Bat Lights, Skeletons reaching from the grave, and leaves changing colors...

Found these on Apartment Therapy after doing a search for Bats on Google Search, The origional fixtures and photographs can be found at Rejuvenation . Pricey but beautiful.

Image Found on Country Living I think its a really cool idea.

Found on Flickr, Image by Lif...

We don't have color changing leaves here in Las Vegas, or at least we don't have many, its the one thing I don't like about Las Vegas, but thats a problem I can solve, sort of, with Flickr... lol

Quickie: Bookmark

Image by Strublay, art by Strublay

I needed a book mark for my Linux + Book, because I'm running low on bookmarks.

So I busted out a pen and my watercolors and I made one. 

Just a quick photo of the finished product: I'll be doing a high-rez scan tomorrow and putting it on my Deviant Art. Figured I'd feature it here because it is a Jack O Lantern, and in my signature style. 

Thing to remember

Witch Jars are not waterproof. 

We had a rainstorm, in Vegas, and my witch jars got water damaged. 

Thank YOU bipolar, random, unpredictable weather patterns. *sigh* Global Warming/Global Weirding strikes again... 

Strublay Style Witch Jars tips.

I really think its awesome that someone else is gong to use my idea to use colored glue on their witch jars, so I just wanted to put out a few notes on the idea. These are lessons I've learned from doing this with my Witch Jars, and I figure that the more I tell you, the better the idea will work for you. 

I'd like to state again that I did not come up with the idea known as the witch jar, that awesomeness I rightfully attribute to Pumpkin Rot. 

Pumpkin Rot's posts on the subject

Found on Pumpkin Rot's Blog, Image By Rot. 

I'm using pint Mason Jars that come 12 for $6 from Walmart, when working with these little guys I figured that color is a good substitute for size. Once frosted they give off a huge amount of light and look awfully nasty.

This image, and all images below by Strublay.

To color the glue I use tube Water Color Pigments like these that I picked up at Walmart a few months ago: I haven't tried using acrylics yet, but I bet you could use them in the glue just fine. Don't use Cake Watercolor pigment. 

I use White Glue/Glue All, not school glue, from what I can tell School Glue will flake off way too easily. While White Glue is not technically formulated to stick to glass, it does a heck of a job of it anyway. 

You can use what ever colors of craft paint you want for the top or the insides, but I went with flat black, because I wanted it too look like the glass had been coated in sealing resins to prevent water from getting in, or out. Furthermore, flat black paint is my goto for everything aged. 

When it comes to the brushes you use, make them ones you don't care about as the glue will ruin them.

Opacity matters, if you use a 1:1 ratio of glue to pigment, then the opacity of your final effect will be too much, as I show you below in an example. Here I mixed 1 part Yellow Ochre pigment with one part glue, and as you can see it comes out really really opaque. >>>

HOWEVER, with colors like Blue or green, or other dark colors the "advertised" color and the actual color will differ, don't freak out if your color looks too dark, when the glue dries it will dry relatively clear and the light will shine through just fine. 

Less is always more, better to work up the color in layers than going crazy and messing up the effect. Randomness denotes authenticity, don't put an even coat on to your Jar, go crazy, hitting it from different angles, stippling it, rubbing or scratching it off, the more beat up it looks the better.

For the record, Never, EVER add even the smallest amount of black pigment to your glue unless you want your glue black. The black pigment will mess up a color in a millisecond. 

Furthermore if you get it all done and dried, and do not like the results, you can wash it off and start over. Saving grace, I'm telling you.

For the side dribbles that I LOVE to do, go crazy with the color, dark is good. 

Then use the pigmented glue to add to the color near the top and slop it all up. it makes the drips look a bit more realistic. 

If you want to add more texture to your glue layers, take fine dust, ground up black chalk, strands of hair, strands of fur and stick them in the glue before it dries. I use an old blusher brush for the dust. I also get my hands covered in black pastel and grab the jar after its dried. 

I like to wrap the mouth of the jar where the threads are with hemp chord, to do this all you need to do is put glue on the threads, and keep the hemp tight as you wind it around. Occasionally soak the damn thing in glue as it will dry fast. I then paint it with black paint, and seal it again with glue.












I hope that any of this helps, and I'd love to see pictures of your Jars!

Universal Studios, Blucky does Hollywood, and looking forward to Disneyland Halloween.

Found on Flickr, Image by Biggimote

I went to Universal Studios this weekend, it was an on the fly, hey lets go, kinda thing, and I'm actually quite happy we did it. You see at the beginning of the year my sig other and I took his brother to Universal Studios and we got a heck of a deal, "Buy one day, get 2010 free" So we have an annual pass for the price of a day. (Halloween Horror nights are blocked, bummer) So we can go anytime that there isn't black out dates, for free. A really awesome thing considering that just recently the studio tour opened king kong 3d, which is highly recommended btw (go first thing at opening, the line is the shortest its going to get all day... during the middle of the day the line was 75 minutes long for the studio tour, we waited 15. However if you get stuck in the monster line, believe me it is completely worth it, King Kong is really, really wonderful stuff)

The image above is also on the studio tour, for those of you who have never been to Universal Studios Hollywood, its the house from psycho! Here the image was taken during Halloween Horror Nights, and the psycho house is rightfully lit up at night in Halloween splendor. No one does horror quite like Universal. 

Also on the studio tour was Legit Halloween-y goodness! Wisteria Lane (The stepford... er... I mean Desperate Housewives Set {You think I watch that? HA}) is dressed up for Halloween, and who made an appearance on the set? 

Why BLUCKY of course!

Found on Flicker, Image by Polly Nesia

Yes fellow haunters, that lovable blow molded skeleton we love, or love to hate, is a Television star. He's hanging from one of the houses on Wisteria Lane, and will be featured on Desperate Housewives some time during October I would not wonder. Its nice to know that even Hollywood will resort to the use of a big lots Blucky every now and again, and the really funny part of the story is that I was seriously laughing my ass off about it and my Husband just stared at me, clueless as to what I was talking about. "Honey, whats a Blucky?"

The rest of Wisteria Lane was also dressed up for our favorite Holiday, as was another set for Parenthood. I'm sorry that I didn't get pictures, but the movement was jarring and taking out the dainty 1gig microSD card from my phone and sticking it on to the adapter to save photos to for my camera was out of the question at the time... It was early morning... I was tired. Waffles.

Found on Flickr, image by Disney1955

Lastly I'm looking forward to seeing Disneyland during Halloween time. Strublay and co. will be Heading to Disneyland in October, and I'll get to experience Halloween Time at Disneyland, a rare thing considering that I'm in school full time, but my primarily online class schedule permits me to go and do things I can't with a live class. I assure you I'll be taking a ton of HQ photos for the site.

It's my goal, as a resident of the south west, to visit every theme park around Halloween time. Not all at one time mind you, but one a year or so. I've done Las Vegas' Fright Dome, and I enjoyed it, but I now want to see how the big boys do Halloween. Disneyland Resort is first, and I'm looking forward to it. 

One last thing: I've gotten some awesome comments regarding my technique for witch jars and on the blog in general, I just want to let you know I just read them, and I'll be responding with another post here very soon.

Until I get that done: Have an awesome labor day!

Witch Jars and a Still Life Session...

... All to prove I'm not ignoring my Halloween Blog.
School started this week, and I've been getting in my Halloweenie fix by going to the forum and various sites and neglecting my own and the fun that it brings along with its upkeep.
I decided on the fly that I needed to do a still life, for fun, of the Witch Jars, a couple of my lanterns I keep out year round, and the pine needles and cones on my porch...
I took a crap load of time to set it up, shoot it, and generally mess around on my porch at 2-3 in the morning.. My neighbors are going to wonder about me I think... Then again, what else is new? Also I re-discovered the awesomeness of my porch, I forget that this is the time of year where sitting out there is bearable.
I also came up with some brilliant ideas for my paper luminaries, so I'll see if it works in the next day or so.. and I figured out that I want to do more creative paper silhouettes in my windows... that will be fun.
Anyway, here is the fruit of my photo session.

Image By Strublay

Image By Strublay

Image By Strublay

As I said previously, I took watercolor paints and mixed it with Elmer's white glue to get a translucent effect, to give the grime character I guess. 

Image By Strublay

On my first one not only did I use the colored glue technique, but I also pulverized a bit of black pastel and dusted it on to the glue before it dried, and used a sooty flame to blacken them up a bit. 

Image By Strublay

Green came out cool.

Image By Strublay

The Green and Brown ones hanging from wire hangers and hemp chord.

Image By Strublay

The amber one sitting among my pumpkin candle, pine needles and a pine cone. 

Image By Strublay

The blue one is cool because I left a majority of it clear, I just frosted it with Elmer's and then dribbled the darkly colored blue glue on it... turned out great. 

Image By Strublay

Image By Strublay

Now all, its 4 am, Vegas time, and I need to go get some rest... G'Night. 

Witch Jars, Fall falling, and pine needles...

I'm supremely tired, so this is gonna be a VERY short post. A few picture posts will be forthcoming tomorrow when I finally run out of errends to do.
When in doubt/bored: Check online Classes, Facebook, Halloween Forum, look for Halloween pretties on Flickr and other image sites.
lol.
So I have so far Four Witch Jars.
Mine are inspired by pumpkinrot, but the Back Story is... different...


I imagine my odd, and wildly obsessed druid/shaman type witch pouring odd liquids and strange, thick extracts from Jars... the empties being thrown to the side and forgotten for years, possibly decades... Finally she gets to Halloween night and in a frantic rush to bring light in to her abode to hold back the spirits uses the Messy jars as candle holders: the blackened sealing resins, particularly disgusting verities of dried sludge, various fibers and dust filtering the light. The stoppers are all missing in action, used for other projects one wouldn't wonder.
Some where on there is at least one severely unfortunate cockroaches leg stuck to a jar.


Anyway, I'm achieving that forgotten, discusting, sludg-y look by coloring white glue (not school glue) with watercolors. You have to tip toe the line between opacity and color saturation to get the right look.
Its fun.
I'll have pictures some time soon, all hanging from their hemp chords and pissing off my husband.

Well its fall in Vegas, the winds have kicked up and Sunday the temperature peaked at a BEAUTIFUL 87F.  However Vegas weather is anything but stable, and the bipolar nature of our weather will kick in with low hundreds on Thursday, Friday and Saturday...

With the wind comes the pine needles and I plan on using them in my display this year... I'm letting my porch collect them, and I'll put them out on the concrete with a healthy layer of red dust... Its the desert's version of fall leaves.
Alright. G'night.

The Brainstorm

So last night I was just NOT tired. So I was laying in the bed, listening to the wrestling DVD I had popped in to the X-Box (Yeah, rockin' it old school) and I brainstormed, what else, Halloween Stuff.
I'm working on a seriously tight budget this year, but I have this interesting idea involving Paper bags and Theban, as well as other cipher writing systems.

Theban, One Version

Theban is a latin based cipher writing system, used typically by neopagans for their spell journals to hide what they are doing from prying eyes. I used it when I was a teenager, when I went in to the neopagan thing, and then realized how stupid it was to hide my notes using this method since resources on Theban are all over the place. (It is much better used for spells and entreaties to angels, as one has to seriously think about EVERY letter your writing while using it, thus adding subconscious power of intent to what ever your doing. Reminder: Spells are a form of prayer, essentially when you pray, you weave spells. Don't go crazy, okay kids?) Anyway, It has origins in the 1500's, and its cool looking.

Theban, Alternate Version (the one I learned)

So I was thinking about my costume this year, what I want to do, how I want to pull it off, ect ect. And doing a witch seems right up my Alley. It's been years since I've done my version of something simple like a witch, since I did not dress up last year, and the year before was a failure. So I was thinking about how my witch would look sitting on the stairs with my display so far in my head. So far I have Pumpkins (the goal is 20), my take on Pumpkinrot Witch Jars (small for now, bigger later), Cob Webs, and Neovana/Devotional Candles. I'm planning on making A fog Chiller, and a couple of other accouterments, but I figure that what I have is not enough for me... So I see paper bag LED luminaries, but not just any paper bag luminaries.... Spell Luminaries. I place inserts in to the paper bags that filter the light and illuminates spells in cipher writing on the insides of the bag.
I'll be doing a few tests tonight. And I might do this with The Witch Jars, which would be interesting.
If you have any suggestions for what the spells should be, please throw them up in the comments.
This should be fun.

Of Pumpkin Tealight Holders and stormy nights.

Image by Strublay

Shorty post for now, I might go trolling for some cool images later tonight... Went to Home Goods picked up the big guy on the right, I loved his small nose and big grin. Best 8 bucks I've spent on Halloween so far. Also It was storming in the Henderson area, so walking back to the car with my Jack pail in one hand and holding my husbands hand with the other I felt like I was trick or treating. It was awesome. 

Pumpkin Spice, and everything nice.

Image By Strublay

So I picked up my first pumpkin spice candle of the year from wally world. It smells awesome and brings up my spirits immensely.

Image by Strublay

Found on bathandbodyworks.com

I'm addicted to this scent. I haven't tried the perfume version yet... but I'm loving the body spray and lotion. 

Smells like fall.

Of Grunge, Spikes, and Colorful Devotional Displays.

Found on Flickr, Image By clockworknate

Found on Flickr, Image By Cremini

Found on Flickr, Image by JoelDeluxe
*Edit* This image is actually a Christmas Display, but I liked it so much I decided to post it anyway.

Of Fog, a Rose, and a Mausoleum Covered in Vines.

Found on Flickr, Image by ShotsAtRandom

Haunting Image, I adore the Celtic Crosses.

Found on Flickr, Image by Juergen Kurlvink

Found on Flickr, Image by Luigi Mancini

Just an epic image of a mausoleum, fog and vines, and that dreamy look... *shutter*

Music To Create By

This post isn't wholly Halloween Related, but it is a quintessential part of my creative process. 
Guild Wars is my Favorite game of all time, as of this moment. Guild Wars is an MMORPG that I started playing back in 2005, and back then I had a CD of the origional score that I listened to constantly (COLLECTORS EDITION FTW!)

I recently remembered my Account information to the Direct Song website and re-downloaded the Original CD, which I have seemingly lost in the intervening years, and I re-downloaded my Guild Wars Factions soundtrack that I bought in 2006.

Jeremy Soule's sweepingly epic music really adds the right punch to the game, to give you perspective I picked up WoW after I played Guild Wars and hated the game for its LACK of a good musical score. The soundtracks stir somthing inside you from begining to end, and this is the soundtrack to jump-start my creative process

If your looking for something to put in your Haunts I would Recommend Eve's Theme (shes a necromancer, and as such her theme is dark) and Abadons Mouth both from Prophesies, I haven't gone through Eye of the North or Nightfall yet, but both might have good stuff on there.

Enjoy.

No job = changing plans

So there will be no pumpkin beast this year. As much as making one would be awesome, a lack of money, materials, and space to house it has prevented any possibility of creating one this year, or any year in the near future.
Also the automated lighting system I had devised for the front yard of the house has also proved too expensive as well.
I'm sticking to what I have, a ton of Jack o lanterns, simple western cross grave markers, neovana candles, witch Jars (pumpkin rot's creation that I'm unabashedly stealing) and day of the dead altars. throw in some lighting fundamentals, cobwebs, a low laying fog, incense and candles and I'm set. I'll probably throw in some cheap rosaries and dead flowers too...
Its best, in my mind, to throw the majority of what measly budget I can claim towards the pumpkins, since they are the heart of Halloween for me. The rest will be for mason jars, neovana candles and the rest.
It's just the way it has to be this year. I can still get the creep though, and that's my intention.

Dear Chainsaw Man.

You know that archetypal chainsaw scare in EVERY haunted house? Yeah, well in my last post I bashed it, and apparently the God of Halloween has determined that I was wrong for doing it.
Mr. Scary Chase-you-around-with-lawn-care-items is now running around tearing up my dreams. I've had nightmares for the past two nights of Mr Chainsaw.
The first nightmare was something out of a damn video game.... It started off where I was working in a pop scare haunt, every one had chainsaws and I was trying to improve upon the scare. Then this discovery channel like pop up overlayed and fuzzed out the image and gave me the complete stats on a particular type of chainsaw while giving me a 360 view of the tool. Then all of a sudden I was in a house running down the stairs with mr chainsaw running after me, I just got out of the door, a'la Halloween (movie) and I heard his foot steps right behind me and woke up. It was like Doom meets Halloween meets Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
So this morning I wrote this on my FB after encounter #2 with mr chainsaw man.

Dear Mr. Chainsaw Man: As much as I am flattered that you enjoy hanging out in my subconscious and proving all my lofty ideals when it comes to horror incorrect, GTFO. ~~~Not really that cordially, nor yours,
S.A.S

I'll be going around and finding pictures of Halloween later today. For now I'm going back to bed.

Somthing I forgot to mention, and the nature of fear.

All of the pumpkins that will light on their own, will be evil. Glaring pumpkins with nightmare grins lighting of their own accord at your approach, oh.... oh yes....

It will be beautiful.

One of my friends once told me that Terror could only be derived from what I like to call the pop scare style: pop ups, loud noises, chainsaws, screaming, gore, spurting blood... all that rubbish.

I despise that sort of scare. I like scares to be a deep down, stays with you, "I should not be here", give-you-nightmares kind of scare. I like creep.

The best haunted house I ever went to was a cheap piece of work put together by a local group and hosted in the parking lot of the power company. No trailers were involved. The most vivid memories were of girls, decently young, in tattered and torn dresses, in chicken coup cages. They stared, made no noise, just stared at you as you walked past. It made you question, "why am i walking past these girls and not helping them?" It made you question what you were doing, and the more you thought about it, the more those girls stares ate at you.

I had nightmares for weeks. It bothers me even now.

That, THAT is a good haunted house.

I walk through pop scare houses and never flinch, I just smile and keep walking, giggling at the terror of my comrades. It takes real creep to get me.

Innovation, detail, creep. The more it begs you, no, DEMANDS that you think about whats going on, the more it gets to you.

I work for that and it heartens me that there are others like me who like the creep.

I like me some detailed displays, and this year.... this year will be awesome.

I'm Back!

And somthing awesome has happened. My Aunt, an extremely social creature who loves to throw a party, has invited my mother and I too decorate her house for a massive Halloween party.

It's my first chance to really go all out for a Halloween display. She has a HOUSE, a with a legit front yard and everything. I haven't found a Job yet, I'm still trying, but I'm skeptical that I'll find one before the Halloween season.

So needless to say my pumpkin beasts have taken a back seat for the year. This year is still the year of the pumpkin, and I plan on taking over the front yard with as many Jack O' Lanterns as I can. If I can afford to make them all real pumpkins, then I will, but if not I'll be making faux pumpkins.

The idea is that someone will walk up to the front yard, seeing a bunch of pumpkins in the yard, some (mostly happy ones) lit, some/most that seemingly had gone out before they got there. As they walk up to the door, pumpkins begin to light on their own by some ghostly hand. Lanterns on trees and in the porch area (most inspired by Pumpkin Rot's witch jars) light on their own as well. The creep factor will be insane.


I can't wait. God I can't wait. *continues R&D*

hehehehe, I get to freak out middle aged party goers. Life is good.

For Pumpkin Rot and Friends

I stumbled upon my Favorite Haunters work Today. Pumpkin Rot's Roots was on De-motivational Posters, as such i sent him The link. I went home from My electronics class today only to find that Mr. Rot had featured Greeter and Guardian on his blog.

So, for friends of Pumpkin Rot: May I present, Greeter and Guardian in some of my favorite photos of them from last year. This will be my last post until June, When I will be starting to make my artificial Pumpkins for my display this year. Enjoy.

Image by Strublay

Guardian and Greeter resting after a long night, This is my absolute favorite photo of these two, simply due to the light hitting Guardian.

Image By Strublay

Image by Strublay

Image by Strublay

I'll see you in June, my fellow Creatures.