Skull and Bones Display Project Pt. 1

During the Halloween clearance sales, I picked this up this skull at Halloween City for, maybe a dollar at max. I knew I wanted to do something with it, and had planned to repaint it elaborately to look realistic.

While I was sitting around, this morning, I got the idea to go paint it with the red and black paint that I had left over from the Halloween costumes. I also found an extra piece of torn fabric that we had left over and decided I could do something cool with that. After I went outside to work, I also looked over the animal bones Kelly and brought me, and before I knew it, I had somewhat of a plan.

It should be noted that this is part 1, as I've only got the initial painting done. Here's what I've gotten so far.

I started out with the black, and did a base for the shadows. Then I found out we had more of the darker red left over, so I sprayed that, and then used the bright red to mist the top layer. The only re-painting I did had to do with touching up and misting to get the desired shades.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. I still, however, didn't know what I was going to do with the fabric. I found that if I put it over the top of the skull, it looked good. There was something missing with it, though. I figured out that I wanted to get some twigs and bend and twist them into a crown to fit over the fabric and skull. Then, with rope threading we have left over, I'm going to get some beads and charms to hang from the crown. I have an overall idea of what I want to do with the bones and the layout. It's just a matter of doing it.

With that said, next up is to connect the fabric to the skull.

Halloween and Clearance Home Decor

Halloween 2017 has come to an end, and it was hectic, but fun. We decorated back in August, and were the only house around with anything in the yard.

Halloween Day, we had most things done. We still had to get our youngest boy's costume sewn and our oldest boy's prosthetics had to be put on and the shirt cut up. Ultimately, we didn't use a few of the pieces we made for him, and we didn't get blood capsules for the wounds he would have.

It was a rush to get the boys off of the bus, and get them worked on before trick 'r treating started at 6pm. We had a 15 minute drive to my uncle's community, so taking that into account, we only had about an hour to try to get the stuff done last minute, and get into our own costumes and make sure we had everything with us. Needless to say, it was a complete mess, even with the preparation.

We got on the road and turned on some music to fit the night. Kelly stayed in the back of the vehicle putting our oldest's makeup and blood on. Instead of the capsules, we used a tube of blood to fill the spots. I wasn't certain that the blood would stay wet, as I've never used that type before, but she told me it would. Eventually, there was a point where the tension was just over and we all got in the mindframe that whatever happens, happens. Truth be told, we only spent about two weeks on costumes and we got a lot done, surprisingly. I was happy as long as the kids were having fun.

We got out at my uncle's house and started putting the costumes on. We tried to hurry to put our youngest's costume on in the driveway, which, mind you, took 3 of us to help with. The excitement was definitely there. Once everything was on, we got some pictures taken, and we headed out to the first house.

We had a lot of different reactions. Some of disgust, which was fun. I would stick my finger into the wound prosthetics and wipe the fake blood on my face. There would usually be a scream followed by, "OH GOD", with laughter. The boys got extra handfuls of candy...one house gave Kelly and I some Moonpies, which was interesting.

Overall, we had a lot of fun, and ended the night out with VHS: Viral and scaring the kids for two hours with some "nutjob" that was calling and threatening to take a chainsaw to them.

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Clearance SALES
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It would figure that before Halloween was even over, places like Walmart had Christmas stuff up in the spooky section, and things were already getting marked down. While I wasn't feeling it too much, I was happy that I could get some stuff for next year, and just in general for my house. I did, however, break my own rule this year, after Kelly showed me a Christmas Story shirt. I ended up buying it...no regrets.

First place I really looked for stuff was the next day at Halloween City. I picked up quite a bit of stuff for $27. I came back the next day as well and got $23 more, since there was a bigger discount. I then, just went out to Walmart and Big Lots, and picked up a few items. This is most of what I got:

LED Beware Sign $5
Asylum Foam sign $5
Jack O Lantern $6
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery sign $1.25
Skull $3.40
Gargoyle $5
Nurse and Doctor cutout: 64 cents
Cutouts $2.49
Asylum banner $1
Light up skull: $5
Wall Mural: $2.50
Green and Purple lights x2 $4

This wasn't including masks that I picked up.

So, now what? Well, I'm working with Kelly and her brother with their annual haunted house that they're re-vamping. Also, working on Banshee Hollow, which will be prosthetics and props for haunts. I'll be posting a lot of that stuff coming up. For as much as I hate to see Halloween go, I'm excited to see what happens in this next year.

Crypthurst Asylum Haunt

A Halloween post is already past due, but we've been busy here at the house. There's some interesting stuff going on in the way of my writing and Atrophy comics, as well as working with Kelly and her brother in their revamped Haunt. Today, the site is re-launching with a new name. More information will be added, and things will be changed around as things start to develop.

If anyone is going to be around Southern West Virginia during Halloween season 2018, definitely stop by.

Click below to visit the site:

Crypthurst Asylum Haunt

Halloween 2017 Costume Props part 1 - Meat Sack

I was talking to my girlfriend about the boys and how they wanted to actually do something homemade and unique this year. We had a general idea when we started. She has more of the know-how and experience from doing haunted houses since she was 13.

Kelly had mentioned a few ideas, but when she mentioned a four legged monster, my mind kind of went into creative overload. I asked if she could make a meat sack on his back, so that instead of him having a trick 'r treat bag, which would break the character. She came up with a plan, and I started messing around with the design. Here's what we started out with:

• 2 Cans of spray foam
• Light red spray paint, Purple-ish Red spray paint, and Black spray paint
• An old bookbag

Starting out, Kelly sprayed the foam around, and once it dried, she started painting.

She started with black and went into using the various shades of red, depending on the depth of the foam.

                                                        

Once that was done, I had found an old gelatin skull mold. I had the idea that we should try to place it on the bag. The next day, Kelly started on that. We also had some teeth that are meant for Jack-O-Lanterns that we originally needed a few for our oldest boy's prosthetic. Kelly had the idea to put those in there too.

Finally, today, I thought I would spray the skull red and then work in some dimension with it to make it look a little more gory. 

 

                                           

The last thing we're doing is adding strands of hair on the skull. That will be posted soon.

So far, total cost for the meat sack: $19

Next up is the front arms, and working on the mask.