Homemade...with a special touch: Fall and Halloween Decor

Halloween is upon us!

Mad Scientist Lab: 1st Installment:

While Phil is continuing his build (teaser at the bottom), I've started on the decor for the room. Below are all my finds for our Mad Scientist specimen jars as well as a simple "how to" for the eyeballs to start. Some of these items we've had from previous years.

I picked up jars at The Humane Society of Forsyth County Thrift Store, Dollar Tree, Dollar General, and Hobby Lobby. Most of the accessories I picked up at the Dollar Tree as well, although I did get the growing animals (in the 2nd pic below) and the styrofoam cooler at Dollar General.

An easy way I've found to remove stickers from jars or jugs is to just soak them in soapy water. Some people use chemicals, I use soap, water, time, and my fingernails. Patience people, patience!

BTW, you don't have to buy all fancy jars. We're using a large plastic pretzel container, an empty jar of pickles, and an old olive oil bottle. Be creative and save money!

Specimen Jar of Eyeballs

Not much to it.

You'll need: 1 pitcher of water, 1 glass jar, red food coloring, and a few packs of plastic eyeballs from the Dollar Tree.

Put enough red food coloring in the pitcher so the water looks more red than pink. Fill your glass jar with the eyeballs, add the water, then put the lid/cork back on. Viola.

More finished jars

Mice

Spider

Ears

fly

liver

fingers

Mice

Growing Octopus-day1

Skeleton

Worms

Spider

Below are pictures of the room as of 10/30. Happy Spook-o-ween everyone!

"guts" container finished

VAMPIRE PLANT

Just a little plant to add to our mad scientist desk.

Materials:

Small styrofoam ball, cut in 1/2

red paint

green paint

small garden pot

moss

faux ivy/leaves

vampire teeth
hot glue gun

Cute huh?

Spiders spiders everywhere!

Pile of plastic spiders from the Dollar store

Materials

Women's white kneehighs

Hot glue gun to glue the spiders to the kneehighs

Poly-fill

Final Product (I've made 2 so far) - these are going to hang outside

Zombie Doll Head

In my Halloween Pics post there are a few pictures of my counter full of decorations. In the 2nd pictures there are two doll figures - this how-to is using the smaller of the two dolls.

First I had to comb out her "hair" since it was just a rats nest. Then Phil took the reciprocating saw and cut the top of her head almost completely off. I had to finish the look with a serrated bread knife since the hair started getting stuck in the saw. After that I took some gray paint I had around the house and gave her a light coating all over her body. I made sure to color in her eyes and lips, she is a zombie of course. Once that dried, I painted her "incision" with gray and made white X's to show stitches.

Creating the Brain

Materials:
Above doll (found at Good Will)
red paint
styrofoam ball
modeling clay

I used 1/4 of this bag of modeling clay ($4.99 at Michaels). Keep the extra in a sealed bag or it will harden.

First roll out the clay in long round strips. Weave them onto the styrofoam ball till you get the desired brain look you're going for.

Here is what it looks IN the doll

Per the clay instructions, it needs 24 to harden. Following that, I used glow in the dark (with blacklight) paint and covered the brain with the paint. After that dried, I added the blood for the desired affect.

Human "Waste" Container:

So this container is supposed to look like the insides from an experiment gone way too wrong.

Materials:
Spray Foam from Lowes
Styrofoam Cooler from Dollar General
Red Syra Paint

I put some paper inside the container to take up space. I sprayed the foam all over the top and dripping down the sides and let it dry overnight. After that, I used masking tape and newspaper to cover the cooler so when I used the spray paint, it only went on the "guts", not the container.