About a year ago I told my friends I would be having a Hallowe'en party. I started planning the decorations in about August. I wanted the kitchen to have a spooky laboratory theme. I bought various types of creams and black material from supermarkets and eBay, hung them from the windows and ripped them up. I bought bunches of white lilies and roses a few weeks before the party and let them slowly die. The gorgeous candlebra was off gumtree. The jars were collected over a few weeks and some bought from various shops, then filled with plastic animals, and body parts including hands, fingers and hearts..... Food colouring tinted water finished off the look.
The paintings and doors in the corridors were covered in fake spider web, and the stairs were adorned with small carved pumpkins, more spiderwebs and tea lights. The living room became the dance floor for a DJ friend. The TV had Saw on repeat all night.
Outside was my favourite, it's an awesome space to begin with, but in my head I wanted it to be a "Haunted Forest." We bought a gazebo, went to the local park to gather leaves and twigs. Pumpkins became bases for twigs and ballast for the gazebo. Fake Ravens were placed into one of the trees, with fairy lights for some illumination. A fire pit in the corner provided warmth (on which was actually a very mild night), and then in the corner we had my favourite bit - the graveyard. Bags of sand were placed under our fake grass, and made complete with polystyrene gravestones. A "grave escaper" completed the look.
 |
| My haunted Forest |
 |
| Graveyard in the corner |
 |
| The grave escaper |
 |
| Dark wings, Dark words.... |
I spent considerable money on dry ice. But look how cool it was!!!
Last but not least, I decorated the bathroom. This got a LOT of scares, it was fantastic! I made a fake body out of my housemates clothes (stuffed with other clothes and newspapers). A "head" was made out of bin bags and the whole thing was put into a clear plastic "body bag" - actually the plastic cover off a new mattress. It was liberally doused with fake blood and placed into the bath. I then went to town over the whole room with fake blood, thus coming up with a crime scene reminiscent of something out of "Dexter."
That was the house. Now for my costume!
NB SPOILERS FOR SERIES THREE OF GAME OF THRONES
I dressed up as Catlyn Stark/Lady Stoneheart. I hired a costume (yes really) from complete-costumes.co.uk the most gorgeous dark green velvet medieval dress. It had a long hood, and the most amazing draped sleeves, with a corset style strings to adjust at both the front and back. I really recommend the website, the dress was exquisite and they have a great selection, was actually really difficult to chose which one to get! The dress came in really good time and I got the security deposit back really quickly. Will definitely use them again! Click here to see the website page for the dress.
Now in the books Catlyn gets her throat cut, and that's the part of the costume I really wanted to concentrate on. I started by using tissue paper and liquid latex to create the prosthesis. This is done by making the tissue paper into the size and shape you want it, then painting the liquid latex over the whole thing.
I built the prosthesis up into a few layers of paper and also used some crappy cheap wax, which was far too sticky and also bright pink. In hindsight using wax was a good idea but next time I'll buy some better quality stuff.
Then, (very!) carefully cut through the middle of the prosthesis to create the "wound." Scissors next to throat you have to be careful!
I used two small pieces of a grey corrugated tube (last seen in the Star Wars costume) as the fake trachea. I stuck them under the paper prosthesis and secured them in place with some spirit gum.
My throat under the paper was painted with maroon Snazaroo face paint, and then I used my Ben Nye fake blood to create the fresh blood on top. I doused small bit of tissues in it then placing them into the wound gives texture and a more gory look.
My face and neck has a quick basing of white Snazaroo with a sponge, and then some quick black facepaint around the eyes to give it a fresh corpse look.
I finished off with using a sponge to sponge on blood around the edges of the wound and then dipping cotton buds into the fake blood and then pressing onto my neck to create the drips. It really is great stuff, it "sets" but still looks fresh and wet.
The party itself was absolutely fantastic. A lot of friends from medical school who lives around the country (London, Leeds, Bath, Glasgow) all descended/ascended during the afternoon so it felt like an all day event! More friends arrived early and I had just the best time. I'd made a thing on the Facebook event page that everyone HAD to be in a costume, and that "slutty cats" weren't allowed, people had to be in suitable scary Hallowe'en costume. So of course my 13 or so closest friends who'd come from around the country all came in identical slutty cat costumes. Bloody love them <3
No comments:
Post a Comment