craftzine.com:

CRAFT Newsletter for October 11, 2006

CRAFT & MAKE Halloween contests, Free Halloween knitting patterns, Zombie pumpkins, Star Wars themed jack-o-lanterns, Vintage Halloween Flickr group, How to build a better bat costume (from an umbrella), Princess Leia knitted wig

Go see The Science of Sleep this weekend!

Michel Gondry, Gael Garcia Bernal, art, witty dialogue, fun music, and of course, plenty of heart.

Close your eyes, open your heart. See in dreamland!

Dear Readers,

Halloween is just weeks away and there is still time to get cracking on some fun Halloween projects. Don't miss the ghoulishly fun MAKE & CRAFT Halloween Contest.

Happy Halloween from all of us at CRAFT!

Cheers,
Natalie Zee
Associate Editor, CRAFT Magazine
www.craftzine.com
nat@craftzine.com

From the CRAFT Blog

CRAFT & MAKE Halloween contests!

Makers and Crafters, it's time to enter our ghoulishly fun Halloween contests! Anyone, anywhere can enter, and depending on what type of maker or crafter you are, you can enter all or just some of the contests. We'll have lots of updates and posts regarding all these, but this is to get you started and planning. THE CONTESTS! Hack-o-Lantern contest: Decorate a pumpkin in any way you see fit, or unfit. It's that easy. Then upload your photos to the MAKE or CRAFT Flickr photo pool and tag them "MAKECRAFTHALLOWEEN" Or you can email them to us, just be aware that we're going to upload them to the MAKE and CRAFT Flickr photo pools. We'll also have a round up of ways to decorate a pumpkin as it gets closer to Halloween. Costume contest: Dressing up? Making your own costume? As long as you "make" something you can enter. Any costume with homemade elements on it, in it, or used is OK. Take a photo of your costume(s) then upload your photos to the MAKE or CRAFT Flickr photo pool and tag them "MAKECRAFTHALLOWEEN" Or you can email them to us, just be aware that we're going to upload them to the MAKE and CRAFT Flickr photo pool. We'll continue to post fun costumes and how-tos all this month as well. Decorations, gadgets and more contest: Decorations at home, work, wherever, a haunted house, lawn gadgets, anything Halloweeny. If you're one of those makers or crafters who goes all out and makes their surroundings spooky in some way, take a photo! Then upload your photos to the MAKE or CRAFT Flickr photo pool and tag them "MAKECRAFTHALLOWEEN" Or you can email them to us, just be aware that we're going to upload them to the MAKE and CRAFT Flickr photo pool. We will spotlight some of our favorite Halloween related projects all this month to inspire folks. Treat-or-Treat contest: This is the easiest one. If you have a blog, a website, MySpace or anything online, just post a link to MAKE or CRAFT. We will pick 10 people we see linking to us. It works best if you have a blog-like site; we'll be using the Technorati service to track who is linking to us (you can view it here). You can post a link to us in your sidebar, a link about this contest, anything really. Do a post about MAKE or CRAFT, it doesn't matter to us, but we can see it best if it's on a blog and making it fun always helps (extra credit if it's a SPOOKY STORY!). Prizes! Besides the glory and fame of being a winner of the MAKE & CRAFT Halloween Contest, we're going to give away some stuff.

Hack-o-Lantern: We'll pick 3 pumpkins and the winner gets a MAKE limited edition Pocket Ref & Makers the book.
Costumes: We'll pick 3 costumes and each winner gets MAKE year one (4 volumes of MAKE in a collector's box) and the first issue of CRAFT.
Decorate/gadgets: We'll pick 3 winners and each will receive a MAKE controller kit and a POV kit.
Treat-or-Treat: We'll pick 10 people who linked to MAKE & CRAFT and send the latest issue of MAKE or CRAFT (your choice).
Grand prize: We'll pick one of our winners as the grand prize - they'll receive: A MAKE controller kit, MAKE year one (4 volumes collectors set), CRAFT, a POV kit AND a box of MAKE magazines to a classroom / school of their choice! You want to win this, do it for the children!

Deadline Have your entries in before Saturday, Nov. 4, 2006, at 1:59 p.m. EST. We're giving you a little time to take photos and get them up post-Halloween, but you can enter any time starting now. Contest is open to anyone on planet Earth or surrounding orbit. Remember you can enter at any time just by tagging your photos on Flickr with "MAKECRAFTHALLOWEEN" and adding them to the MAKE and/or CRAFT photo pools or just email them to us too. To enter trick-or-treat just post about MAKE/CRAFT or the contest on your blog. And lastly if you want to use MAKE and/or CRAFT logos in your projects or posts, get'em here (MAKE logos - CRAFT logos). SO! What are you waiting for? Scare us! Inspire us! Humor us!

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Free Halloween knitting patterns

Here are a few (free) Halloween patterns, from black cat motifs to witches hats - Link.

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Zombie Pumpkins

A Liszewski says, "This guy has been updating his library of pumpkin stencils over the years and his catalog is just brilliant. He's a great artist and the site covers everything from movies to classical monsters. Some stencils are more involved than others when it comes to carving but the results have always been amazing. The best part is that you can get lifetime access to the library with as little as a $2 donation. Well worth it." Another reader also gave us a great tip that these pumpkin stencils can also be used with freezer paper to make T-shirts. Link.

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Star Wars themed Jack-O-Lanterns

Even better this Halloween, you can carve out your own Darth Vader or Yoda Jack-O-Lantern with stencils from Star Wars. Link.

Related:

MAKE Blog stencil projects - Link.
MAKE Blog Halloween Projects - Link & archives

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Vintage Halloween Flickr group

There's a great flickr group I'm a member of that has great vintage images of Halloween from the 1800's-1960's. Photos are of halloween decorations, photographs, costumes and more! Pictured here is a postcard from 1910. Link.

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HOW TO - Build a better bat costume (from an umbrella)

From the MAKE Blog:
Lenore writes - "Halloween is coming right up, so it is time to post one of our favorite costumes to help get everyone in the spirit. This is a darned good looking bat costume you can make from a hoodie and an umbrella. Yes, similar costumes have been made before. Even Martha's done it. However, our version is better. Forget instructions that call for elastic harnesses and throwing out the "insides" of the umbrella. You don't need elastic, and the umbrella parts are absolutely essential. Those extra ribs make extra big bat ears. The only raw materials that you will need are an umbrella and a hooded zippered sweatshirt. You will also need some tools and supplies: needle and thread, pins, pliers, scissors, and something to cut the umbrella ribs, such as tin snips, bolt cutters, or cutting pliers." - Link.

Related:

Photos the bat costume in the MAKE pool - Link.
Halloween projects, how-tos, articles and more - Link.

And.... Halloween is fast approaching, a "maker" holiday if there ever was one! Have a great spooky project, hack, tip, costume idea, favorite material or tool related to Halloween? Email Phil and also stay tuned for a fun MAKE & CRAFT Halloween contest!

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