Author Archives: thewritegirlforthejob

About thewritegirlforthejob

Long before going back to college, I had a love for writing. My career spans from event planner, reporter to Editor-in-Chief, to freelancing writer/editor, today. I've had experience in PR campaigns, marketing slicks, newsletters, and more. I'm a multi-faceted person, and create in many mediums. If you've checked out Frugalfrightsanddelights.com, you'd see a whole different side of me. It makes me happy to share my skills with others, and am not afraid to share my mistakes, too. Luckily, my supportive family and friends, encourage my creativity. They know I pour my heart and soul into every endeavor. My passion drives me, and hope it encourages you to become creative, too. ❤

Part 3: Making Sally’s Dress (The Nightmare Before Christmas)

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Sally posed to hold a skull, large flower head, or potion.

Sally posed to hold a skull, large flower head, or potion.

If you made the body, head, and hair from my earlier tutorials Part 1 and Part 2, you’re ready to make the clothing for Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

For the dress, decide which color theme you’ll go with. I found several versions – one with a burgundy base, and others using greens and  some with browns and orange tones. It really doesn’t matter which color scheme you go for, but chose ONE. Using too many clashing colors doesn’t work well. Stick with the same tones that compliment each other.

Making the Dress

You’ll need:
2 1/2 – 3 1/2 yards of brown fabric (depends on width)
2-3 yards of main color fabric(for mine I used green)
1 yard blue fabric
2 (1 yard each) complimentary tones fabric
Permanent black marker
Large hot glue gun/glue sticks
Sidewalk chalk and pen
2 safety pins or a couple of straight pins
Tissue paper
Scissors
Continue reading →

Making Sally (Nightmare Before Christmas) Part 2 – The Head

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Sally - made from a foam head and craft paints.

Sally – made from a foam head and craft paints.

This is part 2 of a series of tutorials on how to make Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. The first tutorial was on how to make her body and frame.

To make Sally’s head you’ll need:

1 Styrofoam Head
Craft paints (use outdoor acrylics if placing prop outside) aqua blue, grey, red, black, white
Paint brushes
Foam brush
Black jewelry cord (optional)
Adhesive (make sure you have a brand compatible with foam)
Dollar Store Fake eyelashes
Pencil
Drawing of Sally or image of Sally

Directions:
1) Mix blue and grey paint until you reach the desired skin tone for Sally. In the movie, some images appear to show her skin as blue, in other parts, she appears to be grey. It’s your choice.
2) With the foam brush, paint the entire foam head with your blue-grey mixture, let dry.
3) After studying how Sally is drawn, use a pencil to outline the larger eyes, eyeshadow, lips, and stitches.
4) Paint your outlines, let dry.
5) Apply waterproof, clear-drying glue to the eyelashes and place along the eye shadow line. Add optional extra large lashes by cutting small pieces of black cord and rolling the pieces on a pencil and then attaching them to the lash bed.
6) Once eyelashes are dry, take black paint and heighten the full-lash look by brushing on (as if using a mascara brush) the black paint upward, thickening the lashes. Continue reading →

Zombie Love – Dolls Transformed

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Baby dolls "transformed" into the walking dead. Image copyrighted, all rights reserved, Debbie Morrow

Baby dolls “transformed” into the walking dead. Image copyrighted, all rights reserved, Debbie Morrow

Here are my newest creations. Believe it or not, I had a nightmare the first night I started making these.

I’m not sure if I should stick them slightly into the ground or let them just be the walking dead. What do you think?

Making Sally (Nightmare Before Christmas) Part 1

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Just completed prop of Sally (Nightmare Before Christmas). Image CC All Rights Reserved, Debbie Morrow

Just completed prop of Sally (Nightmare Before Christmas). Image CC All Rights Reserved, Debbie Morrow

Over the next week or two, I’ll be posting separate tutorials on how I made Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. If you want a totally static(not moving) prop, follow the directions below. If you would like your body frame to be pose-able with hinged joints, check out the tutorial at The Haunt Forum.

Making Sally’s Body

You’ll need:
2-3 rolls of box or duct tape
1 1/2 rolls of a dollar store plastic wrap
Scissors
Approx. 2.5 (10 ft. each) one-inch PVC Pipes
1-inch PVC couplers: 1 cross, 1 tee, 4(90 degree angle) elbows and optional 45 or 90 degree elbows(if you want arms to bend)
PVC cutter or saw
Goop Adhesive for PVC
Stuffing material (newspapers, plastic bags, foam, etc.)
1 willing healthy person to be your body form (shouldn’t have circulatory problems or issues standing in place for over 30 minutes)

Throughout the process, make sure your model is feeling okay. Wrapping the plastic or the tape can really be constrictive and problematic for some people.

You can break it into several sessions where you just work on one small section of the body and tape the pieces together afterwards. Continue reading →

Repulsive Recipes for Halloween

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There's always room for Jello! Image of Jello worms courtesy of thecraftpatch.blogspot.com

There’s always room for Jello! Image of Jello worms courtesy of thecraftpatch.blogspot.com Recipe link below.

Half the fun on Halloween is sampling the novel treats that people bring to a party. The Jello Worms, The Mayor Cupcake from the Nightmare Before Christmas, witch hats, and the list goes on. Yet, the gruesome ones can be the most exhilarating. They push you to see if you have the guts to eat something beyond the regular aesthetics. Almost like a Fear Factor episode.

Here are some ideas for gruesome culinary creations that will help your friends squirm at your next party:

Baby Doo Doo Poop Balls or Shapes

Baby Doo Doo Image and recipe courtesy of Debbie Morrow. All Rights Reserved.

Baby Doo Doo Brownie Balls:

You’ll need:

1 Brownie Mix

1 Bag of Candy Corn

1) Make the brownies following the package directions, including the baking instructions. Do not over bake. Once brownies are cool enough to touch, grab about a tablespoon of brownie in your hand and roll it into a ball or shape into a turd. Push one or two candy corn into the ball, allowing them to slightly protrude.

Band-Aids have never been tastier! Image courtesy of Noblepig.com and recipe by Debbie Morrow.

Band-Aids have never been tastier! Image courtesy of Noblepig.com and recipe by Debbie Morrow.

 

Bloody Band-Aids

You’ll need:

Graham Crackers

White Frosting

Red Jam or Jelly

Directions: Break the crackers up into sections (half a square per band-aid) and place white in middle to represent the gauze and a dot of jam on top. Don’t forget to display your crackers with a few band-aid wrappers on the plate.

Still not grossed out? Try other stomach-turning recipes here:

Instructables – Scary Halloween Food

Cake Litter Cake

Chocolate Tarantulas

If you have any questions on some of the frugal gals recipes or want to share your scary delight, please feel free to reach out to me. Thanks!

Sally From The Nightmare Before Christmas – Completed!

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Just completed prop of Sally (Nightmare Before Christmas). Image CC All Rights Reserved, Debbie Morrow

Just completed prop of Sally (Nightmare Before Christmas). Image CC All Rights Reserved, Debbie Morrow

Here’s my latest prop creation. The tutorials will be coming shortly over the next few weeks. I’ll split it up into sections, since it was quite a task to complete. Now I’m off to make the mayor from The Nightmare Before Christmas!

Halloween Invitations to Die For

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My Halloween Invite for 2013.

My Halloween Invite for 2013. Contact and location information was removed for privacy. TO VIEW IMAGE WITHOUT DISTORTION, PLEASE READ ON LAPTOP, PAD, OR DESKTOP.

Here is my latest Halloween invite for 2013. I absolutely love fortune teller themed everything, so here’s my tutorial:

Find a high definition(HD) image of a Ouija board – like this one or this one from ZombiePumpkins.com forum. Even a newbie can use Photoshop Elements/Paint/Word for this job. Don’t have Photoshop Elements? You can download a 30-day trial. Although you can do it entirely in Photoshop(or really in Paint), I’ll be speaking to those who aren’t Photoshop savvy and we’ll be using both.

Steps for Invites Continue reading →

Minion Madness

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Minions are everywhere. Image courtesy of Lewallpaper.

Minions are everywhere. Image courtesy of Lewallpaper.

It’s hard not to smile when you look at the minions from Despicable Me.  I’m not sure what it is, but the frenzy has compelled people to recreate them in food, home décor and more. There are even entire sites totally dedicated to those little guys.

Edible Minions

You’d be surprised at how many ways you could eat a minion. Food Beast offers over 30 photos of the minions made in various food forms from Instagram, but alas…no tutorials. After scouring the internet, a few good tutorials did surface:

Rock Ur Party offers many good tutorials on edible, artful creations including minions made from marshmallows.

Restless Chipotle has a minion cupcake tutorial that uses Twinkies and candy eyes. You could also make your own candy eyes with Cook Play Explore’s tutorial.

It’s Almost Genius has a tutorial on how to make minions out of fondant. You can also find tutorials on how to make your own fondant by Steve Quaq at Instructables.

Home Décor Continue reading →

Halloween Planners…Start Your Engines!

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The clock is ticking quickly toward Halloween. Make it quick Cinderella image courtesy of flickr.com.12215612@N06/2877261320.

The clock is ticking quickly toward Halloween. Make it quick Cinderella image courtesy of flickr.com.12215612@N06/2877261320.

From the date of this post, there are only 68 days until Halloween. That may seem like a lot of time. But for prop makers, crafters and party hosts, the timeline is even shorter.

Party hosts usually place their event the weekend before and crafters and yard haunters like to show off their efforts a least a month prior to the big day. Anything shorter would seem pale in comparison for all the effort put into their late-night prop making.

The flurry of activities between networking with other crafters can be exhilarating. From blogs, Pinterest, websites and forums, ideas begin to take form. Continue reading →