Haunting Your Yard!

Quick progress update since we went out to the shop last night and did a little work.

So I wasn’t sure how happy I would be with the skeleton after it dried and I planned to decide how to proceed next depending on what it looked like.  It dried better than I had hoped, so I think I am going to stick with this method and not start over.

The process I am using is to mix my latex paint with a bit of elmers glue.  I am then painting the skeleton and letting that fully dry.  That way I’m getting a bit of a base on it.  Then I am going back, repainting sections, putting batting over it, and then using the paint brush to “dab” on the paint over the batting.

This is going to be a long, long process and take many layers and repainting since the plastic does not take the paint well.  But I think in the end it won’t be too bad.  Most people won’t get close enough to notice a lot of detail and it will be dark lighting.  I’m just always picky on the detail.  We have decided it looks like a burn victim so it will end up in the slabatorium most likely.

Shane and Dylan made some further progress on my coffin.  They finished putting together the main box, then then sanded it, and started putting on some of the trim and one of the decorative pieces on the side.  Hopefully the rest of the trim can get done before the end of the week and the lid finished so we can stain it Saturday and then put the lining in Sunday.

So we were back out at the shop yesterday, working on our projects.  What we did/needed to be done:

We had to finish the tombstone we were making for the coach of a football team.  Then Shane was going to start my toe pincher coffin because we need it for the mini movie we are making that will be the “save the date” for our guests for the Halloween party.  Once the mini movie is done I’ll post it.

I was going to start changing the skeleton.  What that was going to be like, I wasn’t sure when I started.

And I got Dylan going on painting some columns we’ve had for ages.

First off, the coffin.  We want to make this one on the fancy side.  It will be completely trimmed out, with decorative pieces on the front and sides and we plan to line it as well with batting and some sort of silk.

The first thing he did was use the table saw to notch out the sides so the pieces fit together.

Then they slowly started adding the sides.  This particular coffin is designed to fit me.  We were planning on making one for everyone this year, but the cost is going to put that on hold.

They were short a bit of wood for the side so the plan this week is to get that finished, get it trimmed out and stained so that next weekend we can finish the inside.  This coffin (toe pincher) will be used as an indoor prop in our vampire mansion room.

A rough estimate of the cost would be about $200 ish for materials.

Next, I was working on the skeleton.  This whole thing is an experiment so I just got a plastic skeleton to work on.  I am not ready yet to venture into getting the expensive ones.  The first mistake made was I got the wrong batting, which I didn’t realize until I started working on the prop.  I need cotton batting and we got poly.  It isn’t taking the paint well and on the whole, the plastic skeletons don’t (I stained some last year so I knew this already).  The effect right now is of a burned victim - I only did so much and am letting it dry (takes forever) before trying any more.  If I am still not terribly happy with the outcome, I will go to plan B which is use paper towel strips to make it more mummy like.

One thing I do with these plastic skeletons is cut out pieces of plastic between the ribs, the eyes, the mouth, arms, etc.

It’s always good to have more than one project going on at a time because while something is drying you can switch to something else.  That’s what Dylan and I did with the columns he was repainting and the headstone we were working on.

The columns will be used in the vampire mansion room.  One will have a dead floral arrangement on it.  The other, a bust of a vampire we got at Michael’s.  Dylan painted them a red color and then I went back and “aged” them a bit.  I did this by taking black paint, getting as much off the brush as possible, and doing a dry brush over the columns.  Here is a before and after:

The last thing we did was finish up the headstone that was ordered.  This is not for Halloween.  A football coach had us do one to put their season from last year to rest.  He wanted something very, very basic - no distressing or aging really.  I still did a bit of aging using paint as I couldn’t stand to have it go out the door so plain.

The technique I use to do that is to put a line of black paint at the top, then use a spray bottle filled with water to spray the paint, and a dry paint brush to drag it.  I do this over and over again until I’m happy with the result.  Normally I would do a lot more of this and also add the moss.  They would also have cracks and distress - but he didn’t want any of that, so this is really a very basic headstone.

That pretty much wrapped up our day.  More to come….

I thought I would post a link to Flickr where our Halloween pictures from Halloween ‘07 are posted in a set:

Halloween ‘07 on Flickr

I think there is more there then posted on this website.

So we have finally gotten started with the Halloween projects.  The first ones are adding more headstones to the graveyard.

I will do a complete how-to once we have gone through the entire process.  But for now, I’m just blogging about what we did yesterday.

Shane is actually working on a tombstone for someone else right now. The pink foam is found in sheets at Home Depot.  I believe at Lowe’s it’s the blue.  We use the 2″ thick foam.  First the basic shape is cut out with small hand saws.  Then the details begin to be added.  The router is used for cutting out insets.  He’ll also use it for the lettering when he gets to that point.

Dylan used plaster of paris to create some molds that will eventually be glued on to headstones before the painting process.  Once they are glued on and painted over, you can’t even tell that they weren’t “carved” out of the foam.

The molds we got at a hobby store and are ones used to make soaps.  Shane got these a couple of years ago - we have crosses and angels.  Since then we have not been able to find any molds that aren’t cutesy.  We got lucky finding the crosses.

Dylan and I decided to use scraps of the foam to make some small “markers”.  Now the ones shown are upside down to dry after being primed.  This is the beginning of the painting process.  First, primer goes over the foam to seal it and also help cover up that pink.  After the first cuts were made, we “distressed” the foam using saws, wood burner, etc.  These were also cut at an angle at the bottom, so that they will look crooked when put in the graveyard.

I did not get past the priming phase yesterday as they were not drying quickly.  What is still to come is a couple of coats of the main color, then the technique to “age” the stones with paint, then the moss.

On our way home we did stop by Big Lots to see if they had any Halloween decor out.  We are always on the lookout for cheap things that can be modified.  Here is what we came home with -

This skeleton will not been seen as is.  It will be heavily modified.  I have plans to mummify him.  Another thing that can be done and is relatively easy is to stain them.  Last year I did this to a couple.  But I first cut out extra plastic between the ribs, etc.

The pictures will be part of the walk through - they are the kind that change as you walk by.  Yes, the frames are the cheesy plastic, but in the setting they will be in, with dim lighting, it is not worth it to modify that and spend the money.  No one will see them long enough to notice.