Halloween2003

HALLOWEEN 2003

We decided not to have a party this year, but are still decorating the entire front yard for the kids (and adults) as well. Here are some of the creations we made this year.

Body Part Urns

You know, the one thing I completely enjoy is perfection. Finding a clearance sale at Lowe's Home Improvement stores for the exact prop I want to create would have to be it. I got this idea last night after visiting a local theme park from one of the haunted houses. Urns with body parts. I bought 5 plastic urns, medium sized with detatchable bottoms for $4 each at Lowe's. I tried to figure out how to make them look old without spray painting them, as that would only make them look blotchy. And I also knew that acrylic paint would not hold on the plastic, so I turned to my natural resources in my backyard. Yea, that's right. Dirt. I put on my gardening gloves, grabbed scoopfuls of dirt and rubbed it all over the exterior of the Urns. It gave it a nice weathered look and the dirt actually stuck in the crevices. Let's hope it doesn't rain and wash the dirt off of the urns. I scooped up leaves, twigs, whatever was laying around and packed them in the top. I am only laying the body parts on top, so it's not like I have to bury anything in there. Plus the leaves and twigs give it a spookier, aged look.

Here is the finished product with a creepy head and some rubber hands I found from past years. The Urns will be lining the walkway as trick or treaters come up to the house. Oh, and let's not forget the mailman who will have to endure our tricks for the month.

Laboratory Table

Here is the table I set up by the front door for the kiddies to admire when they come to get candy. We are going to set up a sensor that will trigger a strobe light that will flash on the table and as well as a nice howling scream. That oughta make em jump. This prop is pretty self explainatory, as we set up a folding table and chair, putting coffin man behind it. I put out sticky eyeballs, stumps of hands, lab equipment and knives. Very simple very cheap. You can get any of the props seen above at Spencers, Party City, WalMart and Target for under $10 a piece. We have been collecting this stuff over the years, so as usual, we have an over abundance. We added a motion sensor that set off a strobe light as trick or treaters approached down the walkway and a fog machine we picked up at the party store a few years back after Halloween for $23.

FOUNTAIN OF BLOOD

Wow, here's a pretty cool creation from Andy's mind. The fountain of blood! Of course it's not quite finished yet, but it will be within the next few days and I will have some pictures up. We happened to have an old fountain that was in the backyard, and empty. We bought it at Lowe's years ago for about $75, pump and all, but tore it out of the ground because of mosquito problems. But that's another nightmare in itself. Andy took the pump from our jacuzzi and hooked it up with pvc pipes and couplings to create a simple waterway that spurts up three showers of water in the tub. It's much bigger then it looks in this picture and I will have more detailed instructions when Andy writes them up for me..

TREE PROPS

Just a couple of props I nailed to the tree. Andy put the light up pumpkins back out on the porch, so I decided to take advantage of the low light it provided. I nailed the Skeleton Bride to the tree by a string so passers by can see her ghostly ways...ooooo...spooky. On the other side, I nailed the axes I put together about 4 years back and laid a skeleton on the other side of the pumpkin. At night, there is an eerie orange glow that lights up the skeleton..it's a pretty cool effect I wasn't expecting.

DORPING THE HOUSE

Here's a daytime shot and a nighttime shot of what we did to the house. I do believe it was at this point our new neighbors thought there was something wrong with us. Of course, it was fun being stared at by passers by on the road. Anyways, this is another recycled prop that we moved from the back of the house where the party usually is to the front. I took the Dorp we bought a few years back and merely hung it from the roof, along with the spray painted cheesecloth on top of it. It bought the dark green spray paint and sprayed it lightly across the cheesecloth, while curling the ends up in my palms while it was still damp. Andy put up some green underlighting beneath the eaves of the roof and it looked nice and creepy at night. I took some bloody sheets, a couple of skulls and but them over the flowerboxes.

THE GRAVEYARD

The graveyard speaks for itself, the same graves we've been using for years now, just put in the front yard along with the graveyard keepers (the skulls on sticks). Hey, who let that cute little kid into my graveyard! It was a shame this year as someone decided to steal one of my graveyard keepers right out of my own front yard. I could go on a diatribe about the losers who stole my props, but I try to keep this site free of cussing.

Here we are, the crazed souls behind these props. Dano, Andy, myself and my beloved coffin man. He's getting a bit musty of late. Perhaps a bath is in order.