The Enduro Challenge And Zombies. Not At The Same Time.

Over the weekend The Man headed over to Herriman City's Enduro Challenge.

Which overall was pretty cool to watch, especially when they put teeny, tiny 5 and 6 year olds on itty bitty dirt bikes that could barely clear (and in some cases not even) the first small log.

The four wheeler and rzr rounds have given The Man ideas, so we'll see what happens with that.

Also, over the weekend Fear Factory was cranking out makeups for the Salt Lake City Zombie walk.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I'm no fan of zombies.  Ever.  At all.  Unless it's a little bit in Warm Bodies, but even then the whole brain eating thing gave me the willies.

I can't take the garbage out in the dark after The Man has watched an episode of The Walking Dead.

And I walked out of the room when the first time he rented World War Z.

I just have no love for zombies.

But, that being said, they kind of come with the territory of doing makeup with a haunted house.

And so I often find myself surround by zombies.

The pictures are grainy because I stole them from a fellow makeup artists facebook post.  Thanks to her for actually attending the walk and getting some pictures.  As you know, I hightailed it home as soon as the makeup fun was finished, because there was no way I was going to hang out downtown with the lot of them.

These makeups are mine.

And this one was featured on the Salt Lake Tribune's website.  Which, if you ask me, is pretty dang cool. (Again, a grainy steal).

Haunting season is just around the corner.

My goals for this year are to get a better handle on a shallow cheek shade, figure out what I can do with my new air brush, and get faster at the prostetics so I can use them more often.

Halloween.

Every year I wait for The Circus to tell me they're too old to dress up for Halloween.

Another year has passed and I haven't heard it yet.

I kind of live for Halloween.

This year The Man and I were planning on making a fire pit in the front yard and serving hot chocolate out of witch's cauldron, but as sometimes happens, plans changed and I ended up spending my Halloween driving the girls out to go trick-or-treating with their dad.  By the time I got home it was 8:00.

Next year.

Plan on it.

I have a whole year to find myself a cast iron witch's cauldron, and believe me, it's going to happen.

I woke early on Halloween morning and cranked out three hours worth of makeup on The Circus and some neighbor friends before school started.

My first zipper face turned out pretty decent:

I think the trick to a good zipper face, after all my "extensive" research, is to trim the excess fabric from the ends and sides of the zipper. Use an eyeliner to trace the line of where you want the zipper to go first, then you can layout your colorwork  before applying the zipper.  I stuck these zippers on with a healthy amount of eyelash glue.  I applied a layer on his skin, as well as a layer on the back of the zippers and gave it a few seconds to get tacky before applying it to his face.  I gave him a few minutes to dry and then finished with the color blending.  To keep it moist looking I wanted to use Vaseline, but couldn't find mine (ugh, kids!).  I used Neosporin  instead, which seemed to do the trick.  I would say it's actually a really easy makeup, just a bit time consuming.

Also, I'm pretty sure I need to get myself a pair of those contacts in black.

I did a cracked Sugar Skull:

And then I went to work on my crew:

Casidee  had in her mind that she wanted to be a spooky lady in gray.  I was thinking of her as a phantom as we found her a gray dress and as I helped her sew her gray cloak (free pattern here), but when it came time for makeup, we just ended up dripping blood down from her eyes and adding a touch of gray lipstick.

From there she reminded me of Bloody Mary.

If you don't have gray lipstick in your Halloween makeup arsenal, I would highly suggest adding it.  That stuff adds the perfect touch of detail for all dead things, and is brilliant on a zombie makeup.

Jayme chose Maleficent.

This was probably our most time consuming costume.  We used this tutorial for an idea on how to conquer the horns, but The Man tapered his rings into somewhat of a cone so they fit inside each other, and didn't come out when slid together.  After creating the horn shapes with poster board, he placed them on a styrofoam head (purchased from Hobby Lobby) and used paper mache  to make it into a full hat piece.  From there he spray painted it black and did a light outline in green to give them some definition.

Jayme made a typical tutu for her skirt piece, and I used strips of tulle along the neckline of a black t-shirt to create a high collar.  We added black and purple makeup to her eyes, a bright red lipstick, and a touch of black eyeshadow to create a high cheek bone effect.

Brynn took control of her own costume 100%.  She joined in with a group of her friends to be various comic book heroes.  They wore t-shirts of their character and made tutus in the appropriate colors.

Brynn chose Thor:

She made an awesome hammer out of a shoe box and silver tape, but sadly, we didn't get a picture of that.

Sean was a Pedestrian Crossing Street Sign:

We bought a morph suit in black, and made a street sign diamond by layering posterboard together and taping the back to hold it.  I then applied some hotglue to hold the edges on the front down.  I sprayed the front with yellow spraypaint, and we outlined the edge with black electrical tape.  We crossed the back with two sticks, one larger than the other, to give it support so it wouldn't flop when he held it.  We attached two velcro straps to the larger piece of wood and brought it through some slits in the sign so Sean could strap it to his forearm, sort of like a shield.  This made it easy for him to carry it around.

Tayler was Red Riding Hood:

We used this free pattern to sew her cape.  The original plan was to just wear normal clothes underneath, but we scored at a second hand store when we found this corset dress with a lace skirt.  We thread the corset with red ribbon and she was good to go.

I did red, white, and black eye makeup on her and she put on some bright red lipstick.

Cali wanted to be a peacock.

For the tail feathers I bought a cheap folding fan.  I found a pack of peacock feathers for pretty cheap through Oriental Trading.  It was a lot cheaper that way than through any of the craft stores.  Though we did find the glittery peacock feathers at Hobby Lobby so we added those to the front layer. I glued the fan to a piece of cardboard box.  I simply glued the feathers in layers to the fan.  If I'd had more time I would have done a second order for more feathers to make it thicker, but I didn't have time to wait for delivery at this point.  To fill it in a little more I added some blue tulle that I already had on hand to the back of it. On the backside of the cardboard box I glued some sewing elastic that we had leftover from previous tutu adventures.  I cut two slits in the back of her shirt and we slid the elastic ends, making it possible to attach the elastic around her chest with safety pins, but not have the elastic visible.  This way she could remove it easily if it got in her way at school.  Attaching it around her chest also made it stable against her back so it didn't flop around when she walked.

We made a tutu of sorts with sewing elastic and two feather boas.  I just draped them along the elastic and hot glued them into place.  Then I cut the bottom loops so they hung down in individual strands from the waistband.

I gave her some blue and green eye makeup, and added some craft gems with eyelash glue.

The girls and I stopped at a little spot in the mountains on our way to meet their dad and took some pictures in their costumes.  The sun was at the perfect angle to catch the rays through the sleeping trees.

For a recap, if you ever need a really fast "mom" makeup, check out my tutorial for the butterfly HERE.

 

Or throw on a witch hat and glue craft gems to your face with eye lash glue.

Super easy, and so much fun.

Halloween 2008.

This post was originally written and posted on November 19, 2008.

The girls got to wear their costumes to daycare on Halloween, so we got up first thing in the morning and got ready.

 After our obligations of work and daycare we headed to my sister McKell's house and went trick or treating and played with the family.

I just cannot say enough about my family and how much I love them and am so grateful for their love and support to me.

It was a great Halloween just because I got to be with the ones who love me most.

Jasmine Cali:

Witchy Tayler:

Poodle skirt Brynn:

Casidee the dead cheerleader (I knew that old Spirit club uniform would come in handy one day):

My brother Cody, Roya, and Yasi:

 Cody was a walking fortune cookie. "Confucius say, 'When path is narrow tread lightly,'" and "Confucius say,'When path is wide tread lightly.'" When I asked him what my fortune was he put his arm around me and said, "Baby, I see nothing but goodness coming from you, it only gets better from here."

I love my brother!

Bryce (nephew) looked amazing!

The trick or treating group, minus Daniel:

This is what happens when you pick Mom (me) to be your partner in the mummy wrap game:

Deja (niece) did a great job on Casidee:

West showed up with his kids in time for the games:

Sparring with my brother Cody, while the kids tore into candy and the adults were... outside by a toilet paper fire I think.

What was I thinking?! I've never done it before and the man had no mercy on me! He finally took one kick across my back that winded me and I was done. But certainly something I want to learn from him. It was fun to connect with him on something he enjoys so much.