Crazy Crafty: The Manic Monster Mash

At wacky tacky headquarters, wintertime means more than just decking the halls, one-horse-open-sleigh rides, and slurred verses of "Auld Lang Syne."  Granted, we are fairly traditional when it comes to celebrating the season's major holidays but for us, winter also means that it's "open season" for birthdays.  Clustered tightly around the holiday festivities, the many family birthdays only compound the manic level of expectation and obligation already on high alert.  It's intense.  

Running low on energy, inspiration, and funds, I was about to resort to everyone's personal favorite, the homemade coupon book.  It seemed an ingenious idea because, while I am loathe to wash a car or issue a foot rub, those ephemeral little slips of construction paper bound into a booklet by craft yarn are so easily misplaced and therefore, rarely cashed in.  Furthermore, the fine print that I always include on the back of said coupons legally exonerates me from actually having to perform any literal acts of service.  My scheme was BRILLIANT!!!  The more I thought of it, the more I realized that I had plenty of resources with which to make a few heirloom-worthy gifts that would seem at least slightly more inspired than a few lousy coupons with looming expiration dates...or maybe I just ran out of construction paper.

With a far-out family, I knew I could get away with some far-out gifts.
Fully aware that Halloween was long behind us, I decided that the mash-up of the
birthday and Christmas seasons was the perfect inspiration for a MONSTER MASH! 

Made from the furry, green remnants of a long ago project, the first
monster I made was the Color-Wheel Christmas Birthday Monster!!!

Can you tell which one is the monster and which one is the birthday boy?
Happy, if slightly confused by the gift, he knows that it is as the button says,
"I Am Loved."

The next monster in our manic monster mash was loosely based on an illustration created by the recipient.  While less detailed, I think the three-dimensional monster captures the googly-eyed essence of both the art and the artist.

Would you believe that I also had remnant pieces of a fuzzy,
black faux-fur in my monster mountain of a fabric stash?

Like the first monster, the details of the mouth are achieved through layered

pieces of vinyl and the eyes are stacked buttons.  I must say, I thought it was

pretty clever to use buttons of different diameter to enhance the wonky eyes!

Call him ugly if you dare, but with an I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I
sensibility, his button reads, "So's your old man!"

The final monster in our series may look sweet and innocent but don't be charmed by those long, beguiling eyelashes.  They belong to nature's reject, one of the most repulsive freaks of the modern sideshow, none other than... 

Yo-Yo the Frog-Face Boy!!!

Scary, right?
Yo-Yo is made up of forty yo-yos created from fabric scraps with an
overstuffed head balanced lazily on top.  The embroidered nostrils gurgle
as his soulless, buggy, black eyes scan the crowd for his next victim.
The foul pink tongue is permanently poised to lash out and snatch your face!!!

Okay, okay...it's just a cute frog.  But I made it and wanted to include it in this post.

In the end, I realized that I can simply never be sure if store-bought gifts would have been more well-received.  Either way, I tend to think that hand-crafted gifts are the best...at least on my pocketbook!

"The Monster Mash" - Bobby "Boris" Pickett & The Cryptkickers

Did you make any gifts this holiday/birthday season?  Do you prefer homemade gifts or store-bought?

Now that I've exhausted my frightful, gift-giving creativity, don't be surprised by an even scarier gift season next year; it's back to COUPON BOOKS!!!  Muah, ha, ha!!!

Cheers!

Mr. Tiny

Sew What?! Like A Bat Out of Hall-oween 1929

Before I talk about our Halloween, or the costumes I made, or the fun that we had, I have to do a little bit of bragging about how disturbingly cute my nephew is!  Can he really be related to me?  I question his genetic make-up because nobody, but nobody, has ever accused me of being cute and then this guy comes along and ZOWEE - off the cuteness charts!!!  That's not an exaggeration; we took him to the doctor and found out that he was in the 99th percentile for height in 2 year olds but they said his cuteness is unquantifiable.  They actually referred my sister and brother-in-law to a crisis counselor because they said he was at dangerous risk levels for developing an "acute cuteness complex" at any moment.  If I was super hip, I would "hash tag" this - #cutepeopleproblems.  I, as you are undoubtedly well aware, am woefully, tragically, painfully unhip.

"Reach for the sky!"
He was actually trying to smile in this one.

Aren't I lucky?!!
I get to hang out with this mug on a regular basis
and give him cool, vintage cowboy stuff.
But he did have to take off his boot...
there was a snake in it.

This one reminded me of a Disney cartoon - if you
can believe it.  Have you ever seen...

"A Cowboy Needs a Horse" (1956) ???
Watch it!

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming (but really cute though, right?)

Particular attention has been paid to Dennison's Bogie Book this Halloween season.  I guess we bloggers are following the same spiritual vibrations because the costumes I made this year are directly inspired by the beautiful, deco-era illustrations found within those books.

That's my kind of Halloween party!

I've always found the Halloween costumes of the 1920's and 30's to be exciting.  Instead of blood and gore, the costumes make it seem like every Halloween is a Cole Porter musical.  It's not only the costumes, but the decorations, the games, and even the ephemera. Papier-mache pumpkins, die-cut witches, lanterns, funny hats, cider, anything spooky from as early as the Victorian era through the 1930's - that's what Halloween means to me.  Blessedly, our friends, Kevin & Jody, feel the same. 

Kevin & Jody's place
A spooky old tree and a Victorian house being slowly
enveloped by a thick, green fog.

I love this chandelier!!!
It drips with lanterns, masks, ornaments, and mementos of Halloweens past.

Yes, to all of the above!

Amazing house. Check.  Amazing hosts. Check.  Player piano, cool party guests, good food.  Check, check, check.  The only thing left was the costumes. Oh yeah, I also made some costumes.  Check.

I found a really nice, very inexpensive crepe georgette at
my favorite/secret, out of the way fabric store and used it to style a
 late-20's dress.  There are drapes of
fabric at the front, the back, and the side seams and a swagged
garland of self-fabric yo-yos at the dropped waist.

Like a good bridesmaid dress, I wanted Mary's Bat/Vamp costume
 to be something she could wear again.  Bat wings at Christmas?
Bat wings at Easter?  Bat wings on Boxing Day (Canada)?  That works.

The inspiration for this costume was, of course, the central figure.
I know crepe paper used to be made of heartier stuff, but I wonder if a
dress and headdress made entirely of crepe paper (as the instructions
 suggest) would survive a full-night of Halloween merrymaking.

Mary's hat is made of a deconstructed wall-hanging, bat decoration( from the 99cents Only Store),
a deconstructed pirate hat (thrifted), and deconstructed, black tinsel spiders (Target dollar section).
I'm telling you that hat was broken down!
All told, Mary's hat cost three dollars...
if you don't count the gas used driving from store to store to store!

Based on the Dennison's illustrations, I made
"carnival cane" type walking sticks/scepters;
Mary's had glittering bats.

I guess I had more inspiration that may have been subconscious;
several people told Mary that she looked like an Edward Gorey illustration.
My parents were ardent fans of PBS' "Mystery" series. Growing up
I saw the opening sequence about 475,692 times (reruns included).

The Edward Gorey opening theme from
the PBS series "Mystery" (a parental favorite)

See the bat lady at 0:21-0:25

My costume was a little less macabre than Mary's, but it wasn't all comic (see the tear drop on my mask?).  Speaking of the mask, I just realized that I'm always wearing some kind of face furniture.  Because I don't wear contacts, I just went blind all night.  I have particularly horrible night vision so I spent the entire evening squinting and tripping because my depth perception was off - the ideal party guest.  I'm going to have to include the necessity of glasses to my personal list of hard and fast costume rules - no face paint (messy, greasy, and easily smeared) and nothing more restrictive or less comfortable than pajamas.  If you look at the old-timey ilustrations, with the exception of the giant spiderweb, all the costumes look extremely wearable.  Let it be known that I love all those clever costumes thoughtfully created with moving parts, giant masks, added appendages, etc.  For me, however, comfort and the ability to sit, stand, and move is paramount.

A bit clown, a bit choir robe, a bit Mama Cass on
the "Mike Douglas Show" - all comfortable.
I prefer to think of it as male maternity wear.

My post-pasta pigout Pagliacci costume was
 topped with a diminutive, handcrafted hat. 

The costume started with my yo-yo clown.
Oddly enough, my brother and his girlfriend thought
this was super creepy.  The two-year-old buckaroo,
however, thought it was hilarious.

I very crudely embroidered the face on some remnant muslin
and stuffed the head/hat with batting that I snuck from a pillow.
Each arm and leg is made up of THIRTEEN yo-yos!!! Spooooky!!!

"Every party needs a pooper..."
Sad clowns

Kevin said this photo of us looked like something from Vanity Fair.
We just wanted to be close to the snack table...
(photo courtesy of Kevin Kidney)

I've already bragged about my nephew so I don't want to boast even further, but with the exception of missing a few parties that I know were awesome, this was a pretty perfect Halloween.  It was the ultimate haunted house experience!

"The Haunted House" - Ray Noble & The New Mayfair Orchestra (1931)

I hope you groovy boos and ghouls had an awesome Halloween too.  Honestly, we spent half of our night planning and preparing for next year's festivities.  When I was young I liked Halloween, but the older I get, the more I LOVE Halloween!   Thanksgiving, Christmas - those are a lot of work; Halloween is pure fun - just a little responsibility and a whole lot of candy!!!

Bonus photo: I made a sweet pumpkin dip (served with ginger cookies)

to take with us to the party.  Like all good things, this recipe contains Cool-Whip

and I used that container to store the dip.  When I removed the lid, there

 was a Jack-O-Lantern staring back at me.  A Halloween miracle?

I think so. You see it too, don't you?

Cheers!

Mr. Tiny