"Disny the Dead" Zombie Baby

Tonight I took a timeout from pottery projects to work on my Halloween costume. If anyone knows me, they know how much I love creating cool as shit costumes! And scaring the kids. *here's your warning, if you're gonna be offended you should probably split, taking this message: I think this is hilarious, and that's why I'm happy, living the dream*

Please meet Disny. She's a Zombaby, and half of my costume this year. She's a typical baby, except for a few character traits that make her special. Well, she's an aspiring artist as well. I would love to share with you how I made her!

We have this fantastic second hand store in Canmore and I've found so much great stuff for Loft Living, my studio and for my travelling pottery show. 

Today I found this red tag doll, 50% off. Along with a $1 bag of face paint, this little pumpkin candy holder which is the perfect size for Disny, and two half price growlers for my Kombucha experiment! Eight bucks total. I says, "Pardon me?" John's like, "I know! All red tags!" Winning.

I already started adding gesso to the dolls body when I recognized the opportunity for a blog post. Here she is, all cute and innocent with her dress as a do rag. 

I loved her adorable little eyes, but they were too sweet for a Zombaby who just found her way to be a Halloween costume!

I gave this Dollie a good coat of gesso with a sponge. I dabbed it on so it would have texture rather than brush strokes. I apologized to her repeatedly and assured her little spirit that I adore her as is. She's actually quite forgiving. And asked that I play some musics. I found a Disney stamp on her neck, and gave her a name. It's appropriate don't you agree?

As the gesso cured I assembled acrylic paints, brushes, a salad tray for a palette and started mixing. For the Zombie Grey I mixed white with a blob of black and green. I used the same sponge that I used for the gesso to sponge the color all over. Even though the hair is covered, I used packing tape to mask the very edges of the hairline, and it helped hold the turban in place.

Next, I started mixing a Zombie Flesh colour. I used white, red, yellow and a touch of the Zombie Grey. Skin is not pink. It's kind of green in some light. So, I mottled it with two different sized bristle brushes, this kept the fleshy textures consistent. 

Here's a good close up of her little Zombaby face. This doll has a flat face and there's no contour whatsoever. I used a much Darker Shadow Grey to create deep eye sockets. Her features popped once I added a layer of Light Grey. The lips have Blood Red added, which is the color I also use for the wounds. 

Zombaby's wound is built up using one ply of toilet tissue and my favourite acrylic medium Mod Podge. It's glossy, so it creates depth to the Wound Red and Blood Red. Wound Red is simply a dab of red with some of the Zombie Grey. Blood Red has a dab of black in the red. 

Now for the gross part. I used pieces of toilet paper, Mod Podge and the Blood Red to make fleshy bits in her little monster hands. 

 

That's disgusting. But wait til you see what happens next!

Pallette

Disny Zombaby! Ready for Trick or Treats!

Clean your dryer!

Let's Talk! Tuesday Tips Anyone?!

There's this inconvenient phenomenon that occurs in my laundry. Tissues get left in pockets. So they end up exploding in my washer and then in my dryer. Today after it happened I had this strange urge to vacuum out the lint catcher in my dryer. I want to say something funny and witty, but I think it's really more important that you take me seriously about this for a few minutes! Here's my Pinterest, to give my Tip credibility!            Visit Tamara M. Hannah's profile on Pinterest.   

First I removed the lint catcher and started to run hot water on it. The water was beading off, rather than draining through the mesh. I said to myself, "I think this was a good idea!" and grabbed the soap and a scrub brush. Next, I took the Dyson with the crevice tool and started to clean out the area that holds the lint catcher.....

THIS IS WHAT WAS IN THERE! I had to empty the Dyson vacuum 3 times! 

 Needless to say, I did some investigating, just to find out how all of this works. This "grate" comes off of the inside of the dryer wall just below where the lint catcher rests. Once I took it off a PILE of lint and about half a cup of sand fell out of the crevice that it covered! I was shocked and grossed out. This is how houses burn down. 

Next, I scrubbed the build up from the grate, this is how my lint catcher looked also. I vacuumed the rest of the gap where the lint was building up. I could fit my whole hand down there and was gathering hand fulls of lint. Ok, so this dryer was a second hand jobbie that was in my loft when I moved in. It didn't occur to me that cleaning it was a necessity. I'm sharing this well learned lesson with you today for the simple fact that I think it's pretty unsafe. 

 Here is my washed out lint trap! 

Here is a weird angle of the whole area that the grate piece screws on to and then where the lint catcher would sit. This photo is after I cleaned it all out.

Here's the clean grate being screwed back onto the inside of the dryer. 

And inserting my clean lint catcher back into its holder. 

This situation made me nervous because sometimes I like to leave the dryer running when I leave the loft for work in the afternoon. Riggs isn't very good at calling 911 if you know what I mean.

So take a few minutes when you load the dryer next time and see if you have any build up in your lint catcher! This whole project only took me about half an hour, it was worth it!

This certainly isn't my most sparkly, bubbly, glittery post to date. And you'll adjust. It can't all be rainbows and kittens! 

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Here's what happens! https://www.facebook.com/909263429090411/photos/a.927517143931706.1073741830.909263429090411/1216814768335274/?type=3