Happy Spooky Season!
Well, we made it to October and while I don’t think I am going to get any trick or treaters this year, I think it’s been pretty well established that I am a Halloween freak. One of the sad things about living in an NYC apartment is that there is not a great way to do Jack-o-lanterns. Doing them is messy and then when you have it completed, where do you put it? A fire escape? So I thought to start October right, I would do an apartment-friendly lantern craft.
I am hesitant to call it a jack-o-lantern because I didn’t use a pumpkin, but I still think it works as a fun spooky decor piece. This one is super easy and quick, so I might add some more details later on my own as always, the sky is the limit.
I started with a vase from the dollar store, I tried to thrift one to be more eco-conscious, but they didn’t have any that weren’t textured. For this lantern, a plain and clear vase is going to be the easiest. I would advise for a rounded shape vase, but honestly, any shape can work for this.
I got out my orange, acrylic paint and started by painting around ⅔ of the vase. I left a big enough clear area for a face. Once the paint was dry enough for me to handle it, I used a smaller brush and white acrylic paint to block out a jack-o-lantern face.
I just freehanded the face and kept it simple, but if you aren’t so sure of your face painting skills or if you want to do a more complicated design, you can print out or draw out a face and tape it behind the glass to act as a guide. When you have your white face painted on, fill in the rest of the empty space with orange paint. I did multiple coats fo the orange paint, but only one coat of the white on the face. Keeping the white detailing thin will make it work better when we light it.
I ended up doing four coats of the orange. The first three I did were with the out-of-the-bottle color, but while the bottle said it was orange, it was coming out pretty yellow. I decided to mix it with a little bit of red for the last coat so that it would come out as a really warm orange.
When my fourth coat was dry, I added black details with a thinner brush around the face. I did this so it would pop, but you don’t need to if you like a more subtle look. I decided to add a little glitter, just to give it a little extra something.
I mixed a little modge podge with glitter. It’s hard to see in the pictures, but I then added my glitter paint to the top rim and also to the pumpkin’s cheeks. You can see the white band around the rim, that will dry clear and sparkly.
I added a ribbon to the bottom when it was dry to hide a part of the vase shape that didn’t read pumpkin-y to me. I cut the length of ribbon I wanted and then tied a tight bow, but you can also glue it on. When I was happy with it, I dropped an electric tea light into it. You can use a real candle or even some LED lights. The tealight flickers which I liked for the final product.
While this is really where the craft ends, I added one other little step. I wanted to turn this lantern into a vase as well. I took a silicone wine glass and added it on top of the electric tea light (don’t do this with a real flame.) The wine glass fits well in the opening at the top and created an airtight rim when I pushed lightly on it. I added a little water into the cup and then put some fresh sprigs of basil from my herb garden.
I liked the effect and it made the piece more functional overall which I am never against.
To finish this one out, I thought I would share some resources for the election since it is coming up. Because while it’s October, November is going to be here in a snap. Full disclosure, I stole this from a follow-up from an LGBTQ+ zoom event that my friend was involved with. But I think it’s a good resource break down, especially for those who want to do something but maybe aren’t sure what. It’s on the long side, but this was a short craft.
With that being said, “here are 3 ways to get help with the election (assuming you've already registered to vote).
Help recruit poll workers
Write letters to voters
Encourage your company to sign up to the Civic Alliance
Sign up or recruit poll workers
The headline: poll workers are needed. Sign up here to volunteer to be a poll worker.
There’s currently a shortage of poll workers. The people who have staffed them in previous elections are often over 60. Due to COVID, many are opting to sit this election out. That will lead to longer lines, potentially fewer polling stations, and will put votes at risk. In talking to someone at the Fair Elections Center, which is behind Power the Polls, he said the following locations are all “high need:”
FL- Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach
GA- Gwinnett and DeKalb Co
MI- Detroit and the Detroit area (Flint, Dearborn, Oakland, Macomb Co) and need Spanish and Arab language speakers
NC- Charlotte area, Fayetteville
PA- Allegheny Co Pittsburgh), Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley
WI - Milwaukee and Green Bay
Two ways to help here: sign up to be a poll worker yourself or, even better, take a second to think about who you know someone in any of these places and get them to sign up.
Write letters with Vote Forward
An organization my friends and I have been sharing is Vote Forward. In short, you get to “adopt” a few voters. Vote Forward provides you with pre-printed letters, you add in some of your own, hand-written language around why the election is important, and then mail them to the voters you’ve adopted. You can even organize non-partisan company letter-writing parties. This methodology has been shown to be effective in some recent studies. To sign up, go to votefwd.org.
Get your organization involved through Civic Alliance
There are non-partisan ways to get your organization involved. The non-partisan project, Civic Alliance, is working with companies to give them non-partisan ways to support democracy, including things like giving employees the day off on election day. By signing up your company you would help ensure that voters get out and...vote. Lots of companies are getting behind this: Airbnb, Blue Cross, Alliance Bernstein, BET, Capital One Estee Lauder, GitHub, and many more. If you’re not in a leadership position but like this idea, feel free to reach out around ideas on how to persuade your company’s leadership on this one. Otherwise, sign up at the Civic Alliance website.”
As always, stay safe, stay crafting