The Fall Beers Are Coming!


Attention, attention beer drinkers! I realize that tomorrow will only be August 1st, but thoughts are already turning to October. Octoberfest, that is! While walking through the beer section at the local grocery store tonight, I spied the first seasonal 6-packs of Sam Adams' Octoberfest. So naturally, I picked one up!

Beautiful new packaging art for this season with the usual hearty, malty flavor that has become the traditional start of the fall season.

Cheers!





Only 92 more days until Halloween, home haunters!! It will be here before you know it... Time for me to get cranking in the garage, because these new props won't be building themselves!!


Haunt Soundtracks: Northaunt


Time for another installment of Haunt Soundtracks. This time up, it's Norwegian dark ambient artist Northaunt, whose eerily beautiful tracks would make for an ominous soundtrack on Halloween night. I just picked up 2006's Horizons and 2001's The Ominous Silence and both have been on a constant rotation at the Cemetery.










Day Of The Dead Zombie Mask by Trick or Treat Studios


I just came across this new Day Of The Dead Zombie mask, sculpted by Kelly Mann for Trick or Treat Studios.

From their site:
Keeping in the tradition of Trick or Treat Studios love for the unique and our love for the Mexican Day of the Dead Festival, Kelly Mann created the most incredible Zombie Halloween Mask ever produced, a mask we call the Day of the Dead Zombie.

The Day of the Dead Zombie is an artistic masterpiece of mask making and comes with 360 degrees of artist wonder. This Day of the Dead Halloween Mask has it all, including hearts, flowers, a moon, a cross and an ultra cool eight ball. This is the ultimate Halloween Mask to celebrate the Day of the Dead.


So get yourself a plane ticket to Mexico, our Day of the Dead Zombie Halloween Mask and march the streets of Mexico!


Pre-orders are being taken now and can be ordered here. This sweet piece of latex will be making its way to my shelf shortly!



 

Nature's Wick Bonfire Nights Candles


Attention Halloween and Fall candle lovers! This hot summer must be coming to an end, as I just scored two Nature's Wick Bonfire Nights candles at my local Target. I'm pretty excited, as I didn't see them last fall and had to settle for the Exotic Woods candles, whose scent was far inferior to the nice, bold incense aroma of Bonfire Nights. I'm headed back to pick up one or two more, but buyer beware. They're like $12 each...




Season 3 Comic-Con Trailer: The Walking Dead


Highbury's Halloween Punkcast Series


Okay all, with the new blog redesign, I finally had time to update the Highbury's Halloween Punkcast Series page. Why not download all 5 of the current punkcasts to play while you're hammering away late into the night, feverishly trying to finish all of this year's Halloween projects? They're free and they're ferocious! All punk, no junk!




Be sure to check back soon, as I'm putting the final touches on number 6! And as always, if there is anything you'd like to hear, drop me a line in the comments and I'll try to put it in a future punkcast.


2012 Props: Zombie Lanterns


Here is a quick costume accessory that I whipped up for our Midwest Haunters Convention masquerade ball costumes. I knew going in that a simple zombie costume just wouldn't cut it, so I took two old IKEA lanterns that were in my basement and created voodoo zombie lanterns.

Here is what I did:



I started with 3 cans of spray paint: Krylon Indoor/Outdoor Satin Black, Valspar Plastic (68123 Satin Chestnut), and Valspar Interior/Exterior Satin (85202 Satin La Fonda Copper).

I started by lightly cleaning the old lanterns.



I taped over all of the glass with masking tape and coated it with the Satin Black base coat.



After the black base coat had dried, I did an uneven, light coat of the Valspar Chestnut, being sure to leave portions of the black base coat visible. When the Chestnut dried, I very lightly spattered the Valspar Copper over everything. This made it look like speckles of rust. I was able to get the paint to spatter by doing quick, light taps on the spray nozzle from a slightly longer distance away than if you were trying to get a full coating.

At this point, I repeated the same Chestnut misting and Copper spattering to an 8-foot section of black plastic chain that I had picked up at Lowe's. The 8-foot section would then be cut into two 4-foot sections, one for each lantern. I also coated two quick links in the same paint, as they were used to attach the chain to the lantern handle.




Once all of the paint was dry, I attached the chain with the quick link and removed all of the masking tape from the glass panels on the lantern. I then put an LED flicker tea light in the lantern to see where we were at. Notice the spatters of the Valspar Copper to mimic rust.



I then used some old brown latex paint that was heavily watered down and streaked it on all of the glass panels. This gave a nice, smudged look. When the brown paint had dried, I took some heavily watered down old green latex paint (the same paint that I use for all of my tombstones) and gave a light, overall wash to the rest of the lantern. This gave a really nice patina and completed the weathered look. The final detail was to add some spanish moss, and to snap some atmospheric photos of our new voodoo zombie lanterns. They were a big hit at this year's MHC masquerade ball and they will definitely be a part of our zombie costumes from here on out.



Photo by Laura Dark Photography.