Hello, fellow haunters! First, let me apologize for my long absence. Life (and death) being what it is often changes priorities and we as mere mortals must accommodate. Well, I’m back now and raring to go. Halloween is nearly upon us and it’s time to start (if you haven’t already done so) planning and working on your yard haunt and custom props. To that end, I hope to help you create your own custom skeleton corpse.
Now, perhaps the title of this week’s article is a little extreme. There are times when a bare bones skeleton is not only appropriate, but also necessary. Let’s face it. Skeletons are cool and an essential part of any Halloween haunted house, yard haunt, and Halloween party.
But, wouldn’t you want to take it up a notch and create your own customized, personalized skeleton corpse? And, what if I told you you wouldn’t have to spend an arm and a leg to do so?
There are a lot of different ways to turn a plain old skeleton into your own customized rotting corpse. And, you can find them pretty easily on the web. Here are a few:
Making A Corpse – Using a blucky (blow-mold) skeleton, spray adhesive, paper towels, and expanding foam.
Corpsing A Blucky – Using a blucky skeleton, latex floor adhesive, toilet paper, and cotton balls.
Corpsification – Using a bucky (solid resin) skeleton, spray adhesive, and cheesecloth.
Charred Corpse – Using a bucky skeleton, expanding foam insulation, and liquid latex.
Plastic Corpsing – Using a plastic skeleton, plastics wrap, and a heat gun.
This is a small sample of the techniques and how-to pages you can find on the web. But, I am here to talk about my favorite method – Corpsing With Pantyhose. I like this method the most because I think it’s the most flexible and adaptable of all the methods I’ve come across and/or tried. And, here’s why:
1. It’s relatively easy; you don’t need a lot of skill, just a lot of imagination.
2. It’s flexible; it allows you to use just about any size or type of skeleton.
3. It’s adaptable; depending on how you detail it, you can use it in just about any Halloween scene.
4. It’s inexpensive; the materials are common, easy to find, and relatively cheap.
And, I think it’s the most realistic looking of all the methods I’ve tried. When you touch it, it feels like dried skin.
I recently taught a class on this method to the CalHaunts NorCal Haunter’s Society. Over 50 people attended and they created 40 very different, very wonderful customized skeleton corpses. No two were alike. The event was a lot of fun. And, you can check out the picts here.
So, if you’re interested in creating your own customized, rotting skeleton corpse, take a look at the instructions on our projects page.
If you’ve got topics you’d like us to discuss, send us an e-mail at projects@skeletonfoundry.com.
Have yourself a great day and a very Happy Halloween!!
Welcome back! OK, now that I’ve stimulated all five of your physical senses, I’d like to stimulate your sense of creativity. Another way to help your guests remember and enjoy your yard haunt more is to make it unique. Customize your Halloween props and decorations. Become a Halloween DIYer.
You can do this in any number of ways. If you’ve got the confidence, the creativity, the time, and the drive, you can create your own Halloween props and decorations from scratch. Self-built Halloween DIY projects are often the most elaborate, higly-detailed, realistic, and exciting. And, they often have the most lost-lasting affects on your guests. Their scale can range from small to enormous.
Let’s be honest. Which has a more lasting affect (ie. more memorable)?
The skeletons are the same, but we customized the second and gave it a completely different look.
If you’re a beginner, start with something small. Build your own wooden coffin. Or, create your own tombstones. There are plenty of instructions for building all kinds of coffins, tombstones, and plenty of other Halloween DIY projects out there on the web. We’ve got a few of our own. You can check them out on our projects page. We’ve got a handful in there now with more to come later this year.
Here are a couple other great resources for the Halloween DIYer:
The Monsterlist of Halloween Projects
You can also modify store-bought props and decorations. Now, BEFORE you change anything about your store-bought items, make sure they work FIRST!! Most Halloween retail stores won’t accept returns unless they are defective and they must be in factory condition. So, after you purchase it, take it home, assemble it, and make sure it works before you do anything to it.
Once you’re sure it’s working as it’s supposed to, it’s time to start pimping your Halloween props. Adding some fake blood, distressing the clothing, antiquing the finish, or adding some paint effects are just a few examples of the types of ways you can customize your props. Your goal should be to differentiate yourself from your neighbors. I’ll go into detail on some of these techniques in future articles. But, for now just THINK DIFFERENT!
If you’ve got topics you’d like us to discuss, send us an e-mail at projects@skeletonfoundry.com.
Have yourself a wonderfully unique day. Happy Halloween!!
Hello! fellow Halloween fans and welcome back to this week’s Skeleton Foundry Lab Notes. In the past couple articles, I’ve been speaking about how stimulating the different senses of your guests and trick-or-treaters will them better remember your yard haunt and walk (or run) away with a greater experience. So far, I’ve talked about sight, sound, and touch. Today, I’m going to talk about smell.
Now, before you think I’ve gone completely off the deep end, I am not asking you to go out and find a roadkill and leave it lying in your front yard. That’s not it at all. However, there are a couple easy ways you can enhance the aromatic quality of your yard haunt. First, you can try using scented candles. You can find these just about anywhere. And, as Halloween approaches, you can find scents that you might not find during the rest of the year. Some examples are Pumpkin Spice, Midnight, Candy Corn, and many others.
Be careful, however, when using candles. Ensure that you don’t place them near other flammable materials or where your guests can bump into them and knock them over. Remember, you’re dealing with an open flame here and the last thing you want is an accidental fire. If you can’t make it safe, don’t use candles.
Another easy way to stimulate your guests’ sense of smell is to use aromatic scents with your fog machine. It’s easy, fairly clean, and the fog machine helps to disperse the scents quickly. You simply mix the scent fluid into your fog fluid, load it into your fog machine, turn your fog machine on, and, voila!, you’re done. As your fog machine begins emitting fog, the scents are also emitted adding yet another stimulus to your yard haunt.
We got a couple fog scents you can use in the store. We’ve got haunted smells and sweet smells. Each packet contains two bottles and two scents. If they’re not what you’re looking for, a quick search on the web will turn up a few more.
While doing some research for this article, I came across a post on Halloween Forum. In it, a member details how to make your own fog scents with formulas for about a dozen and a half different scents. We haven’t tried this yet, but I thought it would be good to include a link to the post for the more adventurous amongst you.
Create your own fog scents (Halloween Forum post). If you try this, please, let us know if you were successful.
And, lastly, since smell and taste are connected, we’ll just say that the better the treats you hand out (or food you have available at your Halloween party) the better you’ll stimulate your guests’ sense of taste. : )
Smell ya later! And, Happy Halloween!!
Welcome back, fellow haunters. In my last article, I touched very briefly on a subject and I’d like to expand on it a bit in this article. Last time, I talked about how the more senses you stimulate in your guests, the better your guests are going to remember your yard haunt and want to come back again next year – and, hopefully, bring more friends and relatives with them. : )
Visual stimulus is easy. Scary, realistic props and decorations take care of that. Sound effects and environmental music cover the auditory stimulus. This time, I’m going to talk about the sense of touch. If done properly, this can creep your guests out more than any other. There’s nothing like the thought that bugs are crawling on your skin to freak people out. How many times have you gone into a dark or dimly lit space and walked face first into a spider web. How high did you jump? LOL
This is an experience you can duplicate very easily in your yard haunt. All you need is a staple gun and some fishing line. Cut the fishing line into varying lengths. 3-4 ft. each should be good depending on the height of the object (porch roof, tree, etc.) you’re hanging them from. Then, staple or tie each piece to your roof or a tree branch. This effect has the best pay off when done in a dark or very dimly lit area because the fishing line has a tendency to reflect any light. If your guests can see it, they’ll do everything they can to avoid it.
You can also achieve this effect with spider webbing. You can use the stretch spider webs as well as the webcaster spider webs. You can get the stretch spider webs just about anywhere as Halloween approaches. Simply place them as you normally would above a door or walkway, but, when you’re done, pull a few strands out and let them hang free. As people pass under them, the loose strands will drag along their face and and create that “OMG, there are bugs crawling on my face” feeling.
You can also create really good spider webs using the webcaster gun. For examples, check out our 2009 and 2010 picture gallery. In 2009, we were able to create a 40 ft. long spider web tunnel that went from our front gate to the front door. Guests had to walk under it in order to get to the front door to get their goodies. Here too, we left strands hanging down from the roof of the tunnel.
If you’re going to create large web structures using the webcaster gun, be sure to create a web skeleton using fishing line. Simply tie or staple fishing line to anchor points on your house, a tree, your fence, or whatever. It provides strength and something for the webbing to cling to.
Even the idea that something might touch them can make your guests skin crawl. So, if you’ve got props that jump, or lurch, or move, they too can add to the experience and help take your yard haunt to the next level.
These are just a few examples of what you can do to stimulate your guests’ sense of touch. There are many others that can achieve the same (or even better) effect. If you’ve got some good ideas, please, let us know.
So, the next time you walk into a spider web, smile and remember this article. Happy Halloween!!
Hello! fellow haunters and welcome back. Just before I started writing this article, I was listening to one of my favorite songs of all time – “Ghost Town” by The Specials. It was originally released the Summer of 1981 during a time of great civil unrest in England. If you’ve never heard it, you can find it here (#16) on the iTunes store. Check it out and let me know what you think.
That, however, is not my reason for writing this week. I’d like to talk about Halloween environmental (mood setting) music and sound effects for your yard haunt. I’m sure you’ve experienced it at one point or another. You come across someone else’s yard haunt. They’ve got some good decorations, a fog machine, and, maybe, even a strobe light, but something is missing. What’s that sound? Oh, that’s the fog machine going off every few minutes. And, that’s it.
To create a great yard haunt – one that people will talk about, you need to make sure you give your guests something to hear – some scary music, some thunder, some screams, some witch’s cackles, or a mix of all the above. You don’t have to go crazy and you don’t have to spend a lot of money to take your yard haunt to the next level, but the more senses you can excite in your guests the more they’ll remember your yard haunt.
A good set of speakers can be purchased for under $30 just about anywhere electronics are sold. In our yard haunt, we use a set of wireless speakers (like these) so we can hide them throughout the yard and distribute the sound so that it can be heard everywhere. You can even go as far as to set up different speakers and different music or effects in different parts of your yard haunt.
Regardless of what speakers you choose, just make sure that the volume is set to a comfortable level. The last thing you want is your guests walking around your yard with their fingers in their ears.
Last, find some spooky, scary, or eerie environmental music and/or sound effects that you like and appropriate for your yard haunt. You don’t want to use outer space music or sound effects for a pirate-themed yard haunt.
We’ve got a good collection of environmental music and sound effects in our store. If you don’t find what you like there, a simple Google search will help you find exactly the right music or sound effects for your yard haunt.
And, remember to thank the next person who gives you a little scare. It’s those little moments of heart-pounding excitement that make what we do worth doing. Happy Halloween!!
