Boos and Booze 2015 (A Retrospective)

Halloween has quickly come and gone, but the memories of this years party shall live forever! (At least it will now. Sorry this post is so late, but I had to gather everyone else's pictures of the night since I didn't have time to take any. I hope this spooky beginning to your December holiday sparks ideas for next years Halloween!)

This year, we really focused on integrating some gags into our party. I really wanted the house to feel a little more spooky than usual, and I think that we accomplished just that.

The front of the house was adorned with our Dead & Breakfast Inn sign as well as our zombie hands and beheaded caretaker silhouette, but I wanted to add a couple of tombstones to give a little more dimension to our so-far 2D exterior. I grabbed some foam ones from the dollar store and Scott mounted them at the end of the walkway. His technique makes them reusable and less likely to fly away in high winds. It worked really well.

On the inside, I decided to break the house up into different areas and haunt each one accordingly. I started with the hallway. I borrowed some field dressing plastic from our friend Daniel and it stretched the entire length of the hallway, plus enough for a closure.

I then hung a clear packing tape ghost that Scott and I had made at the end of the hallway from the BASE of the smoke detector (not the mechanism itself. Don't do that!). Floating candles, made from toilet paper and paper towel tubes, hot glue, and white paint, were then hung with fishing wire sewn through the black plastic ceiling.

Each tube had a place for a tea light in the top so that it would safely glow while it "hovered". A doorway was created with draped black plastic to keep the hallway dark and a glow stick was attached to the "spine" of the ghost to add extra illumination. The end result was pretty awesome, but obviously, better in person.

We used the dining room table to serve food. I layered a spider web table cloth over a white table cloth to add a nice texture. Each dish was accompanied by a pair of fangs (spray painted silver) and a printed "scary" food name for each item.

The skeleton cheese plate was probably my favorite part of this table. It was super creepy, but still managed to be completely cleaned out by the end of the night! It's just a testament to people's love for cheese and crackers...

Above, you'll notice the TV bar is strung with KEEP OUT tape. This is where we put any bar ware that we didn't want people using throughout the night. It worked quite well, and all of our breakable/expensive alcohol and glasses were safe.

For a little added atmosphere, I hung the "scary" torn cheese cloth over the entry from the dining room into the kitchen.

In the "Salon", guests were greeted by my indoor Halloween "tree". I made it by spray painting branches from outside. It was leaned against the wall and the crows have wire in their feet that help them stand up (or fall over, depending on if someone bumps it). It was a very simple, cost effective piece of decor that everyone loved.

The pictures that normally hang on the wall were replaced with face-changing images that I found at the Dollar Store. (Honestly the Dollar Store is where I get 80% of my Halloween supplies. They sell everything from cheesecloth to crows, cemetery fencing to wall hangings, and it all costs $1!)

The table between our chairs was turned into a fortune teller's table. I used the bulb cover from one of our old ceiling fans and a glow stick for the "crystal ball", with wadded up spider webbing under it to hide the flat bottom. The Tarot cards are actually just printed off from a website online (for free!), and the book I made myself. The table cloth was a piece of scrap from Hancock Fabric for about $2, but a cool scarf would also be perfect.

The kitchen was a great space for taking pictures, so I grabbed some backdrop wall hangings from the Dollar Store and we used Command Strips to hold them up. Everyone seemed to have a great time getting pictures together with their costumes, so I know I'll be doing that again next year.

The living room had the bar, so I made sure to add a jack-o-lantern, small skeleton, and some bugs to keep it themed but not overwhelming. I also found some great signs to hang right under our shelf. In previous years, I've covered the bar top in spider webbing, but it always just gets gross and needs to be thrown away afterwards. This way, I was able to cut down on the mess and just let the blacklight overhead speak for itself.

I wanted to make another scary-ish gag for the living room. I wanted it to glow in the blacklight and really help set the atmosphere. I found some inspiration online from someone who had made a man eating plant out of a Styrofoam pumpkin. I used that as a base idea and ran with it. I couldn't be more pleased with how he turned out!

In the living room, we set up Scott's projector and showed old horror films on the screen, which was hung from the ceiling. I used two of our battery operated candles and placed them in some lanterns that I hung on either side of the screen with fishing wire. It gave a really cool old creepy drive in feel (but unfortunately, there were no pictures taken of it. Sorry!).

The garage was the last area. I thought that our work bench might be a great place for a mad scientist lab, so I started with some genetically altered giant spiders. I grabbed a bunch from the Dollar Store and spray painted them with florescent spray paint so they would glow in the black light.

I then grabbed a white sheet from Goodwill and cut a giant spiderweb out of it. This was stapled up around the workbench.

We put blacklight bulbs in our overhead work light, so the whole room was rigged to glow. I was then able to find things to populate the lab table, including vials and specimens.

Sorry for the fuzz. It was a little dark!

To finish it off, I made a simple structure with wood and covered it in towels to make the shape of a body. This was then wrapped in a white shower curtain and held together with twine. I covered the table with aluminum foil to give the "morgue" an extra touch.

This guy hung out next to the beer pong table and under a flock of glow-in-the-dark bats from the Dollar Store that "flew" around the ceiling.

Also hanging around the house were some cool origami bats that I made using this tutorial.

Last but not least were the trophies for the costume contest. I am usually known for making the trophies myself, but this year, I felt a bit overwhelmed with the rest of the decorations. My dad helped me out by creating some cool custom Zombie Snowmen as trophies and everyone loved them!

From left to right:
-Geekiest Costume
-Best Couples Costume
-Best Female Costume
-Best Male Costume

All of the guests were so excited about them that I kept having to check to make sure none had mysteriously disappeared before all the votes were in!

The night was great and I was so excited to share the house with our friends. Thanks to the Morri and Farrars for helping with all of the set up and keeping me sane!  I am also thankful to Jori and John for taking pictures while I hosted all over the place!

What's the greatest Halloween gag you've ever seen in someone's house? Let me know below!

Welcome to the Dead & Breakfast Inn

Multi-post-splosin! I am both out of my mind AND really behind!

Our outdoor presence the last couple of Halloweens has been a little lack luster in the props department. We have our scary windows, but nothing else to really help the spook factor.

Continuing our new tradition from last year, we of course had our zombie hands and green lights.

(Image from last year)

This year, I found some inspiration that looked easy enough to make myself. The blog Daybreak Living had a post about this cool house with lots of outdoor decor. What caught my eye most was the sign post.

I knew that we had a yard light that had been ignored for a while, so I thought I could make use of it for this DIY challenge.

I removed Old Glory before attaching a scrap piece of wood to the light to make a temporary sign post. There was no other way of attaching it other than using zip ties, but this method seemed to work pretty well (I just knew it wouldn't hold much weight).

There was a small nub on the side of the light that I was able to hammer the piece of wood onto to hold it in place, too. I did have to make a hole for it first, though.

Then the wood was painted and attached. Next came the sign itself.

I purchased a $5 piece of pink 2x2 insulation foam from Home Depot and cut my shape into it. I then printed out my design for the words and laid it all out.

I attempted to use some wax paper to keep the pencil from going through the paper, but was less than successful. I ended up just being careful and tracing my words lightly after lining up the paper with the edges.

When it was completed, both sides had been dented with my lettering.

I then used a ballpoint pen to retrace them quickly so they were easier to access later.

The next parts of this sign making journey were inspired by a post that my friend Ann did. She gave me some tips and a step by step on how they created really cool realistic tombstones for her front yard. I used parts of her technique to complete the sign.

She had mentioned using a wood burning tool to carve in the letters (or any images) that you might want set into your foam. I used a wood burner and very carefully went over my words. I followed this up with a paint brush and a nice coat of white paint as a primer. I had been warned against using spray paint directly on the sign for fear that it would eat the foam, so I wanted to try to add a protective layer of an acrylic paint first.

I then proceeded with a stone texture spray that you can purchase at any hardware store. Casey had mentioned that it would probably work since I wanted to use a spray paint anyway, so I gave it a try on a piece of scrap before giving the sign a once over with it. It worked beautifully and gave me a very satisfactory look.

The only thing left were the words.

They were given some detailed attention with some black acrylic craft paint and a craft brush. Being inset already, they were not difficult to color in. This only took one coat.

Remember, all of these steps are for both sides since it's a swinging sign, but one side if you're making a tombstone.

As with many of my projects, this one did not need to be perfect. The imperfection of the letters and numbers gave this an old, worn feel that I was really jiving with. I covered the whole thing with three coats of clear spray poly on each side to help defend it from the weather.

I then used two small eyelet hooks and screwed them into the bottom of my wooden arm. The sign was hung with a couple of black zip ties (that took the form of a chain). This was nice because it was adjustable and it also kept the weight down.

When it was hung up, it really looked awesome.

I was a little fearful at first. What if the wind grabbed it? What if some neighborhood hoodlums decided to destroy it? What if the zip ties ate through the foam and dropped it?

Thankfully, none of those things happened. Here in Kentucky, we get some pretty big rain storms in the Fall, but the sign stood strong. I had a couple of compliments from the neighbors on it and it seemed to do really well all 30 days it was outside.

I feel like a lot of these techniques can be used for all kinds of Halloween projects, from creating a fake foam stone wall to some tombstones for your yard. You could get really skilled and probably pull off a pretty convincing wood grain, with the right paint job and wood burning pattern. The possibilities are endless!

Does this inspire you to open your own Dead & Breakfast next year? Hopefully so! Make your reservations today!

The Case of the Killer Plant

Yes, I know.

Halloween was Saturday and these posts are a bit late.

Yes.

But I didn't have any time to write posts during the spooky season because I was too busy creating new and fun things to hopefully inspire your next Halloween!

The first project for this year was probably my favorite. I had seen inspiration picture on Pinterest and thought that it looked both really easy and really spooky. This is the image that caught my eye from the Hometalk website.

Pretty cool, right? It was an awesome basic form, but I thought it needed a little sprucing up. I did some more image searches for reference and came across a couple of examples of desk top versions of the killer plant idea on the blog 102 Wicked Things to Do.

I used the same basic concept as the Hometalk one. I started with a $5 paper mache pumpkin from Jo Anns.

I sketched out the teeth and cut them out. I then painted it all green and the inside red. I found a stick in the backyard and attached the pumpkin with screws so it would stay on reliably. I then "rooted" it in an old flower pot with some expanding foam with rocks on the bottom as a counterweight. I covered the foam with Spanish moss from the dollar store.

It was looking okay, but I needed leaves. I ended up at Hobby Lobby where I found three large leaves that were a great canvas to add some fun color detail. I attached them with wire and by drilling holes in the "stem" and inserting them.

I painted it with regular spray paint, but then realized that it wouldn't show up under the black lights that we had all around the house. I turned to florescent spray paint for the added color I was looking for.

Obviously not the colors I used, but the same brand and type for reference.

When it was finished, I was pretty impressed with myself.

Just life-like enough to make people hesitate, but fantastical and kind of goofy at the same time. I was pretty happy with how the leaves turned out, too, considering it mostly involved spray paint detail that I'm not used to doing.

I made the sign using Photoshop, then mounted it on a piece of cardboard to keep it stiff. It is hung with twine just draped over the teeth so it can be taken off for storage.

In the blacklight, it looks even cooler.

Using the florescent paint really helped him pop in the dark. There are no extra effects on the paper, though it is printed linen paper left over from our wedding.

Extra detail shots:

He ended up greeting people next to our bar for our Halloween party and the reactions were pretty wonderful.

Did you create any monsters of fancy or fancy monsters for your Halloween holiday? Let me know in the comments! I'd love to see pictures!