[mesmark]

Edited post-Halloween 2009: the medieval Halloween party with decorations, costumes and game ideas

Here is the final shot of the stage for my medieval theme.



You can click on the link above to see the party pictures, decorations and activities. This thread blow will take you through how it all happened if you want to read on


************ _ the process _ ************


So, my daughters want to be princesses this year ... (fairies last year)

My wife also likes to go to our Halloween party as a set. Well, I thought about doing a medieval version:
2 princesses
1 king
1 queen
1 knight
1 jester

I wanted to do a small picture corner/scene for party guests to take pictures. What do you think? dungeon? spooky forest?

[Zombie Pumpkins!]

Sounds like a good family theme, and you seem to be on the right track for your photo taking area. A think a castle/dungeon vibe would give you plenty of freedom to get creative, decorate, add some props. Maybe a faux brick wall background. Chains and shackles. Spiderwebs. A "throne" for seating. Maybe a couple spooky "royal" portraits on the walls.

[CombichristGirl]

sounds awesome and a scene would be great hope u post pics

[purple1worm]

Sounds cool! I love medieval stuff!

[Nightwatchman]

I like the castle wall/dungeon idea, chains and shackles could make some interesting photo opportunities. Maybe throw in a few candle wall sconces and iron bars.

[nosferatu]

I agree. Also, how about a pair of stocks painted on plywood with cutouts for head and hands. Easier than making them and could be good for photos. Or the same principle but as a disembodied ghost?

You could even incorporate the dragon stencil in there somewhere

[mesmark]

Thanks for the replies.

i like the idea of stocks.

I'm also going to try to make a faux castle wall. What do you think would be best? i was thinking of cutting out styrofoam pieces, shaping them a bit and pasting them to large sheets of cardboard. Then, I'd paint the whole sheet to look like a stone wall ... ???

I think I could make a pretty believeable wall torch using fabric, wires, paint and a styrofoam cup.

Another option for the wall is just to check into that fake stome siding they put on some houses ...

The clock is ticking ...

[nosferatu]

The wall sconce sounds a great idea. You could also make some shields to go on the wall out of the cardboard. Perhaps paint them with heraldic imagery or even paint a piece of white fabric to look like an heraldic flag.



With the wall, you could also quite easily turn some garden trellis into a portculis with some black and gold paint

[Nightwatchman]

A Portcullis is a great idea!! Or maybe I should have said "grate idea".

[mesmark]

Here are a couple tests I did for creating a castle wall.

First is a sketch of my plan.




i'm going today to look for a portcullis. Thanks for the idea Nos!

There's this pretty solid styrofoam they sell here in Japan. It's actually used as insulation. It's a little expensive but it's pourous and looks great painted.

I tried out a few different texture ideas.



here they are painted.



I was actually thinking of using black paint for the space in between the stones but I didn't have any. So I used a chocolate brown which I did have and I think dark brown (not the purpley chocolate brown) might actually look better. It seems a little dirty/rusty.

I'm thinking I'm going to go with round stones and something like this.



I need a dremel though. I used some wood gouges to do that and it took a long time and almost ripped through the board in a couple places.

I'm off today to look for materials and tools ...

[mesmark]

Power tools are your friend!

I went down to the local home center and found this little guy to go in my drill. It cost about $3.



Here's the sample piece I decided to work with




3 minutes later ...




I'm going to paint that piece as is and see if I can get away without adding texture to the stones as above. If it looks good without the texture effect, it will save me loads of time both having to add the texture to all the stones and having to paint all those little holes ... If I can save myself some time, I can work on other details, like shopping for a skeleton

I'll post a picture later ...

[nosferatu]

That is superb! It looks great before it has even been painted. Such a great effect

[Nightwatchman]

This is going to look great, I can't wait to see the finished wall.

[mesmark]

And painted ... I was in a big hurry and didn't really care about how it looked I just wanted an idea. Ialso wanted to see if i could get away without adding texture.




I think I need to think a little more about how to paint it, but maybe as a large wall people won't be looking so closely at it.


I couldn't find a portcullis that was vertical and horizontal. Everything was diagonal However, I looked around and I think a few PVC pipes will work just fine and it should be lighter. That will make it easier to put up.

Bad news is I have to wait a week for the 9 styrofoam boards. They're not in stock and the store won't get any more until next week.

Good news - I picked up 33 pumpkins yesterday!

[Tkaraoke]

Good call on the newspaper!