# Need help with scenery for Twisted Fairy Tales



## Piggles (Sep 2, 2010)

Hi!
After reading alot of the posts on here regarding themes, I thought I would do the twisted fairy tales this year as something different as my last 2 have been just bog standard halloween fancy dress.

I haven't slept much from thinking about it (I know, like a big kid the night before xmas!), as I have been trying to work out cheap ways of decorating the rooms.

Had a look at the Scene Setters and like the forest for the backdrop to the Wonderland dinner but looking for ideas keeping in fairy tale theme for the rest of the house.

It's a Victorian Terraced (so not huge) and we have exposed brick with wood burner in the lounge so was thinking Hansel & Gretel gingerbread cottage (but HOW to decorate the room??)
Other ideas would be appreciated.

Kitchen.. ??? It's small but contemporary and white! lol.

Conserv/dining room is easy as will be the Tea Party with the forest scene setter (unless anyone has any better suggestions?)

Bathroom.. ??

Bedroom - thought of putting a blow up doll with wolf mask and granny clothes on in the bed from Red Riding Hood.

Based in the uk so any advice on shops/online stores to buy from for Alice cutout decorations, any other fairy tale themed stuff I can 'horrify' would be brilliant!!!

Thanks so much (in advance)

Piggles


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## alltogetherdead (Sep 8, 2009)

If you have a place to start stockpiling up I would collect branches and twigs from around the yard. You can use them to decorate throughout the house. To create a 3D forest. You can even spray paint them to the color of your choice and even add a coat of spray glitter for that "fairy" effect. 

I would also look into your local fabric stores or craft stores. You can usually purchase tool or gossamer in bulk or by the bolt. You can use it to drape and create a fairy type setting. Depending on your color scheme, hues of black, beige, or iridescent would be choice. 

I did a fairy theme a few years ago. I purchased little skeleton garlands from our local dollar store. I used thin wire and misc fabric to create several tiny sets of wings and attached them with a glue gun. I hung the little skeleton fairies all throughout the house, from branches, posed them on shelves, etc.

You can create a custom label for your beverages, even paint some simple signs to hang throughout the house. Use lots of moss too you can buy it in roll form sometimes. Makes great table runners or if you are doing a dinner party, place settings. 

Lastly candles and crystals are a must. All different types of glass candle holders. You can embellish them if you like but I think just pulling out one color and keeping them consistent (candle color) makes a huge bold statement.

Good luck!


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## printersdevil (Sep 7, 2009)

Make candy lolipos out of posterboard and shiny Christmas paper for the Gingerbread house. You could make round white candies and stripe them also. I don't know if it is available there, but the colored Saran plastic wrap makes great candy covers too.
Have a bottom half of a witch pushed into the fireplace. A skelly in a cage for a starved kid. Another cage with a doll. You could make a cage if necessary.

Snow White in the bed with poisoned apples scattered all around. Or better yet, make a headstone for her.

Little Red Riding Hood's hood and cape and basket beside some bones and a wolf with dribbling blood.

Little Jack Horner sitting on a stool with a pie and pulling out a body part.

The list is endless.


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## Piggles (Sep 2, 2010)

Many thanks altogetherdead and printersdevil for your ideas! Love the moss table runner idea but no room to store twigs as we dont really have a yard. 

Not sure what Saran wrap is but I think I know the type of thing you mean. Love the other ideas!! Thanks! )


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## Timnis (Sep 3, 2010)

-Have Cinderella being tortured by her evil family members.

-Wizard of Oz scene with the munchkins, possibly in a cornfield like room.

-Little Red Riding hood, with lots of blood.

Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Orlando did something similar a few years back called "Scary Tales: Once Upon A Nightmare" Scary Tales: Once Upon a Nightmare

In the link is a video of it. It may be a little blurry, but it has annotations on that will tell you about the scene and you will instantly realize what it is. They all kinda have a little irony on them too! 

I hope this helps!


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## peeweepinson (Aug 18, 2003)

My twisted fairy tale haunt is on a haunted trail, but these are ideas I am using to create each site, might be helpful:

Malice in Wonderland: Mad Tea party scene-table has bottles with signs that say "drink me," etc. tea pots in different sizes, cups saucers, large foam rats will be sitting on table also. Use black and white checkered tablecloth or pink, whatever you can find. On the walls- a giant playing card and clock created from card board. You can create signs going to the room where tea party will be that will say, "go away," "yonder," "not this way," etc. Plastic pink flamingos can be placed around. 

Hansel and Dead-Al: created the front of a ginger bread house out of cardboard. Made gum drops, peppermints, candy cane out of poster board and magic markers, and suckers like Printsdevil told you about. You can take colored Christmas lights and have all around. Take big fluffy pieces of cotton and set around and place real peppermints, candy on top of. Then have a witch at an oven and beside her a large crate that can have 2 live children or maybe large dolls inside. I am having a large poster board that looks like a recipe card that says, "How to Cook Children" and made up a recipe (not real gross, kind of funny.)

Creeping Beauty: A corpsed skeleton "Beauty" will be lying on a bed in a beautiful dress (cheap prom dress from Salvation Army) with rose petals all around her. (In my haunt I have a live actor dressed in another pink prom dress with a horrible mask that is going to drag herself through the leaves around the bed for them

Just some ideas from we are doing, here are some other threads from here that might help:
http://www.halloweenforum.com/party...rty-decoration-plans-twisted-fairy-tales.html
http://www.halloweenforum.com/party-ideas-experiences-recipes/91005-scary-tales-party.html
http://www.halloweenforum.com/party-ideas-experiences-recipes/84603-twisted-fair-tales-party.html
http://www.halloweenforum.com/halloween-costume-ideas/64738-new-twist-goldilocks.html


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## Piggles (Sep 2, 2010)

Oo, peeweepinson, those are also brilliant ideas! I can totally visualise those and wish I had a trail of my own to make full sized versions! haha.

I didn't get the notification of your post for some reason so apologies for not having replied sooner.

Will check out the other links you put up!!

Just ordered my 'Queen of Hearts' costume (already!!!) as I am always so busy planning, that the last few years I have just grabbed a black dress out the cupboard and stuck a £1 spider hat on, haha. Want to make more of an effort this yr tho.

My sis is going as Malice in Wonderland or Little Dead Riding Hood and I have already ordered a brilliant wolves head prop!

Re the Alice theme, I know the table will be fairly easy to do i.e. broken cups and filled with red liquid, but how can I make the other props more goulish? i.e more 'Horrorland' than 'Wonderland'. ? Do you think using the table cloth with blood stains all over it will make people not realise the theme i.e. should it look at close to the normal theme as possible but make it spooky by adding cobwebs etc, or make the known props horrific in their own right?


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## Piggles (Sep 2, 2010)

Hi again peeps!
I am finally starting to buy some props and found some brilliant 6' cutouts on e-bay that I can use in my tiny house and with my tiny budget! So far i have a great wicked witch who is holding an apple, a huge scary tree with mini pumpkins on and a werewolf! The witch is going to be propped next to my pull out bench, overlooking a skeleton of snow white and it's it's over my guinea pig house (not talking hutch here, but huge perspex house) I am going to label the house up as 'here lives the evil 7 dwarves - don't mess with them or they might bite'

I have a few niggles which I am trying to sort out if anyone can help?

i.e. Lounge - small room with log burner. Going to now use it for Sinderella - but can't decide whether to go with:

a) room of sin i..e sinders with a sign around her neck saying 'cheap rates' - not sure how 'horror' this is though and what else I can do with it. OR
b) a giant pumpkin (either cutout or real one if large ones exist in the UK!) with evil face 'swallowing' cinders - so you just have her bloody legs and tattered ballgown hanging out. There can be blood all over it and someone else on here suggested dead white mice and a bloodied wand and glass slipper.

What do you think and any other suggestions would be great!
here is a pic of the room from last year:-










I know it's a bit dark but the couch is on the left, tv on the right, brick fireplace to the centre with log burner.

Thanks!!


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## trixr4kids812 (Aug 16, 2010)

Hi Piggles, im doing the same theme this year.... ive had lots of random ideas but havent started making anything yet. for your alice table i think people will get it, just put treats out with eat me and drink me and it will click and definitely do a bloody table cloth. love that idea. i got a bunch of tea cups from the thrift store and i'm gonna break some and put snails with salt in some so they bubble up and look gross =) oh and a mouse in the tea pot. im trying to do scenes from several stories but not sure how to pull them off. i really want to do a mutilated ariel scene with the poor unfortunate souls and hansel and gretel in a fake oven. oh i want to do something creepy with the 7dwarfs too... if i come up with anything i'll post it. good luck


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## Piggles (Sep 2, 2010)

The poor snails! lol!

Great that you are also doing the same thing - hopefully we can get some good ideas from each other!
Someone else on here has done the Ariel one - had her tail and bloodied hair hanging over the bath! I thought maybe on those kids disney costumes for the tail and stuffed with paper, hanging over the bath with a fake knife stuck in it? The body would be hidden by the bloodied curtain.

I am going to make a hanging cage with 2 large round pieces of cardboard, painted black. The going to hot glue large ribbons between the 2 pieces so they look like bars. Putting one small skeleton in there with some kids clothing bits and a bag of 'crumbs' and hanging out the top of my oven will be a skeleton foot with kids' shoe or sock on it!
I have a little cacking witch with glowing eyes that will sit on the side by the over (my kitchen is tiny so no space for a full sized one!) - then going to put witches bottles around the kitchen (wont have the food in there) filled with things like 'Tinkerbell, 'Frog prince' - all mixture of bits of other Fairy Tales (ideas courtesy of peeps on here).

I bought a scene setter haunted forest room roll for my Alice room and a church is donating some old tea sets they no longer need (picking up tomorrow) so it's getting there! hehe.

Started another thread for the food ideas if you want to have a look (under my threads) - some brill ideas on there!


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## Hallowtheme (Jul 31, 2006)

*Little Red*

Seems like in a haunted woods haunted house they do near me, they have someone dressed up as little red riding hood and she has this picnic basket with a wolf head (werewolf mask) in it. Always sticks in my mind.


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## lilwitch (Sep 25, 2010)

Oooh! Thanks for the video....I just snagged a cool idea from it....(see :57)....I'm going to cut "spiked bars" (not sure what you call them) out of cardboard or poster board to hang in my doorways!

You can also make those paper chains (strips of black or black/orange construction paper glued/taped into circles and linked together), to hang everywhere. It's inexpensive, and easy, and will add another element to any theme. I have a long strand that my nephews made when they were little, that I use as a garland every year.


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## lilwitch (Sep 25, 2010)

Don't forget these fairy tales....

Pinocchio, Goldilocks and the 3 bears, Jack and the beanstalk, Peter Pan and Puss in Boots

Jack and the beanstalk 
The giant.....could leave some over-sized things laying around
the (roasted) goose could be in the fireplace
A pile of golden eggs (plastic easter eggs painted gold) could have tricks or treats inside

Goldilocks
3 different sized teddy bears could be "guests" seated at your tea party, eating bowls of porridge with (gummy) worms in it

Pinocchio
A giant whale face (with mean looking eyes and sharp teeth) cut out of paper, and hung around a doorway (maybe the bathroom door?), so peeps can get swallowed up when they go through the door

Puss in Boots
I'm not familiar with the Puss n boots story, but I have an old puss in boots cut out decoration, which made me think of it.


How about a pie with black birds coming out of it? And some faux birds and owls or bird cut-outs scattered around to add to the scarytale "forrest" look, along with some little critters....squirrels, raccoons, etc.


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## Piggles (Sep 2, 2010)

Oh yes, they are also great ideas! I never thought about the whale in Pinocchio. Good idea and alternative to doing the Ariel one in the bath! Will see which one works out cheaper, haha.

Was thinking of 24 'fingers' or something gruesome sticking out of the pie  hehe.

So many things to make - it's just working out which is the most effective with spending the least amount of money or time. I will so have to start decorating a week before with everything that needs doing! lol.


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## lilwitch (Sep 25, 2010)

You're a lot faster than me! I've already started decorating.....it takes me forever....I could never wait until the last week to start decorating. 

Here's a great Halloween cookie recipe that I found last year, they turned out great! They are a bit time-consuming to prepare, but you could make the dough ahead of time and freeze it, then just slice and bake when you're ready to make them. They're quite tasty! Instead of the chocolate middle, I just colored the middle layer...yellow.

CANDY CORN COOKIES
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/candy-corn-cookies/2c40f5fa-fdb9-4236-b896-4097bfd1af36

oH...I was just looking at the recipe again....I forgot....I made my own cookie dough, since I didn't have the package mix on hand, that's probably why I thought they were time-consuming....hmm....now I've got to find the cookie dough recipe that I used. If I find it, I'll post it here for you.


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## lilwitch (Sep 25, 2010)

I'm not 100% sure, but I think this is the cookie recipe that I used to make the candy corn cookies...I don't remember where I found this recipe, and this is not the correct title, but I call them "Tasty Sugar Cookies"

TASTY SUGAR COOKIES

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter - softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powdeer
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

sugar ( to sprinkle on top)

Oven 350 degrees

Large bowl COMBINE: Sugar, butter, egg and Vanilla
beat at medium speed until creamy 1 - 2 minutes (scrape bowl often)

Reduce speed to Low, ADD: flour, baking powder and baking soda.
Beat well, 1-2 minutes

Shape dough into 1 1/2" balls and roll in sugar and flatten with a glass, sprinkle with sugar
(or follow Candy Corn recipe at this point, instead)

or

Bake 11-13 minutes until edges are light golden brown. Don't over bake
Cool 1 minute
Remove from pan
sprinkle with additional sugar if desired
makes 2 dozen cookies

Note: this made a lot more than 2 dozen when I made the candy corn cookies


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## Piggles (Sep 2, 2010)

Thank u so much for the recipe! I dont bake much as I cant really eat alot of dairy (well not supposed to have any really but can't resist sometimes!) but I will give these a go for everyone else and see how much of a disaster they turn out! haha. I always got good marks in home ec, but that was some years ago now ;o) hehe.


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## lilwitch (Sep 25, 2010)

You're welcome! I hope everyone likes the cookies.


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## Piggles (Sep 2, 2010)

Hi folks!
I have most of my props/ideas ready for the house but am still struggling with what to do with the bathroom under the fairy tales theme. 

I have seen the Arial idea but struggling to find a tail in the UK that doesnt cost a fortune and I am no good at making out of paper mache.

Has anyone any other ideas for twisted fairy tales themes in the bathroom??
Thanks!


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