A Haunted Holiday Home Tour

Happy Fall! I'm super excited, not only about today's post but our new blog! A Magical Mama. I feel like that name just sums up my love for Disney magic and creating a magical holiday home for my kids. Growing up my mom would always decorate our home each holiday and as a child, it was the most magical thing ever. I remember helping her open the plastic storage bins and getting out all the decor. I won't lie, there have been times when I say I'm not going to decorate or just keep it simple but then I think back to my childhood and really enjoyed that my mom put thought and effort into making each holiday special for my sister and I. I hope that my kids will remember our holidays together and when they come back once they're grown, they'll feel a bit of nostalgia when they see the things from their childhood home. 

Aside from just the inside of our home, I know so many of you are excited to finally see the life size Jack Skellington we built this year and Zero's doghouse tombstone. So much work, time, and love went into building him. It's something I've been wanting to do since forever. I just never knew exactly how to pull it off. I grew up watching and loving The Nightmare Before Christmas. In fact, when I was 5 my mom made me a Sally costume for Halloween because it was my favorite movie. Not many knew who I was since it was such a new movie. But I just love it so much!

Josh and I have loved visiting Disneyland during Halloween time and seeing the Haunted Mansion all decked out with it's NBC holiday overlay. After visiting a couple years ago and seeing a Jack they had outside of the mansion I knew that's how I wanted my Jack to look. I wanted him to be life size, proportionate and almost Disneyland prop like. It took us quite a while to make. Working on him little by little each day or when I'd get a spare hour or two. 

I'm happy to say that I could not be happier with how he turned out! I hope people and kids smile every time they drive by him. Alright, enough blabbing... on with the home tour. This first picture of the bar cart I have decorated for a craft party I'm having with my sister and nieces. I'll be sharing what's going in those paper cones and more on this fun and easy kids party next week!

And now onto Jack. He stands about 7 1/2 feet tall. We've had to rebar him into the ground for support. His head is made of paper-mache and then I sculpted his features out of epoxy clay. We then put on an enamel topcoat and really had to make sure he was weatherproof. Jack's suit is just basic cotton, cut and hot glued on. I used puffy paint to create the lines. His bat bow tie is made from 6mm craft foam.We bought Zero at the store At Home. I added wire and white LED lights under his fabric so he stands out at night and looks like he's flying. His tombstone is crafted from insulation foam found at Lowe's. We found a tutorial for this on Pinterest. We then we spray painted and hand painted it with acrylic paint to look more old and tombstone like. The bone we made for Zero was an idea that I found from the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland. As you go through the ride you see Zero floating down a hallway and he has a big pile of bones and one floating bone with a bow and gift tag. I'm thinking of doing an entire detailed post of Jack. If you'd like me to do this, leave a comment below. Happy Halloween!