Monday, September 05, 2011

Halloween Fun + A Giveaway!!

I can't believe its September already, and it means back to school and one of my favorite holidays are just around the corner- Halloween! Besides my oldie but goodie, The Haunted Ghoul Bus, I illustrated a new Halloween book, Halloween Howlers: Frightfully Funny Knock-Knock Jokes written by Michael Teitelbaum, published by Harper Festival.

To celebrate, I'm excited to be hosting this giveaway with awesome prizes from Thats My Folio AND Sunshine Smile Publications! These are two new websites for artists to promote their work.

 The prizes include:
  • -one year subscription to Thats My folio
  • -Sunshine Smile Publications will be giving away an illustrator Showcase on the Sunshine Smile Publications website and 6 months of publicity posts (1 post per month)

 To be eligible to win, all you have to do is ONE of the following:


  • Leave a comment on this blog post, telling me one of your favorite costumes for Halloween
  •  
  • Copy this retweet on your Twitter Status RT @JannieHo enter to win a 1yr subscription to @thatsmyfolio + showcase from @S_SPublications http://tinyurl.com/3uvfrw9
  • If you are not on Twitter, you can send a blog post to Thats My Folio with a Halloween themed or a general post of a project you are working on with an image of your work.

  • You are also qualified if you become a member of Thats My Folio's Flickr Group
It also doesn't hurt if follow us on twitter, we'd appreciate it :-)
@Jannieho
@thatsmyfolio
@S_SPublications

This is a great prize for any illustrator looking to promote their work. I will pick a winner next Monday, September 12th. Good luck everyone and hope you'll spread the word!

 **Thank you everyone for entering here and on twitter! Using random.org, the winner is Lyn Martin! Congratulations Lyn! **

46 comments:

Debbie Meyer said...

I love dressing up for Halloween. One time I was the Bride of Frankenstein, but mostly I like goofy costumes. I loved dressing up like a giant chicken last year. Everyone got a good laugh out of that one. ^__^

Suzanne Del Rizzo said...

RT'd your tweet but I love Halloween too and wanted to share my all time fav. costume. a few years ago(for my 3rd son's nursery school party) I made him a recycling truck costume. His favorite thing at the time. It took me a month to make, and turned out great, although the poor guy had a little trouble stepping up onto the front step at each house-opps as he couldn't see his toes.LOL :)

life without novacaine said...

Hmmm, picking a favorite is hard. Many years ago, my roommate dressed as Little Bo Peep and I was her sheep. Another year, my husband colored one eye black and made a big "P" on his shirt with tape to be a Black Eyed Pea. But I'd have to say the most fun and effort was the blue Garbage Truck ensemble I made for my son when he was in his truck phase. I had trash sticking out of the back... it was pretty funny.

PS. I make a tradition of looking through your Haunted Ghoul Bus book! LOVE IT! Happy Halloween!

Tracy said...

I haven't had a great costume for myself, but one of the most unique costumes I made for my kiddos was one for my oldest son when he was around 4 (he's 18 now.) When I asked what he wanted to be that year, he said he wanted to be an owl! I had the hardest time finding brown clothes, was looking for sweats but had to settle with brown overalls and a brown turtleneck. I used foam board to make the wings. I cut them in a tear-like shape and hot glued a gazillion brown and spotted feathers on them. I made him a hat using either a visor or a cap and made a beak out of the brim using yellow-orange felt. I glued HUGE wiggly eyes on the hat. It was so adorable! Plus I whipped the thing outta my rear end LOL :)

Vanessa Brantley Newton said...

Oh this one is hilarious! Cousin" It" from the Addams Family! I loved it. Nobody else thought of this character and of course being the lover of all things retro that I am, it was a great throw back to the past. I even had the little sound track of Cousin It's crazy voice!! It was hilarious! Thank goodness I was short enough to pull it off. It was my favorite costume of all time. It was a little hairy there for a moment trying to create it, but 5 pounds of hair extensions and one vintage bolder later I was good to go. Only problem all that hair in my eyes nose and mouth. Eewwww! The kids loved it!

Jed Alexander said...

In college I wrapped myself in red seran wrap and put lime slices on my glasses. it was incredibly hot, so I couldn't wear it for very long, but I wore it in our dorm. Kids came to visit the dorm to trick-or-treat, and had decided that I was jello, though I hadn't actually figured out what I was supposed to be.

In the 80s, in grade school, I put construction paper squares on a cardboard box and dressed up as a Rubic's Cube. I didn't actually own one, so I guess it had a few too many squares, but it was a big hit, since Rubic's Cubes were really big back then.

When I was little, my mom used to make me costumes that never quite looked like what I was supposed to be. I wanted to be a ghost one year, the hole in a sheet Charlie Brown sort of ghost, but my mom was concerned about my ability to see. So she made this outfit that had a veil on it, and much to my chagrin, everyone thought I was a bride.

Another year I wanted to have a suit of armor like I had seen in a Babar book. The armor in the book was bright yellow. I didn't quite understand that it was meant to represent gold, but wouldn't actually look like gold. So my mom made me this bright yellow outfit that involved, as most of my mother's costumes did back then, a lot of velcro, and everyone thought I was a chicken. This caused me no end of frustration.

Edrian said...

What a great giveaway Jannie! Absolutely great idea. Thanks for hosting it!

I'm not one change my costume so much from year to year. I dress up as a witch and just add on to the costume from year to year. My kids however, love to dress up. My favorite by far was my daughter's Hermione's costume from Harry Potter last year. We bought some pieces and used some clothing items from home. Her hair was curly and absolutely perfect. She was the only girl in school with that costume. She liked it so much that she might do it again this year!

Unknown said...

Awesome Giveaway!!!

When I was about seven, I was Betsy Ross for the school Halloween party. My mom made my costume. It was the only time I remember ever having a costume made just for me so it was very special! I was thrilled to go to school in my costume!

K & K Reviews & Giveaways! said...

My favorite costume for halloween was the statue of liberty I went as it was easy to make and I won lots of prizes. For ANYONE I love the little peapod and ladybug costumes for babies :)

Jane Eccles said...

I used to dress my son up as a devil with false fingers but they made handing out the trick or treat sweeties very difficult.

John Mindiola III said...

We made my son a toilet costume one year. It was great fun. He won a contest that year, and got to see Sesame Street Live!

tinahoggatt said...

My favorite costume was one that made the rounds of us 5 girls, a gypsy fortune teller. This in the days of very little political correctness. We had bought a gypsy costume, flimsy purple stuff with printing on the bodice of the dress, with a mask. The mask was scary & the dress needed something more so mom made a red headscarf from upholstery fabric and attached two gold curtain rod loops for earrings. Genius.

Bobbie Dacus said...

I agree with a lot of people it's hard to pick a favorite! One year I was a Chiquita banana which was lots of fun. But, I guess my favorite was Carmen Miranda with the fruit on my head. I felt very exotic in that costume and totally like someone else!

Nina Seven said...

I don't dress up for Halloween anymore, but a few years ago, my daughter wanted to go as Queen Frostine, from Candyland. I made her a costume with a tutu, lots of netting and glittery snowflakes sewn all over it. It was the best costume ever!

ruth said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ruth said...

When I was about 12 or 13, I dressed up as a laundry basket for Halloween. Yes, a laundry basket, complete with bottle of detergent and random clothespins clipped to my shirt. Heh.

Lynn Alpert said...

I love Halloween! One of my favorite costumes was when I went as bubble gum on the bottom of a shoe. I dressed all in pink and made a giant paper shoe hat and sprayed pink silly string on the bottom of the shoe. I got a lot of laughs at that one!

Lyn Martin Illustration said...

Because I love Carmen Miranda, i loved dressing as her once. I still have the costume, fruit hat platform shoes and all, the only thing missing are the abs I had 11 years ago!

Emma Reynolds said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Laura said...

No costume has ever felt as good as the prince costume I made with my mother when I was a kid using an old gown and lots of glitter!
Halloween, the time to show off our handiwork!

(I retweeted and 'follow' all links on twitter!)

Emma Reynolds said...

My favourite has to be dressing up as a pumpkin as a kid.My Mum made me a brilliant body with the face on,and the top of the pumpkin with a stalk was the hat on my head.Theres a brilliant picture of me and Brother dressed as a very special wizard, looking very happy!

Jenn Bower said...

Hi Janie. So glad to see you working in conjunction with That's My Folio and Sunshine Smiles Publications. I've been thrilled to be involved with them and love how hard they work with illustrators. I will do my part to help RT the word on Twitter (although I am not on there very much.) My favorite Halloween costume was this Las Vegas showgirl costume I crafted by hand. It was a hoot to walk around with the fishnets, beads, baubles and enormous head dress. The downside was that many people thought I was a man in drag which I still get made fun of by my dearest friends.

lil kim said...

Great giveaway!
(I will post this on Illustration Station)

My long-standing favourite Hallowe'en costume is a black cat. Easy, fun!

lil kim said...

posted it here: http://illustration-station.blogspot.com/2011/09/chickengirls-giveaway-september-12.html

:-)

Shirley said...

Happy September and what a wonderful giveaway - super duper congrats on your newest Halloween book, Jannie!! Thanks for the chance..and let's see..goofiest costume was Boy George. OK that was a horrible outfit!

Shirley said...

OH, sorry, Jannie - I read goofiest, not most favorite- my favorite costume ever was going as Judge Ito the year of OJ's trial. We had a whole group of people dressed up at our little cottage in Berkeley and one of my husband's friends walked in as Judge Ito, too. We were the dancing Ito's. It was quite hilarious.

I just re-tweeted your tweet, too. Thanks for indulging me! : )

Donough O'Malley said...

I once went as a priest in New York which had interesting results, but this year I'm getting dressed as a robot from Flight of the Conchords. Analogue cardboard!

WendyMartinArt said...

My favorite costume has to be the one I made for my daughter when she was about 4 years old. I put her in it to take a portrait at a local photo studio. They were having a free sitting and 5X7 print event.

Later when I went to pick up the print, they also handed me a first place rosette. I hadn't realized it was a costume contest as well. I still have that ribbon attached to the picture frame.

Brooke S. Rochon said...

Favorite Halloween costume ever was when my husband and I were dating we dressed up as a white trash couple. I had jogging pants on with slippers, a flannel shirt over that with a ponytail and curler in my bangs and I made a black eye out of makeup. We also drew tattos on eachother. When I got there someone said, "I know who you are, you're my mom!" It was a fun night for sure.

AngieJonesDraws said...

Arg ye matey. Me favorite cotuuume for All Hallows Eve is eh Pirate Wench! Arg!

AngieJonesDraws said...

So I joined the flicker pool. Anything additional I can do?

Brad said...

well my favorite was dressing up as doug henning, the magician.

thesis help said...

very cool post! thnaks!

Erica said...

My favorite Halloween costume was when my husband and I dressed up as Popeye and Olive Oil. He looked awesome as Popeye and I was a shorter, squattier Olive Oil - more like Olive Paste. I loved it, though!

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Laura said...

eta! Ha!! I just reread my comment... PRINCESS costume! not prince! Sparkly glittery PRINCESS!! : )

~wish I could go back and edit it, oh well.

Jenipher Lyn said...

Oh my gosh! This is SO amazing! Thanks!

My favorite costume i saw when i was a wee little girl, on the show "Lets Make a Deal" from the 70's or early 80's. A guy dressed up like a bushel of grapes and one as a bag of jelly beans. I thought those were the COOLEST costumes ever!

I retweeted your link. :)

*Crossing my fingers a million times over!*

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Clare Fennell Illustration said...

My favourite costume, was by a friend who had a baby - who was at the crawling stage.
She made her into a spider by dressing her in black, and using stuffed black tights for the extra 6 legs. then the baby was crawling around the floor at the Halloween party like a giant spider! But very cute!
great giveaway by the way!!

missysue said...

My fav is & always will be a witch costume ;o) There's something very enchanting about putting on that hat & being able to pretend you can cast spells! It's.....magical!

Retweeted! Thank you for this opportunity!

Casey G. said...

Halloween is my favorite holiday for sure. Celebrate it with as much verve if not more than Christmas.

Favorite costume, too many! my favorite I have made is a full Stitch costume. Although, I am looking forward to putting together a Harpo Marx costume this year.

Happy Halloween! Thanks for the giveaway!

Holly said...

Husband--Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes announcer
Wife--bathrobe, curlers, face cream

Lisa M Griffin said...

How generous. I love both and am happy to be part of them too!

And my favorite costume was one I made for my daughters first Halloween, a butterfly! :)

Steffane McClary said...

When my oldest daughter was two years old, she wanted to be a skunk. I have no idea where she got the idea from, but she was the cutest skunk I've ever seen.

Elylu said...

This is great! I few years ago I made a costume (with a lot of help from my mom) of George Harrison's suit in Sgt. pepper lonely hearts club band , it was awesome, I made the hat with a very big feather, but I just wore the jacket as a dress with a go-go boots. :)

Morph Waffle said...

What an awesome giveaway! My favorite Halloween costume was my siter's when she was little. My mom made her an awesome unicorn cotume. already following you on Twitter and I'm going to try the retweet thing also (not very Twitter savy).