Healthy Halloween Snacks: Bell Pepper Pumpkins and Krakens

There are lots and lots of sweet halloween treats and decorations available, but we recently hosted a halloweeny brunch and we needed some savory options.  These bell pepper creations were super quick and easy to make, but had a big visual impact.  They are pretty much as easy as they look!

For the pumpkins, carve the pumpkin faces before you cut open the pepper; if you cut it open first it will be less structurally sound and a little harder to carve.  Once you have the faces complete, cut the top off and empty the insides.  You can also put dip inside the pumpkins if you feel the urge.

The Kraken eye is a circle with an ellipse on either side.  Again, carve the eye, then cut the top off and flip it upside down.  It's hard to see from the picture but the Kraken is sitting in blue ranch dip (I just used a few drops of blue food coloring). 

There you go; all ready for a spoooky brunch!

DIY Hogsmeade Harry Potter Christmas Village: Owls!

Click here for the Hogsmeade at Christmastime: Harry Potter Christmas Village post!

As the first addition to the Hogsmeade Christmas Village, I converted some Halloween Owls I got on sale into wintry Harry Potter owls.  It was actually a bit easier than expected; I used a dremel drill to remove the 'Halloween' aspects of the models, then simple acrylic craft paints to repaint them.

The owls I got were in a pack for a Halloween village.  I had no idea what they were made of, but given their price point I assumed that they could contain lead.  As a result, I made sure to take some extra precautions when using the dremel drill to remove the halloween flare.

The owls, as seen above, had a few items that needed to be removed in order to convert them to Wintry Wonder.  I dremeled off the spiders, rats, halloween mask, and the high collar of the dracula cape.  I didn't dare remove the entire witch hat or cape, as it would have required sculpting a large piece of the owl. I used light strokes with the drill to make new 'feather' imprints below the areas where I removed things. 

The original owls before the dremeling

Owls after dremeling

Painting:  I started the painting with a base layer of white.  It took a few layers for the Hedwig owl in order to get a solid white color.  Be sure not to put the paint on too heavily as you don't want to obscure any of the detail.

Next I started adding color.  The non-caped owl I gave darker brown wings/head/back with a lighter belly.  The caped owl I painted a more orangish color for variety (the cape I painted green).  The hat owl I left white, to make a snowy owl a la Hedwig.  The tree trunks I painted a dark brown, with a lighter brown for the cut surfaces. 

From here I began doing layers of dry brushing and washes.

Washing is taking a darker color paint and diluting it with water.  Take this and paint your item, allowing the watery paint to seep down into the crevices of the item.  This will help accent shadows.  Generally I use black paint for washes, but occasionally other dark colors if it will fit in better.

A very light Black wash in Hedwig's wings

(For the eyes, I did golden yellow, then very tiny black dots on top for pupils.  It was surprisingly difficult to get the pupils to face the same direction!)

Dry brushing is when you use a lighter color paint, put a small bit on a brush, then remove most of it on a piece of newspaper or paper towel.  Then very lightly paint with the brush so that only the top bits of the surface (the highlights) receive paint.  Typically I do a wash first, then a dry brush once it has dried.  If you do a wash over a dry brush it will darken the highlights a bit. 

Brown owl with lighter brown dry brush on the feather edges

For Hedwig, I needed to convert the witch hat into either something Christmasy or Harry Potter-y.  I decided to paint her wearing the Sorting Hat.  The hat was light brown, and I added eyes and a mouth with a darker brown paint.  I then did a dark brown wash to give it better depth and texture.

Hedwig and the Sorting Hat progression

Hogsmeade Owls for the Harry Potter Christmas Village

DIY Wooden Train Track Accessories

My child has been building a wooden train set and I decided to try my hand at building a few accessories for the tracks.  We use the generic wooden tracks that are compatible with Brio et al (mostly we use the IKEA Lillabo sets; great price) but they work with the Thomas The Train engines which my child adores.  I've heard a rumor that the official Thomas tracks don't link to the Brio et al tracks without adaptors, but I've not tried them myself.  Either way, the trains all work on any of the tracks.

I made three different items; a Water tower with track, a Helicopter landing bridge, and a Buffer.

I used generic wood slats and rods from a craft store to make the structures, plus a wooden bead for the water tower.  I glued them together with wood glue, sanded them a whole bunch, painted them with craft paint, then gave them a coat of semi-gloss polyurethane.

For the painting, I used blue painters tape to cover the bases so they could stay unpainted.  I painted the rest white, then added the highlight colors as needed. 

Helicopter Landing Bridge:

Buffer:

Water Tower:

 I made a track under the water tower which was probably unnecessary but a fun challenge.  I made both ends female because it seemed easier than trying to make one of the male ends.  I made a diagram of the dimensions of the actual tracks in case someone has nicer tools than I do and wants to make a more accurate replica (see above).  The female connectors have a circle that is 1/2 inch diameter; my largest drill bit was only 7/16, so I used a dremel drill to make it larger.  The tracks themselves were much harder; trains have narrow wheels but they stick out a bit in the middle so you really need to try to re-create the trapezoid shape of the tracks to let them run smoothly.  After much sanding and laboring I managed to get the track even enough for a battery-powered train to run through it without getting stuck; I declared victory.

via GIPHY