[mesmark]

Edited post-Halloween with final shots of the decorations and party here:
Egyptian theme party decorations treats and games.




Here's a short tutorial on how to make a sarcophagus.

If you'd like to read a little about the process, this thread will take you through it.

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We're thinking of doing an Egyptian theme for our party this year. I'm going to be pharoh-esque and my wife cleopatra-esque with some mummies running about and the 2-year-old as a sphinx.

However, I'd like to decorate the stage area for our party, but was thinking about something other than a foam pyramid wall.

Here's a look at the stage area:




Any ideas floating about out there?

I'm drawing a blank ...

[GUS]

None at all (sorry) Egyptian theme & halloween just doesn't seem to marry well for me!

..that & props tend to be solid stone / polystyrene so lots more work.. think i'd simply up the stakes on last years props.

Not forgetting Harry potters finale is coming out, so is there a buzz for that?

[nosferatu]

I think this is an excellent idea!

How about vaying size pyramids to give a 3d effect as a backdrop. Maybe a sarcopahagus through which you or your guests could enter? Or one each for all the family?

Costumes, King Tut, Cleopatra and the kids as mummies or slaves.

Child guests could all be given a pre printed Egyptian collar to decorate with pencils, gold glitter etc. and then face painted in Egyptian form.

How about using rolls of canvas 2m by 30 cm, dowel on each end and then painted with hieroglyphics? Again they would add to the overall effect. Very cheap option that would be very effective. You could even adapt the hieroglyphics to take a more halloween form - more spiders etc but still has that feel.

Over here, children play a party game that involves dressing a partner up as a mummy using toilet roll. Points and prizes awarded for neatness, accuracy and speed.


More ideas to come when I've had a think but think it would fit in really well with Halloween. What could be more Halloween than mummies?

[Zombie Pumpkins!]

Any character can be inhabited during a costume party, and with mummies being associated with monster movies, the theme seems a natural fit for Halloween.



I'm not sure what else you could do besides a pyramid wall though. I can't think of a backdrop other than the tan bricks you might associate with the inside of a pharaoh's tomb. Maybe a round stone column in a sandy color? Although, back in ancient Egyptian times, weren't the statues and architecture painted? So you could also go with that style.



You made a coffin before, a sarcophagus would be great in this theme (but a good amount of extra detail and craftsmanship would be needed, to be sure).



In which case, maybe you could use your existing coffin (or make a basic sarcophagus shape) to represent the inside of an opened sarcophagus, minus its ornate lid. Then the focal point could be a stuffed lifesize mummy! A nice prop to stand next to for pictures.



I'm also envisioning some pottery. Like the clay pots the Egyptians used to store the internal organs of the mummified person. Any large pot could make a good prop.





You could flank your stage area with a few tall leafy plants, that might look Egyptian. Something like papyrus.



Egyptians worshiped cats, and black cats relate to Halloween. Maybe you can use artwork of some regal looking cats, or even better, get a couple black cat statues and dress them in gold.



People often use plastic bugs for Halloween decorations. Think you could find some of scarab beetles?





And of course, it wouldn't hurt to watch a few mummy movies to see if any visuals inspire you.



Here's a nice scene of pumpkins, plants, pots AND mummies!

[GUS]

I'm simply thinking that all the good scene setting Mesmark has done over the years would be compromised, ie sandstone paint job over existing stones, sarcophogus are a BIG project to contemplate & pretty much redundant thereafter, depending on how you play it it may work, however I can envisage alot of stuff you make / buy simply never being used again..

I think i'd use & expand on existing props make a haunted house with moving books? ..simple motor, banging shutters, smoke, & perhaps some scenes from hallowindow playing through the window (cut out from existing wall construct)
My plan this year, prior to postponement of everything was to make a talking mirror / door candy dropper so i'd not be letting heat out on a cold night ..

Mark look here...

http://www.imagineerieing.com/products.html

Maybe you could do something with the programs here, a few to choose from, I was going to make a few silicone moulds & make an arch / door of skulls, however (sigh)
Not suggesting you go the skulls route however theres some scope.

[GUS]

if you framed this within your existing set you could go down several routes, games of mirror (simon) says, theres plenty of good results on you-tube to show this works very well, i'd be in awe if I were a kid & encountered this.

http://www.imagineerieing.com/see_it_in_action.html (nice pics)

teamed up with say a NMBC set up, which we know is popular out your way this could be awesome, & theres some nice plans / ideas on the forum as to making a giant Jack (photo op) possibly.
Wife as sally?
kids as Lock, stock & barrel..

Halloween town heck yeah!

[GUS]

For my own variant of this I bought a cheap new door £3.00) @local auction , a multi pane unit, (or you could visit your local tip)
removed wood strips to take panes out easily & without having to pick shards out.

I'd knocked out the 18 panes of glass, (a hinderance) & recycled it then assessed the height required for mounting the lcd monitor in relation to my own front door.

next I got some thin insulting foam offcuts to fill out as necessary, the wood behind made nice support, built it up & painted it stone grey.

Scrim obviously covers the monitor which is held in place by wood off cuts for easy placement & removal.

Then frame out your monitor from the front with either a wooden frame or as per the footage & embellish.

the smoke machine sits back with a feeder tube & a run of poly pipe along the bottom for ground fog seepage around (my door) for this I used a simple hook on /off for the seepage tube & ice chamber for easy containment & refill, added in a water pipe for melt into a sealed bag via a bleed tube (with on off).

So far it's only taken me 5 hours of faffing about & finding / bodging solutions, i'm gutted that i've stopped it, will be giving it away for someone else to finish & use. (or scrap)
I made a small mount on the rear for the netbook that was to run it & use the keyboard for mouth movement so I could sync my speech to the image (whatever it was to be.)..

by going the skulls route of decoration on the door I was going to staple some cheap led fairy lights to the door & feed through some lights for the eyes (not sure how many) but the effect ..well you can imagine.

Trawl you -tube for some script ideas & pin the script to the back of the door so you can say em in order if needed, grab some music & be a kar-aoke mirror or whatever.

[GUS]

forgot to mention this stemmed from the hand grabber sweetie bowl idea, & as a natural extensionwhere the sweets come down into a bowled area & fog, you should also be able to A. shut it off (nosey kids)
B. have it placed comfortably to place either your costumed hand through & grab them as the smoke is operating (or simply have the costumed hand beckoning / holding their sweeties.

C. the other aspect of the hole drop is to have some slimy green jelly to drop through onto outstretched hands from time to time (along with a sneeze & an apology, "..lets try that again shall we"? which keeps the suspense going as to who in a group gets "slimed"

[Zombie Pumpkins!]

For a guy that is "giving up Halloween" your brain seems full speed ahead in planning mode, GUS! Thanks for all the ideas, but in the interest of keeping on topic, keep in mind the title for this thread is Egyptian theme.

[GUS]

..well that's just it theres a skull programme too! (dead pharoah / crypt keeper etc.. ..which could be implemented into an egyptian theme, hieroglyphs etc would take a long time to cut into anything to get the effect, so I'd personally not make a rod for my own back seeing as Mesmark has spent so much time on coffins dungeon walls etc, then there's storage...

[nosferatu]

A cheap idea for tables would be painted pebbles. Maybe even larger stones? Quick and easy to do but very effective.

[nosferatu]

Another great, simple and effective idea is silhouettes. Cheap plywood or even industrial packing cardboard. Painted black and backlit. Again, could add to a 3d perspective.

[monstermash]

I think everythings covered. When i think of "scary egypt" i would think of tight dark passage ways with sharp corners, torch light. (whats lurking around the corner). Obviously mummies, scarab beetles, hieroglyphics. Although pyramids are massive on the outside they always seem very claustrophobic inside. Like tombs i suppose, seeing as thats what they are.
Im not sure how it would translate but it should be a good challenge. Good luck!
LOTS AND LOTS OF SCARY MUMMIES!!!

[mesmark]

Sorry I haven't gotten a chance to say thanks for the great ideas.

I like the cut-outs with the back lighting. I think I'll do something like that for the stage area. It seems rather simple and the effect is great. Plus the idea can be re-used pretty easily.

I also like the stones with the hieroglyphics (wow that's not coming up in red. I must have spelled it right .) I might make a couple sets and use that as a concentration game at the party.

Maybe this year instead of Halloween bingo with Halloween vocabulary, maybe I'll make a set of hieroglyphic bingo cards as well, to keep to the theme.

Maybe some stencils of different glyphs and some costume paint for kids to paint on a glyph on their hands or face.

I also like the mummies on the porch and the pots with trees. My wife and I were saying we needed some nice potted trees for inside, so that might work out perfectly and also justify spending a little more for a nicer looking pot.

The mummies would go nicely in the corner for taking an Egyptian Halloween picture. Also, the corner spot from before is much less work than the full stage, so maybe I'll make a sandy brown (foam board) Egyptian tomb wall.

Any ideas for how to start on something like those mummies above?

[CombichristGirl]

http://tpillon.tripod.com/Mummy_how2_web.pdf here is one out of foam. and youcould always tweak anything, but this should give you a basic idea