Not good at prop building and blog writing at the same time!

Wow, I just want to start by sending huge kudos to people like Frog Queen, Captain, Kimily, Grim, GhoulFriday, Dave, Mr. Macabre, Mr. Season of Shadows, and soooo many others, for keeping me entertained daily with such prolific instructional and entertaining blog posts AND being able to build props for haunts at the same time…. man, I’m just so impressed, especially because it is NOT something that I apparently have the ability to do!

Just a quick update – we started September by going to Orlando for a week and never got to leave the Mouse compound – I felt like I was in prison!  Next time I’m actually going to SEE Florida, and maybe work in a way to meet up with one of my haunt favorites, The Captain himself!

Scenes like this were our reality for a week.  Exhausting.

Got back from Florida on Sunday, my dad had emergency surgery on Tuesday, then Jaybo and I came down with the flu on Wednesday.  And that is where we have been for almost a full week now.  Listless, unaware that October is tomorrow.

Enough of the boring stuff…

I have been working on retrofitting last years tombstones… if you are a regular here you might remember that the wind snapped all of my tombstones last year.

  A tombstone base, minus the stone.  Circa 2008.  Brilliant stuff, eh?

After that debacle I started embedding PVC in all of my stones, which will slip over rebar. 

 

As for last years, I had to trace each one onto another layer of foam, then dig out perfectly good painted foam (the back) to make a trench for the pvc to lie in, then glue the new smooth back onto, wood fill the seams, sand, and repaint.  I am still doing that… or will when I can sit for more than an hour without getting the shakes and sweating to death!

 

Speaking of wood filler – did you know that if you run out of wood filler while you are in your pajamas and running 102 fever, you can take wood glue and mix it with sand to make concrete style seam filler?  Works wonders, gives a neat texture, dries hard as a rock, and you don’t even have to go to the store, LMAO.  (Also gives a nice sturdy weight to the stones, which is always cool)

Have a ton of pumpkins (ok, 5) for Jaybo to build bodies for to make static monster guys, and then I think we will finally be in position to get everything in the yard.  

Oh, and finished my Big Lots angel.  I have this way of “ruining” anything store bought, LOL.

Before:

and after:

I’m even corrupting this cute little thing!

Hoping to get everything finished up this week (haha, I am barely making it just typing this) and get it out by Sunday… but then again, this might just be the year of the flu around our house.  So disappointing, but we will work with it!

Today's amateur papier mache tip: Armature…. get the building of the armature right from the beginning…. if the shape is wrong, you will only be making it worse with layers of mache.   (I am always of the mind that “I can just build it up with mache – and end up with STILL boxy shoulders, or a deformed face, etc.  Just build the armature right, use cardboard to build up features, and go from there!

More to come soon… hang in there everyone… this is the time of year we live for!!

Pretty Amazing Foam Carving

While we are waiting on Jayson to complete his series on Smilin’ Jack, I thought I would share an interesting page I found while surfing around.

It is an article by Marcus Andersson, which details his carving a styrofoam backdrop for a fish tank.  It’s the kind of stuff we have all seen many times in fence columns and stone wall props, but it was just interesting to see another technique, and completely different application of the finished product.

For the article, and more pictures, check it out HERE.

Foam Gravestones – Time to Install…

So, remember a few posts back when I said that I would figure out how to stake them in the yard… later?  Well, at some point, I had the brilliant (sarcasm at its best, right there) idea to glue them on foam platform bases, and then stake the bases to the ground.  Great idea.  ?@?!(*$*&@??

Worked REALLY well in my living room.

Waiting to be put in the yard…No stability issues here… right?

And, they even worked in the yard for a few days….  We used landscape fabric stakes to pierce the foam base, and anchor to the ground.  Sounded like such a great plan.

Then…………………….

Two different bases… sans the grave…  DOH!

Imagine my surprise walking to the mailbox THAT day?!?  (I married a sailor, so you can imagine what spewed outta my mouth)  Luckily, the wind that caused this catastrophe had NOT carried my gravestones away, I think the fence stopped them, heh.

But the good news is…. wow, those bases are ANCHORED to the ground, baby… no stability issues THERE.  (rolls eyes)

So, we had to do emergency surgery, and just like stitches on the battlefield, it wasn’t pretty.  PVC painted to match the particular grave was driven into the base and the ground behind the stone, and Liquid Nailed to the foam.  Ugh. 

I don’t have pictures of the back – frankly, I don’t want to see any of them again.  I think 3 of them got messed up, the rest were fine.  (And it wasn’t even all “high profile” or tall graves… it was just the ones that I guess the Liquid Nails didn’t cure good enough, or get enough contact area… no rhyme or reason)

 

Sigh.  Don’t do what I did.  Embed the PVC in the center, or drill holes for rebar, or make them out of CONCRETE as was intended (kidding).  Just don’t expect Liquid Nails to hold them to bases.  (ok, fine.  You wouldn’t have thought that in the first place, I know.  Just work with me here)  ;)

The “Good to know” part of all this – the landscape stakes kept those bases INTACT.  After inserting them into a foam base, you can paint them to match, and even take them out at the end of the season to store… 

Live and learn.  Or, die and learn, I guess!

Styrofoam Graves – Lettering

Continuing the series Graves – the following steps are done after the basic shape is cut, sanded, and prepped.

1.  Who and what:  There are a few sites on the internet that give you Names and/or Epitaphs.  For my first round, I relied on Haunters Hangout for ideas.  After a few, I wanted to make mine different, so I started using my kids names (they became neighborhood stars) then characters from movies that scared me most.  Regan MacNeil scared me the most – Linda Blair in the Exorcist.  Also, find an English to Latin translator via Google.  I looked up Dead by Dawn (I’m Dawn… get it?!!) and this was what I got  Mortuus per Dilucuolo.  I loved telling people what it meant when they asked.

2.  Fonts/lettering.  You can print out your names, dates, epitaph in any creepy or calligraphy font you wish.  If your printer runs out, and you spent the entire 90s decade scrapbooking, (or otherwise have REAL talent) then you can freehand it, such as I did on ol’ Regan up there.  Printed computer fonts work much better, but anything can work in a pinch.

7.  Get it on the foam.  Transfer letters to foam in same manner as was done with the transferring of the shape.    (Carving the outline of the letters - this is also seen in the picture above)  Make sure that you cut out the inside of letters like o, p, d, b, etc. so that they don’t get lost when cutting out the outer edges.

8.  My favorite part.  Carve the inside of the lettering with either an Exacto blade (making angels to simulate cut marble) or a Dremel. 

This was done with the Exacto blade

I don’t have a pic with the Dremel’d letters, but it is a lot smoother inside.  (It didn't really make a difference to me how it looked – Xacto vs Dremel, because once you paint it, the side by side comparison looked about the same… but the Dremel just went so much faster for me personally… and its fun!

*Note.  I didn’t follow everyone’s SMART advice, and did not wear a mask.  I had just finished Dremeling out my third grave in a row (I work in assembly line style) and literally got sick from inhaling all of the pink dust, so if yakking in the driveway is not your style, either wear a mask, or don’t do a monster carving marathon. 

9.  If you have any additional pieces to glue on (such as the wood cross in the picture at the top of this post) then go ahead and do it now, so it can be drying with the paint in the next step.

9.  Paint lettering black.   (Or dark contrast color of your choice) I used a brush, and didn’t worry to much about going outside the edges, but try not to go overboard on the flat surface, or it will be harder to cover. 

10.  Painting remaining surface.  I used a small paint roller and painted the grave gray, or white… if you roll lightly over the lettering, it wont get into the letter grooves, but I still had to touch up most lettering a bit after the roller. 

11.  Marble anyone?  If you want to marble at this point, take a sea sponge, kitchen sponge, wadded up saran wrap, anything (Honey, stay out of my kitchen towel drawer!!!) and sponge on any contrasting color you like.  If you don’t like the way it looks, roller over it with your solid color and start again… just make sure you sponge when the paint is “fairly” wet, so it will blend in better.  If the base coat is TOO wet, or has a lot of paint, it will not come out either, because it will just blend ALL THE WAY in. 

12. Texture?  Throw some sand (err, I had corn meal in abundance, and that worked fine too) onto the grave, then paint over.  Or be lazy like me and just sprinkle it in your roller tray with the paint ;)   Or you can also use Monster mud and spread it on like icing which just reminded me why I did this – the back of this one was white beaded styrofoam, and showed every dimple.  I did this to cover that up.

11.  Weathering/Aging.  I really only used the paint brush to do my aging this year, but this year I expect to be experimenting with the water bottle and woodburner, things like that.  I just used black and green paints, dry brushed in a sweeping motion from top down, and then on the sides.  I also drug the paint brush down from letters.    

  

For some excellent info on weathering/aging here are a few of my favorites:

Spooky Blue - Amazing results

Keeba's (Awesome techniques)

Wolfstone - More interesting techniques

Blackstone - beautiful graves

 

And later – the only arena that I can excel in over other Bloggers – the “what not to do to your graves” category.  Stay tuned for a good laugh… or if you are me, a good cry   ;)

Styrofoam Graves – Basic Cutting and Shaping Foam

There are a million ways to do these, but once you get started, be careful… it can easily become an addiction, and before you know it you will have to rent space in your neighbors yard in October of every year.

Here’s my method, including some “Not To Do’s” that I learned this year – just for scientific purposes, of course… for sharing with the world!  (And NOT because I’m an idiot… Noooo, of course not)

*Note:  This info is provided from a perspective of someone who buys materials in the South, where the thicker sheets of insulation cannot be found.. therefore, we have to double our work in order to get a realistic thickness.  I am dealing with 1/2” thickness of foam here – so if you live in the North, skip all the doubling.  Just cut your 2” sheet, and be thankful for your winters.  :D

1.  Sketch your idea for the shape.  I do this on graph paper, which helps me keep dimensions in proper ratio.  I also use a yard stick, and various objects such as butter bowls, or square Glue jugs for different shaped corners.  If you are just starting out, and don’t want to freehand it, HERE are some great templates from Hedstorm.net.

2. Gather materials. 

• Styrofoam insulation sheets – the pink or the blue kind.  An 8’x4' sheet runs for about $9.50 here.
• Cutting method of choice – either a long serrated bread knife, box cutter, or The Wonder Cutter, as you prefer.  I use the box cutter for long straight cuts, then the WC for the detailed work.
• Note on Wonder Cutter – I had the battery operated one, and I didn't care for it – then I bought the AC Powered version, and WOW, what a difference in cutting, as well as the straight “pin” style made it really easy to navigate any detailed cuts.
• Liquid Nails – to glue second thickness to the front panel
• Monster Mud or just plain Joint Compound
• Fine grit sandpaper

3.  Transfer your design to the Styrofoam.  I tape several sheets of computer paper (8 1/2x11) together to form a big piece of paper the size of my grave, draw the shape I want on it, then attach to Styrofoam to the foam with tacks to reduce slippage, and “cut out” the shape with an Xacto, leaving an indented guide for where to cut.  If you have a more basic shape, you can just take a box cutter and cut the whole thing out in this step.

4.  Cut out shape with your choice of tool.  If you use a wonder cutter, try to hold it as still as you can down the straight line, or you will get jaggies.

5.  Repeat step 3 and 4 to create the back piece – just for realistic thickness.  Then line the two pieces together, and glue with Liquid Nails.  Try to get good coverage on the edges, so there won’t be a big gap.   I then set heavy things on top to dry, or even clamp, if you have clamps that won’t cut into the foam. 

I had to clamp the ends on the top picture.. they were very skinny points, and didn’t have enough surface area to put enough LN to hold it together.  On the bottom picture, I am using paint cans as weights.  I used scrap foam in between the grave and the can, in case the metal lip of the can dented the foam.

6.  Once that has dried, I used joint compound or Monster Mud if I had some already made, to smooth down the seam on all sides of the grave.  This is where I found out how annoying the jaggies from the wonder cutter are… once the MM dries, sand it with fine grit sand paper to get it as smooth as possible, without making the seam obvious again.    On this one, I went a little nuts and applied Monster Mud over the entire back of this thing, for a stone texture.  Probably won’t do this again for graves, because I didn’t want to mess with the front – keeping it out of the lettering, but its a cool technique.

Once you are happy with the smoothness of the edges, there is no visible seam, and everything is dry, you are ready for carving your lettering and details.

**Note, it is at this step that most people will drill pilot holes in the bottom of the graves, to place the grave over rebar, which is pounded into the ground.  This is where my NOT TO DO comes in.  We didn’t do these holes at this point because A) We don’t own a drill bit even close to being that long, and the $100 or something cost of the bit just freaked me out, and B) I couldn’t figure out how to go up the middle, when the middle of these thin little dudes was a line of Liquid Nails.  So I carried on, with no plan, figuring I would figure it out later.

For someone with better plans that that, go visit The HowloweenQueen for MUCH better instructions… or there’s also Aidtopia – Halloween, which shows us the embedded PVC pipe method.

Next installment…. Lettering and Detail.

Foam Boarded Windows

Often times, I make things harder than they need to be.  But I realize this, and admit it, which I have heard is the first step to recovery.

I might not want recovery, though, as I have found I like STEPS… steps in a process, steps in a project, in a recipe, whatever I’m doing.  Structure.  Steps.  Safe.  Whatever.

So I started researching… early on.  I found two sites that I really liked, and tried to take a little from each one.  Juggernaut’s page on Horrorfind has an excellent tutorial HERE and another that really helped me was on Hauntedyards.com, HERE.

*Sidenote:  My favorite of all, but completely out of my artistic league –  is Ghoul Friday's amazing work on cardboard… yes, a 6 foot single sheet of cardboard painted to look like slats of wood.  I wanna do that!!!  ‘Ahh, patience young grasshopper, and one day you will paint like the Ghoul Friday….’  Anyways, its a great tutorial, check it out.

Ok, back to my making things harder than they have to be.

I had Jayson measure the windows… unfortunately we have about 33 (that sarcastic) windows in the front/side of our house – so I knew I would have to make alot of boards.  Got out the trusty Wonder Cutter and got to work.

 

Paint.  Well, I painted one solid brown, and didn’t like it.  Too fake.  Too flat. 

Tried the dry brush thing – feeling all DawnFriday-like and all…. it looked like a First Grader got a hold of my brush.  Looked bad.  So I needed depth and texture, I can’t paint it right…  so I grabbed the monster mud.

Yes, I iced the cake… err, monster mudded my foam fence pickets… crazy, I know.  I spread it smooth like frosting, then I took various tools and made “wood grain”.  Okay, so that looks more like cottage cheese, don’t pay attention to it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once I got the right technique down to make it look more like wood grain and less like oatmeal, then I tried the dry brushing over that – I mean, that's easy… the raised surface takes the paint, the recessed area doesn’t…

And then I had boards everywhere…. Because of course, MM takes longer to dry than paint.  *I realize this AFTER I had done a thousand boards.. DOH!)

The point?  I made it harder than it was….. no one EVER noticed the texture on the boards on the windows… twenty feet away… as viewed from the sidewalk… in the DARK….  

But I knew.  And I would do it again. 

Installation day:  Velcro’d to the outside of the window frame.  Velcro’d to brick.  Worked like a charm.

This one board had eyes glued into it.  Can’t see it in the dark… I know, I know…  haha……… now I just need LEDs.

 

Jayson even velcro’d boards directly onto our front door.  Made it easier getting the kid on the bus in the morning if he wasnt having to step through hoops… err, boards.

This project was a lot of fun, and will be a cinch to reinstall next year.  My only word of advice: Use the strongest Velcro you can find (and then good luck cutting it into strips, that adhesive can ruin good scissors!) so that the wind wont pull your boards loose.  We used industrial velcro, and only had the END of one plank come loose for the 2 or 3 weeks they were on the house.