....during the holidays than zombie flavored snowflakes. Cutting paper snowflakes has been a tradition in our house for many years, this year I added a zombie "twist" to the snowflakes. Here is the link to the original instructions, I folded the paper the same way but used my own designs.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Thursday, November 8, 2012
What's Up With All The Old Photos?
A Motley Crew
Danger County Mine was a 1993 commercial haunted house that was a
fun but exhausting experience yielding a lot of lessons.
The most important lesson was that tons of naïve enthusiasm
does not necessarily make a financially successful haunted house.
In the end we broke even, recouping the majority of the
money spent to pull off the project but a factor in that was our family and
friends donated their time working the haunt for nothing more that our
gratitude.
Here’s some photos of staff all decked out in their best
"Danger County Mine" costumes.
Labels:
Danger County Mine,
Halloween,
haunted house,
STOLLOWEEN
Formaldehyde Fred
The year was 1992, after seven years of living in apartments
I had finally moved to a house with a nice front yard that could be decorated
for Halloween.
The decision to haunt our house was made in September which
gave us about a month to build the display.
When October 31st rolled around we had completed
five papier mache creatures and about a dozen crude tombstones and a misspelled
“cemetary” arch, which makes me wonder how many other people have misspelled
the word cemetery in their displays.
We also managed to misspell the word formaldehyde, I guess a dictionaries weren't invented in 1992, but hey the drippy white letters are cool.
We also managed to misspell the word formaldehyde, I guess a dictionaries weren't invented in 1992, but hey the drippy white letters are cool.
Notice the spelling of "Cemetery" |
One of the characters for our 1992 display was called
Formaldehyde Fred.
Fred was just your run-of-the-mill papier mache skeleton,
but was designed so that he could fit inside a small wood barrel and pop up to
scare the children that ventured onto our porch in search of candy.
A circular piece of plywood served as the barrel lid and
Fred’s hands were attached to the plywood.
A wire attached to the lid and running through a pulley on
the porch ceiling allowed Fred to pop up from the barrel.
Fred did his job well in 1992 and went on to pull the same
trick in our 1993 commercial haunt.
The barrel skeleton known as Fred continued to haunt our
yard for several additional years until he was replaced with new creatures made
in 1995.
Formaldehyde Fred continues to be one of my top five
favorite props I have ever created.
Labels:
formaldehyde fred,
Halloween,
Papier Mache,
STOLLOWEEN
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
It's A Trap!
In 1992 we did our first yard display for Halloween.
The entire display consisted of some tombstones and about five papier mache creatures.
One of the things I did that year that I still love is placing rat traps all around and each one contained a cartoon-style rat skeleton.
Recycled coat hangers formed the spine and tail with the skull and ribs made from foam board. Simple and fun.
Polaroid: This Is Not The Candy You Are Looking For
Halloween 1999 and our four year old son decided to dress as a Storm Trooper...way to make your dad proud!
Polaroid: Scale Model
Circa 1993: A miniature version of our walk-thru haunt called "Danger County Mine."
The miniature was built to help with the design and construction of the haunt.
Labels:
Danger County Mine,
haunted house,
miniature,
STOLLOWEEN
Polaroid: Forced Perspective
An old Polaroid from 1993 showing some experimentation with forced perspective panels.
Forced perspective will figure greatly in my plans for 2013.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
No Hibernation
In years past I have usually taken a break from Halloween
during November, December, January and February.
Not this year.
Our front yard decked out for Halloween. |
Now that everything is packed away (and organized rather
well thank you) the goal is to start work on the 2013 season immediately.
Our yard with Halloween all packed away. |
Next year will be the year that I debut a new theme
featuring all new props and a lot of rather innovative ideas.
This winter will be filled with testing and refining new
techniques, ideas that have been festering in my mind for years and are now
ready to be realized.
No hibernation. Maybe a nap here and there but no
hibernation.
Labels:
2013,
Asylum,
Halloween,
Papier Mache,
STOLLOWEEN
"57"
Fifty-seven ToT’s was our official total this year, not
horrible seeing that the weather was cold, damp and on a school night.
Our
display was set up on Friday, October 26th and taken completely down
on Monday, October 29th due to the coming wind, rain and snow from
Hurricane Sandy.
Late afternoon on Halloween the weather calmed down and we
threw up a small display for the ToT’s, a quick and dirty display that lacked
the finishing touches of the original but worked enough to entertain the kids
and adults.
Looking forward to the 2013 season because I have plans….oh do I
have plans.
You can view the entire gallery of photos from Halloween 2012 by clicking here.
Labels:
2012,
black gate,
Halloween,
Papier Mache,
STOLLOWEEN
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Cast of Characters
Chose the nine creatures to be displayed this year, went with the nastier demon styled guys and also built the 9 1/2 foot tall wood under structures. On track so far (knock on wood).
Labels:
demons,
Halloween,
Papier Mache,
prep,
STOLLOWEEN,
Yard Display
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