Trading tips for dark displays and prop production.
#96771
I love the vampire mouth, it looks great, always love to see your pictures of how a project like this evolves! :)=
I also love the whole idea of making it into a game, with the kids throwing in blood pallets!
I can't wait to see how everything will look together :D
#96849
Thanks PumpkinFreak! It's been fun.

The vampire mouth didn't change much but I added the black felt to the back. I left it a little loose to make a pocket. So, I will use it as a sign and then at game time, take it down and use it as a game.

Here it is resting above my bed until the party:
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I made another vampire game and I might be abusing the idea of getting blood into a vampire's mouth ... :)=

I made some bloody boards and hot glued some toy vampire fangs to the boards.
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I'm going to roll blood pellets (red ping-pong balls) down a coffin and holding one of the boards, kids will have to catch one of the pellets in the mouth of the vampire teeth:

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If they do, they win!



I know I said I was done, but there's still a lot of time and so I attempted one more project.

I wanted to have a candelabra for the vampire layer or just one to put on top of the coffin. So, I looked on-line for some LED versions. They had one or two but they were 13 inches tall and pretty expensive for what it was - about $20 or more + shipping

I sort of gave up on the idea, but last Sunday I went to my daughters' ballet recital. They had two large candelabra stands on stage as part of the stage set. I was supposed to be watching other kids do something but I spent a great deal of time thinking about how I could make something that would work with my stuff.

Here was the plan:
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I used scrap styrofoam from my other projects this year. One of my goals with this project was not to buy any more foam and make use of what would otherwise just end up being trash. Pieces cut:
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The candle base is about 60cm wide (2 ft+.) I added the yard stick to the picture so you could see that I'm not lying.

For the stand, I was going to use the plywood from my Frankenstein machine. However, I thought about it a bit more and I realized the wood is a little warped. It would be time consuming and maybe impossible to make something that would stand straight. So, in the end I used a 1m (3.5 ft) PVC pipe (20mm thick) and at the bottom a weight that is used when making pickled vegetables (pipe $2 and weight $6.) In all it stands at about 160cm without candles. With candles it should be about 180cm to 190cm (around 6ft)
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Today, I painted the stand black and I'm waiting on LED taper candles from the US. They will be here in 6-9 business days :)=

of course I made 2:
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if you can't imagine what it will look like finished, here is a picture that I spent a lot of time editing to give you an idea:
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:D


I had a little foam left over and fierce determination ... or just some extra time (depends on how you look at it)
So, I had a go at a smaller version:

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It's a little too tall right now. It's about 60cm (2 feet) without the candles. So, I might cut the rod down a bit. One thought is to set it on the coffin like I had planned. Or ... I might give it to guests to carry as they walk through my haunted house. I'll give them the option of light, garlic or a cross.

OK. Now I'm REALLY done :P

I only plan on making a cross to put on my coffin and maybe an extra cross for guests to carry through the haunted walk.

I have one more vampire game planned. I'll post on that when it's finished.

But, there's still 2.5 more weeks to the party. Any ideas for props I might be missing?
#97194
Not much more to report. I spent last weekend getting caught up on some gardening and that was about it.

I did get my LED candles from the States. They might be a little long for the smaller candelabra, but they look go on the larger ones. Here is the smaller one (and I made a little base for it.)

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I found some rubber grips that you would put on handlebars or over some pipe piece. They seemed about the right size and I thought I could cut them up. The other option was some PVC pipes glued on and the candles would slide into the PVC pipes. I got the grips home and they seemed to work. They also looked a little better than the PVC pipe. That is they looked a little more "planned".

The original plan was to have the candle coming out of the skull heads, so I glued the grips onto the tops of the skulls. It looks a little funny. But, there wasn't any other option for the small guy. But for the larger ones,I glued the grips behind the skulls, so the candles rest a little lower and behind. It looks a little better that way. I don't have pictures of the larger ones, but I will get shots of them at the party.


I made a cross to go on my coffin. I didn't want to buy any more stuff, so I set out to use foam pieces that I have or have left over. Unfortunately, I didn't have that much so the cross came out a little smaller and less detailed than I would have liked.


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The cross was small and a little boring. So, I added some lines and then decided to bloody it a bit. It doesn't make much sense at all to have the cross on the coffin bloodied, but it seemed like a spooky and fun addition. It gives the cross and coffin a little more character.


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The picture is just the coffin lid, but I have the rest of the coffin as well :)=


Vamire games, what to do?

So ... I searched online for vampire party games and was sadly disappointed by the internet once again. A lot of games seemed to be recycled themes and they just changed the "robber"/bad guy/ etc. to the word vampire. Unfortunately, nothing really seemed to pop out as fun. A lot of the games need quite a bit of explanation. Maybe good for smaller parties ... In the end, I walked away with my own ideas, so I guess it wasn't for naught.


Here's what I came up with.
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Kids will shoot 3 garlic cloves at the vampires, using the crosses. If they can knock down one of the vampires, they will win a prize.

As a group game:
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All of the participants will line up. At the other end of the room I will fill the small shot glass with blood. I'm going to use an IV bag filled with cranberry juice to fill the cups while they watch and get grossed out.
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Then they will all put in a pair of plastic vampire teeth. They will have to run to the other end and drink the blood and then come back. The first few people back are the winners. For the older kids and the adults, they will have to drink the blood without using their hands.


Non party related, pumpkin carving started today:
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I did these 2:
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My oldest daughter (#2, 12 years old) carved this one.
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#97200
You keep on amazing me!
The candelabra's look amazing, and very cool that you could use up leftover foam and make something that great from it :shock: :thumbsup:
Also, that coffin, it looks fantastic, I also love the blood splattered cross, it really finishes it.
Your ideas for vampire games are great too!
I can imagine that everybody will have great fun :wink:
And the idea that older kids and adults will have to drink without using their hands, fun and laughs guaranteed :D

The carves look very nice! Both of those are also on my "must carve" list :D
And a great carve of the great pumpkin! Your daughter has some great talent :wink:
#97290
PumpkinFreak - Thanks! I'm pretty happy with how the candelabra and cross turned out. They should make my vampire chamber look a little more decorated :)=

Ajax - Thanks! I love that Darth Vader pattern. I got lots of compliments on that one. It may also be because it was the most recognizable image for the kids in Japan. :)

My wife asked me about a haunted forest themed party a few years back. I told her it would be hard to turn the stage into a forest. Given our time and other constraints, I just couldn't imagine how I would make the stage into a forest. Well ...

Not the entire stage but 1/3 of it will be a haunted forest. Here's the plan:

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In Japan, we have these long 6` tables that are just about 1.5 feet high. Usually you sit on the floor and use the tables. Anyway, they're great because you can stack them and make cascade arrangements. So, using the tables covered with black plastic, I'm going to place these branch stands at different heights and depths. Hopefully in the semi-dark, I can get it to look like the forest edge or a forest path. I'll also place my foam haunted trees in the space to both take up some room and to make it a bit spooky. In the back, at the top, I'm going to place the castle silhouette .

(the haunted trees I made back in 2011 - I have 2 of them)
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The background will be light blue sheets and I'm going to have a spotlight in the back lighting the "sky". The spotlights change in a rainbow fashion between red, blue and yellow. Not the best, but I think it will look OK.

It will be the first room of the haunted walk. It is supposed to be the haunted forest before you enter the castle. So, we're going to give the mini-forest a shot.

More pumpkins:

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My daughters carved some as well:
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My 3rd child, 10 years old:
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#97375
the start of the cookies:
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more pumpkins:

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On the party front, I've been spending the last few days drawing up diagrams to help the volunteers that come to help me. I've also sorted and packaged up game prizes and costume contest prizes. I've cleaned up the workshop and now I'm piling up all of the stuff to take to the community center on Saturday for set up. It's not as much fun as it sounds ... :)=

I've got some time tomorrow and I'm going to try to make a body wrapped in plastic and I guess make some paper bats ...
#97609
Thanks guys for the nice comments!

Here are some of the final shots:

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This year's costume contest winners:
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a group shot of the kids and some adults:
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We had about 130 people in all at the party. An awesome year, considering that a few weeks before the party is seemed like we wouldn't have very many people at all. We did up the invites toward the end though :)=

Thanks everyone for all the nice comments and encouragement! It's always nice to share Halloween with you all :love:

Happy Halloween!
Last edited by mesmark on Thu Nov 03, 2016 8:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.
#97657
It's so great to see it all together now, just awesome!
It turned out fantastic, I love how the forest turned out, looks awesome.
And the room with the coffin and the stone wall, amazing :thumbsup:
And the way the stained glass windows work with the background and the rest of the decor is stunning.
It has been so great to see this whole project develop and become so awesome, great job, you're an artist!
Happy Halloween :)=
#97713
Thanks! It was a little sad today as I packed everything's my up and threw out this and that. I spent about 4 hours organizing and putting stuff in storage. There's a little bit more clean up to do, but I should be able to get to it tomorrow.

PumpkinFreak - Thanks for staying with me this whole time. It's been very encouraging to hear from you throughout the project. I was a little surprised that the Windows seemed a little small in the room. I was thinking that they might be too big, but in the end, they worked just fine in the space. And, like you, many people liked the forest the best. It turned out great and I was happy that the idea worked.

Starsparrow- Thanks! Do you do any decorating or projects there?

PageMaster- if anything the cloaks were based loosely of the Twilight Voltari costumes. My daughter has recently become a big fan. I really like the look of the character Jane in that series. But we also have been big into Hotel Transylvania and that influenced mine and my daughters' clothes under the cloaks.