Holga 135bc

Time to share some more film photos that have been sitting in my hard drive for FOR-EVER! I'm talking like two Halloweens ago or something crazy! I thought I'd put together all my show photos (ekka + aussie world) where I used my Holga135bc camera - a plastic fantastic beast which takes 35mm film. The colour photos were taken with 800 Lomography film and the black and white, also a Lomography brand - lady grey (400). I did a bunch of things like use flash, long exposures, double + triple exposures, so enjoy the madness!

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Happy Halloween - Mummy Costume

Happy Halloween you guys!! So in Australia it's not quite the big deal it is in America and to be honest I was going to let it slip by and just live variously via others people's blogs but as this post might suggest I got my Halloween on :) I ended up going to our local theme park's fright night awesomely named "festevil". The event, held at Aussie World included a night pass that not only gave you access to rides but had themed spooky characters, food, decorations and two creepy mazes (Yes I screamed!). I took my Holga along for photos - so no idea if I'll end up with any decent photos to share but if I do, you know I will :) Costumes on the night were optional but since I LOVE dressing up + getting my DIY on there was no doubt I wouldn't come dressed in spirit. I googled phrases like "cheap costume ideas" and "easy Halloween outfits" because time and money weren't on my side. In the end I happily decided to go with the tried and tested Mummy costume, which, on a side note, is not to be confused with an actually Mum costume, a Google mishap that led me down an entertaining path of creative pregnant bellies :)

I was going to go with an Egyptian goddess meets Mummy Vibe and bling up the whole thing with jewellery and a headpiece etc. but after playing around I decided simple was more effective :) I did include some bug jewellery and a bag of plastic cockroaches (Picked up at the supermarket for $2) which I popped on my outfit.

I based the costume off of this tutorial. Most Mummy Costumes I saw went with a more traditional tight-woven-no-gap look but I really loved the black peaking through underneath! I went to the thrift store and purchased a white double sheet for $3 and ripped it into 7cm strips. That gave me plenty of fabric with many strips left over. I had the black tights and shirt already and I planned on just tying the strips around my costume. I tied them on, walked round the house and ten minutes later the strips had all fallen down. So the hot glue gun came out and I went to town - one finger burn later (always wear gloves kids!) and my costume wasn't going anywhere - hurray! I hot glued the cockroaches onto my costume and for the one in my hair I just glued it onto a bobby pin first :) 

Including makeup, I already had most but I bought some white face paint and sponges from the cheap store, my costume came to a whopping $10. Although I already had a lot of items, it was still a fairly cheap and easy costume - thank you google :) I will say it does take a few hours (especially if you are doing it yourself) to wrap and glue all the bandages on + makeup (if you're not very good - like me!) so something to take into consideration.

The nice thing about this costume is that imperfection is totally allowed. I'm not the neatest crafter in the World so the license to just "go for it" with bandage placement was pretty awesome :) My only regret is I probably should have splurged a little more on some better quality white face paint. I was up to my third face application before agreeing it was good enough :P  My tips (if you do have cheapo white face-paint) is to put something on your face beforehand, I used a pressed powder foundation, then applied the paint using a make up sponge in dabbing motions. A nice even coverage all over before it dried and then a layer of cornflour seemed to help the brightness and keep the paint from flaking (it also made my face feel incredible smooth - bonus points!). It's kind of embarrassing but I was actually trying to base my makeup off of this photo - epic fail! In the end I settled again with "it's good enough" plus I was going for the whole un-dead, rotting corpse, "it's totally okay to look bad" vibe :p Or something like that!  Looking back I should of totally painted my fingers and toes with green or black or something else spooky - oops!

Okay enough rambling! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

(oh and Mummies are totally the original zombie :P)

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