Spookytown!

So I discovered a new talent this year - styrofoam carving! For the past few years, we have been collecting pieces for a miniature Halloween village. On a trip to the Department 56 store in Downtown Disney this fall, we were inspired to create a kick*&$ display like the one they had in the store (did you see it? it was awesome!) So we went dumpster diving to find all the styrofoam (our part in "going green" this year - reuse & recycle!), got a "hot wire" tool for carving, bought some spray paint & went crazy! I created this display which is customized for our particular Spookytown pieces, so in the "grotto" was our mummy and pirate pieces, and on the top level was our "town" pieces (Frankenstein's lab, the cemetary, dead man's mine, haunted houses, etc). The whole thing got several coats of spray paint (I discovered that oil-based spray paint eats away the styrofoam! Actually, it made a really cool "lava rock" type effect). The layers are held together with bamboo skewers. And the bottom level "grotto" got a thin layer of sand glued on. And the water we created by painting the styrofoam, then covering the area with clear caulking and painting the "white caps" with white acrylic paint. The waterfall was a mixture of blue cellophane, clear saran wrap, and hot glue. Topped off with some aquarium gravel rocks and dried moss, Spookytown was quite the holiday display this year. To check out more photos of our Spookytown, you can access the Lemax Spookytown website with the following link:http://www.lemax-spookytown.com/Displays/HalloweenDisplay2008.asp. Look for "Jeremy & Jennifer Stonebarger" towards the bottom of the list and click on our names. The whole thing was quite a project, but alot of fun. So all of you Department 56 or Lemax collectors out there, if you need a custom display built, let me know!!