Lady Revenant, Glowing Ghost

I belong to several DIY Halloween prop groups, but "back in the day", I only belonged to one.  I met a lot of good folks on that group, some of whom I keep in touch with 15 years later.  Two in particular helped me a lot--Donna, and Holly.  Both came to visit me when I lived in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, IL, and both brought Halloween to my door.  :)

Holly brought me a lovely cemetery scene painted umbrella, and a PVC and chickenwire dummy form to use as a "body" in my cemetery.  Both of which, I still use to this day.

I have managed to keep in touch with Holly over the years, but sadly, I have lost contact with Donna, although I would love to catch up with her again!

Donna helped me put together the first incarnation of Lady Revenant.  She also made one of my tombstones, while I worked on another, and was able to come by a few times to chat and create with me.  She actually offered me a lot of her materials, but I was too shy to accept most of it.  (sorry, Donna!)

Because I felt bad about accepting so many of the materials that Donna brought to my house, Lady Rev was rather thin in her first incarnaton.  Donna tried her best to get me to use more cheesecloth to make her look better, but I was stubborn, and said I'd buy the material to fix her later...which took a year.  So, she's a bit too transparent in my 2004 photos.

The next photo is more recent, from 2009, and is probably the best shot of her that I have, to date.  We had moved from Naperville, IL to Las Vegas, NV.  In Vegas, the homes are set up as "zero lot line properties", so your neighbor's house makes up part of your garden wall.  The houses are very close to one another, as opposed to some other places that I've lived.  It worked out wonderfully, that we had a nice ornate black iron gate to put her behind, and it was a good dark location for her.

Now that I once again live in IL (my home state), we have wide open spaces again, and she's exposed to too much natural light.  I need to build a mausoleum for her, to combat that.  For 2014, she will be moved further back from the sidewalk where it is slightly darker, but I don't expect her to look as she did in 2009.  There will still be too much natural light.

She was very easy to make, and inexpensive.

You will need a length of 1 inch PVC pipe (schedule 40) cut to the desired height.  Remember to make it roughly 2 feet shorter than you want her to stand, because the styrofoam wig head will add about that much height.  The only other "required" materials are cheesecloth or tulle, one wire drycleaning hanger, and something to "stake" the PVC into the ground, like rebar, or a tall garden stake.  You will need something to cut or at least score the hanger to make a break in it.

Alternately you could opt to hang the ghost, and skip the PVC.  I have not been very successful in this, so I prefer to have her on the PVC pipe.  My attempt at hanging her was using a "coffee mug hook" in the top of her head, and taping it down with white duct tape; then using monofilament to hang her.  The tape that I used did not hold, and I only used it because the hook would not hold on its own, either.  You could make a monofilament "cage" to suspend her entire head with, but that was too time consuming for me, so back to PVC she went.

I used about 3 yards of cheesecloth, cut into different lengths and randomly draped over her form.  I also rolled a piece up and away from her face to form a sort of "hood" and allow her facial features to only be covered by one piece of cheesecloth, and the tulle draping that I used (2 yards)

Both cheesecloth and tulle will glow under black light, but to achieve this amount of glow above, you will need to soak the material in RIT Whitener.  Otherwise, the glow will be very faint.  You will also need UV black lights to make her glow, but I consider them an option, because she doesn't really have to glow.  I use the spiral bulbs in yard stake spotlights.

If you live in a wet climate, you may want to weather proof your bulbs by taping a smallish Mason jar over the bulb, and to the yard stake with duct tape.  Rain on a hot bulb will likely cause it to shatter.  These bulbs get extremely hot, and are meant for indoor use.

If you use PVC, bend the hook of the hanger over the top opening of the PVC.  Cut the hanger in the center of the flat part, bend the ends up so you don't put out any eyes; bend the cut halves up and out, and you have "arms".  They're not realistic close up, but they will hold the material out to give the appearance of shoulders and arms.  It works in the dark, trust me.  Then just tape the bent hook to the PVC to keep it from swinging around in the wind, and you have a body shape.

If you don't use PVC, you can just put the bent hook up into the neck of the wig head, and go from there.  You may need to tape or hot glue it in, though. The weight of the material may pull it down if it doesn't have the PVC for additional support.

The styrofoam wig heads are pretty cheap, from Sally's Beauty Supply.  Those are available for sale to the public, without need for a beautician's license.  You can find them for sale elsewhere (eBay, Amazon, other beauty stores), but they are usually more expensive unless at a thrift shop or yard sale.

Other optional materials are the candle and hands that I added.  I made the hands using additional hangers, and wrapped them in masking tape.  The tape doesn't hold very well, but these were made years ago, when white duct tape either didn't exist, or I didn't know about it.  I am re-making her hands this year, and will likely not use masking tape this time.

Her candle is an electric Christmas candle, like you put in a window.  They are technically for indoor use only.  I have not used the candle in inclement weather, I only used it when we lived in Vegas, and it was not exposed to rain there.

Save the Bamboo!

When we bought our first house last summer, there was only one way to sum it up.  It needed a LOT of work, and some of that, was re-doing what the previous owners had done to it.  As our lovely neighbor stated "Their tastes are much different than yours are."  Not that it's a bad thing.  ;)

For instance, I love roosters in my kitchen.  I was pleased to see that in addition to the oven that was left behind, there were burner covers left as well, with rooster designs on them.  I had some round ones for my old electric stove, but this gas stove has square burners of course, so mine wouldn't work here.

Then there's the awful white walls, fake ceramic tile-look PAINTED back-splash, and sunflower border in the kitchen.  Soooo not my style.  Someone had also painted over every single gorgeous piece of antique woodwork in the house.  EVERY.  SINGLE.  ONE.  I could cry!

Unfortunately, someone's love of roosters also prompted them to put a rustic wagon wheel style hanging light dead center in the dining room.  Rooster adorned.  I'd move it to the kitchen, but I like having a ceiling fan in there.  The rest of the dining room is modernized, so I'm really confused at what they were going for, there!

So there are a lot of projects for us.

They also left behind a leaky hot tub, that we may or may not sell.

In front of the hot tub, acting as a privacy screen, they planted some skinny bamboo.  It looked really nice the first year.  This year, not so much.  From day one, we have debated taking it out, too.

Then today, I finally got around to reading some of my Halloween prop pins, and decided that I needed to do something with all of the recyclables that I've been saving for projects.  I started with "Wind Hooters" made out of plastic bottles, single serve and 2 liter.

What I found was that these modern day "aero flutes" were actually a cheap and easy way to imitate a much older, and far less tacky outdoor decoration.  Natural flute stakes made from dried bamboo.

Supposedly the bamboo stakes make a much nicer sound than the plastic bottles do, and I am sure that is true.  Since our bamboo has already died off, I'm thinking it might be dry enough to make standing flutes.  I won't have the opportunity to do it today, but hopefully in the next few days, I will be able to get out there and carve some spots out, to see.  Our bamboo is so skinny that I'm not sure it will work.

How awesome would it be to have built-in flute music, though?  Eerie flute music, at that!  Hopefully it won't be a nuisance to us, or our neighbor, at bedtime!  If so, then it will have to go.  I'll just try a couple for now, and take them out if they do; and then make another specifically for Halloween night.

Lenticular Funeral Wreath Prop

I found a pin for this prop on Pinterest, but there was no tutorial.  The original used a different lenticular picture, and what looked like a fall garland or two for covering the wreath form.  I'm not sure what kind of wreath form was used.  The prop also had a black ribbon that read "Beloved", and the wreath was on a dark wire stand, like you would see at a real funeral.

The first collage of photos shows my initial attempt at making the prop without instructions. I changed it a bit for the other photo collage, and I'm still not completely happy with it.  I may take some flowers out, and spread them out a bit. It seems too full.  I may also change some of the flowers out, if I find others that I like better. 

Overall, it was worth what little money I did spend on it.  The flowers were the most expensive part, and only because I used so many.  I think that it will make a nice addition to my cemetery scene this Halloween.

3/8" Frost King pipe insulation was used to make the wreath form. I attempted to use a pool noodle, but it was too thick to make a form small enough for this. There was too much space around the lenticular picture.

The hot glue and black lei flowers in the top left photo were not used, because I couldn't find my low-heat gun, and I don't want to hot glue anything until I rearrange the flowers somewhat.

I had to push most of the leaves up to meet the bottom of the flower before making my cuts, because they are spaced out further on the stems. This helps fill up space. I wasn't doing it at first, and had to go back and put them back on the first few flowers due to gaps.

I left about an inch of the stem between the pushed-up leaves and my cut line. This allows you some stem to use to anchor the flower into the wreath.

To cut the flowers, I used regular scissors to "score" the area that I was trying to cut, and then I bent the stem back and forth a few times for it to snap off there. Wire cutters would have been easier, but I was rather unorganized this morning.

The flowers, duct tape, and picture are all from Dollar Tree. The pipe insulation came in a package of several, from Home Depot, but I have seen them for sale at Dollar General, as well.


I am no florist! I cut the outer frame off, and squeezed the picture inside the wreath form. Luckily, it fit snugly. In the first attempt, I had taped the form to the front of the frame, but the picture was set too far back, and difficult to see. Below is the fixed version.

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I've got the plans for next Halloween!

Actually, I've got the plans for this Halloween, but I had to throw a Burton quote in there.

I probably will not be able to make new tombstones this year, but I hadn't really intended to.  It's on my future to-do list, but not this year.

I think that I'm going to go ahead and make the stanchions and chain to cordon off the cemetery this year.  I would really like to make a fence, but it doesn't seem do-able this year due to lack of storage space.  We are remodeling the house, and everything is out of order for awhile.

I didn't use my fogger last year because it was too smoky.  I definitely need a chiller for it, so that is on the list for certain.  I will have to decide whether to make the chiller look like a tombstone, or just hide it.

I need to put up curtain rod hangers to hang the black spiderweb lace curtains that my friend gave me last year.  I really wish that I had done it last year!  They will be on the porch.  I hope that two panels are enough for the larger portion of porch.  Otherwise, it may not look right.  I also hope that they are long enough, but I think that they will be.  I scored a bunch of free curtain rods from a friend who found them in her new house, so I have that part covered.

Last year, I used two curtains over chairs for Wally and Becky (Walgreens skeleton and ACC "Bucky" skeleton).  If I put them in chairs again, I will need something else to cover the chairs, like more creepy cloth.  If the curtain idea doesn't work out, I could use creepy cloth instead, but there is another house nearby and the owners did that last year.  I would prefer having something a little different from everyone else.

I will make a memorial wreath for the cemetery, with one of the lenticular portraits that I bought last year.  (update, I made this on 7/23, and there's a tutorial here:  http://thathalloweenhouse.blogspot.com/2014/07/lenticular-funeral-wreath-prop.html)

My 3 yr old is currently obsessed with Casper the Friendly Ghost, so I am going to attempt to make him a papier mache mask, and a costume to go with it.

I did not make the faceless creep last year.  I don't know where to put him, but I'd like to get him done. 

I also did not put up the skeletal executioner, and I intend to use him this year.  His halberd needs repaired, part of the handle went missing. He needs a new cloak, and new eyes too.

Ditto for the witch, she needs her skull fogger repaired with silicone (aquarium repair). She could also use a new body, really. 

Will I use the bluckies, glow-ghoul, vampire, Peter Stubbe, or the Gent this year?  I don't know.  I hate to over-crowd the scene, and I would need to buy rebar, for sure. 

Oh, and there's also the grave robber.  I can't even remember if I still have his head, how bad is that?? 

Bluckies need repaired, I will have to buy a poultry needle at DT when they come out.

Wally needs repaired, and really, so does Becky.

Lady Rev needs new hands, so I can give her a candle again.

Lady Rev will be fitted upon the stake for the old satellite.  This frees up the stand to use with the skeletal executioner.  (he needs a name!)

The skeletal executioner also needs new hands, a new cloak, and his halberd handle needs to be repaired.

I ordered a nice gated arbor to put across the front walk. My other half must love me immensely, because he agreed to drill holes into the concrete, to anchor it down.  See, I kinda didn't measure the walk before ordering it...and the walk is 4 inches to short width-wise.  Eep!  It will be beautiful once it's fixed, though.  I'll drape it with Spanish moss for the holiday.

I'm on the lookout for two small Scene Setter type pictures.  I saw one last year, but can't remember where. It was a horizontally oriented "dungeon" window with a skeleton appearing to break out.  We have the perfect spot for them where a couple of basement windows used to be.

I still kind of want a bubble fogger, but the reviews on them are terrible. 

I'd like to find another talking bust like I used to have (kind of a President Monroe look), and one of the talking "animated" urns that Kmart sells.

I know where my grave-buster skeleton is going to go (has to be within reach of an outlet, since he's electric), and I will have to figure out a better way to stake the Headless Floating Ghost down.  Maybe I should go out there while the ground is still soft, and set up the base for his stake, to get that out of the way.

I think that I solved the problem of making fake candles for my tall stand that I thrifted last year.  I measured the size of the holders, and then happened to spy a paper towel roll sticking up out of my recyclables.  It's almost the perfect size, and I won't need to cut much off, because I'd like to put long candles in there. 

I don't need them to be weatherproof, because I won't be leaving them outside overnight.  I plan on wrapping the tubes in masking tape, and then dripping hot glue around them.  The glue will act as "stops" to keep the candles in place, hide the tape lines, and look like wax all at the same time.  The shades may not match up, so I may paint them.  However, it is also going to be dark, and I don't think that the imperfections will be too noticeable.  The glue may also help the tape to not peel off.  We'll just have to see about that. If all else fails, I can either paint the tubes, or wrap them in paper, and then use the hot glue drips over either of those.

I was going to make PVC candles for them, which would be great in the long run, but for this year, I'm trying to work with what I have, vs. spending more money.  I do have PVC for my other projects, but probably won't have leftovers for candles this year.  I have also amassed several battery operated tea lights from dollar stores over the years, so that is covered.

Experience the Time Warp, 2014

It's that time of year again, with one minor exception.  It came a little bit earlier this year than usual.  It's what we "haunters" have always dreamed of.  Halloween decor on the shelves in JUNE.  That's what I said, JUNE! 

Every haunter knows that the best stores start stocking the orange and black right around the 4th of July.  The stick-in-the-mud stores wait until back to school season is over.  (who DOES the marketing for those stores, anyway??)

This is the time of year that we generally gather en masse in online forums , and this year, we find ourselves saying incredulously that the stores are actually beginning to stock.  We have been throwing our ideas around for a little while, and discussing swooping in and scooping up merchandise that "the others" wouldn't suspect having Halloween potential.  We thought that we'd have another month, possibly two months, of the very same.  Then the threads began:  "Such and Such Store 2014".  And, it wasn't just a parking spot for future ideas regarding their current merchandise, it was about true-to-life Halloween merchandise. On. The. Shelves!

Maybe these stores are finally starting to catch on?  The earlier that you put it out there, the more that you sell.  It works with Christmas, doesn't it?  The only real difference is that a lot of Halloween merchandise, isn't very good quality.  It's often cheaper to make your own Halloween decorations, and better than the factories churn out.  I find myself excited about the concept of decor being out there already.  I want to go see it, but do I want to buy it?  Not necessarily.  Not unless it's something innovative that I can't make, or, something that is a lot cheaper than I could make it myself.

Still, I'm in the zone early.  I've checked our local Goodwill a few times over the past week.  Not with the same rabid zeal that I will once September rolls around, but it IS that time of year now.  I've checked Dollar Tree a few times.  No luck at all there, yet.  Checked Dollar General this afternoon.  Nothing there yet, either.  However, my new LTD catalog came in the mail today, and I dog-eared several pages of components that will make great additions to my scene.

It has officially BEGUN.

The Murder of Halloween

I love Halloween.  I look forward to it every year, and I love to decorate the whole house for the holiday.  I love to make my own decorations, because quite frankly, most home-made decorations look better and cost less than store-bought decorations.

I don't do "Fall-o-ween", I like eerie, more traditional things.

I belong to a lot of Halloween "building" lists, where people discuss what they're building for their displays or "haunts".  I myself just have a display, it's only the yard and porch for the public.  I don't have the time or money for a "haunt" that people can walk through.

Since I am a member of these haunt families, I see a lot of grievance posts about complaints regarding decorations. 

I have generally been one to say "My display, my way.".  There have been people who have told me that my display is "too scary" for little kids.

I have bats, spiders, a lot of tombstones, a 7 ft tall reaper, ghosts, skeletons, a glowing ghoul, a faceless ghoul, a witch, a mummy, a zombie, a werewolf, and a vampire.  Not always all at the same time, so you never really know what will be there from year to year.

In other words, for a couple of days a year, there's a cemetery in my front yard with life-sized figures that don't move except by the wind, or make any kind of noise.  They also don't bleed, have blood, and are not visibly missing any body parts.  The only one that wields a weapon is the reaper, who has a plastic halberd that is nearly the same height that he is.

I also have little kids.  They're not scared.  They know it's not real, because they see it in storage at various times, they see me get it out and set it up, they see me put it away.  Oh, and I tell them "Don't worry, that's not real.  There's no such thing.".  Seems like the right thing to do, after all.

So knowing that, you can call me biased for what I'm about to say, but I'm going to say it anyway.  If you just get offended, then you're not really thinking about what I have to say.

There is a line that I do not cross.  That line includes murder, torture, and dismemberment.

Not only because murder is something that has happened within my very small circle of family, but also because it's so prevalent in real life, in so many other families.  It's real, it's not something to be glorified by showing it off for however many days in your front yard where other people have to see it.  Neighbors, people who walk by, kids on bikes, etc. 

You can say "Well, that's your opinion."  Funny thing about that.  It's not just my opinion.  Obviously a lot of others share it, or the issue would never come up.  Authorities and courts would not have to be involved.  In fact, ask a psychiatrist if they put bloody mutilated body parts on their lawn in any given month of the year.  I'll bet that the answer is no.  That is because it's mentally disturbing.

Basically what it says is "Hey kids, don't come here.  We might kidnap you and torture you, and you'll never be seen alive again.  Or not...but how can you be sure if you don't try?  C'mon kids, we have candy!"

Honestly, kidnapping and torture happens all too often in real life.  If you don't believe that, just take a look at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.  Or, watch the news. Or ask someone who has lost a child in such a way.

Better yet, stop for a moment and think about how you'd feel if your own child was missing, and possibly in the hands of someone who would treat them that way.  You are trying to scare the kids with that idea, or you wouldn't have such a display.  Halloween is for kids, remember?  So put the realistic idea in your own head for a minute.

Apparently you've not really thought this idea through, if this is the type of display that you do.

You can say "Don't look at the decorations if you don't like them.  Don't bring your kids to our houses."

We don't if we don't have to, but when you belong to these building groups, it's in 75% of the posts and pictures.  Escalating arguments in communities are on the evening news, it's on social media sites.  I've left building groups because there were no "fun" builds, just gore galore.  It's not just happening in your yard all by itself, single, solitary, and unique.

All that I hear from those people is "I can't believe that people are offended by this!".  Which just makes me wonder, what does offend those who display such things?

Maybe if Mr. Jones' decorations were mirrored in someone else's yard, with Mrs. Jones and their children's faces printed out and pasted on the bodies--would that get the point across?  Does it become offensive then?  After all, it's just a temporary decoration. 

I'll even go so far as to defend zombies, although some are intensely gory. Yes, they can be truly disgusting to look at, but they belong to the "fantasy" genre.

Thus, I have to ask, "What happened to Halloween?"

I know the ancient roots of the holiday, but I mean the Halloween that has become a tradition since the 1800's.  Dressing up in costume, decorating with "spooky" classic things like ghosts, witches, skeletons, black cats, bats, rats, spiders...even zombies?  Yes, skeletons, ghosts, zombies and vampires are dead.  Do they glorify death?  No.  They are what we used to be afraid of. They are fantasy creations.

If there was any murder involved in the scenario of classic decorations, it was only implied, not shown with guts and parts lying about.  Vampires are murderers, no doubt.  But, subtly so.  Its victim is a limp, pale body with two small holes in the neck, and a drop or two of blood to get the point across.

Not a torso with its face twisted into an agonizing grimace, doused in blood, entrails exposed.

To bring up zombies again; yes, they are also killers.  Fantasy.  Not realistic.  Big difference.  They fall into the same category as vampires.  Werewolves.  Reapers.  Same.  Zombies just happen to be the ultra-gory version of the fantasy "implied killers".

Movie character killers are similar.  With few exceptions, in these movies they are no longer living; therefore, they fall into the fantasy category.  If you have Freddy Kreuger standing over a victim, then it's a little more understandable than if it's just a body-strewn yard and the killer has left the scene...or might be hiding nearby.

I still don't want to see the victim in any case, but at least it makes more sense that way--and my opinion is that I don't like movie characters in haunts.  Personally, if I want to see Freddy, Jason, etc., I will get a Netflix subscription and enjoy high-quality special effects at my leisure, in the comfort of my own private home.

If you want to scare someone, why not just stick to fantasy, instead of something so realistic and sickening as murder or torture?

Tacky gore displays are killing Halloween everywhere, yet it's mostly the people who are making those types of displays who are the ones complaining about the death of our traditional Halloween.

They don't even see that they're doing it to themselves.

I realize that even non-gore displays which congest traffic, or create safety hazards are also harmful to the continued allowance of Halloween displays.  I have to be fair and admit that.  It's a shame, but true.

I understand that people can't help themselves when it comes to "doing it big" in a small area, or an area that doesn't allow for good traffic flow around the display or haunt.  It seems like they get fewer public complaints however, when they are tastefully done.

I also understand that gory scenes aren't the only complaints.  There are also the bizarre "adult themed" displays that the creators say are "just in fun".   These displays also harm Halloween as a whole.  Do you not envision the day to come, when townships go the way of our schools, and refuse to allow residents to make any sort of holiday display?  Envelope pushing isn't always a good thing.  Sometimes it equates biting the hand that feeds you.

For myself, I will stick to the basics of a fantasy display.  You can call me a boring, stick-in-the-mud old fuddy-duddy all that you want.  I will not let the real Halloween die like a character in a Rob Zombie movie.  My Halloween isn't just classic.  It's classy.