Mock Goosebumps Cover Design Contest

     Looking for a fun, easy activity for your Goosebumps themed party?  Host a cover design contest.  Print out copies of the template given below and hand them out to your guests along with some colored pencils and then sit back and watch the creativity flow.

Template

     Note that if you print this template at the size of an actual Goosebumps cover, it will come out a little pixelated.  Scholastic used to offer a free, printable template on their website, but when I went there while I was planning my party, I couldn't find it anymore.  I threw this together and even though it's a little fuzzy, that pixelation didn't seem to detract from the activity any.

Sample Covers

     These are the cover designs my guests came up with.  When it came time for us to vote, many of us had trouble ranking them because they were all so good.  Katie's Cat Got Your Tongue (pictured at the top of the post) scored a very narrow victory.

DIY "Slime" Cake

Materials:

*Cake of your choice
*Icing (such as Brian's icing, recipe in this post)
*Green food coloring
*Yellow food coloring
*Zip lock bag
*Scissors

Directions:

*Prepare cake as you normally would.

*Once the cake is cool, frost it with a thin layer of icing.  The less icing you use in this stage, the more you'll have for the "slime."

*Take the remaining icing and add a few drops of green food coloring and a few drops of yellow.  Mix until the icing is a consistent color.  Add more food coloring as needed, until the icing reaches the desired color.

*Spoon the icing into the zip lock bag.

*Snip a tiny hole in one of the bottom corners of the bag.  This is where you'll be pouring the icing from.  It's best to make the hole as small as possible and then enlarge if needed.

*Squeeze icing along the top edge of the cake, forming "drips" of "slime."  This technique is similar to the one we used for my melted crayon art cake.

*Once you've finished with the slime drips, use the remaining icing to frost the top of the cake.

Goosebumps Birthday Party

     As a 90s child, I adored the Goosebumps series, especially the Give Yourself Goosebumps books, in which the reader picked the ending.  I decided to throw a Goosebumps themed birthday party, complete with an interactive Give Yourself Goosebumps style game.  I've had many fun birthday parties, but I think this one was the most fun one yet.
     Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing how I designed the crafts, games, and snacks for the party.  For now, though, here's an overview of the party.
     One nice thing about throwing a Goosebumps party was that it gave me an excuse to use some of my Halloween decorations.  That meant I had fewer decorations I had to make.

     First up are the outdoor decorations.  I brought out my "beware of werewolf" display again because there are werewolves in several Goosebumps books (e.g., Night in Werewolf Woods, Werewolf of Fever Swamp).  I also brought out the zombie garden gnomes because I'm pretty sure there was a Goosebumps book about killer garden gnomes (it turns out it's called Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes), so the statues seemed fitting.

     Cemeteries are featured in several Goosebumps books (e.g., Curse of the Creeping Coffin), so I dragged my foam tombstones out of storage.  I'm pretty sure my neighbors were probably wondering why I had a cemetery in my yard in the middle of May.  I also added the eyeball path markers because they're fun.

     The only new decoration I made for the outdoors was the slime for the front steps.  The steps were pretty dusty, so it took several applications of packing tape before I got the slime to stay up.

     Inside the house, I had two main setups, both relating to the story I wrote for my interactive game in one way or another.  First up is the mad scientist setup.  The test tubes and beakers all came from Target and we're part of my existing Halloween decorations.  The test tube shot glasses came from Party City.  The holes around the shot glasses were very tight, so I cut off the top of the original holder and made one with larger holes from cardstock.  I then painted the holder black.

     The other setup was the magic setup.  Again, most of the potions and whatnot I already had (see these four posts for more on the potion bottles).  I added some cardstock to the inside of an olive jar to make a vase for the dried flowers.  The monster blood was also new, although I'll write more about that in a later post.

     The cutlery, napkins, and plates came from Party City.  I chose neon green because monster blood is green in the books.  I decorated some of the cutlery with dripping glitter "monster blood."  The snack you see there is purple peanut butter on crackers, a reference to the book Beware of the Purple Peanut Butter.  We also had four kinds of pizza: cheese, pickle, Alfredo, and an everything pizza.

     Here is the punch setup.  The cups came from Party City, but I decorated them using cut outs I made with my Silhouette CAMEO.  I think I got the bowl from Dollar Tree, although that was ages ago, so I'm not sure.  I got the Nessie ladle from Amazon.  I had been wanting to get one for a while now, so this was the perfect excuse.  People thought Nessie was adorable.  The "punch" was just Sprite Zero with green food coloring.

     After people had their pizza, we played my Give Yourself Goosebumps style game.  The premise is this: You're at your friend Amber's Goosebumps themed birthday party and decide to have some punch.  Suddenly vines start growing from your body.  It seems like you're turning into a plant.  You can choose from items in the mad scientist setup or the magic setup to try to return to your human form.  Here my guests are turning into plants.

     They ended up choosing a story line involving Brian the dark sorcerer.  They decide to take Brian's wager and roll for a chance to be returned to their human form.

     After the game, we had a Goosebumps cover design contest.  The entries we're all excellent, but Katie's "Cat Got Your Tongue" scored a narrow victory.  She won a holographic cover edition of the story I wrote for the party.  Everyone else got a copy of the story as well, just without the shiny cover.

     We had a photo shoot against this spooky backdrop Brian picked up on Amazon.

     Next we had cake and ice cream.

     I set up an "I scream" lab, where people could add spooky colors or toppings to their ice cream.
     I was planning on having a costume contest to win a vial of monster blood, but since Brian and I were the only ones who dressed up, we had a Goosebumps trivia contest instead.  I brought out my Give Yourself Goosebumps books and people would grab whichever book they thought answered the question.  The first question, which no one answered correctly, was what was my favorite Goosebumps book when I was a kid?  (Correct answer: Deep in the Jungle of Doom.)  The second question, which Ken answered correctly to win the monster blood, was which Give Yourself Goosebumps book did the Veazie school library have when I was a kid?  (correct answer: The Curse of the Creeping Coffin.)
     I had a ton of fun hosting this party and I can't wait to share all these crafts, games, and snacks with you.

Non-Transitive Dice

     Non-transitive dice are a fun take on traditional dice.  You may recall from algebra class the concept of transitivity from algebra class, probably expressed to you in a statement like this: if a>b and b>c, then a>c.  If something is not transitive, then if a>b and b>c, a is not necessarily greater than c.
     The way non-transitive dice work is that each die in the set has a certain probability of having the higher value when rolled against another die in the set.  If one person picks a die, there is another die in the set that is likely to outscore the first die when both are rolled.  Thus if you pick second, you can skew the odds in your favor.  To see examples of how some non-transitive dice work, including the ones discussed in this post, see this page.

Materials:
*Paint in the colors of your choice
*Paintbrush
*Wooden blocks
*Pen

Directions:

*Paint the wood blocks in whichever color or colors you would like.  Let dry.

*Dip the end of the pen in paint of a different color and press against the wooden blocks to make the numbers.

Alice in Wonderland Hair Bow + Costume Ideas

     My old Alice in Wonderland hair bow has served me well since high school, but I figured that with my new Alice look, it was about time to change things up.  Here's how I made my hair bow, plus a peek at my new Alice look.  Let me know how you think it compares to my old Alice look (see also the bottom of this post for a more recent pic).

Materials:

*Black ribbon as wide as you'd like your bow to be
*Thinner black ribbon
*Black headband
*All purpose adhesive
*Needle and thread (optional)

Directions:

*Cut a strip of black ribbon a little more than twice as long as you'd like the bow to be.

*Glue together the ends of the ribbon.

*Pinch the middle of the ribbon to form a bow shape.

*For me, it was helpful to put a couple of stitches into the pinched part of the ribbon to get it to retain its shape.  If your ribbon is really stiff like mine was, this step may be helpful, but if not, feel free to skip to the next step.

*Take the thin ribbon and glue one end to the back of the bow at the location of the pinch.  Wind it around and then glue down the other end along the back of the bow.  Let dry.

*Glue the bow to the headband.  Let dry.

Get This Look

     If you're hoping to use some pieces from my Alice look (pics below in the photo shoot section), I've linked to the parts of my look that I can.  Unfortunately some of the items are old or were gifts, so I don't have links for everything.  The faux suede notched romper I got from Charlotte Russe, although it looks like they might not have it in blue anymore.  Just be aware if you buy it that it has no padding whatsoever.  The locket I got as a gift and I have no idea where it came from.  It's hard to see in these pictures, but it's a key shaped pendant with a heart shaped locket attached to the top part of the key.  The letter "A" is engraved into the heart, perfect for Alice as well as Amber.  The boots I also have no idea where they came from.  I didn't have a lot of shoe option that I thought worked with the rest of the outfit.  I'm probably going to keep my eyes out for some more Alice-like shoes.  The silver fishnets came from Amazon.  My pearl earrings came from G. M. Pollack & Sons, which is sadly no longer in business.  The pearl cat ring came from Kay Jewelers.
     For makeup, we just did my eyes and lips (plus some e.l.f. translucent powder.  I think this is the one, although the packaging looks different from mine, which is older).  The makeup style we went with was similar to the one I used for my Yellow Ribbon photo shoot, except I opted for blue eyeshadow instead of purple.  Almost all the makeup was from e.l.f., but there are more details in my Yellow Ribbon post.  For my nails, I painted them using the technique outlined in this blog post.

Photo Shoot

     I wanted to show off my new hair bow with my Alice look, so I convinced Brian to do a photo shoot for me.  We live in Maine, so even though it's technically spring here, the weather refuses to do anything remotely spring-like.  It was about 31 degrees F outside, so not pleasant to be standing around in a romper in, but I decided to brave it anyway.  Here are some of the pictures Brian took.

     And lastly a selfie, so you can see my nails with the romper.

Alice in Wonderland Inspired Nails

     I just got a new romper that looks like something Alice in Wonderland would wear, so I decided to put together an Alice in Wonderland look.  Next week I'll show you the outfit, but today we'll focus on the nails.

Materials:

*Light blue nail polish
*White nail polish
*Black nail art pen
*Glitter top coat
*Base coat
*Clear top coat

Directions:

*Paint nails with the base coat.  Let dry.

*Place masking tape over the upper portion of your nails where you want the white polish to go.

*Paint the exposed portion of your nails blue.  Let dry.

*Paint the exposed portion of your nails with the glitter coat.  Let dry.

*Peel off the masking tape and paint the tips of you nails white.  Let dry.

*Once the polish is dry, use the nail art pen to draw a line between the white and blue parts of your nails.  Let dry.

*Seal with a clear top coat.

DIY Blood Splattered Nails

     Celebrate Friday the 13th with these blood splattered nails.  To be honest, I had completely forgotten about Friday the 13th until Brian mentioned it.  I saw splatter paint nails online and realized I could use the same technique for blood splattered nails because of course that's where my mind went.  It was only after I had painted my nails that Brian mentioned Friday the 13th, so I would have had blood splattered nails in the middle of April anyway, but if you need an excuse to join me, now you have one.

Materials:

*Base coat
*Top coat
*White nail polish
*Crimson nail polish
*Thin straw or coffee stirrer
*Nail polish remover or clean up pen

Directions:

*Paint nails with the base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint nails with white (or other light colored) nail polish.  Let dry.

*Dip the end of the straw into the crimson nail polish.  Over a well covered work space, blow the nail polish onto your nails one at a time.  Repeat until each nail is sufficiently bloody looking.  Let dry.

*Seal with a top coat.  Let dry.

*You will probably have a ton of excess nail polish on your hands at this point in time.  Clean up with nail polish remover and/or a nail polish clean up pen.