Creature from the Black Lagoon hands
Making these hands was the easiest part of my whole Creature from the Black Lagoon (/Bayou) costume. Here’s how I made ’em!
I started by tracing my own hand onto foam board, and then drawing a much bigger hand over that; I wanted to be sure that when I’m wearing these hands that my real hands are totally hidden. Read more…
Creature from the Black Lagoon mask, part 2
This part 2 of my Creature from the Black Lagoon(/Bayou?) mask process. See part 1 here!
Okay, so the paper mache for the Creature head was all done, and now it’s time for painting all the other finishing touches.
Painting the Creature head
For all my big masks, I always use some kind of base coat before moving on to spray paint. This time I tried something new: I started with a coat of Mod Podge (paid link) that I brushed on; Read more…
Creature from the Black Lagoon mask, WIP part 1
For Mardi Gras 2023 I made a Creature from the Black Lagoon(/Bayou?) mask and costume! I makde this stuff for my second year marching with my Mardi Gras krewe, Cryptique. Here’s my article about making the mask!
Lifesize paper maché Nosferatu statue!
Check this thing out! For Halloween 2022 our party’s theme was the 100th anniversary of the film Nosferatu (well, the U.S. release) and I wanted to try making a lifesize paper maché statue of good ol’ Count Orlok, aka the guy that jabronis like you call Nosferatu.
Halloween 2022 theme: Nosferatu, a Century of Horror
For many years I’d been waiting for 2022 to roll around so I could do this Halloween party theme; it’s the 100th anniversary of the film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror!
Cryptique vampire bat standard!
I made this standard for my Mardi Gras krewe, Cryptique; one more fun thing for us to carry on our march. It’s based on this illustration I did; I call this design our bat-de-lis (like fleur-de-lis):
Here’s how I made the standard!
Tiger piñata sculpture!
I made this lil’ tiger piñata for one of my favorite people in the world, writer and illustrator Jon Morris; it’s for his Gordo book project, which you can read about in this thread! The tiger sculpture I made isn’t a real piñata, in that it’s not (completely) hollow and it’s not intended to be destroyed. It’s just a prop that’s meant to look like a piñata. Here’s how I made the thing!
Introducing Cryptique!
I’m excited to announce I’ve got a new Mardi Gras krewe! Cryptique, Krewe of Cemetery Shamblers is a brand new phantasmagorical walking krewe in New Orleans, put together by me and a few friends just a couple weeks before Mardi Gras 2022. Read more…
DIY wrestling championship belt props
My wife and I made these fun pro wrestling championship belt props to go with our skeleton tag team wrestler costumes. Here’s how we made ’em!
Pro wrestler skeleton costumes for Mardi Gras 2022!
Many months ago while brainstorming ideas for our new Mardi Gras skulls/costumes, my wife had the great idea for us to be skeleton pro wrestlers; we decided to be a tag team, and I came up with the name The Skull Krushers! These costumes were extremely fun to wear for our first march with Cryptique! Here’s how we made our skull masks…
Rooster Man Halloween costume!
For Halloween 2021, my wife and I went as two urban legends from her island, La Réunion: La Dame Blanche (“the white lady”; a classic vanishing hitchhiker story with a twist) and L’Homme Coq; the rooster man, who eats children for some reason! This is my favorite Halloween costume I’ve done in many years; here’s some info about how I made everything…
Easy DIY tombstone decorations for Halloween!
My wife and I made these tombstone decorations pretty last-minute for our back yard Halloween party; our first annual Halloween party that would be 100% outdoors. They were fun and quick to make!
New Halloween party invitation: Prick or Treat!
My wife and I skipped Halloween last year due to the pre-vaccine Covid situation, but this year we’ve decided to throw a small, outdoor, vaccinated party. There’s no real theme and we’re not making a ton of decorations, but I did want to get back into the rhythm of creating an animated invitation to get people (including me!) excited. Here it is!
Read more…
Huge 5-foot skull decoration for Halloween!
I made this giant 3D skull decoration for a wonderful client to display on the front of his house for Halloween 2021. Here’s how I did it!
Building the base
I started with a few sketches of the skull in different styles to get a sense of what the client wanted. When we settled on a final sketch, I re-drew it at real size onto foam board.
Pumpkin Night custom paper maché mask!
I made this custom Pumpkin Night paper maché mask for a wonderful client! Here’s how I made it! (And check out my page about custom work!)
I wasn’t aware of the Pumpkin Night manga so of course I started with lots of Google image search results. What a cool design! I’d never done anything like this before!
Mardi Gras 2021 — I made a skull mask of my own damn head!
For Mardi Gras 2021, my wife and I made skull masks of ourselves! This was all her idea, and it was super fun to plan out how to do it and then watch it all come together.
Here’s how I made my skull!
Spider skeleton costume for Mardi Gras 2020! — part 2
I made this six-armed spider skeleton costume for Mardi Gras 2020! This is part two; see part one here for how I made the mask. A lot of people have asked me: why only six arms, rather than eight? — ’cause with my legs that’s eight limbs total, duh! Anywhere, here’s how I made all this stuff!
Spider skull mask and costume for Mardi Gras 2020! — part 1
I made this spider skull mask and six-armed spider skeleton costume for Mardi Gras 2020! I know, I know, spiders don’t have bones; they got like an exoskeleton or somethin’. Deal with it, nerds. Anyway I’m really happy with how this whole thing came out, and now I’m going to bore you with every detail of how I made it!
DIY hot glue gun holder
Here’s one of the dumbest and coolest things I’ve ever made! It’s my very own DIY hot glue gun holder, made out of paper maché and other junk.
If you’ve used a small hot glue gun like this you know they (usually) have a little foldable metal wire stand that’s completely infuriating; it gets in the way when you’re gluing stuff and it’s a pain to unfold it and set the hot glue gun down while you’re working quickly. Read more…
Mardi Gras 2020 is in the works!
That’s right, it’s not even Christmas yet and I’m working on next year’s Mardi Gras mask! My skull is always top-secret until I unveil it on Mardi Gras morning, so I can’t show you what this thing is, but I can tell you I’m really excited about it, and it’s less insanely complicated than the mechanical skull with marching skeletons I made last year; that thing nearly killed me!