Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Videos- Halloween 'Scary' pranks and funny gags

I love the humour involved with scaring the crap out of people, scary pranks & funny gags rock!

These two video clips had me laughing out loud and even inspired me to set something up on my own. Perhaps this long weekend...hmmm, who's gonna be my prank victim, the children or the spouse?

 In the meantime watch these videos...





Thanks for visiting, please feel free to comment!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Zombie Walk - Toronto 2010

Dabble in some pre-Halloween fear & endless gore...
Join the 8th Annual Zombie Walk in Toronto! 
Brain sucking Zombies will be dragging their lifeless bodies through the streets of Toronto, Canada this year for the increasingly popular Zombie Walk. You'll see thousands of bloody, scabbed up dead people in search of fleshy human brains to feast upon (a distraction from their normally dead boring lives). Rising from the dead Zombies group together then parade amongst common, living folk. They will be searching, possibly for you! Will it be your brains they devour next? Or will you be Zombie?

Here's a video clip of Toronto's 2006 Zombie Walk...


On your own or with assistance, can you appear like a groaning, gut covered lost limbed soul?

Or

 would you prefer to go hang out and see what creatures have risen from the dead?

Thanks for the visit, please feel free to comment!

Friday, March 26, 2010

HandPainted Backgrounds - Halloween Props DIY


A haunted house has rickety, clap board siding, broken shutters or a crooked stairway.
Your home however may not! Therefore, recreating these eerie characteristics could be your next Halloween home haunt project.

Get creative and make your haunting facade as rustic or decorative as you choose. I apologize for not having pics for this prop, I've used it twice so far and both times it was neglected at picture time.

How to Make your Backdrop...

You need to decide how you want your home haunt to appear to Trick or Treaters and their 'followers'. If you have cemetary props paint your design to reflect a spooky masoleum, crematorium or butcher shop. A haunted house with the similar look and feel of the one in Psycho by painting slat walls, busted shutters and windows with crazy old ladies in them. Paint a butcher shop, funhouse, forest or dungeon for your home haunt theme then paint up some rocks and stones of various sizes, bricks, skulls, bones or even logs.

Supplies needed...

- Measuring tape
- Scissors
- Exterior water based paint. Black and white for stone or brickwork is good.
- Paint brushes
- Unprimed canvas cut off a large roll (leftover from previous projects). You could use painters drop clothes which are large, affordable and durable. Be sure to get ones that are made of canvas or heavy cotton even rubber backed drop clothes will work as long it has a paintable surface.

Directions...

- Measure the area of your home haunt facade albeit the shed, garage or frontage of your home you want disquised. Now measure again ;) Lay out your material as flat as possible then measure out those same co-ordinates onto your fabric. Now measure again ;) Use the scissors but do not cut out openings for the doors and windows unless you need to or want to.

With our home haunt disquise we cut out the living room window for the reasons of sanity but left the front door area alone. The doors were measured separatly and the measurements drawn onto the fabric as a guide. It was cut so the door could open and close but the 'hinge' side remained attached uncut. This may not work with your home so check first!

- Once you've determined the style it's just a matter of painting the design onto the surface. If you want it extra durable and long lasting, prime both sides of the fabric first (I didn't do this and ours has lasted for quite a few seasons).

House Reputed to Be Haunted, by Local Tradition, Yell, Shetland Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom

When choosing either rolls of canvas or drop clothes, consider the size and price. A roll of canvas may be only 5'2" meaning to cover height, you'd be rolling out the whole roll for barely two strips 8' long. You will most likely have a seam somewhere within the design so remember to overlap and paint accordingly. Whereas drop clothes are more squared off and far more economical!


Friday, March 5, 2010

Creep em' out with Clowns! - Halloween Props DIY



...the Psycho Circus has arrived to send fear into kids of all ages, even the grown-ups!

Deep seeded fears get buried but at Halloween why not raise it up the surface at your home haunt. I've never encountered a clown that I've liked, there's just something creepy about them that give's me the willies, even stuffed clowns.. Due to this fact, Clowns are one of my favorite props to use at Halloween because I know I'm not the only one who dreads them!

A few evil clowns paired with the Hack in the Box halloween prop creates an eerie funhouse effect and when combined with traditional carnival music you've got the makings for a very chilling scene.

How to Make Clowns...

Most Halloween props, including the static dummies and stand alone creatures that I use are made from old clothing and usually a 2x2 for support such, as witches in The Witches Gathering prop. A few of the clown costumes came from the goodwill store and for the rest came from raiding my husbands closet that I'd hoped wouldn't be missed (which hasn't always been the case ;) 

Attaching a small clown to this kids bike was tricky but worth it for the effect! The back wheel is wedged between a makeshift wooden bike rack then covered over with dried leaves. It seems to have lost it's running shoes which had both of the clowns feet on the pedals.
The evil, short and oddly bow legged Clown is posing on a Pogo-Stick! The pogo stick itself is slid down over a medal rod that has been pounded into the ground. I had to alter the pogo permanently, to allow the rod to go inside, so there's no more bouncy bouncy with that toy. He's also wearing a huge curly black wig to cover his stuffed rain.         

The psycho clown in the wheelbarrow was put together rather quickly in lieu of a missing Scare-Actor, temporarily missing that is ;) Inside of the clown is a coat hanger with fishing line attached to the hook and a garbage overtop acting like a dry cleaning bag. It was then stuffed, tied and clothed with buttons done right up to the neck so the hanger wouldn't slip out. I cut a small hole in the top of the mask and slid the fishing line thru it and tied it to the Cedar branch above to hold up the body. With some stuffed pants, boots and accessories he turned out pretty good for last minute scare. The masks were an awesome purchase I made online quite a few years ago. At that time I was able to buy five high quality rubber masks for $20US on Ebay, $4 bucks each! The clown in the wheelbarrow is a full head mask that and even comes down the neck and over the shoulders. It's perfectly frightful to come face to face with and equally so to wear, if you are not at all claustrophobic!


These terrifying masks and many more are available at Amazon
Click on any of the pics to take you to the product page!
                         
Costume Masks Scary Clown Halloween MaskSAW PUPPET MASKLast Laugh Evil Clown Adult Halloween Mask (DF30A)