Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts

Sunday, September 17, 2023

You Should Take Pumpkinhead Photos


This tutorial was originally published on Crafting a Green World in 2022!

It's unwieldy, unbalanced, and will definitely put a crick in your neck, but it's so worth it! 

This photo shoot with Jack-o-lanterns on our heads is one of the funnest Halloween activities I've done yet in my life. And I used to get paid actual cash money to work in a haunted house and scare the snot out of people! 

And happily enough, this pumpkinhead photo shoot is also one of the most eco-friendly Halloween activities! You don't need any single-serve candy with assorted wrappers. There are no costume components to source. No plastic, no face paint. All that's required is a fresh pumpkin from a local farm, your favorite comfy fall clothes, and a lovely natural space, ideally with deciduous trees in the process of transitioning.  Here are all the components for the perfect pumpkinhead photo shoot:
  • fresh, whole carving pumpkin. You have to go pretty big with these, so I found a place that was selling them per pumpkin, not per pound. I can eyeball it better now, but the first time I took my teenager with me and held pumpkins up to her head to make sure I wasn't buying one that was too small. The trick is to find a pumpkin tall enough that it can touch your shoulders. Too short, and not only will it slide around, but the top of your head will be taking the entire weight of the pumpkin, which is HEAVY!
  • pumpkin carving tools. Yes, I use those cheap-looking mostly-plastic carving kits that all the big-box stores sell, but, um. Those pumpkin carving kits are the bomb! Not only are they easy to use and give super accurate results, but my family has been using the same cheap tools for probably over a decade by now. If you gave me one of these nice stainless steel and wood pumpkin carving sets, though, I wouldn't be sad...
  • autumn apparel. Jeans, boots, and flannel shirts look suitably autumnal.
  • head protection (optional). The Jack-o-lanterns really are quite heavy! To provide a little padding and avoid getting pumpkin guts on your hair, you can opt to wear a washable fuzzy beanie or a shower cap.
  • wagon (optional). We walked down a local trail for a bit to find the perfect autumn scene for our photo shoot. A folding wagon made sure we didn't have to lug Jack-o-lanterns in our arms while we hiked!

Step 1: Carve your Jack-o-lantern!


Carve the opening in the pumpkin at the bottom, not the top. Make it just big enough for your head to fit.  

Scoop out all the guts, and reserve the pumpkin seeds to roast


Any simple face works well in a pumpkinhead photo shoot. I think that smiling faces are funnier and neutral faces are slightly creepy. I've found through trial and error that anything detailed that you might try to carve will just get lost amid all the other details in these photos. In this case, simpler is easiest AND best!

Step 2. Take a lot of photos!


Take the photos the same day that you carve the pumpkin. The only thing worse than standing around with a fresh pumpkin on your head is, well, standing around with a not-so-fresh pumpkin on your head! 

For the best results, your background should be fairly simple and autumnal, and have some depth. Fields always look good, and forests can look good if you can get a little distance from your pumpkin-headed subjects. Placing your pumpkinheads close to the camera in front of a flat vertical surface like a wall is likely going to make your photos, in turn, look flat and too posed.  


Pumpkinhead photos are awesome for people who are awkward in front of a camera lens, because they don't have to pose in any particularly cute way. They don't even have to smile! You can literally just stand there, arms hanging limply at your side, half-blinking with a weird expression on your face, and as long as you've got a Jack-o-lantern on your head, you'll look awesome.  


Certain posed photos can look especially funny, though. I searched Pinterest for family, couple, children's, and graduation photo shoots, and made a list of several to try. My partner and kid thought of more to include, as well, as we got into the groove. 

We did end up having to ditch all of our ideas that involved various dance poses or anything requiring good balance. Those heavy, wobbly Jack-o-lanterns play fast and loose with one's center of gravity!

Step 3: Edit photos to make them even spookier.

 
Your photos will look awesome as-is, but you can edit them to make them even more awesome. 

Adding grain or using a sepia filter makes the photos spookier, as does vignetting them. Play with the saturation and temperature to make the leaves and pumpkins pop. 


If you can use Photoshop, you have even more options to make your photos spooky and fun! My partner darkened the eyes and mouths of the Jack-o-lanterns, removed joggers from the background of some photos, and, as in the photo above, popped the head right off my teenager. That photo is my favorite! 

And when you're finished with your photoshoot, I actually think that having the opening at the bottom makes the pumpkin even better as a Jack-o-lantern on our porch. It's a win-win!

Sunday, September 10, 2023

Pumpkin Pounding: A Halloween Project for Small Children

 

This tutorial was originally posted on Crafting a Green World way back in 2009! 

Encouraging my children's independence is VERY important to me. Not only is it easier for me to parent two small children who can pour their own milk and put on their own coats and carry their own balance bikes up and down the front porch stairs, but it's also a priority in my parenting that my girls see themselves as capable individuals who can handle challenges and perform the meaningful work of day-to-day living. 

Because of that, carving pumpkins into Jack-o-lanterns can be a really frustrating experience. 

I do permit my children to cut with sharp knives (with supervision), but not to use them on something as thick and unwieldy as a pumpkin. Although there are around-the-house materials that make pumpkin carving an activity more appropriate for small children (subject for a later post), my girls' favorite Jack-o-lantern craft is something that we call pumpkin pounding.

Pumpkin pounding is a hands-on activity that uses real tools on a real pumpkin, and each of my girls was able to do it with help at age two, and independently by age three. The best part, however, is that in the end, depending on how enthusiastic a pounder your kid has been, you end up with a real, live Jack-o-lantern for sitting on the porch steps and popping a candle inside. 

You will need:
  • field pumpkin that's not too round. You want to be able to sit it on its various sides, as well as its butt, and not have it roll all over creation.
  • hammer. You can lay out a variety of hammers for your kids to experience, but the best tool for them is one that's as light as possible but has the widest hammer head
  • nails. Again, lay out a variety to try out, but the best ones are as wide as possible with the widest head
  • knife and scraping tool and whatever else you'll need to cut the top of the Jack-o-lantern and scrape the insides
1. Set the pumpkin up in a space where kids have enough room to swing a hammer, and where they can get in the correct hammering position--a low table or the floor or a bench, etc. 

Be prepared to leave the pumpkin in that space for a few days, to give the kids the chance to come back over and over to this activity independently. 

2. Show your child how to press the tip of the nail into the pumpkin flesh until the nail is held there by itself. That's the safest way to hammer, but older children can also be taught how to gently tap the nail into place with their hammers. 

For kids younger than three, you may need to set up a handful of nails like this for them to hammer. 


3. Let your child hammer nails into the pumpkin. 

Remind them not to hammer the pumpkin just for the heck of it, but pumpkins are extremely sturdy and surprisingly forgiving, and even though your kid will hit the pumpkin a LOT, and HARD, as they're aiming for that nail, it's not going to crack.  


4. At about five years of age, your kid can also learn how to use the claw end of the hammer to lever the nails back out of the pumpkin when she's done hammering. Otherwise, you'll probably need to do this, so give her plenty of nails to work with before she needs your help. 

5. The Jack-o-lantern will show best with as many nail holes as possible, so feel free to take a whack at the pumpkin yourself. It's amazingly cathartic. 

6. When everyone is completely finished with the pounding (and this may take several days), cut off the top of the pumpkin, and scrape out the insides to finish it. Pop in a candle, and enjoy your pretty pumpkin. 

My kids and I are, for some reason, inordinately fond of our autumn-themed craft projects. What are your favorites?

Tuesday, November 8, 2022

You Should Watch The Shining With One of Your Teenagers (While the Other One Hides in Her Room)


Her spooky contribution turned out to be last-minute roasted vegetables, because apparently the spookiest dinner of all is one that doesn't follow proper nutritional guidelines!

That was the night that we intended to watch The Shining, but alas, in the end I could not convince Will that vintage horror isn't actually scary--she used to be so much more gullible when she was younger! So it was a week later, over Chinese food that we bought with the excuse that I needed the specific type of break-apart disposable bamboo chopsticks for our gingerbread Cuneiform project, that three of us finally got around to watching the movie that two of us had been highly anticipating.

I was especially excited because I'd just finished reading both The Shining (started on a Friday while subbing in a high school Agriculture classroom for the day and finished the next morning because I just about could not put it down) AND its sequel that I had not even known existed, Doctor Sleep:

I'd certainly read The Shining before, because I was a hyperlexic kid who tore through Stephen King in elementary school (kudos to my grandparents for never censoring a book! We shall believe that this was for philosophical reasons and not because they DNGAF what I did as long as I wasn't bothering them). I also saw the film version multiple times on cable (see above re: grandparents and lack of censorship). My takeaways as a kid were that both were memorable and likeable, but not terribly loveable.

Lol, I guess all that stuff about alcoholism and mental health and abuse sailed right over my head, thank goodness!

So, the book version of The Shining is actually brilliant. Doctor Sleep is even better. And the film version of The Shining is also brilliant, and different enough from the book that it's still surprising even if you just read the book a week ago.

I read somewhere that Stephen King, an alcoholic, wrote The Shining at a time when he was actively, heavily drinking. And that's why Jack, who ostensibly spends 99% of the book sober, still acts drunk and has no positive coping skills to manage his sobriety. The main character of Doctor Sleep is also an alcoholic, but, like the Stephen King who wrote him, he becomes sober and, like King, utilizes AA and its resources. That sobriety, in turn, leads to the protagonist making different choices than the Jack Torrance of The Shining could have. The depiction of the alcoholic character in each book felt very real, and it's fascinating to me that it comes so directly from the author's own experiences. 

My teenager is the perfect age to appreciate the way that the film version of The Shining is a WHOLE MOOD. OMG the scenery. OMG the sound. OMG the interior design. OMG THE CARPETS!!!

I mean, look at the little organdy dresses that the Grady children wear! I 100% had almost the same dress in peach. 

You know how when your kids are tiny, you're so excited to see their little faces when something magical happens? Christmas morning when they realize that Santa came, or the first time they see Cinderella's castle at Disney, or you break open a geode? You guys. When about halfway through the movie I casually asked my kid, "So what do you think that whole 'redrum' business is all about?" and she was all, "I dunno it's weird though," I was SO EXCITED to see her face during the big reveal! 

Top Ten Memory for sure!

The scene where they throw around the n-word sucked, though. They said it once and we all went, "WHOAH!" Then they said it again. And then a third time just to push the point, I guess. AND that's one of the parts that they lifted straight from the book, so... yuck.

The next day, this commentary track sustained me through coffee, breakfast, housecleaning, putting away Halloween decorations, and just some general Sunday-level puttering:

I kept having to go find people, though, to interrupt their own Sunday-level puttering and tell them all my Shining fun facts. Here are my favorites:

  • The Steadicam operator (who invented the Steadicam for this film!) used a boom to raise and lower the Steadicam as it was pushed along, and at one point he discovered that young Danny weighed exactly the same as the Steadicam, so sometimes he would remove the Steadicam from the boom, put Danny on it instead, and fly him around the set while Danny shrieked with laughter.
  • In my favorite scene from the film, Wendy takes a peek at the page in Jack's typewriter, and sees that all he's written, over and over, is "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Weirded out, she goes over to the six-inch tall stack of pages he's already written, and starts flipping through them, only to see that they ALL SAY THE SAME THING. Every page is laid out differently, with paragraph breaks and parts for dialogue and other constructions, but it all says the same thing. It's SO GOOD. So apparently, Kubrick wanted Wendy to be able to flip through the pages at random and have everything that she pulled up look cool like that, so for months, every spare second that his secretary had was spent in typing up all those pages herself. 
  • Kubrick insisted on shooting the film in chronological order, which is not how films are usually shot. The shooting also ran months over schedule, and combined with that, the Steadicam operator said that pretty much as soon as he got on set, little Danny commenced a huge growth spurt. It's not noticeable because the film was shot in order, but the operator said that if you took a shot of Danny from the first scenes of the film and put it next to a shot of him from one of the last scenes, he's visibly older by the final scene. Which probably makes the film that much more realistic on a subliminal level!
Ugh, I did not need one more must-watch horror movie to add to our yearly viewing in October, but I probably can't let another October go by without re-watching The Shining. I also dearly desire to create the REDRUMMUS and the hedge maze in pesto on top of pasta like in this viewing party, and I very much need someone to agree to dress up like the Grady children with me for trick-or-treating.

And I LOVE these decorations, because even more Halloween decorations is clearly something I was (not) needing...

Monday, October 31, 2022

Halloween 2022: Rapunzel and Her Tower



This is the last time for who knows how many years that I'll get to spend my second favorite holiday in person with all of my favorite people.

So we did it all! 

Can you be too old to trick-or-treat? NOPE! 

Syd's got ballet all Halloween evening, so at least my practically fully-grown teenagers only trick-or-treated once, here at our local state park's event. 
Rapunzel's Tower was a hit, but I think it was also Will's most awkward costume to date, and this kid has worn some awkward costumes over the years!

Can you eat too much Halloween candy? NOPE!

This Halloween snack mix looked better on TikTok. It turns out that it's nearly impossible to create a Halloween-themed movie night snack mix that the entire family will like... so instead we created one that nobody loved!

Can you watch too many scary movies! Yes, but also NOPE!

This year's traditional meatloaf mummy for our traditional Family Movie Night!
The meatloaf mummy was joined by skull mashed potatoes, cheesy breadstick bones, the above cocktails and mocktails, orange dipped pretzels, a DIY candy apple bar, and after Syd got a look at the menu, she roasted some vegetables so we don't all die of malnutrition.

Can there be too many carved Jack-o-lanterns on your porch? NOPE!


Okay, but can there be too many Jack-o-lanterns on your head? ALSO NOPE!

I am going to frame this entire photo shoot and put every photo on my walls, all year round.

But surely otherwise there can be too many Halloween craft projects. THAT IS VERY MUCH ALSO A NOPE!

These babies get to stay on the coffee table through Thanksgiving!

The only thing we're missing out on is neighborhood trick-or-treating tonight, since us country folk don't get the pleasure of kids coming around to our houses. But when we pick Syd up from ballet super late, we're still then going to pick up our traditional Halloween take-out pizza, and we're still going to stay up even super later watching our very last horror movie of the season while eating the rest of the kids' weekend trick-or-treat haul.

And then Nutcracker season begins!

Saturday, October 29, 2022

Pumpkinheads, or, Put on a Jack-o-Lantern and Take One Thousand Photos

 

So, this is probably my favorite Halloween activity ever. Thank you, TikTok!

I've been wanting to do this pumpkinhead photo shoot since last October--you know, back when it was actually trendy. I didn't end up getting around to it--so many Halloween crafts, so little time!--but when a teenager specifically requested Halloween projects this month, I wrote it at the top of my to-do list in red letters.

Will, who is by far the most practical of us, declined the opportunity to dress in flannel, put a heavy Jack-o-lantern on her head, and stand around while I took one thousand photos. Fortunately, though, a couple of other family members were willing to indulge me on this beautiful fall day at the peak of autumn foliage:


I took SO MANY PHOTOS! We just kept thinking of poses that it would be funny and awesome to do with a Jack-o-lantern on one's head!




The key to true magic, though, is having a graphic designer at one's service:






This photo shoot was so fun, and I am so happy with the photos! And afterwards, our pumpkinheads joined the rest of our Jack-o-lantern family:


I've longed for years to buy more of those carvable fake pumpkins to add to our menagerie, but the big-box stores eventually realized how awesome they are and they've been stupid expensive for a while now. I bought them yearly when the kids were small, though, and those kid-carved forever pumpkins are my favorites, so I'm pretty stoked to have a new type of magical Halloween memorabilia to display next year!

Thursday, October 27, 2022

Useless Halloween Decorations: DIY Cement Pumpkins

A few weeks ago, one of my teenagers asked me, "Hey, what Halloween projects are we doing this month?"

OMG I was thrilled. Stockholm Syndrome has set in, y'all!

Also, you guys. My family has TRADITIONS. Good ones, too! Ones that the teenagers like and happily anticipate! I messed up on a lot of parenting stuff, but traditions I figured out all by myself from scratch.

So, since Halloween projects are clearly a tradition (that I didn't know until now was actually a tradition, but okay!), every weekend this month a kid or two and I have been doing a Halloween project together. A couple of weekends ago Syd, Matt, and I did this--

--which, more on that later, but I'll just say that 1) a Jack-o-lantern is actually quite painful to wear on your head and 2) it was TOTALLY WORTH IT. 

And last weekend, Will and I took a couple of pairs of Syd's old ballet tights and made cement pumpkins!

Coincidentally, these were also a little painful, but also totally worth it!

To make cement pumpkins, you need:

  • legs from old tights. The parts that you use shouldn't have holes or runs.
  • Portland cement, with assorted mixing and measuring tools.
  • rubber bands.

1. Prepare your materials.

Cut a section of leg anywhere from six inches to a foot long, and knot one end.

Add a cupful of Portland cement mix to a bucket, then add some water and stir. You want the cement to be about the consistency of cake batter, so play around with adding more cement mix and water until it feels right. 

2. Fill the tights with cement.


Scoop cement into the tights and shake it down to the bottom. Add cement until you have the size of pumpkin you want, although remember to leave enough room in the tights to knot the top:


3. Add rubber bands.

Thump the cement-filled tights on the tabletop a couple of times to settle the cement, then adjust it so that the bottom knot is tucked into the middle bottom of the cement package and the top knot is centered at the top.

Begin wrapping rubber bands around the cement package:


Through trial and error, Will and I discovered that if the rubber bands are tight and cut really tight grooves into the cement, the tights and rubber band will be nearly impossible to remove from those grooves later. We highly recommend rubber bands that are wrapped more like the blue one that runs vertically in the photo below, NOT the pink one that runs horizontally:


4. Let cure, then remove the rubber bands and tights.

Allow the cement to cure for at least 24 hours, after which it should look something like this:


Loosen the tights by grasping the knots on each end and pulling them away from the cement:



Then, tear away the rubber bands and peel off the tights and discard:



They're quite dusty afterwards, so rinse them with the garden hose.


You can embellish these pumpkins in all kinds of ways, from shiny sealant to paint or decoupage, adding corks or twine or braided cord for a vine, felt or leather or book page leaves, etc. Will and I found, though, that all our pumpkins happened to look cute in a single stack on the coffee table, so that's what we did!

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Non-Seasonal Craft Alert: Plaster of Paris Sugar Skull Models, Because We're Studying El Dia De Los Muertos in April

Okay, what we were ACTUALLY doing was putting together a Mexico-themed take-home kit for another Girl Scout troop as part of our Service Unit's World Thinking Day celebration, but as my kid was researching stuff we might want to include, she said, "We should study El Dia de los Muertos sometime."

Let's just ignore, for the moment, the fact that we HAVE studied El Dia de los Muertos before--many times, actually! With this kid, you have to strike like a viper when the iron is at its very hottest. 

Seriously, remember just the other day, when we went to the local historic cemetery so the kid could take reference photos for her AP Studio Art classes? While we were there, she was literally griping that these photos wouldn't come in handy at all, because her special focus for the class was absolutely going to be mushrooms, which she was super interested in and spent all her free time sketching in various forms. 

So after the cemetery, we drove to the public library to find her a couple of reference books on mushrooms that had big, glossy photos, but then I also put some other big, glossy mushroom reference books on hold for me at our local university's library. Those finally came in for me a couple of days ago, but when I excitedly handed them to her, she was all, "Ugh! More mushroom books?!? I am not even interested in mushrooms why must you always task me with these unendurable burdens blah blah blah gripe gripe gripe!"

And that is why, the very second that my kid mentioned wanting to study El Dia de los Muertos sometime, I was all, "OMG what a coincidence you said that! Because our very next project actually happens to be El Dia de los Muertos! Weird that I didn't bring it up before. Oh, right, and the project actually begins now! Yeah, yeah... you're going to... write a research paper, that's right. Definitely a research paper. And, uh... also you're going to model a themed craft for our take-home kit."

Her research paper is quite good, although I do not understand why I have to beg both of my children to include in-text citations and a Works Cited page--surely it's so much more effort to go back and remember all your sources and add the citations later?

Anyway, along with the research paper, the kids and I made sugar skull models from plaster of Paris, and then Syd embellished them with dimensional fabric paint. It's a super easy project that does have some prep time, but the results look really, really good. To make your own plaster of Paris sugar skull models, you will need:

  • plaster of Paris. Any brand is fine, but Dap is what my local hardware store carries. When my kids were little, I used plaster of Paris to make them little figurines to decorate all the time. Plaster of Paris is pretty eco-friendly, and it takes all kinds of artist media like a champ. 
  • skull mold. I used the skull mold we've had for years, most notably to make our mashed potato skulls every Halloween dinner. It was already on its last legs, and I wore it into the ground with this project. I'll have to keep my eye out for a new skull mold before next Halloween, because we can't do without our mashed potato skulls!
  • dimensional fabric paint. These stick great to the plaster of Paris, and have a cute, puff paint look to them. They're a little spendy for what you get, though, so if you've got younger or messier kids, you might as well put tempera or dyed school glue into little squeeze bottles for them. 
The main job is to make the plaster of Paris skull models. My skull mold held about four cups of plaster, and took several hours to harden, so it took me a couple of days to make the seven skulls that I needed:



Fortunately, embellishing the skulls is a lot less work--and a lot more fun!


Because the paint is dimensional, it did also take a few hours to dry, so if you're doing this in a shared space with a group, bring a cardboard box or tray so everybody can transport their skull home to finish drying. I noted that in the instructions I wrote to go in our Mexico take-home kit, and included a plaster of Paris skull for each kid and a large set of dimensional paint for them to share.

If I had this project to do again, I'd embed twine or wire into the plaster of Paris to use as a hanger when it dries. For Syd's sugar skull, though, I think I'm going to sand the back flat and then glue it to a bookend.