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).

Buy at AllPosters.com

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!

Prop - Upsidedown Scarecrow - Halloween Project DIY

Scarecrows protect our crops from outsiders but what protects us from them and that pitchfork?...their dark, glaring eyes seem to follow, always watching, waiting to strike!

The history of Scarecrows date back through centuries as a way to instill fear without harm,

so that's what we'll do! The fact that this Halloween prop is easily made with a couple of wooden stakes, old rags, some straw and a cowboy hat means you just gotta make more than one! When grouped in a pack, have a live 'Scare Actor' posing amongst them ready to jump when the time is just right!

                                                                                            

Supplies required...

- two 2'x2's (10' long)

- coveralls

- cowboy hat

- straw

- boots

- 3 small bags, 2 pillowcases, lots of newspaper, tape

- paint; flesh, white, black, red

- 2'x2' round piece of canvas or paintable fabric (an old drop cloth will work) 

- saw

- 5' piece of string

- large needle, strong thread

- heavy duty stapler, staples

- sledge hammer

- ladder

To create your Upsidedown Scarecrow begin by painting the fabric with flesh tone paint and let dry. When it's dry proceed to paint on black eyes, mouth, stitches and whatever else looks terrifying! 

Then cut the bottoms of the 2'x2's to form stakes (they pound easier when cut on an angle). Place each stake in each leg hole of the coveralls and proceed to pound each post into the ground. Crumple up the newspapers and fill up each of the bags until they are full but pliable then use the staple gun to attach the bags to the body, giving your Scarecrow more definition. Attach the string to the remaining plastic bag and then set it upon your fabric face (face side down) and use as a head. Pull the fabric around the bag forming a head (leave string hanging out of neck area) then secure with a needle and thread. Staple that string to one of the pieces of wood inside the Scarecrow (ought to hang just above ground level). Place on the boots and proceed to stuff handfuls of straw into all of the penings and inside the cowboy hat which just slides underneath your Scarecrow's head. 

Corn Creeper Scare-Actor

When making your Scarecrow prop use old, wragged items from around the house that won't be missed and feel free to add your own twist ie; long sleeve checked shirt, trench coat, burlap sacs, housecoat or robe, pold pair jeans with patches, housedress or moo moo, wigs, glasses, skeleton bodies, socks, gloves, straw hat or make one with a pumpkin head!

Prop - Hack in the Box!

Greet Trick or Treaters with a Hack in the Box this Halloween!


Round and round the mulberry bush the monkey chased the weasel... 

 Step right up folks and crank on the big red knob...unless you're too scared!? 

The Hack in the Box Halloween prop is ideal for home haunts as it adds a horrifying twist to a seeminly friendly child's toy. The dark of night is the perfect place for the Jack in the Box to be reincarnated into a terrifying Hack in the Box Halloween prop. The perfect interactive, spine tingling scare for all ages!

 

Supplies needed...


- 3 sheets of scrap plywood 5/8" thick measuring 4' x 8'
- 14 studs (not men, wink wink well actually yes, one stud to do the cutting and hammering) 2 x 4's
- ice auger handle
- 2 large rubber rats
- circular saw, jigsaw, drill with 1/2" drill bit, nuts, bolts, hot glue gun, hot gun glue, pencil, string, nails, hammer, random wood screws, 2 strong hinges with screws, paint (black, white and red)

You will need 5 pieces of 4' x 4' ply; 3 for the visible outside walls, 1 for the bottom and 1 for the top (the backside remains open for easy access to the inside). The inner frame is built on the same scale (duh!) with no length being longer than 4'. Before assembling, lay the top piece down and either eyeball a large circle, trace one or use your finger, the pencil and string to draw one in. Flatten off the back of the circle (like a toilet seat). Use the drill to make a starting hole on the inside of the circle then move to the edge and finish off all around the entire outline then attach the hinges. Use the drill to predrill a hole to slide the auger handle into; secure with nuts and bolts from the inside (once fully assembled). Attach the base to the frame with both nails and wood screws, then the three walls and then the lid.   

Once assembled, your Halloween home haunt Hack in the Box is ready to paint and accesorize with some evil glued on Rats and anything else creepy you may want to attach to it. Put a Scare Actor inside the box, grab a sound clip of Pop Goes the Weasel and crank it, loud! As the Trick or Treaters approach the Hack be sure there is a large, easy to read sign closeby telling them to turn, rotate or crank on that handle for the fun to begin...

 

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