Friday, October 14th, 2011 in How-To, Pumpkin Carving

Below is a great list of pumpkin carving resources that I have found. All of these are free, no CC info, no liking on Facebook (unless you want to, you always were such a social butterfly), just click, print and get to carving!

I’ll be adding to this list as I find other sites to add, so come back often!

The Internet’s Premier Pumpkin Pattern Site
Traditional, classic jacks, movies, superheroes, sports, video games, words

DLTK’s pumpkin carving patterns
Aliens, Angry Birds, ghosts, cats, cartoons as well as classics

Martha Stewart Halloween pumpkin-carving patterns
Leaves, spiders, cats, many unique faces, words, Victorian and Gothic

The Pumpkin Wizard*
Traditional, cartoon, monsters, movies, tv, music, celebs, politicians, sports

Better Homes and Gardens free printable stencils
Traditional, designer, TXT, fall, cat, dog breed, paint accented

Disney Family Fun Pumpkin-Carving Ideas
Faces, animals, skeleton, evil fish, pumpkin on pumpkin

Celebratinghalloween.com free stencils
Faces, words, scene, Angry Birds, Transformers, fairies

Paper Pumpkins stencils
LOTS of faces, dog breeds, Japanese and cultural, tiki, snowflake

Extreme Pumpkins free stencils
Faces, Batman, Jason, Obama, McCain, Skellinton, flaming, Che, Satan, mummy

Hershey’s stencils arranged by difficulty
Dracula, pirate, Reese’s, cauldorn, tree, BOO, grim reaper

Colonial Williamsburg themed pumpkin carving patterns
Windmill, Cresset, cannon, Washington, Jefferson, Capitol, Liberty or Death Gallows

Feeling particular ambitious? Make your photo into a pumpkin carving stencil.

*These resources also offer paid options, but their selection of free was so good, they deserved a mention.

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Tags: carving templates, jack o lantern, pumpkin

Monday, October 10th, 2011 in Compy Stuff

Because I love you so much and because I think everything around Halloween should be appropriately themed, I give you a nice alternative to your boring desktop with the Terror Carolers Windows 7 Theme!

*Note that you must have Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate editions of Windows 7… and of course, Windows 7 itself. Duh.

Download the free Windows 7 Theme Terror Carolers from here.

Save it to a place you can find it. Your desktop is usually a good place.

It will look something like this. Double click it.

Let the file finish downloading.

Now go look wherever you saved it and double click the themepack file.

(hint, if it’s your desktop you saved the file on, mouse over to the bottom right of your screen… see a little rectangle near the clock? Click it to get to your desktop in a hurry without closing any windows.)

Awesome. Onward.

From here it should take care of itself. It will automatically apply the new theme colors, sounds and backgrounds.

You can always choose another theme, and Terror Carolers will always be selectable as well.

Here’s a quick preview of the backgrounds included with the Terror Carolers Windows 7 theme. All photos are my original pictures and are taken of our homemade Terror Carolers singing choir of pumpkins. Feel free to pass it around and Happy Halloween to your and your PC!

1 Ghouslish Gasp

Tags: free, jack o lantern, pumpkin, terror carolers, windows 7 themepack

Saturday, October 1st, 2011 in Die Cuts

If you’re a fan of vintage die cuts, you’ll probably go gaga over these guys: reissues of old Beistle die cuts.

I found these by accident and ordered them back in 2008. They’re being sold on a couple of sites but I can’t find anyone cheaper than Partycheap.com.

The first set is a reproduction of the Beistle embossed Halloween plaques. These 8 pieces were originally released in 1941 and the original stock number is No. 1109. They’re stunning.

Included is:

• A witch riding her broom across a crescent moon
• An owl perched on a branch in front of a full moon
• The famous cat with top hat and monocle
• An old witch in front of her rickety haunted house
• The profile of a witch with sharp teeth and a wart on her nose in front of a full moon
• A farmer looking pumpkin jack o lantern
• A silhouetted black cat hissing at an evil-grinned jack o lantern atop a post while a jolly quarter moon looks on in the background
• A jack o lantern smoking a corn cob pipe and wearing a derby

Simply put, these are absolute classic Halloween designs. These new are not embossed, of course, but they are double sided and about the same size, if not exactly the same size, as the original plaques.

The second set of Beistle cut outs come in a 4 pack.

This set includes:

• A black cat yowling
• A witch and moon looking in opposite directions
• A toothy jack o lantern with round eyes
• A little black cat sitting on a smiling crescent moon.

I don’t know the year or original number of these Beistle die cuts.

Enjoy them and let me know if you have any information on the second set of decorations, I couldn’t hit on anything about the original series.

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Tags: black cat, die cuts, haunted house, jack o lantern, owl, retro, vintage, witch

Saturday, August 14th, 2010 in Blow Molded Figurines, Garbage Finds

What: Blow mold jack o lantern on a black cat, 14 inches tall. Has 2 triangular eyes with raised circles in the center, a pronounced triangular nose and a smile with 2 buck teeth. Sat upon a rather freaked out looking cat.

Why: I always thought this blow mold pumpkin was the most unique looking (out of the dozens of other blow mold Halloween characters out there), I sort of found it down right ugly when I was a kid thanks to the buck teeth, and that’s why I think I like it so much now. It’s kind of cute because it’s so awkward looking.

Bayshore Industries blow mold Halloween Pumpkin

I wondered about this blow mold pumpkin because unlike a few others I have he has no production stampings and no trademarks of any kind. I do know now it came with the light, which I suppose makes sense. It turns out there are a few floating around out there with the original stickers (yes, stickers) still in place that give a little bit of manufacturing information.

Read on:

The ONLY production markings on the entire thing.

Diamond shaped (sort of) yellow sticker with black border. Reads “BAYSHORE HALLOWEEN LIGHT-UP DECORATION WITH BULB/BAYSHORE INDUSTRIES, INC., NY, NY, 10010, a subsidiary of Miner Industries, Inc. Made in USA”

Bayshore Industries opened in 1946 by Alvin L. Gursha in Elkton, Md. They ran into financial problems and were absorbed by Miner Industries, located in New York.

Fulfilling the acquisition, 1961 saw production moved to Amsterdam, New York, Bldg. 65 on Willow St., which formerly housed a plastic production company (Larc Products Co.) that folded in 1956.

According to Eugene Swee, president and chairman of the board of Miner Industries, Alvin L. Gursha was to be president of Miner’s Bayshore Division.

Bayshore produced such novelties as Halloween masks, hobby horses, balloons, bowling sets and more.

The bits of information I did find about the business deal are from the Amsterdam Evening Recorder, July 24, 1962.

I could find little else about Bayshore. From what I’m led to believe, Miner Industries, whose offices were located at 200 Fifth Avenue, Room 234. NY, NY 10010, filed chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1978.

This makes it pretty difficult to contact the company for any sort of history or patent sketch like I was hoping for, but it was interesting digging up the history nonetheless.

Judging by the fact that Bayshore had become Miner’s subsidiary by 1961/1962, that must mean this jack o lantern/cat blow mold is POST 1962, and since I believe Miner went under completely nearly 2 decades later, pre 1978.

Bayshore blow mold and some friends hanging around.

I’ve found many of these on eBay so they are by no means rare at this point in time. I had one as a child and actually found the one I have now in the garbage, looking very sad. Ones I have found on eBay with the old price tags in place said they cost a little over a dollar, retail, when new.

The jack o lantern/black cat blow mold can easily be found on eBay for about $10 before shipping. Or if you have a very keen eye on garbage night.

Interesting website FULL of stuff about not just Bayshore blow molded figures, but all the big names, Union, Empire, General Foam and more.  Check it out if you’ve got a couple of hours to spare: http://www.blow-molded.com/Bayshore_Industries___Archive.html

1 Ghouslish Gasp

Tags: bayshore indutries, blow mold, jack o lantern, miner industries, pumpkin, retro, vintage

Friday, August 13th, 2010 in Blow Molded Figurines

During the Halloween 1989 season, the Mars candy company sold (I believe) 2 plastic characters full of fun size chocolate bars. In 1990 there were 3 sold.*

*I am completely guessing here. In my travels, I’ve only found the goblin stamped 1990.  The 1989 ghost and pumpkin are different from each other.

I had all three, and I remember hanging them up every year, because they were good sized and had nifty faces. I got them from Twin Valu grocery store in Euclid, Ohio, long before I actually lived in Euclid.  They came filled with candy bars.

Like I said, there were 3 different containers.  The Snickers ghost, who was a white ghost with a typical ghosty expression.  You know, he looks like he’s moaning and being otherwise scary.

Then comes the Milky Way pumpkin (Jack o Lantern), who in contrast is quite happy looking.  And he was filled with Milky Way, so he automatically wins.

Anyway, the third was a green guy who I assumed was some sort of goblin, as what else is green really?  He had 3 Musketeers bars.

To make a very long story incredibly short, I moved and had to leave them all behind with a lot of other things.  So in my eBay stalkings, I’m very slowing starting to get things back, and last year (2009) Guy and I were able to track down the 1989 Snickers ghost and the 1989 Milky way pumpkin.  This year I was able to get the 1990 versions of the Snickers ghost and my 3 Musketeers goblin!

I’m not posting this so much as a happily ever after type thing, but because I googled last year extensively and this year as well, and I actually found even LESS about these premiums this year, so I wanted to put it all together in one spot, along with all the information I know (Mars Inc., 1989, lids are removable and have a thin rope in place so they may be hung or used as trick or treat pails, I would assume) and some pictures.  These were really neat little Halloween critters and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one out there who remembers them.

Here’s a shot of my two guys:

My Snickers ghost, being quite ghostly.

My Milky Way pumpkin. Very jolly dude.

And if you have a goblin to sell me at a reasonable price, feel free to drop me a line at jen at euclidboo dot com. I bought mine on eBay on September 12, 2010, 2 for $5.50!

I don't know where this is from, if it's yours, please let me know and I will credit accordingly.

ETA: I contacted Mars about these, hoping to get some information, anything really, but I didn’t get too far:

In response to your email regarding SNICKERS BRAND, MILKY WAY BRAND, and 3 MUSKETEERS BRAND.

Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately, the information you requested is not available.

Have a great day!

Your Friends at Mars Chocolate North America

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Tags: 1989, 3 musketeers, ghost, goblin, jack o lantern, mars, milky way, pumpkin, retro, snickers, vintage

Friday, March 5th, 2010 in Die Cuts

Another set, this one not marked with a date or manufacturer, matte finish and some pieces have tabs which are inserted to make an object look 3D. I’m guessing at these being from the mid to late 1960′s.

2 Ghoulish Gasps

Tags: bats, cats, die cuts, jack o lantern, pumpkin, retro, vintage

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 in Video

What better use for our paper mache jack o lanterns than to light them up and let them sing the night away?

This is Halloween from The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack.

I Put a Spell on You by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.

2 Ghoulish Gasps

Tags: gemmy, jack o lantern, lightshow, paper mache

Thursday, October 1st, 2009 in How-To

http://www.euclidboo.com/terror-carolers-paper-mache-pumpkins

1 Ghouslish Gasp

Tags: jack o lantern, paper mache, pumpkin

Sunday, September 21st, 2008 in How-To

Real Vintage Paper Mache

Click any image to view larger

I love those vintage pumpkin lanterns that go for like $50 on eBay.  If I had billions of dollars and thousands of square feet, I’d probably already own all of them like some weird collector that aims to have the last existing whatever.

Lucky for the rest of the world I have neither.  But I do have newspaper, water and flour.

So Guy and I made our own paper mache lanterns, and I gotta tell ya, they were fun and pretty easy to do!

We made 3 small and one large.  We ended up making the glue like 4 times, but it’s not a big deal.  If you wanna do this, I’ll break down the supplies we used.

* Newspaper, ripped into strips about 6″ – 12″ long
* Assorted balloons from the dollar store
* 2 cups hot water
* 2 cups cold water
* 1/2 cup flour
* 3 tablespoons sugar
* White tissue paper

Heat the 2 cups hot water to boiling.  Meanwhile, mix 1/2 cup flour into 2 cups cold water.  When hot water reaches boiling, mix your cold water/flour mixture into it.  Bring this all back to a boil.  When it’s done, add in your 3 tablespoons sugar.  Mix, wait for it to cool, and enjoy.

paper mache strips

We learned not to “pre-soak” your strips because it pretty much dissolves into unusable snot.  Dip a strip in, wring out the excess glue with your fingers, and slap it down on your balloon.

We placed ours on wax paper with a phone book pressing down so they had a flat top and bottom.  We stuck them in front of a fan.  They dry pretty quick, the top/bottom taking longer, of course.  We ended up putting 2 layers down when I realized I should have rubber banded either the balloon or the covered ballooon while it was wet to make a pumpkin shape.  I slapped some extra on there, and it looked ok.

The general rule is to really let these things dry.  We made these over the course of a few days.  It was fun to get dirty time and time again.  Really!

Next: Pop the balloon, pull it out.

Carving was fun.  We modeled a couple after the vintage lanterns we found on the internet and a couple we just cut typical jack o lantern faces into.

I looked all over the place trying to find the right thing to paint it with.  I was totally paranoid that we’d screw them up and have a pile of sad goo.

We ended up going with colorful latex house paint we had laying around in the basement.  2 light coats (think unsaturated) and you’re in business.

Mix some water with your paint for an aged effect for both the green base and to fill in areas that would naturally have shadows.

We finished by drawing the eyes and mouth on tissue paper, cutting them to size and taping them in.

1 Ghouslish Gasp

Tags: Guy, jack o lantern, paper mache, pumpkin, vintage