Things are lookin' up!

Sorry, things are kinda crummy around here, I gotta get a laugh in wherever I can!

Last year I got the wild idea to make a Mad Scientist's table as part of my Halloween decor.


I had so much fun dreaming up weird little things that would be found on a mad scientist's (Or a witch's) shelf. I have kind of an odd sense of humor, and it seems to really come out at Halloween. I got off to a good start last year, and have some ideas for more things to add this year. I have spent the year watching my local thrift store for unique bottles and jars.

We have Rotten Sweets- A nice little jar full of webs and spiders.

I got this bottle from the thrift. Filled it with polyester stuffing from the craft department and then added plastic spiders. I got these at Target for about $3 I think. It was quite hard to find plastic spiders that weren't #1 Rings #2 Fluorescent green or orange.

Vampire Blood-

Another thrift store bottle. I mixed Caro syrup and A LOT of red food coloring! I mean A LOT! You also need to add a little blue to make it more blood colored. It's still not as dark, or as opaque as I would like, but I don't know how to fix that. After I got my blood as close to blood colored as I could, I poured it into my bottle, and corked it with a cork that came in a multi sized pack from the craft store. Then I turned on my Scentsy tart warmer. Once the wax had melted I carefully tipped my bottle upside down and dipped the top portion of the bottle in the hot wax, let it cool then dipped again. I did this several times until I liked the way it looked, the added the tag with a bit of raffia that I wrapped around the bottle a few times.

Werewolf fur-

My plan was to go to the craft store and buy a little piece of fake fur. Well guess what? I couldn't find any! I don't know if it's something they don't normally carry (I swear I have seen it there before) or it if was just scarce because it was Halloween and everyone was making costumes. Who knows! I hit every craft and fabric store in the valley and came up empty handed. So, I decided to go to my local thrift and just buy a fluffy teddy bear and shave it. Found a good bear, multicolored fur, good length etc. Bought him for $.50 and brought him home. No one in the house would let me shave him, he was too cute UGH! The hunt continues! So I stumbled across this fake fur trim at Walmart in the craft section. It's about an inch to an inch and a half wide, and I just wrapped it loosely around my fingers then arranged it in a pickle jar with a spray painted lid. I think it looks great! Very convincing!

And Swamp Fog-

Which is another thrift store jar with polyester stuffing pulled very, very thin.

So, this year my plans are
A Jar of Eyeballs- I have already made one, I think it turned out awesome, don't you?
Witch's fingernails
Flies and Maggots (Found both at the dollar store today YIPPEE!)
Snow White's poison apple (They have really cute, realistic apples at the dollar store)
Vampire Fangs (if I can find some that aren't green and orange this year!)
Snake oil


Any more ideas for me? I would love to hear them!
I am also hoping to make a tutorial so that you can have some eyeballs too! =0)
And if you want some totally AWESOME vintage looking mad scientist labels, you can get them at the Love Manor! I asked her last year for a Poison Apple label, hopefully she hasn't forgotten =0)