Super Cheap Heart in a Jar

The problem with being overly ambitious when it comes to decorating is the last few weeks.  That's when you realize exactly how much there is left to do and how little time you have to do it all in.  It's also why I start making things so early, not that it seems to cut down on the deadline rush.  I've got a much bigger project that I'm working on as well but wanted to get this one up since it's really easy.  Just a heads up to those who may be interested, because of how hectic this week is going to be I won't be putting up more patterns until November.  I've not had time to work on yarn stuff  with all the Halloween shenanigans going on.

Here we have one of my dollar store treasures.  I still can't believe how good a heart this is for a buck.  Even with the seams on it it's still a pretty good heart.  Well, except that it doesn't look as nice as it might.

The solution to the problem was a blue sharpie.  I would have gone to town on it with a red sharpie too, had I been able to find it.  I have a ton of sharpies scattered through my house and somehow I can never find the one I want.  It was a total accident that I found the blue one but it certainly made life easier.  A few minutes with it and what a difference!

It doesn't have to take a lot to improve on a prop.  Just a tiny bit of detail work can go a long way. I had a nice, big salsa jar that the heart would fit in perfectly.  A bit of black spray paint on the lid (or you can use regular black paint, I happened to have a bunch of spray paint leftover from the door so that's what I used) and you have a nice specimen jar.  Pop in the heart, add a bit of fake blood (I wait until the after Halloween sales and buy up a few pints of blood on clearance, it's good to have around and the clearance price is usually half off) and voila!  Heart in a jar.

Quick, simple, and cheap.  The heart was $1 and the jug o' blood I think I got for $2 on sale.  You could also use a fake blood recipe, too.  I wouldn't recommend one that's sugar based unless you want a microbiology experiment later on but the stuff that Allan Hopps uses would work great.  His fake blood recipe is based on glue, so is his gore recipe, and either of those would work great long term if you left the lid off long enough for it to dry.  I suspect the store bought blood is going to mold on me eventually but again, it's what I had on hand so I used it.  I did leave the jar open for a few days to let some of the blood dry on the heart but that didn't work as nicely as expected.  I think if I were to redo this prop I would probably dip the heart in a bowl of the blood and then let it dry or pour the blood over the heart when it wasn't in the jar and let it dry that way.  Doing it that way likely would have gotten better coverage but it would have taken longer too since it would need multiple layers to make it look neat.  As it is, it's kinda fun to be able to play with; almost all the blood pooled in the bottom of the jar so you can shake it and treat it like a horrible mockery of a snow globe.