Thread: A little piratical inspiration please...?

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HA! I wasn't going to do anything this year I have to work all day Halloween and probably won't be home until 7! However, now my roommate says she will be home that day and wants to hand out candy. Talk about a late start! and any additions are going to have to be cheap or free!

I don't have much, but what I have is all pretty much pirate, so I guess I'll do the obvious.

Here is the garage I'm setting up inside of...
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The front door porch light is burnt out, but that will help keep them up front anyway. I plan to replace the front porch light bulbs with flicker bulbs.

Right now there is a bunch of junk, mostly on the right side of the garage:

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My landlord is supposed to have it cleared out before my official lease on the garage starts Nov 1st, but I'm not counting on it, so I'll have to camouflage it somehow. The three things I do have at my disposal are nearly unlimited amounts of free pallets, cardboard (a few big pieces) and paint. I'm thinking of building a wall of some sort to hide the junk, but will I have time??

Here is my main corner that I cleared out. There is a pile of boxes behind the fabric (have lots of that too), but I think I should have gone just black and white and not did the green (I did it first, but there wasn't as much as I thought there was. yes, that's my Walgreens skelly and my $5 garage sale chair!:

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And here is my preliminary set up, using quite a bit of what I have (probably too much in some cases):

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top of the table (the good silver):
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top of the trunk:
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I don't know if I want the real weapons out, probably not (unless I'm wearing them myself) but I have a few fake ones I can use instead. Also, I'm concerned about lighting. Right now I have the garage door opener light (bright and awful) and one incandesent bulb next to it. I'll probably cover the big light with a box, painted black, with cutouts to make it look lantern(ish) and leave the bulb off (or take it out). As for other lighting, I have 2 strings of flicker lights, 2 mini strobe lights (more on those in a minute), and some candles and lanterns I don't want to risk using. so I'll have to figure something out. I can probably whip out enough pvc cordless candles to put in the chandelier, but it won't be very bright.

I was planning to do ship windows above the black wall out of cardboard, like this:
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and then rig the strobe lights to flash on the white fabric behind them, like a storm outside. However, I want it to be night, like this:

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So I might need a blue light too.

I also have a fogger to set up, probably with a chiller or a tube running under the table.

Other than that, I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the rest of the garage on limited time and zero budget. I have a few more things (part of a skelly, and some renfaire costume stuff) but I'm kind of stuck on ideas at the moment.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!
`Wing

PS: thank you forum gods for that auto-save feature! I thought I lost my entire post to a PC hic-up! not good!

Also, a few other notes, the skelly might not be sitting in the chair. I was planning on sitting there dressed as a pirate myself (or my roommate) so he needs a job. The candy will be in the large chest sitting on the table, it will be open with candy and (hopefully) some treasure spilling out. I also forgot that I'll have a sound system set up with a stormy pirate track I think will be okay. (note to self: work on soundtrack!)

I haven't come up with anything "spooky" yet, I can be scary enough, but a boo scare would be so fun! All I have prop-wise is a flying ghost that I can think of, and it would have to be something my roommate could start up and run easily.

Nothing...? Really?

Is it because the pictures didn't load?

Oh well, I'm still at it. Today I worked on the Captain's window:


Lots and lots of tedious cutting, it was awful. However, I pinned it up for a trial run before I painted it, and it looked like it might just work. Here is what I'm trying for (again, if it loads this time):

I also made a trio of pvc candles (not painted yet) and a pvc candelabra that will need some real finish work before it's done:




I've torn apart the original set-up, it was just for inspiration anyway. I replaced the green with the white (goes all the way around now, and added some other fabric to the mix. I've decided to try using 2/3rds of the garage for my set up, with a faux wall hiding the junk in the last 1/3rd. Along the wall I will have pallets set up as a dock to be walked on, with some sort of post and rope railing. Underneath I'll put shiny black plastic (for water) and to the left will be my "ship". I haven't figured out how to make the front part of the ship, but the back will be the Captain's Quarters and my main set-up. It should look like a ship cut in half when I'm done (in theory anyway). Just not sure if the front should be deck or cargo, probably deck to put it on level with the Captain's cabin I think. It also has to stay within the garage so I can shut the door.

I'd score some more cardboard and make some crates and stuff. If you have a local Costco near you I'm sure you can take some cardboard for free (I work there) The slip sheets that go in between the layers of merchandise will work well. It looks like artistic abilities will trump an expensive budget! The captains window looks cool, I like the idea! Candelabra is coming out nice too. I bought a pack of tea lights ( two to be precise) from Costco.. you get 24 tea lights for $14.99 they have a 100 hour battery life and they really last long!.. I'm still making candles the way you did as we speak! I cut out a stencil made to look like the East India Trading company logo, and I've been using that to decorate burlap sacks, crates, barrels, etc! Something like that takes a little time to make a stencil, but then stenciling everything goes super quick! Pallets will make an excellent dock or walkway and crates as well. Use what you have! Pictures didn't all load, but you can search the forum for pirate decorations there are some pretty good inspiration pictures!

Oh candles, candles, I'm starting to hate candles!

I have this chandelier you see...



23 candles on that sucker! and I've only just cut them out I'm going to need another month to get them all done! (not really, I'll wing it)

Awesome chandelier!! Use some string and the hot glue to make it look like its dripping down the side!

Here is a good link for making candles!