Thread: Nightmare Before Christmas!

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Hey all,

It's been a busy year and while I didn't do a yard haunt because I was at Disneyland for Halloween, I tend to celebrate Halloween on every Holiday (actually closer to 365 days a year!) and Christmas is no exception! My girlfriends favorite ride is the Haunted Mansion, but she likes it even better when it's converted into the Nightmare Before Christmas! So I wanted to give her a gift that would reflect her love of the ride and Nightmare Before Christmas! She fell in love with a shadowbox at Disneyland that incorporated items and characters from the movie into a framed antiquity that spells out the movie title using said objects from the film.. awesome item for any Nightmare fan! ( http://www.themeparkshopper.com/serv...-Before/Detail ) The picture does not do the item justice!

I made a wood box that looks like a Christmas box and I painted it to match a swirly design I've seen on a few boxes on the ride! The box is fairly large, but I figured it would be a nice solution for storing all our Christmas decorations, so it has style and function! The wood box is painted with acrylic paint from Michaels and sealed with Polycrilic. The bow is also made from wood and painted a coordinating color.

I sculpted the skulls from clay, but in hindsight I'm horrible when it comes to sculpting. I would have had better luck drawing the shape on a piece of wood and cutting it with a scroll saw! I always like to try new mediums though.











I have also been working on one of *FEW* items that are not Halloween related. The reason I posted this is because everything I've learned from making Halloween stuff carries over into many other aspects that have little to do with my FAVORITE holiday. My Mom loves Christmas decorations and while I tend to mix the macabre with the cheery, My mom loves plain old boring Christmas decorations and she especially loves SNOWMEN! So I found plans on how to make a bench and I am pleased with the results. I have seen other plans for a similar bench with Ghosts and Tombstones, so I may make that one down the road, but it is a little too cute for my taste!





Happy Holidays to everyone, and I hope a lot of you can incorporate your favorite Holiday and passion of making stuff for the Christmas season! I totally love a Nightmare Before Christmas and I'm seriously thinking of ditching "normal" Christmas lights and go full blown Nightmare in the front yard, hehe!

What lucky ladies! Those presents are outstanding and so perfect for for them. Love the smiles on those snowmen

I would be THRILLED to get that present! Did you hand-draw all of the swirls on the present box! And the skulls look great, so don't sell yourself short.

Love the snowmen bench - it's adorable.

Love it!!!!!

I would be full of giggles if I saw that box under my tree!!! You did a wonderful job!!

Thanks for the compliments, everyone!

@Terra The snowman do have cool smiling faces.. I can't help but smiling every time I walk by, lol.

@Frankie's Girl All the swirls are hand drawn. I painted the box using water based acrylics and I started to paint the swirls using a brush and paint, but it started to look BAD real fast and NOT in a good way! A quick trip down to Michael's and I LUCKED out and found some Sharpie pens that have an oil based paint inside of them and it worked wonderfully. I am a lot more accurate when it comes to drawing than using a brush! I never have good luck getting the paint to stay the same color and thickness using a brush, so I try to cheat my way around it rather than practicing!

The gift box and presents are so cool! I also love the snowman bench.