The Story of the Zombie Mistle-Toe
The Zombie Mistle-Toe was created to bring a little happiness and joy to a world plagued by zombies, around the holiday season.
The Zombie Mistle-Toe is made up of three evergreen leaves, three waxy, transparent, white berries, the big toe and braided hairs of someone who has died and turned. There are also two small, silver jingle bells that are attached to the braided hairs.
Besides the fact that it’s green, gnarly and oozing a zombie virus that is sure to turn anyone that comes in contact with it, the smell alone is enough to make someone vomit until they’re looking down at their stomach, turned inside out, on the ground.
The odor given off by the Zombie Mistle-Toe is that of a dead, bloated body that’s been left out basking in the hot sun for days with a slight hint of Fritos.
For two people to be caught kissing under a Zombie Mistle-Toe, is a true test of their love for each other.
– Ron Chapman
During the holiday season, is there anything more romantic than mistletoe? Have you ever stopped and wondered just why kissing under it is tradition? If you trace back through the roots of history, you’ll discover that the tradition actually started with ancient Norse mythology. By the 18th century, it was common practice for British servants to steal kisses beneath the mistletoe. From there the tradition caught on and spread, bringing us to where we are today, with mistletoe recognized as an integral part of the holidays themselves.
But get this…dig a bit deeper into what mistletoe is, brush aside all that romantic crap, and you’ll find that it’s a hemiparasitic plant that’s absolutely stuffed full of a cardiovascular toxin called phoratoxin. Ingest too much of this kissy-face bush and you’ll end up with blurred vision, nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, blood pressure changes, and if you eat enough…death.
Ironically enough, it’s the leaves and berries themselves that contain the highest concentration of the toxins…so keep that in mind the next time you find yourself under it giving your beloved a good snogging.
Of course, with a plant this steeped in death and destruction, it only makes sense to add a Nom twist to it…and what better way to do that than with a hand-sculpted zombie toe.
Mistletoe…mistle-toe…get it?
Yeah, I know…you’re all here for the recipes and tutorials…not the jokes.
Fine. And to say thank you guys for being so patient with all my horrible jokes and puns, here’s an AWESOME KRAMPUS GIVEAWAY to help get you all into the holiday spirit!
The winner will receive:
- 1 copy of the holiday horror “Kringle” by author Ron Chapman
- 1 hand-made Zombie Mistle-toe
- 1 embroidered official Nom iron-on patch
- 2 spearmint flavored candy canes
Now, if you want to skip the Zombie Mistle-toe DIY and awesomeness and just go straight to the contest, click here.
For the rest of us that want to continue on with the recipe, let’s get started! But before we do, just a reminder, this post contains affiliate links. Go here to read my full disclosure.
And if you really want to take the lazy way out (no complaints here!) and want to score a toe without having to do ANY DIY, click here to go to my Etsy and I’ll send you one already made.
To make your own zombie mistle-toe you will need:
- 2-part molding putty
- 1 human foot (attached or otherwise)
- Plaster of Paris
- Sculpy or Fimo
- Heat Gun
- 2-part Casting Mold Rubber
- 2-part casting resin
- Zombie green spray paint
- Paint:
- Brown
- Yellow
- White
- Red
- Green
- Clear acrylic spray
- Tiny eye hooks
- Superglue
- Faux mistletoe
- Hot glue gun and glue sticks
- Jute twine
- Tiny silver jingle bells
The first thing we need to do is make a convincing looking toe. There are two ways to go about this:
- Sculpt it yourself: You’re a far better artist than I am and can sculpt a toe – if so, feel free to leap ahead in this tutorial.
- You sculpt like a monkey with too much caffeine in their system: You’re like me and molding a toe is a far faster and less headache-inducing idea. If so, continue reading for how to do that exactly.
If you’re molding a toe:
While you can certainly dig up a dead man and mold his toe, for many of you mortals, I know a suitable living victim might be a little easier (and a little less illegal) to procure.
To mold it, I suggest using a two-part molding putty like this stuff:
It’s super easy to use and it takes about 5 minutes to set up. It’s also pretty cheap (especially if you pick it up from Joann’s or Michael’s and use a coupon!)
Have your victim, er, model,
thoroughly wash their feet using soap and water. Make sure they dry their
toe well.
Mix your two-part putty until the colors are evenly blended and then wrap it around the model toe, making sure to cover the whole thing evenly.
Allow it to sit for the time as indicated on the putty directions and then remove.
Let your victim either go about their day or take the time now to re-inter them should you have had to resort to digging them up.
Wash your new mold with soap and water and allow it to dry.
Once your mold is ready, let’s make our first toe cast.
Mix up your plaster of Paris per the manufacturer’s directions and fill your mold to the top. Set it aside to cure.
Once it’s cured, pop it out of your mold. Now we get to get creative!
To make your toe extra zombie gross and grungy, grab some tools and start carving. I tore up the toenail to make it extra jagged and did some deep creases and cuts into the toe flesh part.
I also used some Sculpy to add on a few artistically arranged warts on the sides.
Once I was happy with how my toe looked, it was time to mold it again…this time using a two-part molding rubber. The reason I switched molding materials is the molding rubber really picks up all the details and gives you a much more accurate mold than the putty. The putty is perfect for the first mold, but for the work we’ve put into the toe and making it look nasty, now you want the finer details to show through.
There’s a full 2-part tutorial on molding things on an earlier post on my blog which you can check out here and here for all the details. For this DIY, I’m going to skim through.
First thing you need to do is build your mold box. I made mine out of old cardboard and some packing tape. A little hot glue and my toe was secured to the center of the bottom of the box.
I then mixed up my molding rubber following the manufacturer’s directions and poured that in, making sure to tap the mold hard enough to dislodge any major air bubbles but lightly enough to hopefully not knock the toe off the glue holding it in the box.
24 hours later, I have a perfect silicone mold of my toe.
Using the same technique I used to mold my toe, I also molded half of a chicken bone I pulled out of some KFC I had for dinner the other night (mmm…Original Recipe…)
Time to start pouring some resin! I used a fast-curing two-part casting resin that sets up in about 10 minutes.
The first thing I did was cast one of my chicken bones.
Once my chicken bone was cast, it was time to cast my toe and embed the chicken bone I just cast within it.
I filled up my toe mold almost to the top with resin and then let it sit for five minutes. Just before it starts to cure and set up, I place my chicken bone into the still liquid toe resin.
Then it’s just a matter of holding it in place while the resin cures around it…usually about a minute or two. You can see it curing as the resin turns from clear to bright white.
Once the resin has cured enough to support the weight of the chicken bone, I can let go and let it finish curing all the way through.
I let the whole thing sit for about 15 minutes and then remove the now molded toe from the silicone form.
Now just repeat the above steps over and over again until you end up with as many toes as you want.
Painting your toes is a multi-step process and the easiest way to start is by tackling the top half first. You can see in the photo above I had a flat cardboard box that I punched holes into and jammed the bone end of my toes through. This made it not only easy to carry them all, but to give them a first coat of green spray paint without having any of it get onto the bottom bone pieces.
I gave each toe a coat or two but didn’t do too much worrying about full coverage as we’re going to be adding lots more paint so any lighter spots or darker spots just look like creepy mottling.
To give it a really good decayed look and also help accentuate the little details we sculpted in, start by first giving your toe a nice wash of dark pine green. Thin your paint down with a bit of water so it stays slightly translucent.
Then, before the green has a chance to dry, go over it again with another light wash of watered down paint, this time in brown.
Now, take a wadded up piece of paper towel and gently dab your toe, removing the surface paint, but leaving it behind in the nooks and crannies of your toe.
Place your toe into your toe holder box to dry and repeat with the rest of your toes.
It helps to have an extra set of eyes at this point to make sure you’re not missing any toes.
After the brown and green dry, give the bottom bone piece a nice heavy coat of white paint. To give mine a bit more of a bone color, I added in a drop or two of both brown and yellow to make it slightly ‘off white.’ Let that dry fully.
Once dry, go over the bone with a wash of watered-down dark brown paint just like we did with the meaty side of the toe earlier.
Grab your paper towel again and dab at the brown, removing most of it but not all of it. You want some brown to stay behind and highlight the texture of your bone.
Mmm…looks so real!
Now you want to add the blood to the top of your toe where it meets the chicken bone.
Add as much or as little blood as you want. Want drips? Add drips. Go wild! These are your zombie toes – do what you want!
Let those dry.
Once dry, go over your warts with a brush loaded with yellow paint. This gives them a nice puss-filled appearance.
Give the toenail a light wash of white paint thinned with water with a few drops of yellow added in.
Let that dry and then go over it with some gooey yellow mixed with brown for a nice baby-poop hue.
Give it another wash of brown and dab off the excess.
Once dry, hit your whole toe with one last coat of brown wash and dab off the excess. Try to make sure you don’t get too much on your blood, you want that to look fresh compared to the rest.
Now before we move onto the next step you want to make sure to seal your toes completely with at least two good coats of acrylic spray. This will help make sure your paint doesn’t flake off and that your toes have just enough extra shine to them to look juicy.
Once they’re dry, we can move onto adding the embellishments, starting with our eyehook.
Using a small tip drill, put a tiny hole in the backside of your toe close to the bone where it meets the meat.
Secure your eyehook in place using a drop of glue and set aside to dry fully.
Now let’s decorate!
I used a hot glue gun to attach several leaves of faux mistletoe that I picked up at Target as well as a few berries to the top of the meat of my toe close to the bone.
To give it a bit of jingle, I threaded two tiny jingle bells onto some jute rope and secured them to the top of my toe, running them through the eyehook but making sure I’d left enough room for a Christmas ornament hook later.
And that’s it! You should now have a zombie mistle-toe, ready for gift-giving, smooching and all-around holiday festivities!
Speaking of festivities, it’s been so long since we’ve done a proper giveaway and with the holiday season upon us, I think it’s time to do one!
And what better way to celebrate the season than with an appropriately terrifying tale? My good friend Ron Chapman (the mad genius who gifted us with the legend of the Mistle-toe that we opened this blog with) is a master of the macabre and has written a perfectly sinister tale of Christmas Cheer entitled “Kringle.”
Kringle is about a disgruntled butcher by the name of Walter who’s been working at the same job for eleven plus years. When Walter is pushed to his breaking point by his coworkers, he is afraid to do anything for fear of losing his family. Without any solution as to what to do, Walter has nowhere to turn until he meets Holly and her family from up North. Together with a bit of Christmas Carol, some well-known holiday legends and a few secrets from the past, Kringle is a story like no other.
Ron has been kind enough to send me an autographed copy of Kringle which will be heading home to one lucky Nom fan, along with your very own Mistle-toe!
