Halloween Village (as promised)!
As I mentioned in my first Vlog, I would tell you about that craziness going on in the background. It's my hobby. I created a Halloween Village that practically takes up my whole Study.
I had been collecting pieces for a year before I actually constructed the village, because I know I was going to be moving into a bigger place. James loves to tell people that I insisted on having a place with at least 3 bedrooms because...well...I needed One bedroom for my Halloween Village.
It took me 6 weeks to carve out, paint and setup. I started with just a rough sketch on paper of where I wanted to lay the pieces. I cut the foam out with a HOT WIRE FOAM FACTORY KIT. I had read about some "cheaper" methods such as scraping tools from hardware stores. I tried those, but the foam shavings flew all over the place. It was snowing in my room, which was a complete pain to clean-up. Now, there are some instances when some of those shaving tools would come in handy, such as achieving a gravel or muddy road appearance. Otherwise, not too much use for them. The Hot Wire kit was fantastic! It just heats everything up, you cut through the foam like butter and there's no mess. The kit comes with a great engraving tool that is useful for making things like bricks or if you want to put words into the foam. Also, there is this great Sculpting tool that I used to create waves for water or sand, and even these great cutouts for rock. There is also a hot knife that is good for just cutting up the foam or cutting out holes in blocks of foam for your electical cords.
I eventually added onto the village. So now you can't walk around it. I keep it up all year round and just add on as I get pieces. It's a great way for me to get my hands-on creative energies out. I used to paint Dungeons & Dragons miniatures when I was a kid. So this another way for me to reconnect with my childhood.