Pumpkin Pete

With Halloween only 236 days away... yes, I know... but I am ready! This was the perfect project for winter... if you don't mind a little bit of a mess in your house! ;)

While pinning a ton of Halloween ideas, I came across this amazing Grim. After Christmas, I was ready to build him! I don't always click on my pins prior to creating them, so when I found out the Grim was only 5ft tall, I was somewhat disappointed.... but just for a few seconds! I really thought in the pics he was bigger than me, that he was tall, dark and no, not handsome... but Haunting! I wanted mine towering over me. I really don't have any "real" instructions on my guy, b/c I really played it by ear. I went to Home Depot and saw they had a lot of wood in there 70% off cart.... most of this wood is warped or cracked in some way. I found a bunch of these 1x3/4x8 pieces of wood. These would make great limbs! While I was there, I also picked up a bunch of chicken wire, I will talk about this later. I also had a bunch of scrap wood at home, which was used for his torso and neck. 

Excuse the mess in my living & dining room...
you know, projects are a priority! 

Once the base, and skeleton was constructed, I ran 2 cords that were connected together, one to go up to his head, the other down his arm, for the pumpkins he would be holding. I then began wrapping the entire structure with chicken wire, I made a rib cage out of wired coat hangers (these were not chicken wired), coat hangers were also used for toes & fingers. Once the figure was chicken wired, the "real" mess began.... paper-mache! I also don't use a "recipe" for paper-mache... I have always just use flour & water... portions, I couldn't tell you! I really think it depends on your projects... do you want the mixture thick, or more thin. For this guy, I used a more thin mixture, I didn't want the paper-mache to get flaky on me after drying. 

His shoulder horns, are made of complete chicken wire. Pete had a total of 3 layers of paper-mache. I did ask a few of my prop building friends on their thoughts for how many layers he should have, and especially since he was going to be outside.... they all were saying more of the 6+ range. But after the third layer... he was getting heavier, and with his height being 8ft tall, I needed to be careful with that. After all the paper-mache dried, a couple days for each layer, I Modge Podged the whole structure. This, I believe helps seal it. I then found premium exterior paint at Home Depot in their "discounted paint area" (I guess messed up colors)... the color was perfect! I don't even know the color of it, its like a dark woodsy brown color... regular $45... I got the gallon for $9! I painted the first layer on, and was going to paint a second, but when my husband came home, he said he thought just one layer looked the best, b/c it gave Pete this streaky, wood limbs look. 

The three small pumpkins were strung, and his head placed on... I was in LOVE!!! He came out exactly how I wanted.... Tall, Dark and HAUNTING!!! 

I know many of you may be asking about the pumpkins, and his head... What are they? How were they made? That's a whole other post, you can find here! 

Pumpkin Pete!