Amanda Rose Zampelli | the blog

that time I was Selena for Halloween

I wrote a post on www.amandarosezampelli.com to celebrate that time I was Selena for Halloween.
I don't think you quite understand...I was possessed by the spirit of La Reina herself.  Head to my site to see how the costume came together and to watch a minute-long video of my 'performance.'

DIY glam Halloween wall art

A few weeks ago I came across this Instagram image with the caption "Pro Tip: Giant glitter letters make instant wall art. You're welcome."  I read it and thought SO. TRUE. ...and the great news is that me & my BIG ideas - the company I now work for - is the pioneer of giant glitter letters!

I knew this project was going to happen, and with Halloween decorating season in full swing, I was inspired to use the words BOO, EEK, AH, and POISON. 

Other words that came to mind were R.I.P., TRICK OR TREAT, and ROARRR. With a few more frames, I'll most likely expand this wall art with those. ♥

Can you think of any other sayings you're going to put in your frames?

frames from Hobby Lobby | glitter spiders and skull from Walmart

a funky bunch of mustached pumpkins

It's October!! ...the month of the pumpkin. For you all today, I have eight of them. Eight that make up what I'm calling A FUNKY BUNCH OF MUSTACHED PUMPKINS!

This was a project I had floating around in my brain since four weeks ago. Yep - an idea that struck me while I was in Cali at the mambi office. When I returned home from the trip, I bought pumpkins at the first sign of them in stores.  Those albino ghost-pumpkins were perfect.

I had a vision of painting them all-white to make the black mustaches POP - and since I had the neon paint from this project, decided to do the tops neon pink and yellow too. 

This me & my BIG ideas sheet of mustache stickers can be found at Hobby Lobby, and make this project so fun and kid-friendly. Read the steps I took to create this funky bunch on the mambi blog.

I laughed harder an harder with each mustache I stuck. 

Once I took a look at the whole bunch, I almost lost it. Haa haa!

Each mustache gives its pumpkin its own personality. Do you have a favorite?

Here's where the funky bunch resides now, and will until they start to melt from the inside-out:

They're chilling on the balcony, right outside the sliding doors from where I work. Every time they catch my eye, I laugh to myself. That makes for a worth-while project in my book.

Happy first day of Pumpkin Month! ♥ ♥ ♥

See past years' painted pumpkins here, here, and here.

POP ART Halloween costume

This year for Halloween, I went as Andy Warhol-esque POP ART.  

[ I apologize for the crummy iPhone photos, but there was very little time, sun light, and cameramen around to help me out with 'good' photos.  These'll have to do.]

Step 1 was to snap some silly selfies, and play with the colors/hues on Photoshop. 

Step 2 was to print them out, and realize they were a tad bit too small.  I totally could've rolled with it, no problem, but instead I called my local Minute Man Press to see how much it would be to slightly enlarge the phtotos.  It ended up being a reasonable price, so I had the files printed a tad bigger than letter size on a thicker cardstock.  The resizing they did for me distorted the proportions of the pictures, but whatever. 

Step 3 (or 4)? was to paint the four colored squares.

Step 5 was to Xacto knife one of the squares to fit my face in.

Steps 6 to 8 were (6) bright wig & lipstick, (7) strategically take foam board art on public transportation and through the streets of midtown New York City, and finally -- (8) wear to school on Halloween...

...alongside Freddie Mecury, a flapper girl, Wayne & Garth, a Swedish milkmaid, David Bowie, Annie Hall, Bettlejuice, and some others.  #graphicdesignersareweird #itakeHalloweenseriously

Hope your Halloween was winning!

Oh yeah, and sweet November. ♡

from Halloweens past

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, readers, peepers, and creepers!  

Today's post comes to you from over 20 years back.  Below are some (the ones I could dig up) of my Halloween costumes from Halloweens past.  I've always loved 'pretending' so Halloween was the one day a year I could make 'who I wanted to be' public and relish in it.  

Of course, the first person I ever wanted to be was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Let's go there:

The ruby slippers at the bottom of my chubby Miss Piggy legs still crack me up.  This is most likely Halloween 1988.  My sister was not born yet, and I was about to turn 4.  So here I was at 3, thinking 'who I was'.  I have this whole Halloween on home video (one day I'll post) of me walking up and down my Nana's block, clicking my heals, trying to hit the pinata and slipping...completely ridiculous.

Cowgirl, circa 1989, probably 

This was actually a dance recital outfit from earlier that year and my ingenious mom recycled it for Halloween.  I don't think I minded because it was quite adorable.  I probably liked the fringe and sequins trim.  The night I wore this, we went to Halloween party, and I remember being terrified of the fake dead man whose fake blood I was forced to touch.

Devil me; Clown sister, circa or 1991

This year, I believe, started the Halloween parties at school.  I remember wantng to be a devil.  I think I thought it was cool because it was the first costume of my life being edgy, not a character or a girly thing.  After my mom did my devil 'brows and goatee, I remember thinking what an AWESOME job she did, like in my little girl mind, she was a make-up artist on a Hollywood movie set...and catch my dangling skeleton earrings? Obviously, I thought her a costume designer too.

Scarecrow, circa 1992

Okay, so confession: this was NOT a Halloween costume. This was a costume for a play I was in in 3rd grade, but is a testiment to my love of dressing up and 'playing/looking the part".  In 3rd grade my teacher, Ms. Corsi (rest in peace), announced that we were going to put on the play The Wizard of Oz.  When my best friend, Karen, got the part of Dorothy, I so desperately wanted to be a major part too.  I remember -- so hysterically vividly -- going up to Ms. Corsi's desk and saying, "Ms. Corsi, I really want to play the scarecrow.  I'll do anything, and I don't care that I have to dress like a boy."   I must have won her over, because there I was, and again, Mom, nice work.

Catwoman me & my sister as Belle, circa 1992 or 1993

This was my favorite costume of all time, and my mother's peak of creative Halloween awesomeness.  Batman Returns had come out that year or the year before, and I remember thinking how friggin' cool Michelle Pheifer's rendition of Catwoman was.  Danny DeVito as the Penguin scared the bejeezus out of me, but Michelle Pheifer - so FAB!  That year, that was my request, and from pieces of black spandex material my mother sat at the sewing machine and crafted me my very own Catwoman outfit.  It felt so authentic because Michelle Pheifer sews it in the movie, and I was like Dayyyymm, I'm CATWOMAN.  Ironic now, isn't it?

The stitches were done with a white paint pen, she informs me this morning. Uh! All kinds of awesome!

Of course, some years passed (they always do). Middle school brings with it insecurities and acne.  I remember a year of being Tinkerbell.  I think I was a 'nerd' once with big glasses and geeky clothes. I remember the Halloween I felt too old to Trick-or-Treat, but too young NOT to dress up.  That year I was a 'sleepyhead' and wore pajamas and pigtails, and awkwardly knocked on doors with my friend, Liana. I think we were 13.

I was a flower in high school, wearing all green sweats, and a pink and purple felt petal thing I sewed together and stuffed with cotton.  Then, I felt commercialized Halloween exploded (or I just never noticed it before) and as we know, now you can be generic sexy 'anything'.  Not what I'm or Halloween's about for me.

I still liked conjuring up ideas on my own, usually thinking of potential costume ideas all year long.  Below was what I wore to a college Halloween party that I knew my crush was going to be at:

Hooters Girl, circa 2005

I wanted to get noticed and noticed I did.  (He asked me on a date less than a week later. Haa!)  I realized with my Hooters Girl costume that I will use any excuse to wear huge, fake boobs.  So fun to be busty!

me as a Jellyfish, Halloween 2010

I didn't dress up for Halloween after that epic Hooters costume until the year of my Jellyfish costume.  I saw the idea in a Martha Stewart catalogue, and that's what I wanted to be.  Bubble wrap, twisty white ribbon, American Apparel shiny white pants, and a see-through umbrella.  Done. Felt fierce.  I made Tomas's goldfish costume using a cheap orange Old Navy hoodie, cupcake foil wrappers, a cut-in-half ping pong ball (the eyes) and hot glue.  

Miss Zam-Smelly, 2011

For my first year as a teacher, and with a classroom of mostly boys, I wanted to be something orgininal and homemade (very important to me in a Halloween costume), and I thought each year as a teacher (laughing now, knowing I hit my MAX at two) I would be a costume that played on my name: Miss Zampelli.  So I was ' Miss Zam-Smelly' that year, equipped with name tag and everything.  I created a felt smelly rotting fish carcas, a felt banana peel; I bought a skunk beanie baby and whipped it out and passer-bys...I wanted to look like a spilled-out garbage bag. It was a hit.

Miss JamJelli - the costume that never happened - 2012

Last year Hurricane Sandy cancelled Halloween on most of the northeast coast.  Of course, that's the least of the damage Hurricane, or excuse me, "Superstorm" Sandy did to our region of the country, but I was pretty disappointed because my para and I were going to be Peanut Butter and Jelly, and I had even made us nametags playing, again, on our names.  She is Ms. DeLaCruz, so her nametag was going to be Ms. PB-Cruz.  I'm Miss Zampelli, so I was going to be Miss JamJelli. I was so excited to execute this costume couple idea, but it never happened. ...and who knew it would never happen because I wouldn't be returning? (Well, I knew.)  I seriously considered going back to teach one more year just to get to execute this idea today.  Haa haa! NOT KIDDING. Imagine?

Anyway, thanks so much for coming on this trip down Halloween memory lane with me today.

I AM dressing up this year, and YES, my costume is homemade, and was thought up last week. You can probably get a sneak peak of it at some point today on my instagram feed @amanda_r0se, before I post it in detail here.  Hint: I get to wear my electric blue wig again! Yes! ...and I will be wearing it ALL. DAY. LONG....getting on the bus, all throughout school, and later on back on the bus.

Happy Halloween!

painted pumpkins 2013

My sister and I like to paint pumpkins.  We've carved 'em before for one or two Halloweens, but most years, we paint.  I suppose we like colors better than carving, paint brushes better than knives.

This year, we love how they came out.  We usually research for fifteen minutes before sketching. With Pinterest nowadays, it's sooo easy to find a good design.  I got my inspiration this one here and the one here. Then we sketch with a black ball-point pen. (We found black pens are the best b/c when the paint dries, you can see your original sketch, and the paint dosn't pick up the ink like it would with a washable marker.)

We paint over our sketch in layers, letting the each layer dry before moving to the next.  We paint the lightest layer first, the black layer last.  These two are my sister's:

...and year after year, she still amazes me.  She claims pumpkins are her favorite canvas to work on, and it shows.  She paints actual portraits on pumpkins, it's crazy.  Do you see the details in shading?  Nuts.

She added butterflies poked into the pumpkin with a thin flower wire, for a 3D effect.

Mine are more flat images, not too much contour and shading.  Just outline and color.

This one reminds me of a skeleton version of Pee Wee in this scene...and of course, what I adore on a pumpkin: my boops:

Do you put pumpkins out for Halloween?

Carve or Paint?

the painting pumpkin scene from last year, October 2012

my all time favorite painted pumpkin from October 2010