Happy Halloween from Freddy / Frodo!

What are/did you guys go as?

We’re having our first anniversary party at the Urban Ecology Center, and the husband-guy suggested a masquerade. Here are some of the masks (I’m making about 80-100) that I’ve made so far!

I wanted to get really awesome masks (they’re also the “guest gifts”), but everything I found was either more than we could afford (and rightly so, there are some pretty masks out there!), or cheap/tacky-looking.

For these, I bought a pack of masquerade masks from the craft store as a guide, and cut one of the plastic mask guys down to a more comfortable shape.

Then, I covered the front in about four good layers of painter’s tape (thickest pieces of tape you can go without compromising the shape, then small pieces, then a final, thick-pieced layer to seal), peeled the tape off carefully.

I then added two layers of painter’s tape (tacky side in) to the back of the mask. That gave it more shape than just making a big tape sandwich and cutting out the shape of the mask (some even retained the cheek dimensions!).

After that, I put a thin, even coating of fabric glue on the top of the tape mask shape, and covered the mask in a sheet of upcycled wool/any thick fabric I had that was pretty. After it dried, I cut the mask down to the desired shape, which varied with every mask.

Then I took puffy glitter paint and outlined some (so that edges wouldn’t fray or show), painted some with metallic paint, added feathers, etc.

The final steps will be to add a layer of soft fabric to the back, then put lace/ribbon/yarn through the sides for those that want to wear them directly onto their faces. On ones for glasses-wearers or ones that don’t want to ruin their hairdos, I painted thin dowels with acrylic paint, some of which have puffy paint details, and will attach the dowels to the masks with a glue/thread combination.

I’ll post pictures of the final product, and possibly some on guests once I’m finished :)

You hear/read people say that kids grow up fast, but I had no idea.

Last night our fridge’s compressor went out. In order to save what was in the freezer, we had to cook it and put it in a cooler, so that means we suddenly have 18 fried chicken legs, 13 fried meatballs, a batch and a half of peanut butter and nutmeg cookies, and two tv dinners.

Our house smells awesome.