Justine's Halloween Blog Party 2015

You're all welcome to attend my yearly Halloween Blog Party! It's in a new place this year, but it's not hard to find. You have a full moon to light your way.

Just follow that helpful little bat and his friends through the graveyard...

Almost there...

There's the place! Looks like it's raining, so you better hurry in.

I'll just open the door for you...

Welcome! Come on in!

Looks like the bats are staying for the party.

There are already some guests here to greet you!

Miranda was first to arrive as Rita Skeeter, that pesky, poison-pen reporter from the Harry Potter stories. She arrived early so she wouldn't miss a moment to report on.

Next was Alicia as a Mad Hatter Villain. She manages to be both colorful and scary at the same time. Look at those eyes! Alicia is a really talented makeup artist. Check out some of her Halloween makeup looks and tutorials here.

As if that Mad Hatter wasn't scary enough, two of those bats that flew into the house transformed into vampires before our very eyes! Patricia and her date Chris:

Old Fashion Halloween had a more traditional entrance when she knocked on the door. Although, being the Steampunk Seamstress that she is, she'd flown in on a Steampunk airship to get here.

We all heard the sound of dripping water outside. Something had emerged from the sea and was heading toward the house. It was Bob as Jaws!

There's lots of good music at the party thanks to Dead Air 98.3 FM: http://radiodork.com/

I've been listening to Dead Air through October and I've been hearing so many songs I've never heard before. Go listen, and I bet a lot of these songs will be new to you too. Dead Air dug deep, deep, deep into the past for some of these songs. There are quite a few from the 1930s.

Clay, the guy who assembled all of those wonderful vintage Halloween songs for Dead Air, sent his daughter Emily as his representative to the party. She emerged from the graveyard outside and glided to the door as a Corpse Bride!

Next to the door was a really creepy creature: Venom from the Spiderman comics! Just look at those claws. Venom had taken Jason as his host for the night.

A flash of fire shot up outside the window!

Out of the flames emerged Chris as a fashionable Devil!

Chris was also nice enough to bring brownies for everyone! (They were baked in the fires of Hell.)

Melody as Red Riding Hood came running up to the door with the big bad wolf on her heels! Luckily she made it inside in time.

There was more commotion in the graveyard. Look who stumbled out and made their way to the party! The Real Queen of Horror, Zena and her husband as a rebellious and a geeky zombie.

A fun party activity was watching the old Mickey Mouse cartoon "The Haunted House"

You might recognize a lot of the gifs in this post from that cartoon!

There's still time left if any of you would like to join the fun! Just send me a costumed pic and I'll add you to the group.

P.S. ~ As a little party treat to go with the Disney Halloween theme, here are bunch of cute coloring pages you can print out:

Disney Halloween Coloring Pages 

Halloween Goodies from UncommonGoods

Recently, UncommonGoods generously reached out to me to ask if I'd review some of their products. UncommonGoods is a company that sells the work of individual artists and craftspeople, so there were many stylish and unique items for me to choose from.

Something cool about UncommonGoods is that they give $1 of every purchase to a charity, and you choose the charity out of various options that are all worthy causes, from saving forests to literacy to human rights. More info here.

Tom (the person who reached out to me) was nice enough to look through their stock and recommend some Halloween themed products. I ended up choosing two items. One was a beautiful nightlight with a full moon glowing behind the silhouette of a tree.

The Midnight Moon Lithophane Nightlight:

This is feeling like the year of the full moon for me with all the photos of the moon I've been taking and the recent Super Blood Moon Eclipse. So this nightlight seemed like the perfect choice for me! I'm showing it here with two different walls so you can see how it casts light on different textures. It gives a big glow, more than I'm used to from a nightlight. It fills a small room with a soft warmth.

Something you can only really appreciate in person is the material this nightlight is made from. The artist used porcelain and a process inspired by the lithophanes of the 1800s. A card was included with this which explained the history of the lithophane process.  Knowing the history made me appreciate this nightlight even more!

I'm very interested in things from the 1800s, so I was surprised at how little I knew about lithophanes. When you're done reading this, I suggest googling "antique lithophanes" to see some examples. I'd like to get my hands on one of those antiques!

This is what the nightlight looks like when it's not switched on. It's an easy assembly to attach the porcelain pane to the base. You can see in the photo below that there are two little plastic screws on the back that you tighten once you've fit the porcelain pane in. This takes a standard nightlight bulb.

Briefly, this is the process behind the nightlight: First the artist carves the image in wax while illuminating it from behind. Then they take a plaster mold of the carving and cast a fine porcelain in the mold. They then kiln fire it to 2300 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 hours, giving it a translucency. Pretty cool, hey? A lot of work went into this nightlight.

The second item I requested happened to be something I'd pinned a picture of on Pinterest some time back. So I was super happy to see it offered by Uncommon Goods! This Bat on a Branch is made from age-accelerated steel. The sturdy bat comes on a metal "branch" that can attach to a wall or tree with two screws.

Here's the bat's backside:

In his natural habitat :)

I haven't decided where to hang the bat for this season. I'm hoping to have him securely hanging in time for this year's Halloween party, because I think he'd be something fun and welcoming at the door.

Something else Halloweeny and moon related that I was tempted to choose was this scarf:

Hubble Telescope Moon Phase Scarf

The moon gradually makes its way from a sliver to full as you make your way up the scarf. UncommonGoods actually sells a lot of cool scarves, which you can see here if you like. 

The moon theme will continue through October for me, because this year's Witch Party will have a full moon/spooky tree theme. A theme that as it happens will fit perfectly with my new nightlight! I'd actually been thinking about that party theme before this offer was made to me, so that's a fun coincidence.

I should mention that UncommonGoods is not for the most part a Halloween themed site. They have many lovely gifts for all occasions, especially if you're shopping for a lady. For example, you can find a gift for your girlfriends here and there are some very unique gifts for wives here. Where else could you find a ladies belt made from a recycled fire hose? Or a pair of library card socks? It's worth a look!

My Mini Coffin Jewelry Box

I've been looking forward to sharing this project! I painted this little coffin in November but I was too much in the Christmas spirit during December to blog about it. Now that we're in January, I'm ready to leap back into the Halloween topics!

You might remember this mini coffin from my After Halloween Target Haul in 2013.

If you're lucky, you can find these little wooden coffin boxes at craft stores around Halloween. It took me a while to decide what to do with this one. Then, while organizing some jewelry, it occurred to me that it would be nice to have a separate box for some of my smaller Halloween jewelry. Then I remembered the coffin box!

I started by painting the coffin in a metallic purple. This was the same paint I used on some of the little skeletons for our last Witch Party.

I painted a little night scene on the coffin lid with some silver paint.

About this time, it occurred to me that if I painted the inside edges of the coffin doors, they'd probably stick when closed. That, and the bottom of the coffin could stick to the surface under it. Especially on those humid days, painted wood stuff sticks to whatever it's next to.

So after a little searching online, I found out that a polyurethane vanish can seal off painted wood and prevent it from sticking. I was happy to find this polyurethane varnish at a local craft store. I think with a coupon the varnish ended up costing under a dollar. I love this product! It doesn't smell like much of anything. You'd have to try smelling it to notice an odor. It dries clearly and quickly. And it does the job! My little coffin now has a smooth finish and is in no danger of sticking to anything. So I recommend this product to all of you crafters! Americana DuraClear Matte Varnish:

After finding that awesome sealer, I moved on to painting the coffin interior. I decided to go with one of those plush, silky coffin interiors. Perfect for a little vampire. :) I painted that button-tufted look on the inside and sealed it off.

Then my little coffin was ready for some jewelry.

I closed the jewelry box and sat it on a shelf with my Draculaura doll and her little vampire bat.

What better place to set my new coffin box than with a little vampire?