The Dark Night

Once again I have fallen off the blogger bandwagon. But did I ever mention how crazy The Animator and His Wife are about Halloween? They start planning a year in advance, and from September onward, there's no time for anything but getting ready for the big night. This year's theme: Batman.

This year was epic, because not only are The Animator and His Wife huge Halloweenies, they are also huge Batman fans. For those of you who don't know, my full name is Selena Kyle. Yes, I was named after Catwoman. Because of that, I was expecting to be dragged into all the Batman shenanigans, but when our friends and family found out we were doing Batman, suddenly everyone wanted to join in. Before we knew it, we had an entire cast of Batman villians and an Arkham Asylum to boot, leaving me off the hook for playing dress-up!

Starring Little Sunshine's Mom as Poison Ivy, The Animator as Two Face, The Animator's Wife as Catwoman, and Little Sunshine as Batman.


Also starring The Artist as Harley Quinn and Mr. Law School as The Joker.


With special appearances by The Dog as The Riddler...


...and The Terror as The Penguin.

So how did The Animator and His Wife put all this ridiculousness together? We had help from many, many people, to include our Craft Night buddies.

Catwoman

Catwoman was the most complicated of all the costumes. The Animator's Wife wanted to go for the classy and sophisticated Julie Newmar Catwoman, who wore a lurex bodysuit. That was the core of the problem, as The Animator's Wife could not find a single lurex bodysuit that wasn't see-through. Not to be discouraged, she decided to follow Tim Baverstock's excellent instructions on how to make your own bodysuit. And Ms. Caddy on Ebay was extremely helpful in suggesting an appropriate fabric for the project. The necklace was made by the talented Benae Quee--a fellow Batman fan.

Two Face

Two Face is all about the make-up, because anyone can cut two suits apart and sew them together. For a realistic burn effect, we decided to use the technique as illustrated by Indy Mogul. It was easy enough to do three nights in a row, and took about an hour each time.

Arkham Asylum

This is the part that turned our family from crazy-for-Halloween to just plain crazy. How appropriate, then, that we turned our house into a mental institution! In order to keep the crazies in, first we needed a fence. For that we turned to Brian Smith's detailed instructions on creating one out of PVC pipe and wooden 1x2s. The Animator then proceeded to carve the sign for Arkham out of foam house insulation. And of course, you can't have a Batman-themed Halloween without a Bat Signal. For detailed instructions on how The Animator created the foam sign and the Bat Signal, please see The Artist's post here.

Finally, as a finishing touch, The Animator's Wife painted silhouettes of Batman and The Joker to hang in the windows.

She got the idea from our favorite crafty lady, Martha Stewart, but instructions may also be found on The Artist's blog.

Phew! Now that all the hard work is done, let's have some fun!

BAM!


POW!


BANG!


KA-POW!

Happy (belated) Halloween, everyone!