Halloween Forum - Tutorials and Step-By-Step

Vines made using real leaves

kjkjkj — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 20:34:15 GMT

Hello fellow haunters! This is my first tutorial, it is a very simple one. I am going to show you how to make a vine using real leaves and only two supplies.

SUPPLIES:
Twine
Real leaves from a tree.

I just made these vines today for the first time. I decided to make them while I was building a big entrance sign for my front yard haunt. They add some detail to any gravestone or sign you might have.

STEP ONE
Gather twine and leaves.

STEP TWO
Cut your twine to the length you would like your vine to be.

STEP THREE
Take your twin and being to tie a simple knot. but do not tie it all the way closed yet.

STEP FOUR
Place the stem of one of your leaves through the almost closed knot. Then once the stem is in place finish tieing the knot closed, and make sure it is tight.

STEP FIVE
Continue the process until you have as many leaves as you want on your vine.

FOR ADDED EFFECT
For an added effect, you can tie multiple lengths of twine together, so your vine has different shoot offs and growths.

Finished product hanging over the then 'work-in-progress' ENTER sign. The sign got completed a couple hours ago, I'll have to post pictures of that in the Halloween Props section.

By the way, I know that the leaves will die and turn yellow and brown by Halloween, but that's what I was going for in the end anyway. a dead rotted vine!

Hope these come in use for some of you guys!

Flicker Light Controller Made from Christmas Lights

madmax — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:40:19 GMT

First step: What you will need to make this. Find a set of Christmas lights that has a control box on the end. Thrift stores and Yard sales are the best place.

You will need a electrical outlet and a box to house it in

Step two: I will have to explain because I failed to take a picture :)

1. There should be 5 wires coming from the controller.
2. Four of the wires will have a set of Christmas lights. Each wire will have a different color light
3. One wire will be the common wire and it wont have any lights connected to it
4. Take a wire and follow it till you come to the light. Cut the wire right below the light
5. Repeat step four till you cut all four sets of lights off
6. The last wire and at this point it should be the longest and not have any lights connected to it is the COMMON wire. Put a piece of tape on this wire (around it) so you can remember it is the common wire.

Step 3: You should end up with a controller and five wires (each one should be longer than the other) that look like this. In the picture you can see how I put tape on the common wire.

Step 4: (This step is just to keep everything neat You can by pass it if you want to.)

1. Cut the four light wires (not the common) and trim them to about the same length. Also trim the common wire but leave it longer so you don't get it mixed up with the four wires, also keep a piece of tape on it.

2. You will only be using two of the wires that had lights on them ( not the common wire) so I put a piece of tape over the end and tape them together.

3. The wires will be loose so put pieces of tape around them starting at the controller and going up to the two wires you aren't using.......Confused yet? Don't worry it's easier than I'm making it sound. You will see in the next step.

Step 5: Putting it together

1. Put your wires through the hole in your electrical box . In this picture you can see how I used the tape in step 4.

2. Your electrical outlet will have screws on both sides of it...gold/brass and silver. Over the screws (on both sides brass & silver) there will be a tab. This tab connects both outlets (top & bottom) together. The silver screws will be the common side of the outlet.

3. On the brass screw side take a pair of pliers and break off the tab. Once you do that the top & bottom outlet will act independent of each other. DON'T do this to the silver side. This is a bad picture but this is what it should look like (picture below will show it more clearly)

4. Next strip off some of the wire from the ends of the wires. Take the two wires that had lights on them (not the common) and connect one to each of the brass color screws.

5. Take the common wire and connect it to EITHER of the SILVER screws. Since we left the tab on this side, one wire will act as the common for the top & bottom outlets.

Three foot skull stone mask

OctART — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:50:48 GMT

Hey just thought I post these Pic's as a Tutorial

The mask started as a poultry wire frame made with one inch hole wire,
The next step was to stuff it with Newspaper for some backing then use masking tape over the mask and covered the surface with Duct tape
A couple other projects (I'll post ) sittin' in the background :)

The mask had three layers of paper mache (one part white glue,two parts water ,two parts cheep flour).Tear your paper in as large a piece as you can use (6"x8" or 3"x8"for most projects ...but larger for this one.I like to brush paste onto armature and apply paper -then for spots needing extra strength I brush paste onto half the sheet of paper then fold and apply paste and paper to the piece.

The teeth are card board ,hot glued then Duct tape applied to fill some spaces (edges) to smooth out .

more paste and paper.........a complete coat of glue paste dried the painted a first coat soon to be stone look !!:cool:

MORE TO COME SOON

Donovan

Cemetary Fence Finials From Rigid Foam Insulation

Lord Soth — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:04:03 GMT

I wanted to post a tutorial on the cheap and easy way I make finials for cemetary fencing. The method I describe can be modified to make any size and shape one desires, imagination the only limit!
For this posting, I am using 1/2" pink insulation that I have cut to 4-3/4" x 15" strips as shown below:

Attached Images

Pink Insulation Strip.jpg (93.2 KB)

pressure mat

ColenJacksdad — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:18:54 GMT

Here is a link on how to make a pressure mat.
http://www.ehow.com/how_4603489_pressure-mat-alarm.html

Cheap, realistic, and quick Apothecary / Witch bottles filled with ingredients.

FutureFiyero — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:18:23 GMT

I'm finally posting a tutorial! Woohoo! :D

These bottles will surely look realistic AND last.

Materials:
Assorted glass bottles that already include fitting corks. (Can be found at almost ANY craft store *cough Michaels cough*)
Flavorless, colorless gelatin. (Grocery stores)
Food coloring
Assorted live and dead plant pieces from the woods or your backyard (Mushrooms, dead leaves, LIVE leaves, flower buds, dead flower buds... you get it.)

A funnel
Hot glue.

Instructions:
3 cups of water for ever 4 packets (equivalent to one tablespoon) of gelatin you plan on using.
Add the gelatin to the boiling water and mix until completely dissolved.
Using the funnel, pour as muh into the bottle as desired. Then you may or may not decide to add your natural 'ingredients' into the bottles. Shake 9covered of course) until all the ingredients are covered within the bottle and settle down to the bottom. Now you may or may not decide to add food coloring; color as desired.

Using the hot glue, create a ring aroudn the cork and place into bottle firmly, swish the bottle around one more time and wit for everything to settle.

Now, place into the refrigerator until firm and there ya' go!
WITCHES BOTTLES!

Now you may choose to add labels or keep them as is.
Enjoy!

(If there are any mistakes or if anything is hard to understand I apologize and will do my best to clear things up! This is my first time posting a tutorial!)

Fog Chiller Trash Can - pdf directions

jimmersg — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 03:38:52 GMT

All - back for my 15th year of Yard Haunts.

I have worked with a lot of fog chillers but two years ago found the best and I made a PDF file with Step by Step instructions. I have built two of these and have two V-950 super foggers hooked to them.

Here is a quick single page I setup until I can get my full web server back online.
Any issues let me know an I can email you the PDF instead

Link to Site http://halloweeen.guntow.com or http://www.guntow.com (depends how long tls is set to update)
email jimmersg@att.net

and Word of Caution: wear gloves when working with sheet metal duct - I forgot my own warning and it cost me 3 1/2 hours in the emergency room and 5 stitches on the Day of Halloween Setup.

Skeletal Fountain

witcheswalk — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 01:28:57 GMT

So here is my second tutorial on this site. I think this one is a lot cooler and a much more fun project to build!

All my projects are built on a budget and I get as many of the supplies as I can from the dollar store.

The Materials:

Various plastic (or metal) dishes. -- I used a large platter, two different chip bowls and a small soup bowl.

1" Dowel -- This was left in my apartment when the old tenants moved out and I finally found a use for it!

Various skulls and bones of different shapes and sizes (interesting side rail for inexpensive larger bones)

A LOT of hot glue

Liquid school glue (paper mache)

Newspaper

Toilet Paper

Water

This project is a skeletal fountain, it is going to be in the center of our cemetery this year with some PVC flicker candles and some moss. This is the first major prop of the season for us and has pushed me to decide to upgrade our tombstones to some more like the ones that Terra makes!

Since I've written so much of an introduction the actual tutorial will start in the next post.

Spill Your Guts Illusion Prop how to...

scary1215 — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:20:53 GMT

so recently i created a spill your guts (half man illusion prop). heres a how to video and some pics... Enjoy

YouTube- spill your guts prop, How to...

if you have any questions please ask.

Attached Images

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boxes of stone

OctART — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 00:15:49 GMT

Hey I'm going to start a set of boxes in granite for a gate and ...well this in my first tutorial so ask any questions if I don't cover it well enough :)

Just a note .....I lost all my pic's of previous projects from last year so I'll have to ta take more and then post my previous crafts.

I got ta get pic's on here .....any easier option than photo bucket???

Donovan.

Wiper Motor Speed Control

thisain'tmayberry — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:05:06 GMT

Here is an image of a document I made awhile back on how to control the speed of a wiper motor used in prop building. I've been answering a lot of posts in the prop forum regarding motor speed control so I thought I would post this here. I also have it in PDF for email if you find the image hard to read.

I hope this helps anyone contemplating a wiper motor driven prop. More than happy to answer any questions on the topic. Good luck!

Dynamite anyone?

killerhaunts — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:56:32 GMT

I finally got to finish the dynamite this weekend! Thanks for the inspiration YardHauntJunkie and Wyatt Fur!

Materials: Tubes, Great Stuff expanding foam, red spray paint, stiff wire, wire clippers, Glow in the Dark paint, plastic baggies and rubber bands (not shown because I didn't know at the time that I would need them!)

Step 1: Cut the wire and put the wire into the tube

Step 2: Hold the wire while SLOWLY filling the tube with the expanding foam

Step 3: Put plastic baggies (or similar item) on bottom of tubes with 2 openings to secure foam and repeat step 2

Step 4: WAIT for foam to expand and dry

Step 5: When dry, trim all extra foam off the ends and spray paint the tubes

Step 6: Paint DYNAMITE (or TNT if you prefer) on the tubes, bind them together (I chose groups of 6 like in the cartoons :P ) and bind the wires together (or not, your preference)

Pictures of completed prop

And today, my hubby came home with about 20 MORE tubes!! I'll have dynamite all over this haunt! Hope the neighbors don't call the cops on me, hee hee!!

Gothicy Gate Post W.I.P

FarmerChad — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 03:18:21 GMT

Well, while I wait for the motor for my toe pincher prop, thought I would share my other prop that im working on as well.

Im wanting a fence to go around the front yard. I thought about something rickety at first. Then I decided instead to go with something more... ummm, stately. :) Assuming all goes well, I plan to make 4 of these guys. Im still uncertain about the paint scheme... do have some ideas though. These will be made entirely from wood, cause I don't do foam. No offense to you foam folks.

This is just a sketchy drawing at best. Forgive me... im no artist, but I think you get the idea.

So whats my plan? Glad you asked. I started out by making a long rectangular box. Made the box with particle board. Now normally, I wouldnt consider particle board for anything, let alone this. But, I think with enough layers, enough paint, enough glue and screws, it should hold up. And the price was right. I bought 4 sheets, 12 inches by 48 inches, for 2.69 each. Thats hard to beat.

A few sheets pictured here.

To form nice tight corners, I use these corner clamps. I bought them years ago, an absolute life saver when building anything like this. I have a total of 4 of these clamps, would love to have another 4.

In order to make things simple, and strong, Im using a simple butt/over lap joint. Particle board does not lend itself to mitering.

Simply line up the edges and clamp them together. I did run into this issue, some bowing of the wood. Not warped, just bowing.

Some outward pressure, and liberal use of my brad nailer took care of the problem. Just be careful to not shoot a brad into a finger. Trust me, it hurts.

I would love to end it here. But, with particle board, you have to use something more substantial then a brad nailer. The stuff just loves to chip, and flake apart. So, blocks, glue, and screws should do it. In order to have a strong edge and prevent tear out, YOU MUST predrill. Other wise you will be throwing your money away. I determined, taking into account the thickness of the material, and needing to stay away from the edge, that 1 inch in, is where I wanted to predrill. To be consistent, I used my carpenters square. You can lock it in place, and a tiny notch at the end of the rule is handy for your pencil to mark the wood.

After making sure that the edges are crisp and straight, and your holes are predrilled, get a block, glue it and screw it together. Use liberal amounts of glue here. This isnt the place to be stingy. :D I put glue on 2 sides of the block, held it in place and put the screws to it. Each block has 3, 1.5 inch drywall screws. 2 Screws on one face, 1 screw on the other face.

Clamp the next board on, rinse and repeat.

To be continued.....

Alien - Facehugger Stasis (pic intensive)

chuckysdream — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:53:36 GMT

My longtime project. An Alien Facehugger Stasis with UV light.
It costs me 230,-� (~ $320,-). I hope you like the pics. Any questions? Feel free to ask me.

Tombstone text/Epitaphs with an Exacto knife :D

phil121 — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:47:45 GMT

This is my first tutorial so if you can think of anything which would make it better or clearer then please tell me, thanks :D

Many people use a dremel for carving out epitaphs/text on there tombstones, but i find this technique to be incredibly messy and the results are not great, i know this technique works for people with amazing results, but its just not for me.

Im going to show you a different technique using an exacto knife, this technique is a bit more time consuming but the results are great, I've only used this technique once (2 hours ago when i finished off a tombstone) but i thought i should show you.

I know that this is used by lots of people already so im in no way taking credit for this technique, i just haven't seen a detailed tutorial on tombstone epitaphs/text, if im wrong then please send me a link, most tutorials seem to be on the tombstone itself.

On to the tutorial .......

things you need:
printer
scissors
exacto knife
pins
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/103078...75917225116290
Attachment 11717

First of all you need to choose what you want your text/epitaph to be.
Here i have chosen it to say "I told you i was sick ! " but you can make this longer or shorter.

Next You should choose a font you like, i just used Microsoft power point
for mine but you will probably find better fonts on better software. For my font size i used 150 but you will probably want to change that depending on how big or small your stone is.

After printing out your text cut each word out and pin them on to the foam.This keeps them moving around.
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/103078...75928266083842
Attachment 11718

Now you want to take your exacto knife and slowly cut out each letter, I find it better to do an up and down motion, it is alot easier than dragging the knife down the foam.
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/103078...75942739102146
Attachment 11719

Using the tip of the exacto knife, flick out the foam which was behind the printed letter. If you cut around the whole letter then it should come out easily without tearing up the surrounding foam.
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/103078...75953725374994
Attachment 11720

Continue to do this on each remaining letter.

After this a good paint job will make the letters stand out. I recommend Terras tutorial on painting tombstones, that's how i learned to paint tombstones
here is a link to her great tutorial http://www.halloweenforum.com/tutori...ombstones.html
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/103078...75977903607506
Attachment 11721

So thats all really, i hope this has helped, I live in the uk where it is impossible to get the pink or blue foam, so we are forced to use this awful white foam, but as you can see the results aren't so awful, i would imagine that you will get even better results using pink or blue foam

if anything is unclear then please go ahead and ask.

thanks

phil :D

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