Non-tutorial - Tumblr Posts

Yes, yes, it’s November, but I didn’t have good photos of these until Sunday night, so you’re getting a last taste of Halloween two days late.

We moved to a new house last year just after Halloween, and our new place has more than double the number of windows the previous one had. I had several of these pieces up in the windows at the old house as part of our Halloween decorations, and wanted to continue that, so I had to spend some time expanding the collection to fill the new windows. And that means a crafting post to share.

Here you can see a bit of the process behind making these window silhouettes. I didn’t take progress shots while I was working on the pieces themselves (I was busy trying to get these done in time), but I did snap a photo of my project notebook (a single-subject spiral notebook in which I plan out any number of projects in ballpoint pen before I try knocking them out in person).

I started with some basic notes on what I wanted to get out of this. Specifically, nine windows, and the most basic composition idea behind them. I’d already spent time prior contemplating the basic composition, but if I hadn’t, there’d be more lines of brainstorming as I worked out on paper how I wanted to do this.

Once that was jotted down, I drew out nine frames in which to doodle ideas. I knew what pieces I had already, so I drew those in (the three tombstones on the top row, the pumpkins on the bottom row, the hand with the skull, the owl and the raven), then doodled other ideas as I went along, including some additional basic tombstone shapes. You can see on windows 2 and 5 where I scribbled over one idea with another, and the cat on window 9 was an afterthought (I already had it, but had forgotten to include it on one of the windows until one of my kids pointed it out). There are also margin notes clarifying beyond my doodles.

Once that was done, I broke out the poster board. The additional elements ultimately took six sheets of black poster board, and the original silhouettes I had were probably another four or five (I don’t remember at this point). I had a tape measure from the tool box for comparing poster board against the windows themselves to make sure things were cut out at the correct size, and I used a ballpoint pen to draw on the poster board before cutting, as it wouldn’t show if the pen-drawn side had to be facing outward. Start with large pieces first, like tombstones, and remember that things can always be pieced together out of larger sheets as needed (the crypt on window 5 and the Celtic cross tombstone on window 2 are both pieced together, as is the Reaper and his scythe on window 6). The tree branches were the last thing done, and they were cut as a series of lots (and lots and lots) of single wiggly sticks that were then assembled like puzzle parts to create branching shapes. I also ended up making an extra raven at my younger children’s request. It’s important to remember to save any parts you cut out of larger pieces in case you can use it for something else—case in point: the skull in the hand is cut out of one of the tombstones, and the cross on top of another tombstone is cut from a tombstone. Exacto knives are helpful for this.

Once all the silhouette pieces were cut out, I made the backing panels for each window. In previous years, I taped the silhouettes directly to the window panes, and then added orange backing material on Halloween itself so we could have the silhouettes up for more of the month, without blocking our view. This was not feasible in the new house, since the windows are made up of small panes of glass in wood framing, and taping directly to them wouldn’t work so well, so I decided instead to tape the silhouettes to the backing material, and only put them up the day before Halloween. It’s fine. They look better lit up anyway.

The backing panel material is orange plastic table cloths from the dollar store. It’s thin enough to let light through, while still providing a pleasant orange look to the windows when backlit. It’s also very cheap, so you have to handle carefully or you’ll end up with nicks and tears in it. Ask me how I know. I used clear Scotch packing tape to affix the silhouettes to the backing material.

At the bottom of my diagram, you can see a house shape I drew with windows numbered. That was me planning out where the silhouettes would end up on the house face once they were assembled. That done, we put them up on the windows with packing tape, and left the curtains open so the light from the room could illuminate the silhouettes.

In the photos of the windows, you can also see where I put handprints in the small panes to either side of the front door. These were done in black cardstock, by tracing my children’s hands. The panes were already frosted with privacy material, but I’m thinking of using some of the extra orange table cloth material to help color the panels next time.

Maybe sometime in the future I’ll do a mini tutorial on how to make the cutouts themselves, at least.

The latest geeky decor in our collection, inspired by Outer Wilds. Spoilers, probably. Sorry.

So there are campfires in the game where you can pull out your trusty marshmallow-roasting stick and toast a few. The UI doesn't tell you this overtly, but they actually have the mechanical benefit of recovering hit points if they're toasted nicely. Most people just toast them because it's a cute little detail.

The game also has a supernova that happens at a certain point. If you happen to be at a campfire with your marshmallows out when the supernova hits, the supernova will actually toast your marshmallow (it'll go straight to "on fire," but that still counts as toasting it).

So I thought it'd be fun to do one of those "in case of ___ break glass" projects, specifically for this game.

Non-tutorial-style description:

The frame is a 6"x8" shadow box so as to sit comfortably on our bookshelves (we tuck decor among the sci-fi and fantasy novels). Unfortunately I didn't find one I could easily disassemble, so the inner frame (that holds the front clear panel in place) was securely glued. Since the frame was black with a white interior, this meant having to use painter's tape to try to protect the acrylic panel while I sprayed the outside red, and then being careful with sandpaper and a brush as I painted the inside black. You can still see white around the edges. Lessons learned: look for one that can be completely disassembled so I don't scratch/scuff the acrylic or get paint/tape on it by accident.

I don't have a handy vinyl cutter for the letters, so rather than track down someone who had one to cut the letters for me, I opted to have them printed on a backdrop instead. I added a high-res copy of the Outer Wilds Ventures patch from the game, and a starfield taken from the promo art. I'm actually happy with this look.

The marshmallow stick is made from three things. The stick itself is from a decorative apple branch from Hobby Lobby's floral section. I pulled off the apples and clipped off the leaves and extra twigs until I had a good-looking gnarled stick about the right length. Then I hot-glued faux suede around it for a grip. The marshmallow was made from Crayola Model Magic air-dry clay, which is the perfect color and texture if you get the white kind (which is easy to find). I shaped it into a soft cylinder and then poked the stick through it, and let it dry for a couple of days.

Once everything was ready, I wiped down the inside of the acrylic pane with rubbing alcohol and a microfiber cloth to try to get as much dust out of there as possible (because it sticks to the acrylic like crazy). I put the marshmallow stick in next, then used bookbinding tape (because it's the only acid-free tape I currently have) to fix the printed background to the insert card that came with the shadow box and put that in, then put the back of the shadow box in place and closed everything up. Wiped down the front with alcohol and microfiber as well, and now it's sitting in our living room.

Maybe sometime in the future I'll do a tour post of our geeky decor in the living room.