Lil' Red Is the Theme...

Happy Halloween!!! Marie Antoinette Costume Victory!

So maybe I was perceived as a table to one particular contingency whose grade level I won't reveal (the lower school)...but overall I have to say Halloween did not defeat me. :))

Me in the Upperschool Gym for the Costume Parade Yes I am willing to make a fool of myself on Halloween!! Our 7th Annual Murder Mystery French Revolution Style My Hub Gregg Emery & I at our 7th Annual Murder Mystery

Use Altered Wedding Favors to Make Halloween Invites!

The Marie Antoinette Murder Mystery Invites

Wedding favors have a 'je ne sais quoi' Marie Antoinette feel to them and since this year my murder mystery dinner party is a French Revolution inspired one, I chose to alter wedding favors to make the invites...You can do this so easily and rather quickly.

Supplies needed:

• Wedding favors from a craft shop like Michaels, A.C. Moore or a Dollar store

• red hot glue

• little daggers, shot guns or crucifix stakes with which to defile your wedding favor with

• little scrolls of secret info to place inside your favors

• black ribbon and red ink to address the envelopes

and VOILA! Fini! The Totems and Invites for this Years Murder Mystery Game detail of altered wedding favors to make Halloween Invites

Halloween Decor

Check out just a little bit of my crazy Halloween decor and stay tuned for more...I'm currently working on a wild Marie Antoinette Costume with a skirt so big it won't fit in the car to get to my job where I need to wear it for a Halloween parade! Yikes...

The hair/head piece I'm making is pretty big too out of quite a few plastic bags and plastic wrap, inspired by the audacious, fantastic and super-inspiring wearable art sculptural work of designer Kate Cusack but ala amarettogirl...so be sure to return this week to check it out!

Some New Halloween Cards by me Available through Pingg!

my new card available through Pingg Check out My Gallery for Pingg Halloween Cards NOW and Email someone a Halloween Invite to SMILE!

Witchy Women/ Making an OOAK Fabric Doll @ Sugarloaf

Some of you may remember I posted about a wonderful fabric shop I found in Warwick New York this past summer - if the not click here to read it. The name of the shop is Fruition Dolls and Gifts. The owner Linda Gargano makes her fiber-filled fun shop even more enticing by hosting classes in the space.

Fruition business card So my first class was this month to make a Witchy Woman fiber doll.

Being the big crafter, fabric lover and halloween fan that I am, I couldn't wait to make this doll!

OOAK means one of a kind and regardless of Linda teaching us with a fabric pattern for the body and head, when each student makes fabric decisions and soft sculpture happens on the face, every one of our dolls turns out completely unique and one of a kind.

Linda's Demo doll and an unfinished body sample

The class was incredibly pleasant with 4-5 of us students sitting in a fiber-filled haven around a wooden table. Seeing each of our efforts evolve in a few hours was incredible. Class was only two-three classes long so we did much embellishing and stuffing outside of class. Linda's expertise in fiber doll making was a wonderful treasure trove of excitement because every stitch brought the characterless face to astonishing life!

the characterless heada witch head getting her color appliedLinda's Witchy WomanAnother classmates Witchy WomanAll of our Witchy Women Dolls!My Unfinished Witchy Woman Doll!All of our Witchy Women Full body pic!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FOLKS!!- Amarettogirl

Halloween Invitations Tutorial- The Coffin Invite

Heres a tutorial thats hopefully not too late! Make coffin invites and remind your guests we're all invited sooner or later to that other worldly place...these are especially great for murder mystery parties!

closed, wrapped and ready to go invite Inside detail Finished Invite

Ok so lets start the tutorial:

Buy a 6 pack (or more) of mini skeletons at the craft store Size and trace a paper template of a coffin buy Lightweight Balsa strips and cut template out Use an exacto knife to cut the template out - cut as many as you needCut strips of Balsa around 2"wide & using a glue gun glue them to template edge Use masking tape to make a movable hinge apply the lid!make sure to place the tape on the outside and inside hinge Print out a black rectangle with your text formated to the left, then trace and cut your template out of it.shredded paper makes a great filler

That's it folks- just paint your coffin black use some shredded paper and cloth for extra padding for your corpse, then place that sucker in there - glue in your party info and close the lid! Twine makes a great wrapping cord and consider a funeral flower as a nice final touch!

Halloween Dessert Idea- Pot 'O Dirt!

One of my all time favorite desserts. I learned about Pot'O Dirt during our very first murder mystery dinner party by a guest. That was 6 years ago and we have thrown a murder mystery party every year since. Every once in a while we revisit this dessert.

Our second time making pot o dirt desserts - minus the gummy worms and spiders :(

So if you've never come across this great idea before, let me break it down for you.

You will need the following:

• as many small terra-cotta plant pots as you have guests (you can buy these at many craft stores, home supply, garden or even convenient stores (do those still exist?)

• small paper dessert cups to place inside the terra-cotta pots (since most have nice big holes on the bottom, you don't want your ice cream to come pouring out!)

• Your favorite flavor icecream

• Clean fake flowers (if you really want to be fancy consider edible flowers with long stems)

• Oreos that are separated and ground up to be dirt!

• Candy - Gummy worms and spiders - then VOILA! You're done(YAY!)

Imagine adding some little tombstones...(hmm thats an idea).

The mummy eating some dirtDr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde eating some dirt

All Hallow's Eve 21st Century Digital Mysticism- Cyberternity

Warning: This post contains some morbid thoughts on the after-life...if you don't like that don't read it.

Hechicera Illustration on Shrinking Dinks by marisol diaz from the 52 exhibit Hechicera means Witch

So in honor of the eerie things that we should dangle from our virtual hearth this month, I wanted to share some finds with you unlike those typical pumpkin lights. Something more like 21st century digital mysticism inspired by one of my all time fave show's NPR's Radio Lab on the Afterlife in which our hosts explore eleven meditations on the afterlife, on how, when, and even if we die...

NYT article from March 11, 1907For example how did we get the concept of the soul weighing 21 grams??? Would Dr. Duncan MacDougall even be credited in his experiments today?

Dr. Frankenstonian Thought: Can the human brain be replicated and designed to be immortal? If so would it be really be you? What, if any, OBJECTS will survive the human race, listen to some thoughts on future fossils with an interview between producer Lulu Miller and the author and scientist Jan Zalasiewicz who wrote The Earth After Us.

and one of my favorites parts of the radio lab story (and the true inspiration for this post) - CYBERternity - what is it?

Well based on the definitional explorations from the Radio Lab show it is a multitude of electronic ways in which we can create the afterlife on-line.

New sites that REALLY DO allow your words to be read after you pass! One site Future Me is really for while you're alive, but if you listen to the Afterlife Radio Lab show - you'll see how sometimes it can inadvertently communicate from the dead.

So here is the low-down on Future me (which I plan to use soon, just to remind myself that I plan to celebrate my 'way-in-the-decade-future-fiftieth-birthday' for fifty days).

two fellas started this here site so that you could write yourself a letter to be delivered at a later date. we've all had to do them in high school and college. it's sorta cool to receive a letter from yourself about where you thought you'd be a year (two years? more?) later. FutureMe.org is based on the principle that memories are less accurate than emails. we strive for accuracy.

Dead flower - from On Dying series photo by m.diaz Then there is the really spooky, but real cyberternity site; Death Switch. This site claims to bridge the divide between mortality! Big claim - well creator David Eagleman designed the site to allow you to share unspeakable secrets, love notes, passwords, last word in an argument and/ or financial instructions or final wishes after you pass from this life. How you ask?

A deathswitch is an automated system that prompts you for your password on a regular schedule to make sure you are still alive. When you do not enter your password for some period of time, the system prompts you again several times. With no reply, the computer deduces you are dead or critically disabled, and your pre-scripted messages are automatically emailed to those named by you.

So there it is. Some bloggers think its not a good idea especially when considering password security but blogger Sephem Ubulwembu says it is if you use it correctly - and even gives some great tips on how to use Deathswitch correctly and securely. Read his article here. Well it seems this is where we are all heading. So listen to the Afterlife Show on Radio Lab, get creeped out (its only right we are in mid October!) and consider sending your future self or those you love messages from the future or the grave.

Happy Halloween Folks!

Amarettogirl

Adventures in making Martha Stewart's Haunted Halloween Cake

Warning some halloween adventures are harder than others!!

Martha Stewart's Inspiring Haunted House Cake Last year one of the stellar ideas I got from Martha Stewart Living for my murder mystery party was this 8 layer haunted house cake. Grant it I'm not a professional baker, and in the past I had some not-so-great experiences trying some other MS halloween cake ideas (which aren't always the simplest for civilians like me to produce). Yet, I attempted this gem of an idea anyway.

So here's a warning for all those 'creatives' out there thinking they can do these recipes...an 8" round baking pan is not the same as a 9" and the stacking of a cake is seriously affected by the thickness of the cake. If you've never made a tiered cake perhaps there should be a difficulty level symbol starring this particular recipe to let you know you may be getting way over your head the day before 12 people are coming over for a murder mystery!

Lastly, you can be sure there were many a professional involved in the making and photographing of this marvelous Martha cake.

My version of Martha Stewart's Haunted House Cake My haunted house cake lit up from behind! The whole NIGHTMARE of cake before it was dismantled to be eaten! The cake WITHOUT the Haunted house and our little mysterious man revealed!