In Distress

So your building that turn of the century nursery for your zombie babies or maybe a neglected old school room with some wood desks for your zombie students, or you just want to "Halloween-up" some household furniture. It can't be all bright and shiny, Halloween means all old and distressed looking, right? Distressed equals creepy!

I had to build some small countdown blocks for my advent Hearse so I could countdown 'til Halloween in style, and thought I'd share how I distress paint wood. Admittedly this is pretty small scale but it looks really good on big stuff too. I apologize if this is too simple for some of you crafters. I've seen some of you doing the scrapbook paper thing  on wood and it's pretty dang amazing! I think I'd have to turn in my "Man Card" if I start scrap-booking though.

While I was doing these little blocks I thought that it would be cool to make some of those old wooden alphabet blocks out of a 4x4 piece of lumber, and then distress them with some flat dull colors. We don't do any baby zombies though, maybe someone else will do some for their Halloween haunted house. For me, it's all in the little details.

I'm using new unfinished wood and I always like to sand it then prep it with some Kilz wood primer. Very lightly sand the roughness of the Kilz primer if you like.

Prime wood to seal and it takes less layers of paint to get good coverage

 Paint your base color first, usually this is the lighter or brighter color. I'm doing a Halloweeny thing with orange as my base. It's not essential, but try to use flat paint on the base color. Flat paint is important on the top color later. You need at least two completely dry thorough coats of base.

Next is the important part. Spray your project with flat clear spray lacquer. Two or three coats would be good but one will work in a pinch. This is the layer(s) that helps prevent you from sanding through your base color back into the wood. If you used gloss or semi gloss paint on your base it will dull that sheen down a bit too.

Once that is dry paint your top coat, just one coat is all that is necessary. Too heavy or too many layers and it takes a lot of sanding to get back to your base color. I painted  these flat black for my top layer.

You can see my orange base color peeking through the black coat on the right. That's good though, less sanding required to get the orange to show through.

 Finally, sand paper to taste using a high grit sandpaper. I think I used 400 grit on these. I've also used 220 grit before. These aren't the colors you would use for the "aged" distressed look obviously. I'd probably go with dark brown as my base and flat black top, or dark green as the base and grey or black top coat. If you were aging some child's toys though you would probably want bright colors as a base. Be careful sanding around the sharp edges.

You can see the white primer started to peak through the edges letting me know I sanded to much. I kind of liked  it though, so I left it.

 I was using bright numbers on my countdown blocks Once I got them glued on I used my clear flat lacquer again as a finish coat.

Anyone have a different technique, I'd love to hear it!

Thanks!

In memory of Dr. E. Nick Witty ( Alan Miliar ) MONSTER MOVIE MATINEE

Day 2 - Monster Movie Madness

It is with much sadness I learned a  monster movie icon of my  childhood died this last month. Actor Alan Miliar, who played Dr. E. Nick Witty, the host of Saturday afternoon's "Monster Movie Matinee" in the 1970's and 80's passed away at the age of 81.

Monster Movie Matinee was a very low budget program created by Miliar. It aired out of Syracuse, NY on channel 3 every Saturday afternoon. These were the days before cable network TV. Each week Dr. E. Nick Witty and his assistant Epal ( Bill Lape ) hosted a horror classic from the 30's 40's amd 50's. To my knowledge, unless you went to the movies it was one of the only day time programs to show monster movies on TV at the time.

Dr. Witty was always just out of view of the camera with his back to us in a high back chair or I think he was in a coffin at times. We only ever saw his hand with long black fingernails and big rings on his fingers but he had a very distinctive voice and laugh. The only character we could fully see was Epal and he was a pretty gruesome looking guy with a big scar and an eye patch.

Epal, and Dr. Witty's hand in the foreground

 I learned their budget was so bad that most of their set design was pulled together from garage sales, thrift stores and such and the opening scene with the camera rolling across a cemetery towards a mansion on a  hilltop was a model that by today's standards is pretty laughable.

...It all seemed so realistic at the time!

 Here is one of the last know videos of Alan Miliar where he describes how each monster has it's own "trademark" and we get to listen to his famous laugh. It's kind of cool now to be able to put a face to the voice we listened to as kids.

 

Dr. E. Nick Witty gets his own tombstone in the Shingle Creek Manor graveyard this year... rest in peace Alan Miliar. Thanks for helping to make the memories of my childhood.

God bless him.

Witch Jar Light Prop Video

I posted up my Witch Light assembly a day early for the May Monster Madness Blog Hop so figured for today I'd try to post a video of one with a flicker light. This is about the best I can do with my less than spectacular camera... These really are quick to make and the effect is really cool! They'd look good indoors too on a mantle or side table.

Making Some Witch Jar Lights

Few years ago Pumpkin Rot came up with this flicker light using some Ball Mason Jars he named Witch Lights. I always liked the look of them but then saw them in hanging from a tree in October Boy's Deadwood Cemetery video and knew it was time we added some to Shingle Creek Manor.

Belinda agreed, so off to my least favorite store in the world, that has the low low prices but the worst customer service...(I'm pretty sure you can guess). They had their version of Ball Mason jars for about $7 a dozen so I opted for them instead of the more expensive Ball Mason Jars.

The Rot method uses glue on the outside of the jar to give it a muddled frosted effect but the frosted glass spray (about $5) seemed like less work and because we're doing about 36 or more of these less work sounded good. A can of the spray easily did 12 jars with some left over.

Frosted Glass Spray and 12 jars about $12 with the tax. Pretty cheap so far!

 Next we experimented with splattering and dripping some flat black paint around each jar. Most of the tutorials I saw talked about then adding red paint or food coloring for the "bloody" look but I didn't like the results so we went think with more of an earthy-dirty look using brown and green paint.

Splatter the black paint, no artistic talent required. My kind of project!

Finally I picked up some some twine at Home Depot for $6 and we hot glued it around the top and some thinner twine as a handle so it can be hung from the tree branches with a piece of craft wire.

Added a plastic spider for fun but I need to glue his legs down.

 Total cost for each light is $1.50 plus a little paint! Just add a flicker light or tea light candle. Pretty pleased with the results but will probably fine tune the paint splattering and maybe add some details like hanging moss around the top later. They look awesome in the dark with the candle inside. I'll try a video but my camera isn't so good in the dark.

The Raven (2012)

I saw "The Raven" starring John Cusack at the movies yesterday. I wish I could say that with more enthusiasm...

Unlike many movie watchers I liked the almost super-hero reinterpretation of the recent Sherlock Holmes movies and I thought to a certain point the Edgar Allen Poe character would be developed somewhat similar. I also thought the premise of a serial killer murdering and leaving clues in accord with Poe's stories had fascinating possibility. I had visions of dark and ominous murders and crime scenes the likes of which we haven't seen since the movie Se7en ...

What I got was neither.

It's not that Cusack did a poor job on the part of Poe, but with his script and the manner in which the character was developed it was hard to ever really give a damn what happened to him in the movie. Detective Fields played by Luke Evans was actually more engaging than the hero Poe or Poe's girlfriend, the damsel in distress, played by Alice Eve.

 I have to say this one falls directly on the shoulders of director James McTeigue. Where was the heck was the suspense? Oh, the music score tried to build some with a movie that traveled at a pretty brisk pace, but it was lost. Also, How can you take grisly tales by Edgar Allen Poe and not have suspenseful or shocking scenes of death? The pendulum scene came close, but if your worried about a movie that's too bloody or violent close your eyes for this thirty seconds and your safe. Every other scene is just dead bodies?

Ok. It's not the worst movie I have ever seen, and I'm not a critic, but I'd wait for pay per view and save the movie money for some Halloween props.

Don't say I didn't warn you!

Hearse Craft

I've always been intrigued by "vintage" things, and for Halloween, the horse drawn hearse is at the top of the list. Admittedly I'm a bit envious of those people that have one in their front yard, but even if I built one I'd have no place to store it. Coupled with that desire,  Christmas has all those cool advent houses to countdown Christmas. My favorite of course is the Chevy Chase "Christmas Vacation" advent house but at over $1000 a house it's certainly not in my budget. Halloween sort of gets left out in the cold for any countdowns. So for your critique I introduce the the first of my Halloween hearse counters!

Not too many details on this one but I think it looks cools just the same. Red velour curtains with gold trim and fleur de lis at the base of each column. The top removes for easy access. It and the seat are made from Ash with a brown mahogany stain.

Primed and ready for a final sanding and paint.

 
Actually this is only the hearse. I intend to use countdown blocks seated on top of a coffin. Still a few details to sort through but I am pretty satisfied with the design. I'll post another photo once I get the counter portion put together.

Haunter's Video Awards!

Congrats to all the winners of this year's Haunter Video Awards! I know some of the winners by reputation only and even have one or two of Spyder Rider's prop on my Pinterest. There is one winner's blog I do follow regularly, our own Countess VonRauber of 2nd Street Cemetery! Congratulations Heidi!

Now I need to go back and watch the winner's videos again...