You know, when I was a young trick-or-treater, my favorite thing was
seeing that one spooky scary house on the block. The one that was much
more than a porchlight & paper cut outs in the windows. I would
anticipate that house, walking by in the days before Halloween night to
see if anything was out yet. Even though, as a kid, I was slightly afraid
of it, that's what I loved about it! I was heartbroken if one year they
didn't decorate, though sometimes, a different house did.
I knew that someday, I would have a house like that on Halloween. I
would be the cool neighbor, if it was the last thing I ever did! And so
far, I'm succeeding- not hard to do, since none of my neighbors attempt
this style of decorating, but that's all the more fun it makes MY place,
which makes me happy!
If you're still reading this, you share my enthusiasm for this great art,
& I wish you Happy Decorating! Let the games begin!!!
~I Want The Halloweeniest House On The Block!~
So, you want your house to frighten off small children,eh? On this page
you'll find...
~Easy Do-it-yourself Tombstones & Gravemarkers~
~Corpses in the Yard~
~Got Pumpkins?~
~Disguising Your Cheap Plastic Skeleton~
~Creepy Purple Light~
Looking For Inner Haunt Decorating?
Click Here!
~Tombstones & Gravemarkers~
A lot of people seem to be in
search of the perfect tombstone. I am always in search of the cheap-without-looking-cheap
tombstone. A quick, easy one is the old wooden
cross grave marker. Just get 2 pieces of wood, nail together to make a
cross, & stick it in the ground!
Carve or paint a nice messy R.I.P. on some. Wrapping some twine in an 'X'
around
the part where you've nailed the cross together will add a nice effect.
If you have a few made out of medium sized branches, this will really look
good & creepy! This is also nice because you can easily make a yard full!
Click Here for something to write on your
tombstone...
~Corpses in the Yard~
For those of you who like to put cemetary scenes in the yard, here's a
gruesome plan... Fake hands sticking out of the ground are fun, but how
'bout this. Get some old shoes, preferably men's dress shoes, & a hacksaw.
Cut the shoes in half, like you're chopping off the toes, & stick them in
the ground, say, 6 feet from the headstone. It will look like your hastily
buried victim isn't settling well into his shallow grave!
You might want to make a couple of small wooden dowels, & nail them in
the half shoes at the toe so your scene stays put. Of course, if lawn
care is no big deal for you, you could just forget the sawing part, &
bury some whole shoes. Sawing or digging- whatever will get you in the
Spirit of Things!
~Got Pumpkins?~
In my opinion, you can't have Halloween without some gutted pumpkins...
I STRONGLY suggest forking out a few bucks for a
Pumpkin Masters® Carving Kit.
Anyone can use them, you don't have to be artistic or creative. Even if
pumpkins are all you plan on doing, a few carved with this kit will get
everyone's attention!! They have amazing patterns that range from easy to
the more difficult. We've even made some of our own patterns.
Last year, I saw hollow, hard foam pumpkins at Michael's craft
store.
There was one displayed all carved up with an electric candle inside. Now,
it would take some
of that good old Halloween fun away if I couldn't paste my arm hairs to
my skin with pumpkin innards, but I had to give it a try!
I discovered the large ones are the easiest to carve- I used a box cutter
to "trace" out the pattern I poked out with the PM kit,
then sawed the pieces out with a steak knife- the saws that come with the
PM kit aren't strong enough. The PM patterns work great!
As for lighting them, of course, no open flames! I used electric
Christmas candles, the smaller pumpkins I had to prop on a box with a hole
in the box to poke the candle through to adjust candle height.
The best part? They look absolutely real- even close up!
~Skeletons to Go!~
Have we got a few good uses for those 4ft plastic skeletons!
Hang them out of the windows & tie & position them so it looks like
they're climbing in (or out!) of your windows! My brother has one
sitting in the passenger seat of his car... year round.
Seatbelted in, of course!
Our cheesey plastic skeletons have seen some better days, so one has become a spider victim, wrapped in plastic wrap for freshness.
The other has become a ghost- pics to come soon...
~Creepy Purple Light~
Let's not forget the power of lighting! It can really make some ho-hum props
into some "AHHHHHHHRGH!" props! Ok, so that was a stupid pun, but it's
the best I could come up with for now.
Obvious choices are blacklights & strobes-placement pretty self explanitory,
although strobes, in my opinion, have the best effect if they're not the focal point.
I think it's too distracting, but in Halloweens past I've noticed many people do this.
But who am I to judge? I haven't found the perfect place for my strobe yet.
One balmy windless Halloween, we used candles to light our Halloween
scene, which believe me, was not up to par. We had some pumpkins, a few rubber rats,
some fake hands sticking around, & not much else. But the lighting made all the difference.
Never leave burning candles unattended!
That said, you may also want to stock up on those electric Christmas
candles, & flicker bulbs to use on those windy Halloween nights, or if
the idea of lit candles & small children on sugar rushes unnerves you. ;)
Christmas lights, properly modified, make great lighting as well. It
may take awhile to unplug & replug in specific bulb colors, but it's cheap,
easy, readily avaliable, easy to hide among or in props, indoor & outdoor friendly,
did I mention easy?
Lastly, you can try those patio tiki torches, if you want to do an
untraditional Halloween theme, like cannibalistic headhunters, or dead
zombiefied Survivor castaways... Or even the original castaways
of Gilligan's Island! Or to use them without them looking too
'safari-ish', paint them black for a dungeony look.
We found candleholders that staked into the ground just for this
purpose in the garden supply area of a store the spring before (for
fancy garden parties a la Martha Stewart, I suppose?). We also stuck
some taper candles right into the ground, & added other odd candles too.
It was really quite eerie looking! My pictures didn't turn out- but it
really looked creepy! I must add, we were out there supervising the
entire time.
We recently acquired what I think was an outdoor Christmas floodlight.
It has a multi-colored disk that rotates in front of the light. Leave it on blue for a
ghostly graveyard, green for a ghastly scene, red would be a good Hell.
Of course, you'd have to make sure it's not the kind that projects Santa scenes!
You can make your own tape or CD, personalized to your particular
Halloween theme.
(Not that I condone piracy Aaarrr!)There's some really good
sounds on the Playstation games Resident Evil & Silent Hill
to borrow from. ESPECIALLY Silent Hill, there's some horrible
creepy sounds in that game! I don't believe that's a copyright
infringement, but if the Sony people come knocking on your door, ya
didn't hear it from me!
Also, the sounds from the menu or the DVD for the Blair Witch Project
would make horrific ambiant background mood music.
~Just A Thought...~
...Home to the Garden
All Text Copyright Lilac 2000-2003
