scott won an award for Geekiest Costume, too, but that's just because...

Hope all of your costumes are coming together!