The Tuckers: Halloween 2012: Circus!

Hi there! I have LOTS of fun Halloween stuff to post, and I hope you all enjoy it.

The pictures aren't in any particular order because I am still not very good at this whole blogging thing, so this may seem a little scattered. Aaaaanyway, the theme this year was Circus/carnival, and I had alot of fun with this one. I tried to go a little vintage, and included a 'cabinet of curiosities', 'kinda like a freak show corner.

That was alot of fun... filling the jars with yucky things, and having a place for all my miss-matched Halloween stuff. We played a guessing game for the candy you see there, and whoever guessed the closest the the actual number won the candy jar. We had some great guessing... or maybe I'm just really bad at it, so everyones guessing seems very accurate.

This is me, working on the food. I was a tattooed lady, and Doug was a tattooed man. It was alot of fun, and I learned that fake tattoos come off with clear scotch tape... WAY easier than scrubbing with mineral oil.

I made home-made corndogs for dinner and fried them fresh (thank you Lisa for the fryer!). They were SO SO good. I think everyone really enjoyed them. Also had people bring a lot of typical circus fare.... Pretzels, taffy, popcorn, doughnuts, candied nuts, peanuts, apples... it was all really really tasty.

I spent some time on a directional sign... it wasn't specifically Circus, but I spent so much time on it I didn't want to limit it to one year. Which will seem silly when you see the things I DID do for just this one year... *sigh*.

Anyway, my awesome mom cut the vinyl for the names, and I painted the backgrounds. They are made of particle board that I cut using my circular saw, and the stand I made from scraps around the garage. Not bad, hu? I also tend to collect miss matched lanterns, and found a good use for them. I like the turnout! Doug is afraid it'll be vandalized or stolen off the front porch, but I figure it's too heavy and awkward to try to get away with it... but I guess we'll see!

We ended up not really using the props for photos, but it was fun to display them anyway. I used black cardstock to make and cutout props to hold up for photos, and found this really cool sign online (and now I don't remember where, sorry!). It fit perfectly with the theme, and I had fun putting that together.

We played doughnuts on a string, and I laugh every time I see this pictures. We only played two rounds, not everyone was up for snarfing a doughnut, but these guys were, and it was too funny to watch, we all cheered for them by the end.

Ok, so like I said, I did end up doing something crazy for just a one time use, and here they are. I made photo board cut-outs for the pictures this year. Just used particle board and painted it using acrylic. Was WAY harder than I had anticipated, and very messy, but I think they turned out great! Really added to the ambiance, and everyone seemed to like them.

I used my jig saw to cut out the faces, and let me tell you, I was SO scared I was gonna totally ruin them. Luckily, that part was easier than anticipated, and they came out smoothly.