Halloween Decorations!

You wear a costume for your body on Halloween, but what do you do for your house?

Here is what I did back in 2011

Sadly, floods in 2013 and 2105 wiped out my stock of yard decorations.

What can you add to your own house display? You can buy decorations that range from cheap to intricate...or you can make your own. I have done both over the years. I'll be leaning more towards the DIY side during this post.

My favorite piece was a "Flying Crank Ghost" (the lady in blue, who stopped "flying"back in 2008, but remained a useful prop). A "Flying Crank Ghost" is simply a prop that...well, let a maker of one explain...

She floats in mid-air, wrapped in an ethereal glow, her eyes blazing red and piercing the souls of all who see her. Her arms move smoothly, each in its own natural way, while she slowly hovers, rising and falling as she gestures (the animated image above speaks for itself). Depending on the whim of her builder, she even may speak, her eyes flashing with the words. Would you like to invite to her to inhabit the confines of your beloved haunt? If so, ready your lab and prepare to conjure her forth, for Victoria's mechanism is simplicity itself and the plans for her construction lie below. Don't blame us if she haunts your house indefinitely!
from the instructions to BUILD your own FCG

A very simple prop I used to build was a raven with red LED lights. Hobby lobby used to (idk if they still do) small ravens and bigger crows...black plastic birds with realistic feathering. I would solder up a couple of LEDs, cut the bird's head off, augur out holes for the glowing eyes, glue the head back on, and slit a hole in the back for the battery pack. By the time I got done, the feathers would be rather ruffled and the ravens would look very realistic, especially when they were placed in the bushes and low branches.

You CAN build your own tombstones with Styrofoam, but by the time you get done painting them (there was a nice "gravel" spraypaint I would use to finish these), it is usually cheaper to buy them at Walmart or Walgreens,etc. OTOH, you can "engrave" your own custom markings when you DIY!

A smoke machine is a nice touch to a haunted yard, but there is a smell to the fog juice, and the sound of the smoke releasing can be offputting (especially when you forget to edit the noise out of your video).

There used to be a Halloween-L maillist that I belonged to that had great ideas that you could adapt ( I tried one year to replace the blood in one of those pumping blood masks with the fluid from a glowstick, but the juice ran out of glow by the time I got done cutting and pouring). The list has been somewhat replaced by more modern forms of social media, but here is a good place to get started, http://www.halloweenforum.com/

One year, I got together with some of the Austin folks from the list and had a drink at the The Tavern, haunted by the ghost of a murdered prostitute, where we discussed prop-making and haunted houses. One of the people there was Edwin Wise, who had published a book on creating moving props (animatronics) such as the Flying Crank Ghost. I have since bought it and used it many times.

http://amzn.to/2e1FhbM

One thing to keep in mind is that your display will have a better effect if it is themed; while there is absolutely nothing wrong with buying or making things that YOU like and throwing them willy-nilly over your yard (it IS your Halloween, after all), your visitors will respond more viscerally if the props work together.

A last thought: Professional haunted houses often use subsonics to engender fear and anxiety in their clients, that may be something you want to look at yourself. I never took the chance to work with it. Infrasound: The Fear Frequency

Oops, a really last thought. I personally don't do "cute" Halloween, but a LOT of folks like it that way. The methods I've discussed, can be used for cutesy stuff with a little brain sweat.

The video and the thumbnail from it are my own work, and you have permission to reuse them under the condition that the work is attributed to this posting

• I am running a writing contest for Halloween through the 28th. There are two prizes of 5 Steem each. There are three contestants so far, and two more who have said they will submit an entry!. Submit your entry and judge the scary stories! https://steemit.com/contest/@stevescoins/writing-contest-4-win-5-steem-halloween-ghost-stories

Happy Haunting!