I spent my morning out letterboxing, so I didn’t get much done. When I got home from dinner with the Spousal Unit, I thought I’d practice my party makeup. I’m a ghost, natch.

Thing is, I am so very bad with makeup. Thus, practice. So, here I am with a layer of Manic Panic Goth White foundation. That wig cap was at my hairline a second ago.

Evened things out with Manic Panic Virgin White powder.

Blue highlights with Flashing Blue Mica Powder. I realize at this point that the light in the bathroom is crap, because this blue is a lot stronger. As in, I was feeling clownish and dialed it back with more white powder. Which didn’t help.

Note the absence of wig cap. It’s dangling from the back of my head somewhere. Again, the lighting doesn’t show my eye makeup well. I just posted this picture for my menacing expression. It was at this point I realized I had no mascara.

I look like a bad drag queen. Hi, I’m Earl, and I’d like to lipsync some Donna Summer for you.

Went to my closet, thinking crappier lighting might help. It did, a little.  I have Nyx Earl Grey lipstick on, with a little of the mica powder over the top (yes, it’s food grade).  I haven’t styled the wig yet, which is long and curly. My primary goal with styling is to keep the damned thing out of my eyes, so I may do bangs.

So, I hate this. Advice that doesn’t involve a bunch more product is welcome.

LATE NIGHT ADDENDUM: I’ve been up watching Youtube tutorials. I have ideas.

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Today, I did something that I should have done long before I did any carving or painting. Why didn’t I? Well, my drill wasn’t charged, and I didn’t want to wait. *shrugs* Time to drill holes in the bottom of the tombstones so they can stand up later.

I put them about 7″ from each end.

I used the extender for my drill, and a 1″ bit to fit my 3/4″ PVC. The hard part is keeping the drill level and centered. I didn’t always succeed. My best tip is stop often. If you try to drill in one go, you’re more likely to end up in Idaho.

Time for the shop vac. Word of advice: don’t get the Armorall shop vac. It has this stupid design with a blow hole right below where the suction hose comes out, so half the time you’re blowing stuff around before you can vacuum it up.

On to the pipes. The drill went in 9″, so I cut these to 8″ to avoid forcing.  Do yourself a favor and get a PVC cutter. It’s still made for the hand strength of a construction worker, but I can brace it on a table and push down without too much trouble. Much better than the little ones where you tighten the blade and twist it around 30 times.

Chris Davis covered one end of her pvc with tape, which seemed like a good idea to me.

Some Liquid Nails on the end and I let it ooze down the sides a bit. I’ve never used the stuff, so fingers crossed.  All the stones now have pipes. Forgot to get dowels at Home Despot today, so I’ll have to go back. Again. They should know me by name.

In other news, the mausoleum walls are one brace away from being ready for paint.  Also, I have obtained punkins. And one of them is getting teal paint.

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Paint is where foam objects really come to life.

After the letters are carved, and any distressing is added, I do a coat of gray primer. Then I fill the letters with black, wiping back excess, and do another coat of primer, with a roller.

When all that is dry, I do a scumble–black and white blobs of paint, mixed on the surface in random strokes.

While it’s still a little wet, I soften the mix by patting with a wad of paper toweling.

Finally, the black in the letters is touched up (though not too much), and I dry brush white around them to make them pop.

My other accomplishment today: finishing the gluing on the mausoleum front.

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Didn’t do much yesterday but buy a whole lot of PVC. After witnessing a windy day here, I decided the mausoleum would need a frame that could be weighted, so the whole thing didn’t blow away. Had to order some of the connectors online, so it’ll be Friday before I can build that.

Progress today, primer on back of tombstones, trim on mausoleum top (no pic), and, er, well, I was feeling a little blue when I went to Home Depot today for more foam. Came home with a couple of things I probably shouldn’t have, but eh, they go with the theme, and they weren’t expensive.

First, this mini ghost bride animated figure.

She needs some work, but her movements and lighting are rather nice. Also, I love her hands.

Then I found another projector toy:

This is sooo basic. You insert a slide into the rocking mechanism. You can have it solid or fading. I was thinking of projecting off center, so he looks like he’s peeking out the window.

Now, no more buying anything I don’t need for the stuff I’m currently building. And that shouldn’t be much.

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The Renaissance Festival was closed due to soggy ground. WAIL! We’ll try again next weekend.  So we came back home, and I took most of the day off. I needed the break. Of course, I couldn’t take the whole day off.

I’ve been wanting to make a packing tape ghost for ages.  I’d already looked up several tutorials and decided on my approach. It seemed like a nice, quiet thing to do today.

I started with a large, clear-ish plastic garbage bag over a wig head. I taped securely around the neck first, then started the details with scotch tape. I did larger areas with packing tape, and covered the whole thing in a couple layers.

Next, a hodgepodge of stuff atop my heavy bag went to form the rest, as I only wanted head and shoulders.

I carefully removed the wig head by cutting up the back of the form. It was harder than I thought–the tape made a very firm ghostie!

I hung her up with some florist wire. Decided I wanted ragged strips on the bottom, so I put more tape down and cut into her.  Yes, I’m aware she has 80s shoulders. Eh, I’ll do better next time.

We all know 50% of your grade in haunting is lighting. Now, I would love to light her from the inside, but that’s not going to be feasible. So she gets a pretty fire-and-ice light from the front. I’d like three of these to hang from the trees.

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Got the last of the names on the tombstones.

Got the triangular facade thingie on to the top of the mausoleum front. After this, I glue on embellishments, paint, and assemble.

Speaking of embellishments, these beauties arrived today from DG Gothic.  I’ll pair a skull and a flourish for the mausoleum, and the rest go on tombstones.

Today I’ll take a break to go meet Jenna and fam at the Ren Faire.  I’m just slightly excited.

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I had many plans today that involved things like standing, walking, even bending over. Alas, I woke up with an ear infection, and had to modify my plans so they involved sitting down. After all that waiting for cords for the Cameo, I didn’t want to go up and down the stairs to mess with the stencils. So I ended up just drawing letters. Er, I like them better.  I decided to use a hot stylus instead of a knife. Points off for neatness, but points on for ease and speed. The letters will be filled with black paint anyway.

I also didn’t want to go upstairs to check the name suggestions people gave me on Facebook, so I just made some up. I tend to go for method of death puns, so the four large stones get:

• Iva Nowie
• Etta Spyder
• Tripp Donabear
• Tiger E. Tedme

Heavy on the animal deaths.

Managed to get halfway through Tripp. Now I’m gonna weave off to rest.

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Nothing spectacular or specific today, just a long, long day of work.

These are the mausoleum walls. I’m using random cuts as braces.

Here’s part of the front being braced and glued.

Finally have cords for the Cameo, so now I’m getting names down on the stones.

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So I splurged on a fog machine this year. A cheapie.  My memory of fog machines is: so loud you have to yell over them, and basically ineffective. That was many years ago.

Before I even plugged it in, I looked for ways to make a cheap chiller. I found this:

Yep, just frozen water bottles and dryer duct. But does it work?

Well, here’s my test version:

I fit three bottles in there. If it works, I’ll paint the duct black. Here’s a before and after video:

Wow, does that ever work!  Also, this fogger is much quieter.

What I didn’t know is that it shuts off after about 30 seconds to cool down. That’s fine, it produces more than enough fog in a few seconds. I wish I had a timer for it, but I’ll just have to peek out the window and start it every once in a while.  I’ll have to make sure it has a dry box for outside, and that the transmitter is visible. Small challenge. I’ll figure it out.

I have also started gluing mausoleum walls. Woohoo!

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Sorry about the earworm. Okay, not really.

I used to fuss and measure and measure and fuss over tombstones.  These days, I just draw half of it, cut it out carefully, and use the cutout to make the other half. Easy-peasy. Just had to even up the sides a bit.

I am wobbly with a wire knife. I tried the mini wire knife table I have, but didn’t do much better. Is okay, looks good after sanding.

ALWAYS USE A RESPIRATOR WHEN SANDING. For pretty much anything.

Because there’s a gouge through the other side, I thought I’d use the printed side for the front. A little white paint will lessen the confustion from the printing…maybe.  Now I’m thinking I may use that gouge as a crack.

After this, I went to print a lettering stencil on my Cameo, and discovered I didn’t pack the cables with the machine. Very weird for me, but oh well. No idea where they are, so I’m overnighting replacements. They’ll probably get here late, so tomorrow I’ll occupy myself with cutting the rest of the stones, and maybe getting foam for a small mausoleum.

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