Thread: Anti-Creativity Gene

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You all make it look so easy! Grab some supplies, go to work, and end up with a fabulous new prop. I seem to be missing that gene! I won't even get into my poor haunted tree. That's probably going nowhere. But my poor wig heads... I had some cans of paint that didn't eat the foam, so I painted 2 gray, 2 brown, 2 green. I was then going to sponge on other colors until I was happy with the results and paint in the eyes. Then I belatedly realized they need work. I sprayed on expanding foam over various mouth's, noses, and/or eyebrows thinking I could shape them and paint them. Wrong! After all the mess I made with the dremel none of the foam bits ended up resembling facial features. I just tore off the foam and I'm going to buy masks to put over them!

Don't get frustrated, few people just start out making great props...its all trial and error until you learn the tricks and techniques. Research research research....I've learned that will save you a lot of headache in the long run, learn from what works well for others, thats what is great about this forum!

jenawade - you are not alone! I feel the exact same way. I made an "Eat Drink & Be Scary" sign for my kitchen. Simple enough, right? It came out "OK". I would feel totally silly posting it on here. It compares to nothing all of the talented people on here create.

That's not anti-creative; it's just part of the trial and error process. As the above poster stated, you can easily learn from the mistakes of others just by scouring these forums - make the search feature your new best friend! I promise, there are very few things you'll come up with that haven't been tried and posted about.

And BTW, there's no shame in getting frustrated and taking the easy way out - we've ALL done it!

It's all trail and error, my witch had a nose shaped like a *****!. My Brother pointed it out, so I gave her a nose job lol

Don't give up! I, too, am relatively new to prop building. I find that I pour through all the posts over and over again...trying to get information, ideas, whatever!! Trial and error...like they said! You can do it!

All I have learned is that every prop, no matter how simple, takes about triple the amount of time I imagined it would to complete. And "good enough" is good enough for me. But they all look pretty decent in the dark!!

What! you guys are kidding me right. We aren't suppose to be getting it right the first time.

Just remember sometimes your "mistakes" turn out better than what you had actually planned on doing in the first place.

Keep pluggin away at it and it will come.

At most, I have a sketch when I start. I hate planning all the details because I know way too many things will go wrong before I even get close to finishing. I beat the props into submission until I'm at the "good enough" point. It's nothing to worry about.

Nothing will ever be as good as you imagine it could be. No one else will get to see what's going on in your head. I've already scaled down my main haunt five times since my building started in May. I lost two months of work to budget problems and more than half the envisioned props. I know it will be fine in the end because no one else know how elaborate the haunt was supposed to be but me. I can do better next year, and I know I will.

Remember, on the big night, just smile and say "thank you" when someone compliments you on your props. They mean it.

Originally Posted by trentsketch

At most, I have a sketch when I start. I hate planning all the details because I know way too many things will go wrong before I even get close to finishing. I beat the props into submission until I'm at the "good enough" point. It's nothing to worry about.

Nothing will ever be as good as you imagine it could be. No one else will get to see what's going on in your head. I've already scaled down my main haunt five times since my building started in May. I lost two months of work to budget problems and more than half the envisioned props. I know it will be fine in the end because no one else know how elaborate the haunt was supposed to be but me. I can do better next year, and I know I will.

Remember, on the big night, just smile and say "thank you" when someone compliments you on your props. They mean it.

WOW...You nailed it trentsketch I am the same way I have the biggest baddest haunt in my head but due to lack of funds everything keeps getting scaled back. Just remember THIS is suppose to be fun for us!!! no one knows what we had planned and what got finished....So with this all being said go have fun and try to make some thing REMEMBER FUN!!!!