DIY: Halloween Craftin'

Hey, lookie! I created a club! Here are the rules:

1st Rule: You do not talk about the Naughty Kitty Club.
2nd Rule: You DO NOT talk about the Naughty Kitty Club. 

Oh, crap, wait. My bad. That's Fight Club rules. Carry on. Let's talk away about this ultra-photo heavy blog post and this imaginary club I created cuz that's what you do when you're not cool enough to be invited to join a bona-fide club (tho I guess using cheesy terms like "bona-fide" will prolly get you ruled outta just about any club). 

I actually have no idea just how this here needle felted number came to be. It most def wasn't planned. I mean, I'm currently buried under half finished sewing, painting, crafting, art teacherin' projects. So piling one more on top of that Mountain of Mess seemed like such a great idea. You know. I like to use crafting as a means of avoiding unfinished crafting. I'm sure it's how Martha Stewart lives her life. 

Since I'm currently in full-blown Halloweenie mode, I've got a big fat pinterest board bursting with vintage fall images. And images of black cats keep popping up and I'm loving them! Our first cat, Mama, was a sweet black cat and I'm always reminded of her when I see them. 

So, on a whim, in-between 23 other projects, I pulled this rarely worn lace jacket thing from Forever21 outta my closet and set to sketching out my plan. 

I started with this vintage Halloween kitty as my inspo and went from there...

You might notice I later dropped the bow tie as I thought it was two similar to this OTHER needle felted cat ensemble (yes, I've now created two needle felted cat wears. And, yes, I'm completely aware that this makes me a Crazy Cat Lady. Whateves.) After this was drawn, I cut it out and pinned it to the back of my jacket.

Using chalk, I sketched out the circle to go around the cat and started needle felting that part in with a combo of yellow and orange wool roving. Oh! If you'd like to learn more about needle felting supplies, how it's done, the whole thang, go here and check out some crappy videos I made! 

I like using the wool yarn as an outline because it gives me some super hard edges and also allows me to fill in my spaces Paint-by-Numbers style. 

Omg, everytime I see this photo, I think of Donald Trump. Tell me I'm not alone!

The parts of the face came together really fast. I just started outlining and filling it in. 

I tried to limit my color palette so that it had a vintage look to it. Instead of using black for the cat, I have this great roving that is a blend of purples, browns and blue that I thought worked well. 

The eyes proved to be a pinch challenging in that I had to really thing about what colors to use. If I had used black to outline the eyes, they would have disappeared into the background color. So outlining 'em in that deep orange was my solution. 

And, c'mon, I needed a slogan to go with the kitty, right? I was thinking of those jackets the Pink Ladies wore in Grease or the hot pink satin roller skating jacket I had as a kid. I toyed around with a couple of names and this is the one that I liked best.

I managed to get this done in the time it took me to watch Pulp Fiction and Ghostbusters. I'm on a rando retro movie watching bender. Did I mention it's fall break and I have a week off? Yeah, don't hate. 

During a coffee-refueling break, I got sidetracked and made a new table runner! I'm really loving all things mid-century mod right now (like, aren't we all?) and I found this fabric in my stash from Ikea. All it needed was a lil hemming and boom! New runner. I love how well it goes with that Williamsburg marbled platter (a thrifted score, if you can believe!) and the antler and feathers that el hubbo has collected on his hiking trips. 

Still loving the Halloween display. The only good part about taking it down at the end of the month is that it will be replaced by Christmas goodness, yay!

So this is what our table pretty much looked like over those first coupla days of fall break. Peaky Blinders on one laptop, pinterest on the other. Oh, and a Big Fat Frothy Coffee. That's a must. 

A buddy invited me over for a craft night. In preparation, I dug out a coupla old canvases and painted 'em white and then gave them orange stripes. In the end, one became the cat painting and the other as the background for my craft. 

At my buddy's house, we used this air dry clay stuff (I can't recall the name but it wasn't like Model Magic) and I shaped the parts to this Pumpkin Dude.

Once dry, I painted him in that went over him with some watered down brown acrylic paint. That was brushed quickly off to leave an antiqued-ish look behind.

Then I shoddily put him together with some wire and glued him to the canvas. The prob? He blended into the canvas too much, says me.

 So I lightened the orange lines with some watery acrylic and added the vertical stripes. Done! AND I just realized both he and the cat are winking. What the what? Am I on some sort of winking kick? Are they both missing an eye? Do they have an eye-winking twitch? 

All I know is that guy ain't winkin' fer sheeeeeet. Pumpkin! Get off my a$$!

Oh and then there was this painting. So, the back story on that crazy texture is that I painted that in oils a million years ago. The colors I used were horrid but the texture was cool. So I painted over that in watery creme, added the stripes and started busting out this witch. I have NO IDEA how to finish this beast but I'll keep you posted. 

 The texture has me really excited tho. 

 UGH. Speaking of beasts, this bad boy has been on my easel for a while now. I thought it would be so easy to bust out. Turns out it's taking foreverness. I'm determined to finish before the 31st, y'all. It's gonna happen. 

Unless I get distracted and make another jacket, that is. Oui! I think instead of the Naughty Kitty Club, I should change the name to Messy ProCATinator's Club. Tho it just don't have the same ring to it, does it?

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Weekend Adventure: Halloween Horror Nights

So for the past, I dunno, 7-ish years, hubs and I have made the trek down to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida to attend their Halloween Horror Nights. We cannot get enough.

 Don't hate me, but I as I write this here blog post, I am on this magical and amazing thing called Fall Break. That's right, for a whole week, no more pencils, no more books, no more kiddo's dirty looks. Nothin' but pajama parties and craftathons. That is until hubs and I take off on an adventure to Lalaland. I'll fill you in on that trip in another post. 

In the meantime, here's a slightly belated post on a trip we took a couple weeks ago to Tampa and Orlando. Every October, we travel down there to attend Busch Garden's Howl-O-Scream and Universal Studio's Halloween Horror Nights. This year we also visited Busch Garden's Williamsburg's Howl-O-Scream and I chatted about that trip here. Because we attended Universal's event several nights, I thought I'd share that spooktacular experience with you.

Just like the Walmart Greeters, these creepy dudes met us at the entrance of HHN (because I'm too lazy to type out Halloween Horror Nights, I'm abbreviatin'). They towered over the crowd at about 14' tall.

 So, lemme tell you how HHN works. It takes place at Universal Studios (not Islands of Adventure, aka Harry Potter World). At around 5pm, they kick everyone out of Universal to prep the houses and the scare zones. If people have paid to "stay and scream", as it's called, then they get to hang out in a holding area until the gates of doom are open. Those lucky folks get to enter a pinch early and experience the haunted houses first.

'Bout as friendly as a Walmart Greeter too.

 That's how we did it. My hubs is crazy about going through these houses, so he has our whole route mapped out: skip all of the houses at the front where the crowds head first and run straight for those in the back. There were seven different haunted houses to go through, with lines up to 45-100 minutes long. So it's good to have a hubs with a plan. And a front-of-the-line pass, if you can swing it.

 One of the most popular houses (though not my personal fave) was the Walking Dead. This haunted house was created by the dude behind the AMC show. I've only caught snippets of the first episode online (we don't have a telly) and this house made you feel as though you were walking right through the set. It was frighteningly amazing. 

These zombies were not in the actual haunted house as they won't allow photography. They were apart of something called a scare zone. Scare zones are areas within the park where scare actors continue to frighten people...which means no where within the park is safe. This zombie-themed scare zone was right outside of the Walking Dead house.

We had the most beautiful weather while we were there. During HHN, all of the rides continue to run. Which means you can stop screaming at spooky stuff long enough to go scream on The Rip Ride Rocket or The Mummy.

Only during HHN do they change the sign to read Mel's DIE-IN. Love it.

Most of the haunted houses are in sound stages, meaning they are inside buildings used for filming. Universal Studios is an actual working studio. Those particular houses are usually the best...but lack an outdoor entrance worth photographing. This particular house was designed by the magicians Penn and Teller and was not inside a sound stage. It's theme was that a nuclear meltdown had happened in Sin City. Best part? The casino girl with three ta-ta's.

Alice Cooper also designed a house called My Nightmare. This entrance was hands-down the best. Alice's songs were blasting through this house along with some very nightmarish things.

Me and a super cute Jell-o Shots girl. They sell the shots in those hilariously nasty blood bags.

Did you notice I'm wearing The Horror Flick Dress? We went with some friends and family to HHN and I shamelessly wore the dress Every Single Night. The joke became that the scariest thing about HHN was the smell comin' from my dress. Thank you Jen of Peachy Tuesday for crafting me a matching headband!

Oh, my bad. They were friendly enough to stop for a photo.

 Hubs just looked over my shoulder at these photos and said sadly, "I can't believe our trip came and went so fast." It's truly our favorite thing. If you can't make it to such an event, then get yourself to your local haunted house. You seriously won't regret it!

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DIY: The Horror Flick Dress

My cardboard suitcase is packed and I'm ready: Horrifying Haunts, here we come.

Ah, Labor Day weekend. A time for cookouts, catching up with friends and, of course, sewing a Horror Flick Dress. Oh, you didn't know that was on the agenda? Well, you best get crackin, friend.

I know what you are thinking: Dude (feel free to call me Cassie), it's September! Halloween isn't for weeks!

Or maybe your thought is: Wow! That dude (seriously? It's Cassie) has cured her infamous Pro-Cass-tination problem. 

Or perhaps, in all of your ADHD-ness, you are comtemplating: Another dress? From the same pattern as the Empire Strikes Back, Presley Poodle and the I-See-London-I-See-France frocks? Huh. So versatile (hey, is that sarcasm?). I think I need more chocolate. My feet itch. Is the cat reading my mind right now? Duuude! (I give up).

As soon as I saw this Horror Flick fabric by Robert Kaufman, I knew I had to have some. I shared some extra yardage with Jen over at Peachy Tuesday. I cannot wait to see what awesome hair accessories she busts out with this fabric. I snagged my yardage from Lady Buttons Fabric.

 Okay, so lemme explain. I'm actually not way ahead of schedule because here, at Creepy Casa de Cassie, Halloween begins very early (in less than 10 days!) and continues for every weekend until the end of October. I confessed in this post that hubs and I love going to haunted events. You know, the kind where you pay money for someone in their zombie-finest to chase you with a chainsaw. After seeing this fabric, I knew I had a make a dress for the occasion.

 Our addiction to these haunted events started at Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights (I dare you to say "Candyman" three times and click on the link). I remember walking up to the first haunted house behind a group of girls. Whatever they saw at the entrance of the house scared them so much, they shrieked and took off running. This left hubs and I staring into the eyes of an actress dressed as a psych patient complete with bloody gown, crazy grimace and one big butcher knife. After escaping that house with sweaty palms, nervous knees and laughter, we were hooked.

It's very fitting that Universal Studios would host such a spook-tacular event as it's kind of like the Godfather of Horror. Founded by Carl Laemmle in 1912, the studio is the oldest in the U.S. In the 1930's Carl's son, Laemmle, Jr., began producing a series of monster movies, nicknamed Universal Monsters. Those movies can be found in the posters above...and in the fabric of my dress.

If you find yourself at Universal Studios in Orlando, please make sure you see the Universal Studios Horror Make-Up Show. It gives a great history on the horror movies of Universal all while being super silly. Not gonna be in Orlando anytime soon? Check out this bootleg.

When I wear this to the haunted houses, it will not be in these shoes. I'll be pairing this dress with my less-than-glamorous-but-oh-so-comfy Chacos. Perfect for running from chain-saw-wielding-homocidal-maniacs.

Not that I'll be doing any running. Oh no. This year, I'm gonna put on my best Morticia Addams face and be brave. Look those monsters right in the eye and not even blink, take my hands off my hips or have a hair out of place. My evil eye will have them running from me.

Dude, seriously?! If I could perfect that glare, I'd never have a single ounce of backtalk in my class room. The only thing more frightening than that stare is that drive-in movie screen sized fivehead, er, forehead.

Oh who am I kidding. My evil eye will quickly fade and become a Big Fat Baby Cry. Like every year. It's the only time the monsters break character and give me a "Duuude! Relax! Can someone please come get this crazy?!"

 Thanks for dropping by. I'll keep you posted on the haunted events the dress and I visit. Enjoy your Labor Day, dudes!

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