Halloween Squidoodles

A one-eyed pumpkin just didn't seem right to me at all. Neither does using a real pumpkin photo. So I took a black and white clip art graphic I found on the web, colored it and added the squid eyes in place of the normal triangular eyes that you would find on a pumpkin. I know he looks a little ridiculous. You can think of him wearing a mask. I made him into other colors as well. Who said that a pumpkin has to be orange? The other pumpkinheads can be seen at the Colorful Collection site.

"It was a long time ago, longer now than it seems
In a place that perhaps you've seen in your dreams.
For the story that you are about to be told
Began with the holiday worlds of old.

Now, you've probably wondered where holidays come from.
If you haven't, I'd say it's time you begun.
For holidays are the result of much fuss
And hard work for the worlds that create them for us.
Well, you see now, quite simply that's all that they do
Making one unique holiday, especially for you."

--Opening Lines from Nightmare Before Christmas

This originally was a simple, boring black and white clip art graphic. I decided to color it and animate it. I applied one of the texture filters on the logs to make it look a little 'real'. The starry background was created from the Glitterato plug-in. You can buy the plug-in at the Flaming Pear site. If you watch the clouds instead of the brew, you can see the pixels jumping up and down in the clouds. I did not intend on animating it like that. It came out like that after putting the still frames together.

As for what's in the witches brew, your mind can wander about it.

Witches Brew Recipe [courtesy of Allrecipes.com]

PREP TIME 30 Min
COOK TIME 10 Min
READY IN 7 Days

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

* 1 (10 ounce) package frozen raspberries, thawed
* 2 1/2 cups cranberry juice
* 2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
* 2 liters ginger ale
* 2 liters sparkling apple cider (non-alcoholic)
* 6 gummi snakes candy

DIRECTIONS

1. To make the frozen hand: Wash and rinse the outside of a rubber glove. Turn glove inside out and set aside. In a 4 cup measuring cup, combine the thawed raspberries and cranberry juice.

2. Pour 2 cups of the raspberry mixture into a small saucepan. Sprinkle the gelatin over and let stand 2 minutes. Warm over low heat, stirring constantly, just until gelatin dissolves. Mix back into the reserved raspberry mixture in the measuring cup.

3. Pour raspberry mixture into the inverted glove. Gather up the top of the glove and tie securely with kitchen twine. Freeze until solid, or several days if possible.

4. To serve: Carefully cut glove away from frozen hand. Place frozen hand, palm side up, leaning against side of a large punch bowl. Pour in ginger ale and sparkling cider. Garnish with gummy snakes.

Footnote: To avoid issues with people who may have allergies to latex, use a disposable glove that is latex-free. There is usually an alternative available in the cleaning department of your grocery store.

Yes it's the Squidoo version of Elvira. I colored her skin purple. I saved the nose and mouth and colored them too. I also modified the tag line to fit more into the line of Squidoo. I used a blue background to fit into the theme of things that go bump in the night.

The name Elvira is originally believed to be of Arabic origin, meaning "the white". Other theories claim that it is Germanic or West Gothic origin and that the name means "alert" or "trustworthy".

This tidbit of info is from Wikipedia

Would you want to meet this thing in the back alley?

Inspiration for this comes from Tim Burton's Corpse Bride movie. I looked at several different "dead bride" costumes online. My intention was to depict a godzilla bride with one eye.

Did you know?

That there's a corpse bride dvd available at Tomorriscat's Store

I found this stashed away on my hard drive and thought I would include it since speaking of "monster brides"

What would Halloween be without a skeleton. I was trying to think of a way of creating a Squidoo skeleton. The skull you see is not just any skull. It's a photograph of "For the Love of God", a Diamond Skull created by Damien Hirst.

"It shows we are not going to live for ever. But it also has a feeling of victory over death,"--Damien Hirst said when the sparkling skull was unveiled to the public for the first time [in June 2007], amid tight security at central London's White Cube Gallery.

The Diamond Skull is encrusted with 8,601 diamonds, including a large pink diamond in the center of it's forehead. I know the diamond doesn't appear to be pink. I am just stating what the Diamond Skull facts are. While it's a lot of diamonds and bling, I thought it was an appropriate way of depicting a Squidoo skeleton. It kind of reinforces statements such as Squidoo being a "goldmine" [in terms of making money] and what is "cream of the crop" in Squidoo.

The body of the squid is a repeated diamond pattern. I copied a small section of the skull and made it into a snakeskin like pattern. I made several different colors of the Squidoo skeleton. They can be viewed at the Colorful Collection site.

Halloween is not complete without having some sort of villain. So I created a Squidoo version of Freddy Krueger.

To the tune of 'One, Two,
Buckle My Shoe':

One, two, Squiddy's coming for you.
Three, four, better lock your door.
Five, six, grab your crucifix.
Seven, eight, gonna stay up late.
Nine, ten, never sleep again.

Isn't he scary with his little claws. I couldn't decide on his clothing so I made his shirt and pants just all red and black stripes. More like a one piece suit. I put a texture filter on the face to give a wrinkled/burn appearance. That is the original hat, but I inverted it and added shades of grey for more of a ghostly look. As for those retarded looking shoes, I found those shoes on my hard drive and thought they would be good to add to the scary appearance.

Spiders are another aspect of Halloween. So I created a Squid Spider. I didn't think it would be right for the spider to be all one color. I think it looks cute with it's shoes.

Did you know?

That some people in South America eat tarantulas. Tarantulas are the most plentiful living things on earth and they are a good source of protein.

This tidbit of info comes from spiderzrule.com

Last in my Halloween Squidoodle series is this animated poster. My intention is to invoke the feeling of the theme song from the movie "Halloween".

Squideen is [or should be] the Squidoo version of saying Halloween. I hope you have a good trick-or-treating. Maybe I will make more Halloween Squidoodles next year.

This lens was published on October 21, 2008. This is my 3rd lens. My other lenses can be viewed here. You can also visit my Squidoo blog and the colorful collection of graphics site for Squidoo lenses.