Halloween Decorating "How To"

[charp13]

Brilliant idea, ZH!  And they look awesome!   

[Scatter]

Here's yet another work in progress shot of one of my coffins~





Originally when I saw these doorknockers at Dollar Tree I was thinking of buying the skull ones to use on my cemetary columns but then as if in a nightmare I had a wonderful-awful idea!  Coffin handles!  Wasn't sure how they would look but I'm really loving them now that I've bought them and laid them out!

Idea STOLEN!! Thanks ZH!!

[Dr. Madd]

I am not the best decorator by a long shot and this is more of a graveyard rather than Scarcrows and Zombies but if you can gather any ideas from what I do I am more than glad to help out. 

Not the best night picture but here is the yard lit up for Trick or Treaters:



You can see a bit of it shot during the twilight hours:



Here is our just inside the door decorations, the stuff I don't want kids touching:



Here is our Window Display of carved Pumpkins:



A less impressive daytime shot of the graveyard.  I think I added stuff after this shot was taken:



One more daytime shot:



Of course I will be adding lots to this years festivities with some really good ideas from Bizarro Jeff and a fogger he sent me.  I can't wait to get home and start working on it.

Anyone ever tell you you'd be a great steampunk?

[zombiehorror]

Now with even more toe pincher pics!

First up here are the handles all in place~


I screwed some small 1x1 blocks (I had a picture of this but apparently it didn't load?) to the coffin and then picked an inconspicuous spot to screw the doorknockers into place~


In an effort to keep all my toe pinchers look like they came right off the assembly line I came up with yet another different handle set up for my other coffin~


These are small plastic skeleton hands that I had a bag of for years (During Halloween clearance it is important to remember that you may not have a clue what you'll do with a particular item but eventually it will come in handy!) and finally figured out what to do with them~


I took the seperate hands and screwed them together, placed a backer board inside the coffin that I then screwed to the inside, when the screws were just coming out of the wood I put the skeleton hands against it (with lots of liquid nails) and screwed into the little crevice formed by the palms.  The steel pipe is some old pipe that came out of my basement when I finished it, I may paint these black but it all depends on what color I end up painting the coffin~


And lastly here is a vid of my old/rebuilt coffin with the fogger running inside of it~
Toe pincher fogger~

I still have to seal some of it and finish a few things here and there!  I actually drilled a small hole in the mouth of the middle handle for this test but there is so much fog billowing out right now it is hard to see.  Also this is not a fog chiller (though I can pack it with ice) but I believe this particular fogger has Froggy's Freezin' Fog in it, that coupled with the cool garage floor really made for some low lying fog.

[charp13]

zombiehorror- You really have outdone yourself! Your coffin props get better and better every time I see them! If I were Trick or Treating at your house, I wouldn't go near that foggy coffin- It looks like something is gonna rise up out of there at any second!  And the garage floor helped build up the suspense    BRAVO!

[Unknown Primate]

ZH - I concur with charp13, you are one very talented & innovative MonsterKid!  You'd make a helluva set decorator & prop maker for horror/monster movies - seriously!  Actually, all the stuff I've seen posted by the gang here has been really, really well done!

[zombiehorror]

Thanks!  And here is yet another shot, this time of the trio; still some finishing detail needed on the middle one and then all of them need to be roughed up for that freshly unearthed look!

[Unknown Primate]

Man - those are great!

[zombiehorror]

The last coffin is just about done, here's a vid of it~

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=2144296011449#w640-h480

[charp13]

That just blew my Halloween socks off!!  ZH- You have an amazing talent for prop building!  The kids in your neighborhood are sooooo lucky. They are in for quite a scare this year. I remember looking at your columns a couple of years ago, and thinking how cool they were and now you have these professional looking coffin props to go with all your other creations....I can't wait to see what you build next year! You are a true haunter   

[Hepcat]

And here is yet another shot, this time of the trio; still some finishing detail needed on the middle one and then all of them need to be roughed up for that freshly unearthed look!

I can't believe how much talent there is on this board!

[zombiehorror]

To early?!?  My brother just called me and said he has a whole bunch of insulation scraps (he guesses about 6 or so tombstones worth); I really wasn't planning on doing any more tombstones but I'm not completely against the idea either!!  I was hoping to get some full sheets to build a sarcophagus but oh well....I'm not complaining!

[charp13]

ZH- There is no "early", when it comes to prop building! Yahooooo! I love your can-do attitude    We all know how talented you are- so I believe that sarcophagus will be built by Oct. 15th- at the latest. I started off on the right foot last July, and made that corpse bride for my front porch......and then I lost steam. After my Halloween party, I had no energy for my yard haunt and I ended up with only one new prop. But this year I have already finished a little project- as of last weekend.  After Halloween, I bought a $79 prop from Grandin Road- for $19. She was called "Mistress in Lace", and was a hanging head and torso with no arms. I immediately removed the styrofoam chain from yer neck (yuck), and made a stand for her. I then added my signature bubble wrap stuffed arms and black velvet gloves and a hat I had laying around. I am using her as a bride of Dracula next Halloween, so I figure she'll kickstart my theme for my yard. Anyway- keep on building those props, and if you have time- share some helpful hints. 

[Dr. Madd]

Oh man!  That is awesome!

[zombiehorror]

Heard about this from the Halloween Forum; Dick Van Dyke is a home haunter and has been for years and years!

http://disneytravelbabble.com/blog/2011/11/03/halloween-2011-at-dick-van-dykes-house-the-biggest-yet/

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/hollywood_wrap&id=8759841

Who knew?!