They Came From Beyond The Garden

Four Sure Tricks In A Suit by Lucie Lyons for Woman's Home Companion masquerades as a blouse pattern article, but the models'-heads-swapped-for-flower-pots look seems like a mad doctor's dream. Despite its January 1947 publication date, I think it was published a few months too late. It should have been the spotlight of their Halloween issue as a collection of disturbing floral costumes to scare young trick or treaters.

Bewitched by this creepy-crawly idea? Not only could these sketches be inspiration for striking costumes, but you could also populate your porch or front yard with freaky flower people decorations. Create a bevy of Burtonesque figures to hold your candy bowls or even dangle fake cobwebs and insects (or even more macabre accoutrements) from their wormlike fingers. All you'd have to do is acquire mannequins or dress forms, remove heads, and attach flower pots filled with various blooms. The more unassuming the bloom, the creepier the effect.

I do believe the model is holding a dead bird

Some Enchanted Evening

In the Wonder Years episode where Kevin asks Winnie if she likes him or if she like likes him, she offsets the awkward moment by offering up a corny knock knock joke: 'Knock knock' 'Who's there?' 'Sam and Janet' 'Sam and Janet who?' (sung to the tune of 'Some Enchanted Evening' from South Pacific) 'Sam and Janet evening..' It was corny.. just like this Halloween party idea from a 1959 book called Party Perfect by Gay Head and the editors of Co-Ed Magazine. Illustrations are by Hertha Depper.

There's enough time for you to cobble together.. One Enchanted Evening. Just don't invite any real (or former real) witches! (all following text written by Gay Head)

"What is there about October that turns the moon into a big orange pumpkin and changes every shadow into a creeping black cat? There's Halloween magic in the air! Just the time for you to plan 'one enchanted evening.'

INVITATIONS

Try this bit of verse written in white ink on black paper cats or witches' hats.

Sunday night's the night that you
Shall be enchanted on witches' brew;
Come all 'cats' and share our treat--
Food and games that can't be beat!
If you can come, reply: Enchanted!
If you can't come, reply: Disenchanted!

DECORATIONS

Turn yourself loose in a variety store full of Halloween fixings. Decorate your party room with black cat figures, skeletons, pumpkin heads, and autumn leaves. Make moonlight magic by hanging an orange crepe-paper moon in front of a light. Dangle witches from the ceiling. Make a cauldron of a big black kettle, filled with witches' brew (apple juice or cider). For your table centerpiece, use a jack-o'-lantern which can be bought at the dime store. Fashion the hair out of strips of crepe paper and pull each strip just a little to give it a curly effect. Set a small wooden dish of nuts on the 'head.' Stick a corncob pipe in the mouth and put glasses on the 'nose.' Place your centerpiece on autumn leaves or on paper cut-outs the shape of leaves."



GAMES

"APPLE-SNAPPING is a switch on the old ducking-for-apples game and it's much dryer! Suspend a strong cord from the ceiling. Tie the end to the middle of a yardstick. On one end of the stick hang an apple on a string; on the other hang a thin cloth bag of flour. Twirl the stick. Together the boys, hands behind them, try to bite the apple. Those you do will 'make money' in the future. Those whose faces get snapped with flour will have fun. For the girls, the apple means 'a husband,' the flour means none.
MURDER. Before the party, make a pile of as many playing cards as you have guests, and be sure that the ace of spades and the jack of hearts are among them. Ask each guest to draw a card without letting anyone else see it. Tell them that the person who draws the ace of spades will be the 'murderer' and that the one who draws the jack of hearts will be the 'detective.' After everyone has drawn a card, explain that you will turn out the lights, and that after a moment the murderer will choose a victim and 'kill' him by pretending to choke him. Then the murderer will move away from the scene of the crime, and the victim will scream before dropping down 'dead.' The detective will rush to turn on the lights and try to discover the murderer by asking questions of everybody. All except the murderer must answer truthfully, and the questions continue until the detective spots the man."

MENU - Baked Ham, Jamboree Baked Beans, Assorted Relishes, Corn Muffins, Pumpkin Tarts, Apple Juice or Cider

Ladies, let me know how your apple-snapping turns out for you! Happy Halloween from Curly Wurly!!!

Crafts from the Crypt and Beyond!

There's still time! There's still time to scare the bejeezus out of the entire neighborhood, to put the last touches on your costume, and to start laying out the rest of your pre-Christmas holiday decor! Highlights for Children suggests a few ideas on how to add that last ooky touch to your holiday in their JUMBO Holiday Handbook (1963).

Actually, this is the Pumpkin King. The Jointed Pumpkin Man is credited as Tim Burton's major inspiration for both the utilitarian Edward Scissorhands and Jack Skellington.


This headpiece (Rabbit With the Whirlabout Smile -- doesn't that sound like a Decemberists song or the title of some twee indie rock album?) is meant to be an Easter craft, but the possibilities are endless. If you're struggling to come up with some sort of creepy headpiece for Halloween night, you might want to give this concept a whirl! The first picture looks more like some disturbing headgear with a large moustache. The second illustration shows the back of the mask as modeled by Michael Stipe.


Oscar, the Owl looks much like Peppy, the Wise Owl. While this would make a good Halloween decoration, it's also perfectly appropriate decoration for the rest of the season.


Never too early to get started on disturbing Thanksgiving crafts! We live in a country that likes to glitzify everything from jewelry to denim to teeth, so why not bestud your turkey wishbones with rhinestones or the like? It's not hideous, it's ingenious. I would like to submit this craft idea to Amy Sedaris. (These last two crafts are taken from another book, Don't Throw It Away! ('a treasury of unusual craft projects ... turn household throwaways into objects of lasting value') by Vivian Abell, copyright 1973)


To the right is the "Nutty" Centerpiece and a Coffee Mug Recipe Holder. We can tell that these are especially nice because they have attracted a flocked woodland creature figurine. If you look closely, you can see that there is a googly-eyed mouse peeking out of the mug.

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Speaking of googly eyes, yesterday's Martha Stewart Show taught us how to make googly-eyed bangle bracelets, a 'clever accessory for Halloween.' The promo for the googly-eyed bangles also showed googly-eyed bowties (because googly eyes shouldn't just be a girl thing) and, as you can see in the photo above (copyright Martha Stewart Omnimedia), googly-eyed platform shoes for the fashionista. She also decorated gourds with googly eyes in lieu of traditional facial carving! I had no idea Martha was such a proponent of googly eyes, but I approve wholeheartedly! You can watch the clip (from the October 25 episode) online. Thank you, Martha, for your ghoulgly-eyed ideas!

Table-Top Circus of Blood

Our final Highlights for Children Halloween craft idea shows how to bring the Big Top to your Table Top: the Table-Top Circus. What exactly does a circus made of bottle caps and pipe cleaners have to do with Halloween? In the world of Highlights, apparently nothing. However, clown-based hysteria is one of the most common and completely understandable phobias that plague the human psyche. In that respect, this is perhaps the most unnerving of all the Highlights Halloween handicrafts. There's still time: click the picture for instructions to construct your own cannibalistic carnival of chills!

On that note, have a gruesome Halloween!

Tricky Treats

This Owlet is a cute craft idea for the kids. Its body isn't a Frosted Mini Wheat, as I had thought, but a cotton-wrapped glue bottle. (Click picture to see how!)


If you'd rather wrap up something larger than a glue bottle, try a broom, which would make a great Witch For Halloween. Lean this dentally-challenged broomlady by your door to frighten trick-or-treaters! Or you can 'surprise your friends by holding the broom up at a window where they will be sure to see it.' A Highlights for Children-approved way to lose friends! (Click picture to see how!)


Kiddie science experiments masquerade as Halloween Witchcraft. Perfect to awe the little goblins and ghouls at your Halloween bash!

Handicrafts From Hell

Oh, the humanity! This is not the sort of fate I would wish for anybody, man or pumpkin-man.


No, Corni's not a long-forgotten Pee-Wee's Playhouse prop! He's simply the best craft in the history of Highlights for Children (and, certainly nothing in Pac-O-Fun could ever compare)! How could you not love a corn cob with a gummed-star nose, anyway? Remember, 'the more colors, the better'!


The cute marshmallow-headed Halloween Hobgoblin rounds out today's Halloween crafty hints. As was stated in earlier posts, this book was published in 1963; the Hobgoblin predated the King Tut craze (note the pose) by almost a decade!

Making Faces

While the economy continues to go down the drain, it's getting harder in these cash-strapped times to execute the sort of elaborate Halloween celebration that such an important holiday demands. Highlights for Children has the hair-raising touches for your haunted house that won't break the bank. In fact, these three sets of faces fit for a fright are all made out of disposable packaging already lying around your house! Here Highlights demonstates the makings of an insta-macabre mug.

Take a good look at the Pie Faces. If they don't already bear an uncanny resemblance to existing horror flick serial killers, they soon will. Right now Hollywood is probably working on Pie Face (and its ten sequels), and the killer will look even creepier than that puppet in the Saw movies. It will involve a group of popular, good looking high school kids who mysteriously find pies on their doorsteps. Three days after the pies are eaten, the killer comes to reclaim the empty pie tins... oh, and to kill the teenagers one by one. The Pie Face in the middle is named Harpo.


Frankly, I was excited to find the Halloween Candy Man. This craft calls for a cylinder-shaped cereal box, and I have just too many to know what to do with them. As you can see, he's quite handsome with his single tooth and festive bowtie, and his pie tin head is far less terrifying than Highlights' first proposed pie tin craft.


Halloween Window Decorations are a more kid-friendly, calming, and cute option in the world of homemade holiday decorations. These Halloween icons require only the plastic spool from an adhesive tape refill and your imagination!

Crafty Costume Party

Here are a few more ideas from Highlights for Children's 1963 book Jumbo Holiday Handbook that are so terrifying that they may cause madness!

Cucurbitophobes rejoice! If your fear of pumpkins fills you with dread every autumn, Jumbo Holiday Handbook has a few clever substitutions that will get you in the decorating spirit! Why not draw faces on some left-over oranges with a permanent marker and use pipe cleaners for stems? Better yet, marshmallows make the best jack o' lanterns of all! Daub food coloring to create dainty features, and then poke a toothpick in its head. Maybe it will be too small next to all the real jack o' lanterns. And maybe it will attract ants, but maybe Halloween could use a little more variety. What other foods would make good jack o' lanterns?


Highlights also has a solution for adults who wish they had a child or helpless pet to dress up for Halloween. Clothespins! Here the author's beloved clothespin is dressed as (from left to right) a French pierrot, a piñata, a phoenix, and a donkey who is also a pimp (just its head). What will you dress your clothespin as this year? (Click on picture for instructions!)

Curly Wurly will have plenty more craft hints for the rest of this fun-filled holiday week!

Pumpkins With Multiple Personalities

I get weary of same-faced pumpkins year in, year out. They all have those same triangular eye sockets and toothy gapes. Sometimes I can't tell them apart, and when I mistake Roger for Beverly, I can tell Roger gets pretty steamed. This year, you can avoid confusion by giving your pumpkins different expressions. The pumpkins who have been more forgiving of your bad memory could have welcoming grins or flirty eyelashes. But you can punish all those pumpkins (the Rogers of the pumpkin patch) that have held grudges with frightful grimaces of pain, sad eyes denoting an eternal melancholia, or a mocking leer that will encourage the local hoodlums to kick them or hurl them into the street. This guide to facial features is from the 1963 book Jumbo Holiday Handbook, a Highlights magazine publication.


Here's a crafty idea from a Miss Langenberg, the Happy Witch Decoration. It's worth a try, if only for the enlightening 'how to make a witch look happy' instruction (click picture for full article): 'draw the corners of her mouth pointing upward.' A ha! Those snaking laces making up her torso are supposed to be 'skeleton ribs.' It's baffling how she could be so happy whilst her innards are on display in such a macabre sort of way, but, after all, it is Halloween!