Halloween Floating Charm Locket

Belinda has been selling quite a few of these in-fashion glass lockets with charms this past year through her Ebay store  "Paper Dove Gifts" , and although you can buy a bunch of different style lockets and charms for about every possible occasion or important event in your life, how could she not have a  locket specifically for Halloween?!

So for all our Halloween friends, a pre-made black locket with seven cool Halloween charms, including a pumpkin, a Jack-O-Lantern, a ghost, a candy corn, a black cat, a skull and bones and a bat.

These make a cool Halloween gift for a friend, or you can flaunt your own Halloween passion.  Of course after Halloween you can change your charms out for charms related to "other" holidays, or charms specific to your own uniqueness. If you already have a locket and collect the charms, she has a brand new inventory of Halloween charms at the "Paper Dove Gifts" store.

This Halloween collection sells for $26.99 at the Paper Dove Gifts Store, but for our Shingle Creek Manor friends you can get an exclusive price of $21.99 by following this link!

Here are a few other Halloween charms that are available.

She ships quick and I think you'll be really surprised that the quality of the lockets match those being sold for three and even four times the price. For the special discounted price you have to use this exclusive offer page though!

2014 Florida Haunter's Social

We had a good time at the 2014 Florida Haunter's Social in Ocala, FL this last Saturday. I don't know what the final estimate was, but somewhere between 30 and 40 people attended. Everyone seemed to enjoy our "Lifecasting with Alginate" workshop and we've received numerous very nice compliments.

Organized chaos at our "Lifecasting with Alginate" workshop

 There was a complete schedule of workshops for the day. Between each workshop we managed plenty of eating, prop admiration and a "Skyped" session with Creature and Makeup Designer, Nathan Motich ( natemotichfx.com ). He gave us a behind the scenes look at his studio and how he creates his authentic looking creature eyes. As luck would have it, we won one of his very cool eyes during the door prize drawing held at the end of the day.

At no time did I say working with Alginate wouldn't harm your skin...Ok, maybe I did. Maybe this is just the Alginate and not blistering pustules of peeling skin..

There was plenty of "prop lusting" going on at the event. Bobby Atkinson gets my A-plus for the most awesome pneumatic corpse prop, jumping out some six feet from it's upright wooden coffin! Don't you just hate those guys that talk about how simple it is to build their amazing animated prop by calibrating a stutso hydraulic framus damus and attaching it to a high pressure warbler valve with a two way differential bearing?! Whaaaaat??!!! I might not understand how to build one but that doesn't stop me from wanting one. You can get a look at the prop in action on the short video I put together for the Florida Haunters. It's actually slowed down a bit in the video.

"Steampunk Diver" by Jason and Dawn Fields

 Jason and Dawn Fields from "Terror on 20th" may have made the most original costume I have seen in a long time, Jason's "Steampunk Diver". Although they did seem to be a very distrusting couple when it came to leaving me alone with their costume. Ocala could be one of those crime ridden cities though, and someone could have stolen it I guess, so maybe their protectiveness was warranted...

"Man-eating plant" attack

 From our observation, everyone looked to have a good time with lots of inspiration and learning going on. I hope to see this event continue to grow and improve even more. It's only a couple hours from us and the building is the perfect size.

We won a door prize! A Nathan Motich Eye ...

The day concluded with door prizes that host Bill Ramsey was able to get donated by local businesses and Halloween vendors. We won two very cool items including a signed piece of artwork, "Macabre" by artist Mark Hadley .

...actually we won two including this print, "Macabre" from Hadley Studios.

Halloween Weekend Coming!

This Saturday we will be attending our second Florida Haunter's Social in Ocala, Florida, hosted by Bill "Dr. Terror Eyes" Ramsey. We didn't make last year's social but attended the year before. It's a great place to meet other Halloween enthusiasts, see people showcasing their work and learn new methods and techniques for prop building. As an added benefit, "Dr. Terror Eyes" always comes up with cool giveaways and free food!

Dr. Terror Eyes, photo by Lost or Forgotten Photography

We're trying to help out this year by teaching how to "lifecast" using alginate and  liquid plastic resin. So this week, while Belinda is recovering from her second foot surgery this year, I've been running around trying to get together the materials for our class. Even though she's pretty restricted on walking without crutches , her arms and hands are working fine. Her part of the preparation process therefore was to let me mold and cast her hand, so we could estimate material quantities and the molding container size. I think it turned out pretty good.

Belinda's "Zombie Ground Breaker" hand pose waiting for some color

Hopefully I'll get some good photos and or video at the "2014 Florida Haunter's Social and Make-n-Take" and post a story on the day's events.

First Halloween Sighting!

Garden Ridge Skeletons

 My fellow Halloween blogging enthusiast, Lisa,  at Maple Grove Cemetery  recently posted a reminder that "Garden Ridge" is usually one of the first retail stores to get it's Halloween decor out. Although I've seen some Fall decor at various stores, I hadn't seen any Halloween decor. Usually The Dollar Store is one of the first. I paid a visit to "Garden Ridge" today and sure enough, this year's first sighting is at "Garden Ridge" ( soon to be known as "At Home"). Check out Maple Grove Cemetery for a really good review of most of what they have this year.

Thought this guy was pretty gruesome!

Partial Skeletons

Most of the partial skeleton variations which included the skull, some low quality hands on bendable arms and then some tattered clothes were $39.99 . The complete skeletons without tattered clothing were $49.99. Joints for the arms legs and hands on the complete skeletons were the metal bracket type.

Basic Jack-O-Lanterns in need of "customizing"

First Halloween sighting would not be complete without gratuitous body parts!

Chocolate Skulls

The Black Chocolate Company

Saw an article recently on these chocolate skulls cast from actual human skulls. I thought it was a pretty novel Halloween gift until I saw the $119 price tag! I know there are "choco-holics" that would pay that though, and not even bat an eye. To be honest I did find another company that sells them with prices starting at $399. I guess it's all about the chocolate. 

These beauties are sold by The Black Chocolate Company .  They come in Dark, Chili, Caramel, and Milk Chocolate and are shipped from the UK.