Alter your items-dye

'Alter your items' will be a series of posts that relate to using what you have by making it into what you want it to be.  Today's is dye.  All kinds of dyes really, hair dye, fabric dye, food dye and how to make your own dyes.

Hair dye is a great way to transform your costume.  Sometimes its what makes a good costume great.  You could of course dye your hair to match your costume but I would suggest only using permanent dye when you are sure that color is something you can and want to live with for a while.  -That pink hair may seem cool until your boss sees it.  There are more temporary dyes that wash out slowly after a few weeks or months of wear.  These require less commitment but will still be around for a while after the party.  Temporary dyes that are not dyes at all but some sort of coloring that just sticks to the hair until you wash it out are great for wild looks or something you just don't want to wear every day.  These usually either come in a gel form that you comb in before you style your hair or an aerosol version that you spray on after you style it.  Either works well.  Wigs are a wonderful alternative to hair dyes but can be hard to find.  Consider picking up the right style and dying it if you cannot find the right color.  Depending on what kind of wig you have you could use either fabric dye or hair dye.  Be sure to dry it on a form so it can keep the shape.  You may even blow dry it on the form.

Food dyes are particularly great for Halloween foods.  Adding a drop of blue through my cheese dip gives it a moldy look without buying the expensive blue cheese that has the right color.  Coloring cake, cupcakes or other baked goods can turn them into almost any creepy element.  A very small amount of yellow and pink (very think red if you don't have pink) or brown (very very think black if you don't have brown) and orange will tint your lady fingers or biscuits an eerie flesh-like color to make them look like body parts.  The coolest thing I have attempted was a small amount of black food coloring added to a white cake batter to make a grey cake base for a tombstone cake. (you need more than you think you do)  It turned out pretty well.  You can tint just about anything from icing to candy to marshmallows and chocolate.  I find it is most difficult to dye chocolate and its usually easier to buy a few bags of different colored chocolate you can find at a craft store and mix them until you get the colors you want.  Melted chocolate cannot handle water so a gel or powder dye will be necessary.  Once you dye a basic icing you can create endless desserts.  Spritzing a combination of vodka and red food dye on to a pie crust or phyllo cup can give you a creepy blood splattered look, the vodka evaporates quickly so it does not dampen food like water would.  Do this before cooking or baking and most of the vodka flavor should cook off (the alcohol itself never FULLY cooks off though fyi)  When using icing or batters I prefer gel dye to liquid dye.  It does not thin out your batter or icing and has a richer color.  Betty Crocker has a great gel dye that I love to use.  Its comes in classic, dark and bright color packages.  I have occasionally found individual tubes as well.  Liquid dyes are pretty similar no matter which brand you use and I generally just pick up the store brand.  Alton Brown from Good Eats on Food Network suggests powder dyes.  I think this would be a great idea buy I have never come across these to try them.  I trust AB though.  ')  My favorite things to dye are savory items because they are less expected.  A little red dye added to a crab dip before pressing it into a brain mold makes it just the right color pink.  Spreads and dips are the easiest to dye because you just mix it in when you are stirring it.  Cheese is another one I like because you can 'paint' it on with your finger or dip it in the coloring to give the outside a fun effect.  A little dye to drinks or drink mixes is fun as well just be sure not to use enough to dye your mouth after you've had a few.  It is also difficult to get out of the carpet when someone inevitably spills.  -usually me-

Fabric dye may be the easiest way to transform something.  You an literally dye to any color you want, it just takes some practice.  Try it on an old shirt or towel to get the right technique and color.  If your costume isn't the color you wanted, try dying it.  Use fabric scraps and cheese cloth dyed with greys, blacks, greens and blues to make a spooky cloth you can cover anything with.  Fabric and paper place mats or doilies look good dyed and placed under platters or coasters.  Use eye droppers for a splattered or more intricate pattern.  The best part is that if the color does not come out right you can always just dye it again with black to cover any mistakes and black always fits in with any theme or project.  Reusing old clothes that are dyed to look different is a great way to make a spectacular costume that costs little to no money.  I would probably suggest rit dye when looking for fabric dye because I have had the most success with it.  It comes in lots of colors and is easily mixed to make more.  Their web site gives you recipes to mix 500 colors.  It always have very easy instructions; some water, salt and a little time will change anything.  Using it as paint gives you the ability to make patterns and can have a watercolor look.  I have used liquid food coloring for spots on a costume, I  have found that this washes completely out when done the next day and the garment can be used again for something else.  Ex: I dipped a night gown into green, yellow, red and brown dyes to make spots all over it when I dressed as Regen from The Exorcist and it came right out so now I wear it to bed.

Make your own when in a pinch.  Pulling the bottom off of any marker and then soaking it in water will make a thin liquid dye.  Kool Aid makes a great hair dye but it is pretty permanent and you will smell like Kool Aid for a little while.  Acrylic paint can be thinned with water and oil based paint can be thinned with vegetable oil, though the texture is a little difficult to work with.  Use your kids old water color paint sets to make weak dyes.  Dye started in nature, so experiment with that.  Grass stains can be just the right color and raspberry juice is a good blood stain substitute.
-Please be careful with natural things you are not familiar with.  You don't always know if that plant is poisonous or if you are allergic to it.

Depending on what you are using, be in a ventilated area and protect yourself and the areas around you.  Plastic table cloths and bed sheets are cheap drop cloths.  Old towels are great to soak up mistakes and rubber kitchen gloves or latex gloves keep your hands clean.

Next time things aren't quite right, try a dye and see if that helps your project.

liz

Games for adults too

Everyone knows the standard Halloween games like bobbing for apples and scavenger hunts for kids so coming up with adult games seemed daunting at first.  After thinking it over though, we are usually able to come up with something fun.

Costume contests are always fun and easy.  You can let people vote secret ballot or have people 'run' like you would in a political race and explain why they should win.  We usually pick a few categories like best couple, sexiest, scariest, funniest and so on so there are several prizes.

Prizes are fun to think up too, some years they are just odds and ends I have in my present stash that I think people would like, most years they receive small boxes with candy, goofy prizes and some sort of silly ribbon or trophy.  One year we gave the winners their choice of tiny airplane-size liquor bottles in a variety.  Most often they receive some themed baked goods I have created in a small batch that are crazy complicated to make large scale.  Oriental Trading usually has fun variety packs you can buy with candy and silly gifts, I use them a lot because you can buy in bulk at a low cost and it always gets used.

Last year we held a trivia contest that included Halloween facts, horror movie facts and fun questions about Thomas and Liz's previous parties.  The large variety of questions gave everyone a shot at winning something and made it fun.

Our favorite game by far is the Horror Movie Hunt we did a few years ago.  When we had a horror movie theme we made lots of small props and scenes from dozens of movies and put them all over the house, when the guests arrived we handed them a piece of paper explaining that they needed to guess as many as they could by listing the scene or prop and the movie that goes with it.  They wrote their answers on the paper throughout the night and made it fun to compare and see how creative people got with decorations that were not themed.  That was very easy because all we had to do was count right answers and declare a winner, instead of getting a room of people to be quiet long enough to complete a game.

We have tried a toilet paper mummy game as well.  You buy LOTS of rolls of cheap toilet paper and divide people into teams.  Each team picks someone to be the mummy and they have a certain amount of time to wrap them.  The best mummy wins a prize.

liz