Monday 3 November 2014

Sleepy Hollow Halloween

 
So for Halloween this year I decided to go for the ambitious theme of a Sleepy Hollow party, complete with a headless horseman, Katrina's spellbook and a Sleepy Hollow window display I don't think it turned out too badly.

I cut out some ghostly shapes to stick up in my windows, including crows, ghosts, mice, Frankenstein, Dracula and a werewolf Red Riding Hood I also highlighted the Sleepy Hollow theme with Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman from the Disney film, the dreaded Tree of the Dead from the Tim Burton film, and the words 'Sleepy Hollow'.


After getting some ideas from the internet I also made a Sleepy Hollow canvas, and added my homemade Headless Horseman plushie to the window display. For the canvas I used a screenshot of Brom Bones as the Headless Horseman in Tim Burton's film, ironic but it was a good screenshot.

For pumpkin designing my niece, partner and I carved three pumpkins to guard the doorway, Jack Skellington, a vampire and of course, the headless horseman!
The main centrepiece of the display was the Headless Horseman, a key design from the beginning of the theme I got his clothes from a charity shop with a cloak from ebay, a cuirass from Amazon, and a bloody sword from a bargain shop. Stuffed with hay, he came to life, or unlife rather, thanks to my father's excellent skills with woodwork, he made a wooden frame for him and his shoes were finished with black binbags.

A tough theme I spent hours looking at pinterest and re-read Washington Irving's novel and watched both the Disney adaptation and the faithful Hallmark adaptation (highly recommended if you want a child friendly one and a film that follows the book). I ended up making Katrina's spellbook as in the Tim Burton film and the current tv series Katrina is a witch so I went along with that theme though the spell in the book is actually Lady Van Tassle's from the Tim Burton film, though I made up the ingredients.



Katrina got her very own witch's corner complete with broomstick, cobwebs and some cheerful pumpkins.
Whilst the Headless Horseman guarded the Halloween display in the living room before being shifted to the front door to scare the would be party goers and trick r treaters.
All in all I think my Sleepy Hollow theme was a pleasant success and well worth the effort! Also a good chance to practice my arts and crafts :-).