Delicious Mixed Media

Being an illustrator and a parent around Halloween is scary pressure for me. Crafty costume makers come out of the closet everywhere and the things people come up with for their children can be pretty darn cool. Last year someone in the neighborhood made a sushi suit for her son. As an artist, it is expected that your children will be THE most original trick-or-treaters in town (in reality, I'm the one who puts these expectations on myself!) This year right off the bat the pressure was off with my eldest, who chose to be none other than Spiderman. Who am I to kill his super-hero dreams? Hey, it makes my life easier... However, since my youngest is still too little to have a say either way, this year she was my creative canvas. I decided my little Ginger would be a gingerbread girl– and her stroller would be a gingerbread house. Pretty yummy, huh? I have to say I had some fun with cardboard boxes (gingerbread), white paint (icing), candy, marshmallows, licorice and, of course, my handy glue gun. After some trial + error (it turns out chocolate doesn't hold well with hot glue!), the house was constructed, and I made cute candy buttons velcroed onto a dress for G to wear. Luckily on Halloween eve, it only drizzled mildly so the stroller wasn't too sticky and Ginger stayed in her dress for the entire night. The funniest thing was witnessing kids completely high on sugar, actually lick the candy right off the gingerbread house. To quote Spiderman, this happened, "for real."