I’m seeing a lot of DIY Halloween action this year, and it’s still relatively “early” in the season. I predict we’re in for a great year. Keep creating, Halloweenies!
One industrious sweet tooth decided to revamp the holy grail of Halloween treats and make homemade candy corn. Melisser wanted to enjoy its simple sweetness sans the sucky ingredients, so she tweaked a recipe from the Epicurious Editor’s Blog- with perfect results- and shared her success story online. Visit her blog for a step by step recipe with pictures. If you make your own homemade candy corn, let us know how it turned out!
Okay my little dark decorators, we have a new Halloween Decor tutorial for you, courtesy of Jill King from Spokane, WA*. You know those little bricks of modeling clay that are available at every craft store? With a just little bit of artistry- not too much, this craft is still suitable for beginners- you can transform those into little pumpkin picture holders. Use them to display creepy old ephemera, Halloween cards, or even your emo photography. Here’s an easy Halloween decorating idea: for a simple Halloween display, line up a handful of these along a windowsill or mantle and your decor is done. No matter what you’ve got going on with your Halloween decorations, these will make a creepy cool addition.
New Tutorial: Pumpkin Wire Picture Holder
*Thanks, Jill!
The bummer about kids Halloween costumes is that they’re pretty much a one-time use item. Kids grow so dang fast, and unless you’ve got younger kids to pass down those costumes to, they’re useless to your family after the season. Thankfully, you can help out other families in need and give new life to a used costume at the same time. Preschool Rock has set up a Halloween Costume Exchange that allows you to donate your kids used costumes and get a 20% discount off a new costume for this year. Pretty sweet deal.
How Does the Halloween Costume Exchange Work?
Parents seeking free Halloween costumes:
- Look through the listings of free Halloween costumes.
- When a desirable Halloween costume is found, the parent contacts the Halloween costume donator via email to arrange for shipment.
- Parent receives Halloween costume in the mail just in time for Halloween!
Parents wanting to donate a Halloween costume:
- Complete the Halloween Costume Exchange Donation Form.
- Your Halloween costume will be posted on PreschoolRock; PreschoolRock will email a code to you that will give you 20% off the cost of a new Halloween costume from Anytime Costumes.
How simple is that? So if you’ve got any kids costumes laying around please donate them so that a family in need can have a great Halloween.
Did you know that Monday and Tuesday are the biggest days of the week for online costume sales? Maybe it has to do with post-weekend day dreaming… “I was just thinking about what to be for Halloween over the weekend. Damn Mondays. How about I put this TPS report away and look at costumes online”.
If you’re feeling that post-weekend Halloween itch then be sure to grab one of these coupon codes first. These are all good for the entire season so there’s no rush. Check back for the really good limited-time sales which will probably start showing up in early October. If you know of any Halloween-related sales or coupons (either online or at a retail store) please share them in the comments.
UPDATE: Here’s a new time-sensitive offer from Buy Costumes: Get 10% off your order with code HAUNT10. You can also get free shipping on orders $60+, and no coupon is required. Expires October 1, 2007.
- Buy Costumes: Most orders ship the same day, they have the cheapest shipping, and their selection is absolutely unbeatable. Use coupon code FRANKEN5 to get 5% off orders $65+
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Extreme Halloween: Family owned company offering Halloween costumes over a network of 12 sites. Use coupon code 10CJ to get 10% off orders $75+, or code 15CJ to get 15% off orders $100+.
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Spirit Halloween: Huge selection in their retail and online stores. Use coupon code 20Percent to get 20% off one item. You can also combine that with coupon code FreeShip49 to get free shipping on orders $49+.
- Retro Candy for Halloween – Old fashioned candy from the 50s, 60s, 70s or 80s… Get 5% off any order with coupon code 00224 (*This one expires Sept. 30th)
In honor of Resident Evil: Extinction hitting theatres, I declare today Zombie Friday. Since truly cool zombie news doesn’t happen every week this will probably be a bi-weekly feature, but we’ll see. If you have any zombie goodies to recommend for the next Zombie Friday, shoot me an e-mail (And do aim for the head… Zing!)
So you’ve just watched Extinction and you’re hungering for more zombie viewing? Visit Zombie Cinema and you can watch 70+ zombie movies and shorts. They’re all free and in the public domain so you don’t have to worry about the MPAA knocking on your door. Talk about flesh hungry ghouls…
If you’ve never listened to Pseudopod, an amazing horror fiction podcast, be sure to poke through their archives. Their topics span all corners of the horror genre, but there are a couple great zombie stories. I can’t stress how much you need to listen to Stockholm Syndrome; it’s creepy zombie fiction at its finest. Big Boy is also a good listen.
For more undead aural pleasure, Darker Projects has 2 great offerings. For a quick dose of horror there’s 5 Minute Fears, a collection of horror flash fiction. Several of the uber short stories are pretty unique and will suck you in, with topics ranging from evil clowns to the demon within. There is also an excellent audio version of the first book in David Moody’s zombie series called Autumn. The story itself is a lot of great setup but without much delivery at the end, however the reading at Darker Projects just about makes up for it. If you’d like to spend the weekend with your arm hairs standing at attention, Autumn makes a good companion.
Know of a website that zombie fans would devour? Tell us about your online zombie viewing or listening finds in the comments below.
Halloween is a time for creativity; letting your imagination wander into the unexplored corners of your mind, the birth of new monsters, unleashing of ideas long since bottled… Sometimes the end result is reward enough, but you know what makes it even sweeter? Recognition. When you finally get to wear the costume that took you 8 weeks to make, the cries of “What an amazing costume!” make it so worth it. And when your neighbors do a double take and have to peer closer at your handmade yard prop: that’s one satisfying moment.
So if you haven’t already started, now’s the time to get cracking on your Halloween creations. When you’ve finally finished, enter them into the MAKE/CRAFT DIY Halloween Contest. Just upload your pictures to their DIY HALLOWEEN photo pool at Flickr by November 4th and your homemade masterpiece is in the running. What are the categories, you ask?
- Hack-o’-Lantern contest: Decorate a pumpkin any way you see fit, or unfit.
- Costume contest: Dressing up? Making your own costume? Any costume with homemade elements on it, in it, or used with it is OK.
- Decorations, Haunted house, gadgets, and more contest: Decorations at home, work, wherever, a haunted house, lawn gadgets, anything Halloweeny.
- Food contest: The grosser the better.
If you need some inspiration but don’t plan on entering the contest, the Flickr pool promises to be a nearly endless supply of creative ideas. Last year there were thousands of entries, and if you submit yours, this year will be that much cooler.
