# 2012: The year of... Halloween.



## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Every year it happens. In the late summer I make a detailed Halloween to-do list, plan everything out meticulously for the party and yard haunt, start out strong... and run out of time. Never again! For 2012, I’m making it my New Year’s resolution to work on something Halloween related every single day. Prior to joining this forum I would have thought it was crazy to start building tombstones in January – now I know it’s perfectly acceptable. Heck, I might even be behind schedule compared to those of you who started November 1st! Feel free to join in with a similar pledge and share your daily checklist, and maybe, just maybe, come October there will be less of us in a “holy crap” situation.

January 1st: I took some time to write out a giant wish list of everything I’d love to accomplish by October 31st. It includes everything from building large-scale props to finding the perfect party invitation font. Highlights include:

-build a laser vortex (my first electrical prop!)
-complete the sign for our cemetery
-build a few life-sized figures for our Nightmare Before Christmas-themed party
-redo the entire menu for the party, which will also be combined with my 30th birthday

Happy New Year everybody!


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## Patrick (Dec 28, 2011)

Ohhhhhh to be 30 again... Vortex sounds great. I've got it on my list too. That and 3 or 3 Plasma balls. I'm going to rebuild my tombstones because apparently MINE SUCK... Thanks everyone who has posted photos of such awesome stones I feel very inferior now.LOL. Finish my Toxic waste/bio-hazard spill, complete my Bone Throne, Build my Entry Way, make my fence for my cemetary, get my Bio-hazard bags to hand out candy in... the list goes on and on and on.... Sounds like you have the right idea though HS.

Happy Haunted New Year.


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## Nightlites13 (Oct 8, 2008)

Happy New Years!
I didn't think I would ever be thinking about 10/31 this early either but I just sent a PM to another member to ask if there "for sale" is still available. Spiders in January and plans starting to expand our spider scene already. 

We are also discussing plans to increase storage which of course means more stuff - Yay!


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## Jack Skellington (Oct 25, 2005)

It's never too early to start working on next year. I've been working my way through microcontoller prototyping for my future animatronics. Might as well do something during the cold winter months. I also need to start working on my front door overhead Jack-O-Lantern Sentinnel. It's been in my head for months but I need to get started or it will never be done in time. I also got an airbrush for Christmas so I have to learn now to use it properly.

On New Year's Eve a friend gave me a plasma ball skull and heart she picked up in a college bookstore. It was funny putting away all of the Christmas decorations today and packing away some new Halloween props at the same time. I've got everyone I know thinking about Halloween all of the time now. It must be contagious.

Happy New Year!


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## Pumpkinhead625 (Oct 12, 2009)

> Every year it happens. In the late summer I make a detailed Halloween to-do list, plan everything out meticulously for the party and yard haunt, start out strong... and run out of time.


This is me. I'm a terrible procrastinator. This past Halloween, I had so much to do the last 3 days of October that by ToT time, I was totally exhausted, and also frustrated that I didn't have time to do last-minute detail stuff. Last January I told myself I was going to do a lot of projects, but when it came time to start doing something, I found one reason or another to postpone it, always reasoning that "there's plenty of time 'til Halloween". In early September, I finally got started on my cauldron creep, but got an infection in my leg and had to spend a week in the hospital. I was lucky to have it up and running by Halloween, but I didn't even have time to hook up the fog machine to the cauldron.

This year I resolved to quit procrastinating. Every weekend, I'm doing something towards Halloween 2012. Here are the projects I'm undertaking this year:

>Upgrade my giant spider-add definition to the abdomen and legs.
>Upgrade my cauldron creep-add a motor for additional head movement, hook up the fogger and sound to the cauldron. 
>Build my remote-controlled scarecrow-this will be a good project for wintertime.
>Build a fog chiller.

There are other projects I want to do, but I'm going to focus on these projects first. If I can wrap these up by August, I may start a new project.


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## Bobbywan (Dec 16, 2011)

Great thread! I started my planning too!

Planning list so far:

Monster mud Reaper w/ lantern
Pumpkin patch w/ scarecrow
Cauldron creep
PVC candles (almost done)
Pink foam tombstones 
Led flicker witch jars
FCG
Pink foam boarded-up windows

~Bobby


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## cmerli (Nov 27, 2009)

*New Haunter List*

As a new Haunter I have a ways to go

Finish backstory
Website
Cemetary Fence (nearly done)
Sign
Tombstones
Laboratory set up (fortunately I teach chemistry so I already have lots of good stuff I just need to set it up to bubble etc)
spot Lights 
other lights
Sound system
buy some skeletons


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Pumpkinhead625 said:


> This past Halloween, I had so much to do the last 3 days of October that by ToT time, I was totally exhausted, and also frustrated that I didn't have time to do last-minute detail stuff.


I heard this over and over from several members last year. It's a shame, especially after the money and time we all put into getting ready. I'm glad to see others who have vowed to stop procrastinating! 

January 2nd: I tested the new Halloween Cricut cartridge I received for Christmas (for those who may not know, the Cricut is an amazing electronic cutter primarily designed for scrapbooking - I use it for just about everything else). Lots of great items, especially the banner design which I will use for the birthday party and the bat outline. I now have two different bat patterns, and I plan on cutting hundreds of them over the year to hang from the ceiling in the entryway.


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## Zombiesmash (Jul 15, 2011)

I scored a big bag of unused fishing netting today. I decided a good way to add to my haunt without having more space available would be to drape creepy netting from the ceiling and have body parts and skeletons stuffed in it or dangling from it. Pretty pedestrian stuff, I know, but I'm looking forward to using the idea to add detail.

Other than that I know I want to work on making some hanging body bags or bags of bones. I am going to take some of my Dollar Tree skulls and corpse them since I ended up not using them last year. I turn the back of the garage into a cemetery, and I want to accumulate all the stuff I need to simulate a good forest this year.

I know that my haunt will be much darker this year so I wish I had gotten my butt in gear and snapped some more strobe lights up during after-Halloween sales.

One thing's for sure, I'm thinking about it way earlier than usual, so maybe I'll actually get started setting up earlier this year too!


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Zombiesmash said:


> I decided a good way to add to my haunt without having more space available would be to drape creepy netting from the ceiling and have body parts and skeletons stuffed in it or dangling from it.


This is a fantastic idea! Not "pedestrian" at all, since a great haunt will pay attention to such details and have something coming at you from all sides. I get especially creeped out when scary props are above me, like they could fall down at any moment. Much scarier than something you can maneuver around.

January 3rd: I finally sent requests to all the friends/neighbors who took a substantial amount of pictures at the party and asked them for copies. Each year during the party I have a digital picture frame going that shows photos from the previous parties, and everyone really gets a kick out of seeing old costumes. Going through my pictures today I realized that I'm missing shots of quite a few guests, so hopefully I'll get a more complete album and get the photo frame all ready for this year soon.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Oh, I'm one of those that ran out of time last year. Problem upon problem kept firmly planting itself in my path. Thankfully, the payoff on Halloween was very much worth all of the p.i.t.a. curve balls life threw me.  So, I've been finishing the props that weren't completed in time. Repairing what I didn't have time to get to, and building ever since Nov. 1. 



Projects currently under the knife:

-Extending my obelisk to +/- 7 ft. Adding built-in 2.1 Boston Acoustics sub/satellite, complete gfi protected 120 VAC power distribution, 5 & 12 VDC power distribution center for my LED spotlights, and I just finished hacking a micro mp3 player for ambient cemetery sounds. Finishing up on the brackets to hold the mp3 player & master power switch panel, tomorrow hopefully. Should be skinning the lower framework w/in a day or two. 

-5.1 surround sound thunder & lightning soundtrack. One with an organic, natural wind sound instead of the fake constantly howling winds you get with Halloween & SP/FX tracks. Not to mention thunder that rolls across the sound stage in various directions. Unlike most surround sound where it's just a filtered echo of the original sound. I intend it to sound as though the storm is surrounding you. Rolling from off in the distance, to right over your head. This project has turned out to be very long winded, due to the fact that you can't just throw it through a processing algorithm. It all has to be mixed down manually to get the desired effect. Before anyone suggests them, I have tried the processing on Adobe Audition (CS 5.5 version, I have the master suite), and Cubase 6 Pro. Neither gives the sound I want. While I love audio production, this is my first foray into surround sound, and manually mixing 5 tracks is bleeding boooooring! :/ Hence, I've been giving it a rest for a few weeks now. 


-Cemetery gates, columns, sign, & fence (I cut all of the wood for the column frames while cutting the pieces for the obelisk frame. Just need to grab the glue & nail gun & assemble, after the obelisk is complete).


Planned for this year: 


-3 additional channels for my light organ to add to the surreal ambiance of the sound track. Surround lightning + surround thunder = Awesome! 

-Mausoleum

-Animated cemetery caretaker

-Animated shovel digging a grave

-new fog chiller 

-Hovering broomstick

-Converting my cauldron creep to a more realistic & creepier creep. And, revising the stirring mechanism so that it appears that the creep is stirring it by magic. 

-Finishing my animated witch to go with the cauldron scene 

-Animated ground crypt

-A new tombstone or two, if I have the time. 

-Animated raven (or owl, I've not fully decided which yet)

-Eyes in the bushes

-A pneumatic grave grabber of my own design

-Pneumatic powered tree stump pop up, similar to a TCT

-A few large mushrooms & clusters of shrooms

-MOAR CANDLES! 

-figuring out how to slow down the pumps on a couple of my smaller foggers for the cauldron & hell hole so they stay on constantly without having to reheat (and lowering the output would be helpful too).


Pretty ambitious, I know. But, I think I've got enough time to pull it all off.


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## osenator (Nov 3, 2009)

I plan also lots of projects this year, I want to improve my haunt in quality. I have already such a huge collection, I want to upgrade my old props. 
things I want to do :
-Start early this year, September, starting with the back yard first.
-Corpes my 4 bluckies (never done it)
-Make a huge light up sign
-Make many PVC bodies that I didn't have time last year to do, got very cool masks I never used before.
-Plan out way better my layout, making better scenes.
-organise to max out my scare factor with my animatronics, instead of being in the back.
-both my neighbours want to be involve this year! Most of the time, it's always been only me and my wife.
-Make a better spider room or even tunnel 
and more!


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Holy crap Raven's Hollow - that looks like my "major wish-list" of projects for the next 10 years! Super ambitious, and super impressive if you get even half of that accomplished. My vote is for animated owl - scarier to me, for some reason. 

January 4th: I definitely want to build the countdown clock from Nightmare both for this year's theme, and ideally, to keep up year-round in an inconspicuous part of the house (I'd love to be able to convert it after Halloween as it does in the movie to a countdown to "X-Mas" clock). Today I started thinking about the design for this project and mad a basic materials list.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Lol! Yeah, super ambitious, that it is HS! On one hand, I agree that the owl would be a bit creepier (and, it's much more rare as far as animatronics go. Few, very few have ever done animated owls in home haunts). But, then I think to myself, "Well, the name of the cemetery is Raven's Hollow...". Bleh! Decisions, decisions! In any case, I'll be ordering the parts for it (whichever way it goes) within a couple of days. 

I've spent the night shopping around for the parts list, and I can say straight away that the owl is definitely the harder of the two to source a realistic (read: not blow molded plastic) body form for. Raven/Crow decoy's that would make a better starting base are much more widely available than the owl. That's really saying something, considering that there are only 2 companies making them. The only option with an owl (aside from the aforementioned plastic junk), is taxidermy forms. Only Van *****, and McKenzie Taxidermy supply co.'s have the forms. One has the head forms, the other...the body forms. And, they are both rigid polyurethane foam, which would have to be hollowed out. Then there is the next problem, feathers. I've only found an Etsy shop "KIMONOS", that sells a decent assortment of feathers that are reasonably similar to a great horned owl's breast color pattern (difficult to find them, trust in that), @ $3.25 per 12 feathers. Owls are, it's beginning to look like, out of my price range. Around $350 is all I can budget towards it, and it appears that a reasonably accurate owl would end up in the $500-600 range. :/ I think I just talked myself out of the owl. 

Ah well. It looks like the price tag is the deciding factor. Raven it is.  It's funny how typing it all out, reveals the flaws in the plan, eh?


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Hmmm, a $600 owl would make me tip the scales back in favor of a raven. And of course, it is your namesake!

January 5th: Exhausted tonight from book club (ridiculous, I know, but it's hard work drinking wine and not discussing the month's read!). Took a few minutes to start looking at Jack and Sally costumes, but that's about it. I'll probably make my husband's Jack costume since many of the pre-fab ones are pretty goofy: 







But I actually found some a couple of Sallys that I like as-is.


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## Bruzilla (Jun 3, 2011)

I'm into moderation.  My Steelers are going into the playoffs and my Penguins are likely headed for another run at The Cup, so I'm totally focused on black and and gold for now. Black and orange will start in May.


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## Jack Skellington (Oct 25, 2005)

Halloween Scream said:


> Hmmm, a $600 owl would make me tip the scales back in favor of a raven. And of course, it is your namesake!
> 
> January 5th: Exhausted tonight from book club (ridiculous, I know, but it's hard work drinking wine and not discussing the month's read!). Took a few minutes to start looking at Jack and Sally costumes, but that's about it. I'll probably make my husband's Jack costume since many of the pre-fab ones are pretty goofy:
> View attachment 106841
> ...


LOL!

That's the exact same Jack costume I bought back in 2007. It's actually a very nice costume but it just will never look right on a properly nourished adult male. Jack is too long and spindly and you really need the mask to go with it. The mask is too hot to wear for any length of time so I did my face up just like the guy in the photo.

I do use the costume now when I set up Jack on a body frame with the mask and it looks a lot better then it did on me.

I will also say that the Sally costume did look very nice on my own Sally. My only complaint was that the wig was too orange in color. It should have been more subdued.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

On a high note, the parts for Raven's raven will start arriving on Tuesday. Hopefully the rest will be in by Friday...stinking not eligible for Amazon Prime shipping items! *grumble, grumble*  

Not to mention 10 sheets of Dow xps foam, 2 sheets of EPS foam, 20 studs, all of the fixings to make a hot wire foam scroll cutting table (Yay! No more emptying the shopvac of foam shards!), 2 buckets of drywall mud (I have a couple bags of dry, but 15 minute is way to fast for monster mud), a few sheets of 1/4" ply. No luck on mis-tinted paints at Lowes, going to check Home Despot mañana. Oh, that reminds me, I need another few sleeves of nails for my trim gun.


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Jack Skellington said:


> LOL! That's the exact same Jack costume I bought back in 2007. It's actually a very nice costume but it just will never look right on a properly nourished adult male.


That is funny! You're absolutely right, it's not that the costume is bad looking, it's the model in the picture. What is he doing?! Could he look any less like Jack Skellington with his goofy pose and dopey expression? I thought the same thing about the Sally wig - I'll probably try tea-staining it to dull it down.

January 6th: As I've mentioned in other posts, my mission for Halloween 2012 is fog - dense, thick, low-lying fog. I've already picked out my fogger and diligently add $5 each week to the "fog fund". Tonight I spent quite some time reading through old threads about chillers. I built a quick trash can chiller two years ago with abysmal results (just poor last-minute planning and construction on my part), and I know I'll need a proper chiller to stand up to my new machine. There are definitely strong opinions out there regarding the best low-lying fog method, but I think I have a basic plan in mind. I can't wait to start this build!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Halloween Scream said:


> TJanuary 6th: As I've mentioned in other posts, my mission for Halloween 2012 is fog - dense, thick, low-lying fog. I've already picked out my fogger and diligently add $5 each week to the "fog fund". Tonight I spent quite some time reading through old threads about chillers. I built a quick trash can chiller two years ago with abysmal results (just poor last-minute planning and construction on my part), and I know I'll need a proper chiller to stand up to my new machine. There are definitely strong opinions out there regarding the best low-lying fog method, but I think I have a basic plan in mind. I can't wait to start this build!



If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion. The one I'm planning on making is from this thread: http://www.halloweenforum.com/halloween-props/85309-reverse-flow-coffin-fog-chiller.html 

I've been looking for a better way for the past couple of years, and he has the best design I've seen yet.


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## halloweeny78 (Aug 15, 2011)

Awesome thread Halloween Scream! I don't think I'll ever be able to get rid of the "holy crap" time factor! There's just too many fine details for me to ever be truly "finished" with my haunt. While I may be happy with the results every year, there's always something I think of as I'm handing out candy to all the ToT's: "should have done this", "next year I'll change this this way", etc. The whole yard haunt is rather fluid for me. That is to say that there are sooooooooo many ideas lurking in the dank recesses of my addled mind and so very little time/money/space (small yard ... need a few fields to tackle all the ideas!) to do them all. It helps me to keep the display differing at least some what each year. Only problem is that my Jan. plans tend to go to pot as a result! 

Besides, picking a time to "start" implies I ever stopped in the first place! It never stops, it just simmers down a little once in a while. But it never stops!


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Raven's Hollow Cemetary said:


> If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion.


Oh. My. Goodness. Thank you so much for this suggestion! Previous plans are now out the window (I'll probably still use them on my smaller fog machine). I can't believe how well this works, and how cool it looks. I do have a few questions on the construction, it's too bad his pictures aren't up anymore that show the close-up of the insides. This is fantastic, and now I'm even more excited for Mission: fog. 

January 7th: After a fabulous suggestion from Raven's Hollow Cemetery, I completely overhauled my plans for my fog chiller. Since it will now come in the form of a coffin, I started researching how to build the perfect toe pincher.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Halloween Scream said:


> Oh. My. Goodness. Thank you so much for this suggestion! Previous plans are now out the window (I'll probably still use them on my smaller fog machine). I can't believe how well this works, and how cool it looks. I do have a few questions on the construction, it's too bad his pictures aren't up anymore that show the close-up of the insides. This is fantastic, and now I'm even more excited for Mission: fog.
> 
> January 7th: After a fabulous suggestion from Raven's Hollow Cemetery, I completely overhauled my plans for my fog chiller. Since it will now come in the form of a coffin, I started researching how to build the perfect toe pincher.


You are very welcome!  I have another that may help you on your quest. Haunt Project has a few great links for coffin's, including one of the best executed toe pincher's I've come across. Screaming Scarecrow did an oustanding job on his rotted toe pincher. I would recommend building the frame, then skinning it with plywood for usage as a fog chiller. Then using his plans as a decorative finish, so to speak, for the reverse flow to be most effective. It's the only flaw in the original execution imo, to many leaks. Here, have a peek! 












...and the plans are here: http://screamingscarecrow.com/halloween-related-stuff/halloween-props/the-toe-pincher-coffin/

Plus, the original casket project directory from Haunt Project: http://www.hauntproject.com/projdetail.asp?category=Coffins

Hope that gets you off to a good start


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Bruzilla said:


> I'm into moderation.  My Steelers are going into the playoffs and my Penguins are likely headed for another run at The Cup, so I'm totally focused on black and and gold for now. Black and orange will start in May.


I believe in moderation as well, which is why I'm doing just a tiny bit each day instead spending entire weekends working on Halloween projects in the fall. Oh, and I'm a huge Broncos fan, and it's always orange and blue around here! Sorry, I just couldn't resist.  

January 8th: Since the majority of the day was devoted to watching the Broncos win their playoff game, I had just enough time to sign up for "Spirit of the Zombie Pumpkins" carving pattern site. This site has about a dozen amazing Nightmare Before Christmas patterns which I plan to use on Funkins (for some reason, carving pumpkins is the one thing about Halloween that I just can't stand - I'm hoping I'll like the Funkins a whole lot more). I printed the first two patterns that I plan on using:


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

...and those are the reasons why I kept going after Halloween. So I don't have the last minute crunch, which is the source of much annoyance to many (including me). Just like you HS, a bit here & there, and the last month or so before the big day is much less stressful imo. The goal is that I can spend the day actually enjoying my birthday all day, instead of waiting until nightfall for the fun to begin.  

Besides which, my goal is to get back up to par after losing so much. So if I plug away diligently at it all this year, the successive years will be all the smoother.  Those Zombie Pumpkin's patterns are sweet btw, HS!


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## Jack Skellington (Oct 25, 2005)

Halloween Scream said:


> Oh, and I'm a huge Broncos fan, and it's always orange and blue around here! Sorry, I just couldn't resist.


Congratulations on your win against the Steelers!


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## chinclub (Oct 6, 2011)

I didn't have any thoughts of Halloween until my phone alerted me that my old Craigslist search for Halloween got a hit. Turns out someone nearby was selling his entire collection after years of haunted hayrides. Unfortunately, we got there a little late for the life size props but we bought everything else. That got us thinking. Here is our current plan. Big Halloween Party for our two teens and their friends. The highlight will be the haunt. We plan to turn our huge carport into a haunted maze. When they exit that they will board the hay ride that goes through 10 acres. That is a big undertaking.

And just like that we went from way ahead of schedule to extremely behind!! We have our hayride path mapped out and our major hayride scene ideas but I have no ideas yet for the maze.

My short list is:
plan maze
cut hayride paths now while everything is dead and then every few weeks during summer so they are manageable come October.
Build two wooden structures out of fallen logs now while snakes are hibernating.
Build as many life size props as possible
Build big cemetery stones and possible columns.


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## ActionJax (Oct 31, 2011)

Wow great thread!

This is my first year, so I've to a lot of catching up and creating to do. My wife and I plan on a big Halloween party at our house. We've decided to go with the classic Universal Monster Horror theme. I'm Dracula with my bride (the wife of course) and my 13 year old daughter wants to get into the act, as the Daughter of Dracula of course. 

We're going to come up with some kind of creative invite for our friends, encouraging them to come in classic monster costumes (but of course anything would be fine.)

Now the real work is getting the house to look just right. I've got rather a large back yard. The only thing is its not very scary. No trees or things like that. So I'm planning on doing a lot of building. Here's the plans so far.

1. Cemetery gates
2. Colums
3. Sign
4. Fence
5. Monster mud reaper
6. Monster mud Frankenstein Monster (maybe)
7. PVC Candles
8. LED spot lights
9. Laser Vortex
10. Crypt
11. Exterior Walls/Castle facade/display
12. Gas/propane firepit (don't want smoke, but I do want heat for my guests)
13. Fog chiller
14. Buy some skeletons
15. Build as many creative tombstones and interesting cemetary displays as I can.

My wife is going to decorate the inside of the house. I'm responsible for the outside. Still not sure if I'm going to try and fix up the 2 car garage or not. Was thinking of making this into a dungeon of sorts, but that would mean a lot more work. (I think I've got quite a bit cut out for me. LOL)

And on top of all of this, I'm working with another local theatre production to produce my version of Bram Stoker's Dracula for the stage. I did this show about 8 years and it was quite a success. Very close to the book and very scary I think.

Hoping that I'm going to be able to get everything done. So needless to say, I'm starting everything right after my wife and I get back from our cruise. We leave for the Bahamas the last week in January. When we get back, its all work, every weekend. 

I know I'll be checking back to this forum all the time.


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

ActionJax said:


> So I'm planning on doing a lot of building. Here's the plans so far...


Looks like you have your work cut out for you ActionJax! I'm glad this thread has helped some people start their planning early.

January 9th: Although I'm very much in the planning/dreaming stage for Halloween 2012, I'm excited to actually start a build. I plan on making a life-size Oogie Boogie for the party, and today I searched the web for ideas. Several people have been successful making convincing costumes, the hardest part being construction of the face. I laid out the burlap I purchased (last September, one of the many projects that got bumped as time ran out) and started thinking proportions. I'll probably start building in a few days!


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## Si-cotik (Aug 12, 2009)

ravens hollow! very nice ideas you have! and cant wait to see pics when you get started. but how in the world do you manage an animated shovel digging a grave? my brain seems to be malfunctioning tonight and cant wrap the idea.

on side note, everyone has great ideas!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Si-cotik said:


> ravens hollow! very nice ideas you have! and cant wait to see pics when you get started. but how in the world do you manage an animated shovel digging a grave? my brain seems to be malfunctioning tonight and cant wrap the idea.
> 
> on side note, everyone has great ideas!



Thanks! I have a few more I want to do, but I'm not sure that with everything I have on tap, I'll have enough time to get to them. No worries about getting started, I really only took a break on the week of Christmas. The obelisk project is nearing completion, and up next is the gate/column's/fence of which I already have all the materials needed. I've been purchasing materials like mad over the last week, and today, the parts for the animatronic raven are due to start arriving.  


On the animated shovel, think of the shovel rocking back & forth as though loosening the soil right before you pull the plug of earth from the ground. It's a pretty simple animation really, just a shovel with it's tip cut off, and attached by a hinge to a piece of flat bar with a hidden wiper motor for power. Not to scary in and of itself, just a background effect for ambiance...unless your imagination takes hold, and considers what unseen hand may be rocking that shovel!


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## Si-cotik (Aug 12, 2009)

yessss.....that makes sense


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Ten days in to the new year - is everyone staying on track and doing something Halloween related every day (besides logging time in the forum, of course)?

January 10th: I used my trusty Cricut machine to cut epitaph patterns for most of my tombstones. Last Halloween I was running behind and had barley enough time to throw on some gray dryloc the day of the party just so I could set them up. This year, the stones will have carved lettering and be appropriately aged.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Lol! Yeah, well we all know how my afternoon went! But, UPS delivered my micro maestro servo controller for my animated raven project around 9 pm, and I've been playing around, learning the programming & testing servos since then. So lol, I'd say the answer would be yes!  The raven decoy will be here tomorrow, and hopefully the rain will be done for by the a.m., and I can get what I'd planned to do today, done then. 

Edit/ 901 posts??? I am such a spammer 

Edit #2/ The raven decoy just arrived, and holy ****. It sounds like an entire murder of crows/ravens fussing! Still waiting on the ball links, the 4-40 all thread rods for the heavier linkage, & u-joint. Those are coming from Amazon vendors, and they sent them on the slow truck it seems. :/ I'm not sure why the raven looks shiny & lacks detail in the pic, it certainly looks much better irl.


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

The raven looks great Raven's Hollow! Can't wait to see it all completed. 

January 13th: Very successful start to my Oogie Boogie prop. I've finished the entire body and only have the head left to do. I didn't realize hand-stitching would take so long, but the end result should be great!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Thanks! I can't wait either, but it has to. I have to finish my obelisk revamp project, and then the columns/gates/fence, just to make some room to work in the garage. Because atm, it is pretty crowded with the materials for those projects lying around. 


Ooooh!! Pics, need pics of Oogie Boogie! Wanna seeeeeee!!!


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## halloweeny78 (Aug 15, 2011)

Halloween Scream: I'd love to see some pics of your Oogie Boogie! That hand stitching sounds awesome! Somebody's paying attention to detail!

Raven's Hollow: Looking forward to your raven project (and many others). Your animated shovel idea is a nice touch. It's little details like that that can make all the difference! If you're amenable to the idea I wouldn't mind using it by my "fresh grave". I usually hang the lantern off of the shovel, but I can just as easily rest it on the tombstone instead.

To all: Glad to hear somebody's on track in the new year! Seems like I'm still pulling holiday hour shifts. It may be adding to my bank account (slightly! ) but it's really cutting in to my prop time (and my sleep time, family time, life .... )!

**Sorry about the liberal use of exclamation marks. Must have had too much coffee this morning!!!!!!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

By all means Halloweeny, feel free to use it. It's not an original idea of mine, not that I'm adverse to sharing even if it was!  I was considering putting it next to my breathing grave, but I think that one would take away from the other. So a freshly dug grave would be a grand place to use it imo. I fully agree though, the devil is in the details, no doubt. 

Sorry to hear about the lack of project/family/sleep time/etc... Hopefully, the extra funds offsets the inconvenience. 

Too much coffee? No such thing!


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## halloween71 (Apr 22, 2007)

Raven's Hollow Cemetary said:


> Thanks! I have a few more I want to do, but I'm not sure that with everything I have on tap, I'll have enough time to get to them. No worries about getting started, I really only took a break on the week of Christmas. The obelisk project is nearing completion, and up next is the gate/column's/fence of which I already have all the materials needed. I've been purchasing materials like mad over the last week, and today, the parts for the animatronic raven are due to start arriving.
> 
> 
> On the animated shovel, think of the shovel rocking back & forth as though loosening the soil right before you pull the plug of earth from the ground. It's a pretty simple animation really, just a shovel with it's tip cut off, and attached by a hinge to a piece of flat bar with a hidden wiper motor for power. Not to scary in and of itself, just a background effect for ambiance...unless your imagination takes hold, and considers what unseen hand may be rocking that shovel!


With all these great projects I hope you will post tuts for them please.


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Here's a shot of Oogie Boogie so far. The picture in the center is the Oogie pose I was going for, and of course I will be adding dice and his head! Note my ever-present helper Stella, who thinks every Halloween prop I make is something new for her.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

halloween71 said:


> With all these great projects I hope you will post tuts for them please.


I won't make promises that I can't keep, but there will be at least a few how-to's coming, for sure.  I have a really bad habit of getting involved in projects, and forgetting to take progress pics. I wish I had a few more vid cams to set up around my workspace, or even someone to act as a dedicated photographer...because once the wheel gets started, I just keep on rolling.  Speaking of, time to get back on it.  




Halloween Scream said:


> Here's a shot of Oogie Boogie so far. The picture in the center is the Oogie pose I was going for, and of course I will be adding dice and his head! Note my ever-present helper Stella, who thinks every Halloween prop I make is something new for her.
> 
> *snip*


Oooooh, COOL! *swoons* Oogie Boogie is going to be awesome!


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## NOWHINING (Jul 25, 2009)

right now i am thinking up what i would like to be for Halloween this year. I am really thinking zombie prom queen and zombie arent my thing.....


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## halloweeny78 (Aug 15, 2011)

Oogie Boogie looks great so far! Can't wait to see the finished prop! Keep up the great work!


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Thank you for the Ooogie Boogie compliments! The goal is to get him done by the end of next week. Originally I thought I could stuff him with newspaper, but not only is the shape off but you can see it through the white burlap. So...

January 15th: Not much to report today, but I did spend some time budgeting my time/money for the year (aiming for one major prop per month), I ordered polyfill stuffing for Oogie Boogie, and placed a major order for something very exciting (to me, at least) that I will keep secret until it arrives and I can take pictures {evil laugh}. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

^ Your welcome Halloween Scream! Hope you had a great weekend too!  Ooooh, secretive! I like surprises! 


I made a good bit of progress this weekend. I spent the remaining daylight hours yesterday framing up, & building the table top for my hot wire foam scroll table after skinning the obelisk with mash board (and waiting for glue to dry). 


A little more work is necessary on the table top, just some finish sanding. The arm is attached & braced (very solidly, you can pick the entire table up by the arm w/ nearly no flex present), and I'll fire up the router to groove the arm for the cable to nest inside of it tomorrow. I assembled the transformer/master power switch/dimmer(heat control), after it got a little too cool to be comfortable after the sun went down and came inside. Up next is cutting the hole in the table top, and fabbing the lower clip to affix the ni-chrome wire to. She'll be ready to cut foam directly, YAY!  


Yeah, I'm excited about not having to vacuum up foam shards quite so often! Sue me! 


I'm at a momentary pause with the obelisk because of one thing not going according to plan. The way I intended to make the buttons for the mp3 player I've hacked into the control panel, failed miserably with the chuck shattering the lucite. I wanted them to be translucent, so that I could back light them w/ some led's that would light up when you open the panel, via a hidden micro switch. That way, if an adjustment was needed in the dark, no problem. No disruptive flashlight beams to see with. Or, that was the plan. 


Unless someone has a suggestion on a mold release agent that hot glue won't bond to, I'm going to have to get another acrylic or lucite/perspex rod to mill down for the control buttons. Something I don't want to do, because with the amount that I need (literally, 15 grams or less), it would only be a waste to buy an entire rod for. Ideas needed, because I can't attach the switch framework until the button problem is solved. :/


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## osenator (Nov 3, 2009)

Shoot, I was planning to start on a project, but at -29 degrees (-20.2 degree Fahrenheit for you yanks) in the Garage, where all the stuff I need it, forget it! That is sadly something we Canadiens can't do much, work on Halloween stuff untill May (well, most of us)! (L)


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

osenator said:


> Shoot, I was planning to start on a project, but at -29 degrees (-20.2 degree Fahrenheit for you yanks) in the Garage, where all the stuff I need it, forget it! That is sadly something we Canadiens can't do much, work on Halloween stuff untill May (well, most of us)! (L)


Yikes! It was "cold" in San Diego today - it only got to about 53 degrees (I'm originally from Colorado and for the last 10 years have secretly rolled my eyes when everyone here breaks out parkas and scarves on days like this). I hadn't thought about people who couldn't work on certain Halloween projects because it's too cold!

January 16th: Oogie Boogie's head is proving to more difficult than originally anticipated. I ended up having to sew wires inside the burlap to give him some shape and look less flat. As of now, hard to tell if the proportions are right or not.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

osenator said:


> Shoot, I was planning to start on a project, but at -29 degrees (-20.2 degree Fahrenheit for you yanks) in the Garage, where all the stuff I need it, forget it! That is sadly something we Canadiens can't do much, work on Halloween stuff untill May (well, most of us)! (L)



Well, you should winter down here. We'd be glad to have ya! Although nighttime temps have been mostly in the 24 -41F (-4.4 - 5C for you Canucks ) range for the last week or so. Daytime temps have been hovering in the mid 60's (18 C)to low 70's (about 23 C). Perfect t-shirt weather during the day!  Like I said to HalloweenScene, it's alright though. Because during the sweat lodge you would refer to as summer, it's too hot to work here. It all evens out. 



Halloween Scream said:


> Yikes! It was "cold" in San Diego today - it only got to about 53 degrees (I'm originally from Colorado and for the last 10 years have secretly rolled my eyes when everyone here breaks out parkas and scarves on days like this). I hadn't thought about people who couldn't work on certain Halloween projects because it's too cold!
> 
> January 16th: Oogie Boogie's head is proving to more difficult than originally anticipated. I ended up having to sew wires inside the burlap to give him some shape and look less flat. As of now, hard to tell if the proportions are right or not.


 I did my boot camp in San Diego, graduated on Dec. 24th as a matter of fact. Seems like forever ago, prolly because it was.  I like the winters there better than here, the lower humidity there is nice! Because, when it does get cold here, the wind blows that wet cold right through anything except a lined leather jacket. Down ski jackets? No match for the humid cold. The only place I've ever been that had a more miserable cold was in the North Sea in January, right at the Arctic Circle...and that suuuuuucked!!! Boy, do I have some stories to tell about that one, and the frostbite I got. Needless to say, I'm not a fan of cold like I was when I was a kid. :S

As for Oogie Boogie, I'm sure you'll get it. *hugs* Anyone who could pull off that cool jellyfish costume can do anything!


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## Crematory (Oct 6, 2011)

My neighbors think I'm crazy thinking about Halloween already but I love it! Nice to see some people with similar interests and passion.


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Crematory said:


> My neighbors think I'm crazy thinking about Halloween already but I love it! Nice to see some people with similar interests and passion.


 Until I joined this forum I did not think it was acceptable to start thinking about Halloween before September! Boy am I glad those days are over. The people here are amazing.

January 17th: For over two years since we moved here, I've driven past an old cemetery that sits across the street from one of the original California missions, in a pretty high traffic area but up on a hill. I knew that it was not part of the mission, but didn't know anything else about it. Today I decide was the day to check it out! Quite a strange mix, I do have to say. About three dozen markers or so, most of the stones were old, from the late 1800s (I know this isn't that old compared to you East coasters and your awesome graveyards), but there were a couple of newer stones from the 1960s and one from a police officer in 2006. Some the markers were marble, there were several wooden crosses, and some of the oldest ones were made of concrete (obviously replicated). The place was in horrible condition. Weeds everywhere, and it had really bad signs of vandalism (tipped stones, missing toppers, broken crosses, lots of trash). It was creepy, but not in the good "spirits are around us" way, but in an "I hope those homeless guys don't come any closer" way. I had to research it when I got home and this is what I found out - it was the original non-catholic graveyard for mission pioneers. In stark contrast to the pristine mission cemetery, this one was never really "owned" by anyone and therefore never really taken care of. The newer headstones are descendants of the original settlers who wanted to be buried by their family members. It's estimated that over 120 people are buried there, although most of the stones have been stolen. I took a few pictures, including this one of the most notable headstone. Beautiful, isn't it? What's crazy is that I read that it was stolen in the 1980s (it weighs 500 pounds), and was missing for almost 10 years until a lady called the police saying she'd had it sitting in her yard as a lawn ornament, and that she bought it for $100, not knowing what it really was. I'm glad I finally took the time to check this little cemetery out, it's just too bad what's happened to it over the years!


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## HallowSusieBoo (Aug 11, 2009)

*This is really an incredible cemetery story Halloween Scream! Maybe you were drawn there for a reason! You could launch a campaign to help get the grounds protected. That tree stone is incredible! I wonder if the region's historical society has any info or interest in raising funds to protect and maintain it. 
Thanks for sharing...*


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## HallowSusieBoo (Aug 11, 2009)

chinclub said:


> I didn't have any thoughts of Halloween until my phone alerted me that my old Craigslist search for Halloween got a hit. Turns out someone nearby was selling his entire collection after years of haunted hayrides. Unfortunately, we got there a little late for the life size props but we bought everything else. That got us thinking. Here is our current plan. Big Halloween Party for our two teens and their friends. The highlight will be the haunt. We plan to turn our huge carport into a haunted maze. When they exit that they will board the hay ride that goes through 10 acres. That is a big undertaking.
> 
> And just like that we went from way ahead of schedule to extremely behind!! We have our hayride path mapped out and our major hayride scene ideas but I have no ideas yet for the maze.
> 
> ...




*PICS PLEASE!!! Can't wait to see what you do with your great bargains!!*


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Halloween Scream said:


> Until I joined this forum I did not think it was acceptable to start thinking about Halloween before September! Boy am I glad those days are over. The people here are amazing.
> 
> January 17th: For over two years since we moved here, I've driven past an old cemetery that sits across the street from one of the original California missions, in a pretty high traffic area but up on a hill. I knew that it was not part of the mission, but didn't know anything else about it. Today I decide was the day to check it out! Quite a strange mix, I do have to say. About three dozen markers or so, most of the stones were old, from the late 1800s (I know this isn't that old compared to you East coasters and your awesome graveyards), but there were a couple of newer stones from the 1960s and one from a police officer in 2006. Some the markers were marble, there were several wooden crosses, and some of the oldest ones were made of concrete (obviously replicated). The place was in horrible condition. Weeds everywhere, and it had really bad signs of vandalism (tipped stones, missing toppers, broken crosses, lots of trash). It was creepy, but not in the good "spirits are around us" way, but in an "I hope those homeless guys don't come any closer" way. I had to research it when I got home and this is what I found out - it was the original non-catholic graveyard for mission pioneers. In stark contrast to the pristine mission cemetery, this one was never really "owned" by anyone and therefore never really taken care of. The newer headstones are descendants of the original settlers who wanted to be buried by their family members. It's estimated that over 120 people are buried there, although most of the stones have been stolen. I took a few pictures, including this one of the most notable headstone. Beautiful, isn't it? What's crazy is that I read that it was stolen in the 1980s (it weighs 500 pounds), and was missing for almost 10 years until a lady called the police saying she'd had it sitting in her yard as a lawn ornament, and that she bought it for $100, not knowing what it really was. I'm glad I finally took the time to check this little cemetery out, it's just too bad what's happened to it over the years!



Wow! Great pic & a wonderful historical read, thank you!  

On the subject of that particular tombstones story: I hope the police weren't so stupid as to fall for her excuse of "not knowing what it really was". Seriously?!? Whilst Woodmen of the World grave stones are not extraordinarily common, you'd think she might have gotten a clue from name, or death date? Actually, I'd say that she knew full well what it was, and probably decided she didn't want it anymore. I would have heavy doubts thinking that she doesn't know the perpetrators were, if she wasn't in fact a party to the crime directly. :/ 

Graveyard defacing/vandalism is a subject that does, and always has gotten my ire up.


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

HallowSusieBoo said:


> *This is really an incredible cemetery story Halloween Scream! Maybe you were drawn there for a reason! You could launch a campaign to help get the grounds protected. That tree stone is incredible! I wonder if the region's historical society has any info or interest in raising funds to protect and maintain it.
> Thanks for sharing...*


If I could clone myself, I'd definitely get on board. Just not enough hours in the day right now! I did look into making a donation to the group that tries to maintain it, and will volunteer at the next cleanup.

January 19th: I stuffed Oogie Boogie, so he's no longer flat but starting to take the shape of a turkey. I made good progress on his face, which now looks exactly like the sorting hat from Harry Potter. Tomorrow I hope to combine the turkey and sorting hat into a great Oogie Boogie.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Awesome! Glad to hear he's coming along HS!  Btw, "I stuffed Oogie Boogie" just sounds all kinds of wrong out of context! Lol!


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## Dark Passenger (Aug 22, 2011)

Your Oogie Boogie's looking excellent, Halloween Scream, I can't wait to see him when he's finished.

Raven's Hollow Cemetary, LOL, I prefer to attach that phrase to an image of Oogie about to get shoved in an over for dinner—then again, he's made of bugs, so the ick-factor is still high.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Oogie Boogie updates?


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

January 24th: I've MIA for a few days since I've been without a computer - hopefully I'll get it back tonight! But I have been dutifully working on Halloween projects. I have to wait for more fiberbill to finish Oogie Boogie, but I did finish the stitching on his head. While I'm waiting, I started on the paper bats that will hang from the ceiling in the entryway. My goal is to cut at least 20 bats a month from now until October. My husband, who generally is 100% on board with Halloween ideas thinks this is excessive and that a few dozen should be enough. He doesn't understand my vision, that I want the entire space to be filled. I want a plethora of bats, if you will .


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Sorry to hear about the puter troubles.  Too bad you aren't local, building/repairing/modifying them is what I do for fun & profit nowadays. I build monsters, not just for H'ween... 


El Guapo: Jefe, a plethora is not excessive! 

Jefe: Of course not El Guapo... Forgive me, but what is a plethora?   


On a serious note, Idk what you are planning. But I'm certain that it will be filled with awesome batty goodness!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

I just figured I'd post a couple of teaser pics of one of the projects I'm working on atm. This is the control panel w/ built in *and hacked* mp3 player and the master power switch for a GFI protected power distribution center & LED mini wash lights power. All of which resides with a subwoofer, inside of my obelisk tombstone (yes, the one with the carpet moss ). I couldn't justify buying another piece of lucite rod to machine the buttons out of, so instead I just used a piece of oak dowel I had lying about.  Still have to do a little clean up on the face plate, but it's pretty well ready to mount otherwise. The wood framework is the extension to the original base. 











...and behind the scenes. 











For reference on the size of the mp3 player, that is a 3.5mm mini plug


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

January 28th: Man this month is flying by! I figured I better get moving and finish my first project to stay on target of one major-ish thing per month. Oogie Boogie is almost done! I set him up to take a quick picture. His head isn't fastened on so he's a little crooked and a bit out of proportion. Tomorrow I plan on spraying him with a matt finish before I apply Krylon Glowz. All that's left after that is his black eyes and mouth and a few detail tweaks!









I can't wait to see what becomes of those pictures Raven's Hollow!


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## halloweeny78 (Aug 15, 2011)

Oogie's looking great HS! Nice pooch too! You really don't see too many Cavaleir's around these days, at least not in my neck of the woods.


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Thank you Halloweeny! No, not too many Cavalier's around here either. She's my faithful helper, although she thinks every prop I make is something new for her. I'm sure if I laid Ooogie Boogie down flat she'd nestle right in thinking I made her a bed.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Oogie's really coming along HS! Nice job on the brow arch! Adorable pup too!  I know what you mean about the month flying by! Maybe I'm being a little to strict on myself, but I feel like I could have gotten more done by now. (Re-)Engineering on fly is never a quick process. So I suppose I'm due a little slack. When I post the full pics of the frame work, you guys will understand perfectly. 


Progress Report

I start skinning the obelisk tomorrow, then applying the carpet moss. Everything is wired up, and in perfect working order. I intentionally tripped the GFI this afternoon, just to make sure it's operational before applying the skin, because I'd have to tear it apart if it didn't trip into protection mode. That is no good, very not good! So yeah, testing was a necessity! In between the layers of moss drying on the obelisk, I'll be working more on the columns/gate/fence


...and I started on the raven.  I dissected the raven's body and laid out all the pattern's on the aluminum a little while ago. All of the 10mm diffused red LED's I ordered for his(her?) eyes came in late this afternoon, hence the motivation to get underway. All parts are in house, it's time to motor!


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## Dark Passenger (Aug 22, 2011)

Oogie Boogie already looks so expressive; he's on his way from awesome to outstanding.


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

I have most of this built already, I really won't need it till October (I am open almost Every night of the entire year), I now have a brand new hiding place from which I can scare some of my October hired help!
Every Haunt owner should have such a thing. You will feel so much better afterwards!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Agravating Day

After I'd posted last night, I realized I'd forgotten to extend the speaker connections from the amplifier, and make the mounting plate for the RCA outputs. The external speakers are designed to be a simple plug & play affair, and I may have mentioned before, but I'm trying to make everything as modular as possible for ease of set-up/tear-down. 

So I fabbed the mounting plate, modified a nice set of RCA to 1/8" mini plug cables to RCA male on one end, and females on the other. Sleeved & heat-shrinked everything and ran it through it's (I thought) final test. Worked perfectly after plugging in the 1st speaker, but the second...that caused a problem. Most RCA to 1/8" plugs like you'd use with an mp3 player/portable cd player/etc use a common ground wire, and a separate "signal" wire. It turns out, this particular amplifier doesn't like a common ground on the output. The result was that it would only play through one of the external speakers at a time. 


Oh happy, happy, joy, joy! <- Sarcasm, in case anyone missed it.  Yeah, that's not gonna work. I designed it for 2.1 sound, and I want's it. -_-


So I spent an additional hour removing the custom cables, looking for parts, and making a new one that has separate ground wires. Yay! :/ In any case, I didn't get to start skinning the frame because of the unexpected problem. Although now, it's fully ready for the next phase.


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Dark Passenger said:


> Oogie Boogie already looks so expressive; he's on his way from awesome to outstanding.


Thank you! "Expressive" is exactly what I was going for. I wanted something that captured Oogie Boogie's attitude - hopefully that will be the end result!

Raven's Hollow: So sorry you had an aggravating day! Your project sounds amazing, and complicated. I have a degree in marine biology and make children's clothing for a living - technical builds are not my strong suit. I admit, sometimes I have to google multiple things after reading your posts. But I'll cheer you on, okay? Don't give up! Tomorrow will be better! It will be so worth it in the end! Everyone struggles with mounting plates and making their amplifiers like common ground (I have no idea what that means)! Okay, most people don't because they'd never attempt something so awesome.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Halloween Scream said:


> Raven's Hollow: So sorry you had an aggravating day! Your project sounds amazing, and complicated. I have a degree in marine biology and make children's clothing for a living - technical builds are not my strong suit. I admit, sometimes I have to google multiple things after reading your posts. But I'll cheer you on, okay? Don't give up! Tomorrow will be better! It will be so worth it in the end! Everyone struggles with mounting plates and making their amplifiers like common ground (I have no idea what that means)! Okay, most people don't because they'd never attempt something so awesome.



 You know just what to say to make someone smile. I really did laugh! I'd bet my left hand on the fact that you are (or will be?) an awesome mom!  


Btw, if I get a little too technical: just give me a resounding smack, and tell me to speak English  If you really want to make me laugh, just yell it with a Chinese accent "YOU SPEEK ENGRISH NAO!" Lol! 

(To whom it may concern: I have a lot of Asian friends. So please, don't take that personally. Because they would'nt) 


I'm not discouraged, Halloween Scream (but thanks for the support, it means a lot! ). I'm the indomitable type, but I don't bottle up how I'm feeling. The one that if I can't get to the top of the mountain; by climbing, driving, flying, parachuting, walking, crawling, or riding to the peak. I'll level the mountain to bring the peak down to me. Yelling right after: "I win! Now, gimme my money"! Lol!


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## Mr.Fright (Aug 5, 2011)

Same here,

Last year i had to work my *ss of beacause i started to late.

I started working on my plans for this years Halloween on the 5th january (just on time  )

This years theme will be: Vampires & Werewolves.

The invites are done and only have to be printed.

For my haunt ik have a huge wishlist but the blueprints are ready so i can start building the first week of february.

My list:

LED Spots: Blue, purple ( burnd the first one didn't realize that the transformes was set to 6V instead of 3,5 )
Green Vortex Laser (almost finished)
2 extra cemetary fences.
Castle like tunnel(entrance)
Animated tumb/crypt
Animated (biting) werewolf (motion triggerd)
Some new pillars
Cemetary gate
Fog chiller

In time i will probably add some more things to my list. As usual i get even more ideas while building something else 

Howerver is needs to be breathtaking this year! Last year i made it to the local paper with my haunt so this i wanna be on the local news atleast .


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Sounds great Mr. Fright  Can't wait to see how it progresses  


*Moved to the "Show us your stones* thread


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Oh, and btw. The extension takes it to a full height of 7 ft. 7 in.


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## halloweeny78 (Aug 15, 2011)

Halloween Scream said:


> Thank you Halloweeny! No, not too many Cavalier's around here either. She's my faithful helper, although she thinks every prop I make is something new for her. I'm sure if I laid Ooogie Boogie down flat she'd nestle right in thinking I made her a bed.


LOL! My cats are the same way! Absolutely everything that enters the house is viewed as something new for them!


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## halloweeny78 (Aug 15, 2011)

Sounds like everybody's moving right along, and light years ahead of me! While the actual construction is on hold at the moment (never seem to be home enough to actually lay my hands on anything!) the planning is in full swing. Actually, a swing is a perfect metaphor! Go forward, return to start, go forward, return to start, go ......  Pen & paper are my two best friends right now when it comes to planning. I've come up with several different ideas about re-doing the yard, just have to figure out which way to go. Maybe I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque ...


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Halloweeny78 - Excited to see your yard re-do plans! I love it when people do makeovers, especially when they switch themes.

January 31st: Well, I tried so hard to finish my first build by today. But I ran into a little problem - finishing Ooogie Boogie with glow-in-the-dark paint. I was going off of a website where the person made an awesome glowing Oogie costume. Their instructions said they used Krylon Glowz. Well, not only did it turn the white burlap a weird rusty red color (not that big a deal, since it's made to be seen under a black light), but it's splotchy and the color is waaaay off. It's kinda yellow, not at all green like their pictures. I can't go through all that work and then have him glow the wrong color! I should have stuck with my original plan to paint him with green glow-in-the dark fabric paint, which is what I'll do this week. I just hope that the paint will cover the horrible yellow spray paint evenly. 

But... I can't be too bummed out, not when this was delivered to my door (remember the post about the first major purchase of the year?)....


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Oh, that sooooo sucks Halloween Scream!  So sorry to hear that, and I really hope it works out in your favor in the end. *hugs* 

Nice compensation for the days troubles though!


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## halloweeny78 (Aug 15, 2011)

Say it ain't so Halloween Scream! Poor Oogie ... we hardly new ye. No fun going through all that work just to have that happen. I'm sure you'll be able to fix up the colours to your satisfaction. Like RHC said at least you had a nifty reward to brighten that dark cloud. _ <That's a neat word: "nifty". It's far too under-utilized. I might just have to bring it back!>_

As for my haunt I'm not sure if it really qualifies as a re-do. I don't have a set theme that I follow each year. Sometimes I repeat a theme simply because I enjoyed it that much, or just want to make some improvements and see how it looks, or life gets in the way and robs me of all my "Halloween Time" (prep time, construction time, testing time, etc.). I just find that there's sooooo much to choose from that I feel I'd be missing something if I didn't try another theme. My addled mind is chock full of all kinds of Halloween stuff (as many of ours are!) and I'd like to at least touch on the various themes. There's something to be said for seeing that prop that's been burrowing in your brain come to fruition. Besides, it keeps the kiddies (and neighbours) guessing. I like to keep them on their toes!


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## GhostTown (Jul 6, 2011)

I am resurrecting this thread, because today is our day.

We begin.

There may be cupids and cheezy hearts floating about on this day, but today is the first day of Halloween for us. The wife even wore her orange scrubs with the skeletons and spider webs to work today.

The workshop is organized and clean, materials are plentiful enough, ideas are settled on, skeletons are quivering, pumpkins are giggling, witches are cackling!!!!!!!

It's time to build.


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## GhostTown (Jul 6, 2011)

btw Halloween Scream......... I'm diggin' the 1800 flex you've got there. As you probably know, I bought one last year and it ROCKED.

Have you tested yours yet?


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## offmymeds (May 26, 2010)

Got anything built yet GhostTown??????


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## GhostTown (Jul 6, 2011)

Well.... I have to finish the day at work first, I suppose. 


THEN BUILD!!!!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

GhostTown said:


> btw Halloween Scream......... I'm diggin' the 1800 flex you've got there. As you probably know, I bought one last year and it ROCKED.
> 
> Have you tested yours yet?



Yeah, I should've bought one as well instead of the H-1100. It's ok though, I have a old workhorse Ness 700w and a couple of 400w spot foggers to back it up too. It gets the job done (Instant London pea soup anyone?)


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## Midnite Spookshow (Jan 25, 2012)

I'm late to the party but would like to join, if you guys dont mind  This is the second year I'm getting serious about my yard, I'm brand new to doing yard haunts (as in creating my own props) I've tried doing things in the past but nothing like what I'm about to get myself and my husband into  haha I think we had a good start last year. We started our cemetery, we had some store bought tombstones from michaels and target but want to expand our yard haunt even more! We also have regular lights and a blow up and it to me just looks too "commercial" but I want to increase the scare factor and make it more realistic. I also made other small props that will be completely revamped to make them more realistic. We don’t get a single TOT but we do throw an annual Halloween party  

I made cemetery entrance pillars but because of lack of time I didn't get to finish them, even though they were started in the beginning of August! I was having a hard time figuring out how to construct them and man do I wish I found this forum earlier. After all the work I put into them I don't want to start over, even though they were made of cardboard that was paper mached over (a ridiculous amount of layers) and some wood, they stood up to the weather as far as rain and snow because they were dry-lok coated but the wind is what did it One of them fell and the top part broke off so it's in need of repair, a design for the outside, and some aging  The hubby made the fence for our cemetery out of pallets we got for free from a local business and they turned out great, but unfortunately some of them broke when pounding them into the ground so they need to be repaired also. 

I also started on a design for a pumpkinrot inspired scarecrow and am probably going to start fresh with all the new knowledge I've gained. I already started a paper mache pumpkin head but will probably throw it away or give it to a friend... Thanks to the forum and the awesome people here I have quite a few ideas on how to accomplish this.

Heres my list for 2012: _(We aren't really choosing a theme, we just want to get established first, then move onto themes as the years progress)_

-Repair the cemetery fence and broken pillar
-Create a design for the pillars and add aging techniques
-Make as many pink foam tombstones as possible (have most my research done for designs and techniques)
-Make a solid pvc structure for Rosco (a previously made prop, he's only about 2.5 ft. tall)
-Figure out the layout for and make plans for the zombie kid/baby playground, I have some ideas but am getting stuck. Build the children/ zombify some baby dolls…I purchased a cozy coupe last year and a baby swing and have a tricycle I can use but need some more ideas on set-up. I was thinking about making some TOTs to place around the area too…
-Make/build Sam from Trick R Treat  This I’m really excited about! As well as his pumpkin from a funkin (maybe display him with the zombie playground? Not sure where to put him?) 
-Make some paper mache pumpkins (Stolloween style) 
-Re-design the pumpkin head scarecrow/ pumpkinrot inspired scarecrow and build! 
-Buy some lights for the cemetery/house/ props
-Make a large spider for the front of the deck 

That’s what I’ve come up with so far, I’m sure as the year goes on I’ll get some more ideas and the list will keep building lol We will see how much of this I can actually accomplish!

HS- I’m LOVING your oogie boogie! He looks fantastic! I’m totally jealous lol


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## GhostTown (Jul 6, 2011)

That's a hell of a list, LivingDeadGirl!


It's official....... Halloween has started within the GhostTown residence. The wife and I are bickering about how to tackle human spines, the beer is flowin'... good times!


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## Paint It Black (Sep 15, 2011)

LivingDeadGirl, as far as the zombie children go, I saw something pretty cool on this forum. There were a bunch of zombie kids in the upstairs window, looking like they were trying to escape. Their little arms looked like they were pounding on the window. LOL.


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

GhostTown said:


> I am resurrecting this thread, because today is our day.
> 
> We begin.
> 
> ...


Whoo hoo! Perfect time for me to get back on track (had to take a minor break to fill a boatload of Valentine's Day orders). I'm stoked to see your work this year GhostTown, I just love static harvest themes.

February 14th (Happy Valentine's Day!): So it looks like I'll be able to save Oogie Boogie with green glow-in-the dark fabric paint. The glow is nice and the paint gives him a wicked green color. The only problem is, I'll need about a dozen little bottles of the glow paint, which means several more trips to Michaels with coupons (I refuse to pay full price for the paint). I'll put up a picture as soon as I get him finished - now on to the next project! I have two weeks left to meet my deadline for the Nightmare Countdown Clock. Tonight I made a detailed project list and will start buying materials tomorrow.

P.S. - Glad to hear the 1800 rocked! I haven't tested mine yet, I'm using it as incentive to finish some yard projects. As soon as I finish the raised garden beds I'm breaking it out!


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Living Dead Girl 1031 said:


> HS- I’m LOVING your oogie boogie! He looks fantastic! I’m totally jealous lol


Thank you so much! Join the party and good luck tackling your list - can't wait to see your progress!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

@ LivingDeadGirl: W00T!! Sounds like my list! Good luck, and I hope you guys can pull it off! 


@ GhostTown: Cool!  I just know you two are going to pull off some major awesomeness this year...if last year was any indication. 


@ HalloweenScream: Awesome! Happy to hear that Oogie Boogie can be saved!  


My day: nothing done today unfortunately. I needed a relatively clear day to finish up the second pivot bracket for my raven, but the weather was uncooperative and being icky. With just enough wind & rain to keep me from being able to work. My thrust bearings are still on backorder status :/ Which is going to hinder progress if they don't ship in the next couple of days.


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## Midnite Spookshow (Jan 25, 2012)

Paint It Black said:


> LivingDeadGirl, as far as the zombie children go, I saw something pretty cool on this forum. There were a bunch of zombie kids in the upstairs window, looking like they were trying to escape. Their little arms looked like they were pounding on the window. LOL.


Haha that's a great idea! Definitely UPS the creepy factor! Thanks  

I'm excited to see everyone's progress, Now that I've posted I will be 100% committed and will do a little bit each day...this year I WILL be ready and set up much earlier than last year...Here's to keeping us motivated and committed!!


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## matrixmom (Oct 29, 2010)

*My little list!*

Well, I must work all the time compared to y'all....Because I would never have all this time to do everything on your lists! Wow. 

All I am doing is:
a better fence this year
entrance sign that I will be getting done from woodloom for my cemetery, and some more new stones from them too eventually, (there is no pink foam in florida!) ,
have already bought lots of new lighting, 
trying to figure out my layout since I have a circular driveway. 

Oh, and BTW try to secure my stuff from theivery! I had my baby jesus stolen from my nativity scene at christmas and now I am mad!!!!! (think electric fence?)


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

February 15th: Holy crap, what I thought would be a simple, 10-minute Halloween block of time today has turned into 2.5 hours and counting... I wanted to update my Gypsy firmware so that I could sync my new Halloween cartridge and continue cutting bats (I've committed to a 20-bat per month quota). I didn't realize I'd have to unload software, re-load software, wait, and wait, and wait. I'm afraid to go to bed until it's 100% complete. On the plus side, I did get another bottle of green glow paint today!


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## Dark Passenger (Aug 22, 2011)

Ah, good, I'd hoped for an Oogie Boogie update. Looking forward to seeing his triumphant return


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## Laurie S. (Dec 4, 2007)

This is OT...however, the Dark Passenger caught my eye. Very nice indeed. 

Nice to meet you!


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

January 19th: Hope everyone had a great weekend! Not too bad for today - put another bottle of glowing paint on Oogie and cut out half of my February bat quota. How's everyone doing?


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

We did thanks! I hope yours was great too! Didn't get nearly as much accomplished as I'd hoped; but that was mainly due to having my sister, brother-in-law, niece, & nephew staying here until tomorrow. A bit of a happy diversion from the norm.  

I did get the speaker relocated in the raven's body (while everyone was napping), which had to be done due to interference with the servo linkage. It came out pretty good, if I do say so myself.  Next on the tab is filling the holes in the original speaker grille, and re-flocking the grille entirely. I'd pop in a pic of it, but the Power Grab hasn't set up enough for me to be comfortable yet...so it will have to wait. Sorry 

I also changed the linkage connection to the neck a bit, because I wasn't totally satisfied with the initial prototypes range of head movement to the right. I'm still not certain that the configuration wont be revamped again before I'm happy with it.


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## Dark Passenger (Aug 22, 2011)

Laurie S. said:


> This is OT...however, the Dark Passenger caught my eye. Very nice indeed.
> 
> Nice to meet you!


I'm sure it won't surprise you to know that I love your avatar. Nice meeting you, too, Laurie S.


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Raven's Hollow - can't wait to see video of your raven in action.

February 22nd: Haven't felt much like working on the Halloweentown Countdown Clock, so I haven't. No need to start feeling burned out in February! Instead, I've done two more bottles of glowing paint on Oogie Boogie (he's so close to being done!) and started designing the save-the-dates for our party.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

HS: Me too! 

I'm having to give the Raven's sound & beak servo movement some serious reconsidering due to an unexpected development. I've been told there is a hum when using that Sparkfun triggerable mp3 player (ground loop probably), that occurs when it isn't playing. I'm on the fence about using an arguably; seriously overpriced bare bones mp3 player ($50!?!) that doesn't even have *any* onboard memory, much less, causes audible noise when it's not playing. Not that I don't have plenty of micro SD cards, mind you. There is a work around possible for the hum, but at that price you shouldn't have to use a work around imho...

It's about the principals of the matter, and thinking it over has chapped my hindquarters. :/ 

In any case, there is a backup plan. But, it does make for a few new problems with respect to mounting the raven on top of the cemetery arch over the main gates. Because of the aforementioned configuration changes, it will entail more than just the speaker and power cables running up through the legs. Which makes it entirely possible that I will have to have thicker (than anatomically correct) legs on him. 

Bugger all, I'm still not sure what I'm going to do about it.


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## oaklawn Crematory (Jun 25, 2010)

My plans this year are to expand my haunt. I have to build roughly (50) headstones. I have (33) done now. These are primarily to replace all of my store bought headstones. I plan on Building new fence sections and repair the olds. 

I have to replace the roof on my mausoleum and build a new 2/3 scale version. I’m building two crypts and (3) new zombies using Midnight Studios and Monster Asylum prop heads. I just acquired the heads and expect to start in the second week of March. 

I need a new sound system and some kind of animated prop….not sure what…maybe a Creepy Cathy???

This is just the beginning…

Everyone takes a turn in the box….


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## Midnite Spookshow (Jan 25, 2012)

Sooo.... How was everyone's weekend? I can't believe we are in the final days of Feb. already! I got a little bit accomplished this weekend... I think it's safe to safe I'm in full swing now and got my hubby really excited too....he's talking about it more than I am now, of course I'm always thinking about it, I just don't want to drive him nuts/make him think I'm really crazy with all the halloween talk haha. We got our tickets for HauntCon Friday and I seriously can't wait! Wow was the workshop a mess  I got it all cleaned up and functional again...I can see the table top! 

On Thursday I received my Happy Hauntings cricut cartridge and I can say this is definitely my favorite one so far  So many things I can get started with it, and I'm thinking about using it for our invitations this year. So like Halloween Scream, I am going to set a quota every month of how many I am going to get done, I still need to play around with it though and I need a new sticky mat so I'm kind of stuck with it at the moment  Gotta make a trip out to Michael's, thankfully it's right next to my gym. 

I've never worked with Great Stuff before, so I bought a can and experimented on a small cauldron I had, just something little to put on our food table. It looks decent, I started to paint it with some glow yellow paint and I would like to pick up some glow green paint. I plan on putting a multi-colored mister in it for our party.

I bought 2 large baby dolls from walmart for $11.47 each (which is surprising, I haven't been able to find dolls that large for less than $30-40) yay! lol I plan on making them all zombified this week with the help of my hubby  I'm really looking forward to flea market season so I can pick up some more dolls and I want to get a mobile. They fit perfectly in the baby swing I bought last year  

Had some spare pvc pipe laying around so I cut them and started with some candles for the cemetery. I need to find a good place for tea lights, maybe somewhere online? I found a thread on friday about modifying the flame with silicon and would like to give that a try too...

So for the week, my goals are:
Transform the 2 babies
Buy some glow green paint and finish the cauldron
Spray paint the 5 candles I made.

I'll post pictures when I get home, of course instead of doing work I'm on the forum at work lol 

Raven's Hollow- sorry for the troubles you've been having  I'm sure you'll be able to find a work around without too much hassle  
oaklawn- sounds like a good list you got there, I can't wait to see your progress!
Halloween Scream-good to hear an update on Oogie! Those bats look awesome, what cartridge are you using?


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## grimreaper1962 (Jan 11, 2012)

Well unfortunately I do not have space at home to work on things as I rent and there is no room for anything to be left out. But once camping season starts then I start because that is where I do my Halloween decorating. My camp site plus we have a haunted woods and I am part of that and want to help make it bigger and better than ever. This year I am going to attempt at least 1 pneumatic prop. Wether it be set to trigger with a motion detector or a mat switch will have to be decided when we pick the layout. I am trying to find a cheap piece of thick plexiglass to have a person under it and light it up when they walk over. Also in my mind is a vibrating platform but I need to find a nice size motor that will take an offset cam. Plus we have all sorts of costumes that need to be organized and kept together. Lots of work before Sept 7th. Yep we have the haunted woods for 2 weekends in Sept before the camp ground closes early October.

Ken


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## beautifulnightmare (Oct 31, 2010)

That sounds fun grim!


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Living Dead Girl 1031 said:


> Sooo.... How was everyone's weekend? I can't believe we are in the final days of Feb. already! I got a little bit accomplished this weekend...


February 27th: Wow Living Dead Girl - you've had great progress so far! I took a little break (again) last week to do some camping/four wheeling, but it was completely worth it! Your post has re-motivated me. Today I put two more bottles of glowing pain on Oogie Boogie (he's getting so close!). I also cut the black felt for his mouth and eyes. I'm cutting bats from both the Happy Hauntings cartridge (love it) and the Chic & Scary cartridge (the ones in the picture are from Chic & Scary). I also need a new mat before I can continue. Tonight I plan to continue designing the save-the-dates.


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## Midnite Spookshow (Jan 25, 2012)

Well, there are definitely times that you need to take a break and it sounds like the one you took was very well worth it! I can't wait for the weather to break here so I can go camping  lol I just found out about the Chic & Scary cartridge yesterday so that's next on my list!


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## Midnite Spookshow (Jan 25, 2012)

The 2 new babies I bought that have NO idea what they've gotten themselves into 







What I already had: the baby swing, tricycle, and cozy coupe. I think I might want to paint the cozy coupe, maybe black and orange? I need to think of some ideas for it. Or...I could always leave it as it is lol 







Cauldron as is right now







This guy ....ugh, I'm about to just throw him away and start all over....This has been by far the most frustrating project to date. He was supposed to be the pumpkin head for my scarecrow but I'm not really happy with it. I was thinking about trying some of Stolloween's techniques? 







Candles that I made, still need to be painted







Started this one in January...probably be for one of my stones once finished


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## matrixmom (Oct 29, 2010)

Don't throw the paper mache guy---he looks good. USe him some where else in your haunt if you are not happy with him. That's would I would do.


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## Paint It Black (Sep 15, 2011)

I agree with matrixmom, the pumpkin-rot head looks great to me.


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## Daytonagp4 (Sep 19, 2011)

Well it's March.....and i've gotten some of the materials for my costume...nothing else so far for the Haunt.
Things i wanna get done,
-make my electric chair guy look more like and electricution not...well a slow boring one. 
-make more stones, i lost 2 to a storm last year ;(
- get material for th "lab" i need a doc with more chem set stuff
-fog chiller and a new fog machine are in this years list, mine took a crap last year.....
-I need MORE LIFESIZE FIGURES i only have 2 right now
- get a cage shaker....i have a steal cage that hangs in my tree. Well the tree will no longer be there soon and i need to make some sort of somthing to hold my cage with bucky inside shakin' it. I tried a off balance fan moter last year and it didn't give me the effect i was wanting....booo. 
Anyway there is more on that list but that is just a start. Any suggestions would be more than welcome!!!!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

LivingDeadGirl, I'm with MatrixMom & Paint it Black...I like the JOL head! But, if he's not living up to your expectations, you can retask him to something else.  Love the cauldron, candles, & the hippie flower power mache skull!  


HalloweenScream: No worries, even *I* take breaks  Albeit, last weekend was more of a business related break with a meeting in Atl. Hoping a contract comes out of that, but we'll see. 


On to business; While waiting on monster mud to dry on the obelisk, and paint to dry on the ravens belly cover I decided to work on something I'd been putting off for lack of a proper tool to tackle the project. I've been sitting on an idea I had last year for making a couple of the plate type grave markers just to add a little flavor to the atmosphere. The one thing that stopped me, was wanting a faux metal plate for the name, d.o.b., d.o.d., etc. Cutting such small letters was a little more work than I felt like tackling with a Dremel. However, since I made my hotwire, I've been itching to see exactly how fine I could cut with it. Well, my question is answered. It cut's pretty damned fine detail, and I am seriously impressed! Standard sized sharpie in the pic for scale reference:






































Still a little aging left to do, and the "metal" plaque to make, but it's nearly there. Manana chica.


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## Dark Passenger (Aug 22, 2011)

Keep the pumpkin head, Living Dead Girl. Frustration's warping your perception of how good he is


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## Midnite Spookshow (Jan 25, 2012)

Thank you all so much for the advice and comments!  I'll definitely keep him, just take a break from working on it until I am level headed and have some more patience haha It's still in the early stages and I know once I start to add the detail then it might come to life 

Daytona- Sounds like quite a list you got there! I like your idea with the cage  What are the 2 lifesize dummies you have now? 

Raven's Hollow- haha gotta love those hippie flowered paper towels!  I love your grave marker, and those letters turned out fantastic for how small they are!


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## Nixie (Sep 20, 2011)

Every year, I set out to not create a "holy crap" situation in October, but I get wrapped up in home improvement projects, kid stuff, etc... then as soon as summer starts winding down, I panic! I swore I wouldn't do it again this year, but here I am, knee deep in a basement remodel. Best of luck with your projects, they sound great!!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Living Dead Girl 1031 said:


> What are the 2 lifesize dummies you have now?


I have more than two lifesized...wait, do neighbors count? LOL! 




Living Dead Girl 1031 said:


> I love your grave marker, and those letters turned out fantastic for how small they are!



You should see them now. Those pic's were only the rough cut right off the hotwire, with flashing and trimming to proper height still needed. Now they are only 1/8" deep, and while the glue sets on the backing plate, they are drying with their 1st coat of primer.  Also, I replaced the broken "e" with a new one while I was at it


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Well ladies & gent's, I believe I've found the limits on size & detail with my hotwire (I think). I'd show you the "i" which is 1/2 the "3's" height, but the slightest breeze will send it flying off to never-never land, never to be seen again. So it's safely tucked into a Gladware container for the interim, until I glue them to the marker stone. I still need to clean up the flashing, but here it is with a dime next to it:










Oh, and the "L" from the name in the 1st line for perspective, which is only 1/2" tall:










Power being out yesterday for the majority of the day with the massive storm, and these exquisitely small foam letters taking more time to cut accurately, has led to me falling behind on the scheduled completed by time. Plus, intently peering at such small stuff will make you go cross eyed after a bit. Lol!


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## Scatterbrains (Nov 16, 2008)

Living Dead Girl 1031 said:


> This guy ....ugh, I'm about to just throw him away and start all over....This has been by far the most frustrating project to date. He was supposed to be the pumpkin head for my scarecrow but I'm not really happy with it. I was thinking about trying some of Stolloween's techniques?


That's AWESOME...Don't even think about tossing it. We seem to be our own harshest critics when things don't turn out exactly as planned.


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## Scatterbrains (Nov 16, 2008)

Raven's Hollow Cemetary said:


> Well ladies & gent's, I believe I've found the limits on size & detail with my hotwire (I think). I'd show you the "i" which is 1/2 the "3's" height, but the slightest breeze will send it flying off to never-never land, never to be seen again. So it's safely tucked into a Gladware container for the interim, until I glue them to the marker stone. I still need to clean up the flashing, but here it is with a dime next to it:
> 
> Power being out yesterday for the majority of the day with the massive storm, and these exquisitely small foam letters taking more time to cut accurately, has led to me falling behind on the scheduled completed by time. Plus, intently peering at such small stuff will make you go cross eyed after a bit. Lol!


Kudos,,,,I don't have the patience for that type of intricate detail


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Scatterbrains said:


> Kudos,,,,I don't have the patience for that type of intricate detail


Lol! Neither do I  I swear, if I *EVER* do something this scale again, it will be for $$$. It's a pain in the...


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Raven's Hollow - I love the lettering and I'm super impressed by the detail. Those plaques will look fantastic once they're done. It's the little things like this that make a haunt look so much more believable and realistic!

Living Dead Girl - I also thing your pumpkin head looks great. At the very least use it somewhere else.

Great work everyone! I'll be adding an update (hopefully) later today!


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## Midnite Spookshow (Jan 25, 2012)

Raven's Hollow- Haha Your neighbor's definitely count! Those are unbelieveably small, but with it being so intricate, it will look more authentic  

Scatterbrains- Thank you! and you're right we are the biggest critics when it comes to our work, but having another set of eyes looking at it makes a huge difference.  

Halloween Scream- Thank you! And I can't wait for your update!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Halloween Scream said:


> Raven's Hollow - I love the lettering and I'm super impressed by the detail. Those plaques will look fantastic once they're done. It's the little things like this that make a haunt look so much more believable and realistic!
> 
> Living Dead Girl - I also thing your pumpkin head looks great. At the very least use it somewhere else.
> 
> Great work everyone! I'll be adding an update (hopefully) later today!



Oooooh, can't wait to see Oooogiiie!! Thank you for the compliment, mi' lady! I'll say this, it's certainly not been as easy as the larger scale with the low temp cutting causing the letters to stick to the wire. I've had to re-cut a few due to warping because of that. I think I've got the technique down though, and have found a way to alleviate that.  





Living Dead Girl 1031 said:


> Raven's Hollow- Haha Your neighbor's definitely count! Those are unbelieveably small, but with it being so intricate, it will look more authentic



Lol!!! Thank you, it's the positive feedback that makes it all worthwhile.  If it comes out half as well as what I envisioned, I'll be relieved. We shall see!  



Progress: I gave the stanchion a very light dusting of metallic hammer finish brown, followed by a equally light dusting of flat black. While waiting on that, and the last exterior primer coat on the plaque to dry, I cut most of the rest of the letters for the saying under the date of death. Only a few left to do, and I think it's turning out excellent, but I'll post pics when completed for your seal of approval.  

Btw, this was intended as a try before I buy for the plaque to go on the obelisk.


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## Xane (Oct 13, 2010)

For the tiny letters, maybe next time you can find vinyl lettering, stick it onto the foam, and melt around it with a light misting of acetone. Not sure how well that would work with small letters or if it would undercut too much and leave you with a puddle of goo.


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## Daytonagp4 (Sep 19, 2011)

> Daytona- Sounds like quite a list you got there! I like your idea with the cage What are the 2 lifesize dummies you have now?


I have one old skelly that my grandma gave me and my other one is a bucky thats gore'd with plastic and stain. I do have the other electic chair guy but he's boring haha here is my setup.








Bucky in his cage and my crapola cemetery...
























this is the bucky thats in the cage now. all my other bones are just parts nothing complte


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Xane said:


> For the tiny letters, maybe next time you can find vinyl lettering, stick it onto the foam, and melt around it with a light misting of acetone. Not sure how well that would work with small letters or if it would undercut too much and leave you with a puddle of goo.



That would probably work fine, but in this application I decided to go with a more sturdy plate for the plaque to prevent any breakage due to high winds which we seem to be subject to most Halloweens. I used 1/8" mash board to make the plaque, and then added a layer of 1/4" wide, 1/8" thick mash board around the perimeter to form the frame. Then sealed it with 3 coats of exterior masonry paint for a primer coat of the base, and just put my last coat of sand and hammer finished brass color over it. Next up, is gluing down the epitaph, and priming all of the insides edges of the letters & numerals to protect them from melting when I spray them. 

It might seem like it's taking a bit, but I'm working on 4 projects simultaneously and dividing my attentions between them. When paint or adhesives are drying on one, I'll work on the others


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Update: 

Finally got the letters/numerals finished last night, glued them in place and gave them a coat of masonry paint to seal them so that the spraying won't melt them away. Still have one more primer coat to go, mostly to seal the bottom edge to protect the foam from the thinners in the final colors. I also really needed the extra adhesion from the paint to hold the extra fine small lettering in place while I cut out the centers of the letters with a dremel & a micro sized diamond burr bit. 


I did have a boo boo though. :/ While beginning to glue the very last word in place...I sneezed. Of course! <- note: Dripping w/ sarcasm *Throws up hands with a why me look* These tiny foam letters make down feathers feel heavy by way of comparison. And the sneeze blew the "s" and the dot for the last "i" off to Never neverland. Lol! After sorting though foam shards looking for 15 minutes on my hands & knees, I found the dot somehow, but not the "s". FYI, the last word is supposed to be "still". So, I'll cut another tomorrow before I drag out the dremel. In any case, I think it's coming along pretty well, irregardless of the gods playing mean tricks on me.   


LR1130 watch battery shown for scale. (about 3/4's the size of a dime)


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

That plaque is looking great Raven's Hollow! The lettering is fantastic. Too funny - I ironically had a similar issue this week - I cut out intricate felt lettering for my business (I make personalized onesies and children's clothing), and I had everything lined up ready to fuse when the dot for the i simply vanished. A few minutes of searching the ground and I finally found it!

March 8th: Well, I've officially bought all of the glow-in-the-dark paint in a 10-mile radius, and since it takes FOREVER for my local Michaels and JoAnn stores to restock, I had to give in a order some online so I can finally finish my {January} project. I guess that's why I wanted to start things early this year! On a happy note though, I finished designing the Save-The-Dates for the Halloween party. I plan on getting them printed out 4" x 6", then attaching them to a magnet so they'll stick to people's refrigerators.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Awwww thanks!  Isn't it just that type of luck, always when you are almost through, and the smallest pieces go flying  Lol! Love your Save the Date reminder btw! Good luck on the quest for GITD paint, and if you thought we forgot...where's that Oogie pic we were promised? 

The plaque is nearly done now, and I'm in the final stages of weathering the plaque. Tomorrow, I'll glue it to the plate, and finish aging both it, and the base together. No more sneak peaks, I'm being stingy until I complete it.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Well, it looks like I'm going to have to invest in some dulling spray to tone down the glossy-ness of the plaque because the slime actually looks wet when it is dry. Otherwise, the marker stone is pretty well finished.  See...












You can catch the rest of the photos in the "Show us your Stones" thread, found here: http://www.halloweenforum.com/halloween-props/91235-show-us-your-stones-15.html#post1246269


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## Paint It Black (Sep 15, 2011)

Planning a Pirate display this year. So far, have completed three projects this year. January = the main sign to set the stage for the haunt:







So, then in February, I saw a pirate flag at a flea market that read, "surrender yer booty," so I decided to make my own sign with some dollar tree coins and beads:







Now, it is March. I just finished this little project that reminds me of a scene from the pirates of the carribean. I used two little skellies and two dollar store wire hanging plant baskets.







Plans to come include:
1) treasure chest
2) treasure map
3) dress skeletons as pirates
4) pirate in half-whiskey barrel drinking rum
5) pirate cemetery
6) pirate haunted pub
7) fish netting, sealife, shells, lanterns, tiki torches, parrots, skulls, bones, rats...


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Raven's Hollow Cemetery said:


> No more sneak peaks, I'm being stingy until I complete it.


Hee hee, that's how I feel until Oogie Boogie is finished! Love the finished plaque. What do you use as "dulling spray"? Just a matte spray or is there something specific?

Paint it black: Great work! I love pirate themes, especially how the tot's react to them. Especially looking forward to seeing the pirate haunted pub!

March 9th: Took advantage of a Snapfish deal and sent the Save The Dates off to be printed. Gathered a few small things to work on because I'll be out of town for the next six days! Going to Baja and putting a little gravel in my travel . Have a great week everyone and I can't wait to see what you've been up to when I get back!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Halloween Scream said:


> Hee hee, that's how I feel until Oogie Boogie is finished! Love the finished plaque. What do you use as "dulling spray"? Just a matte spray or is there something specific?
> 
> March 9th: Took advantage of a Snapfish deal and sent the Save The Dates off to be printed. Gathered a few small things to work on because I'll be out of town for the next six days! Going to Baja and putting a little gravel in my travel . Have a great week everyone and I can't wait to see what you've been up to when I get back!



This is what I usually use, it's for dulling the sheen for photographic purposes. 











It also kills the gloss IRL too, not just for pics.  No fair, you said we'd get Oogie pics! Tease!  Enjoy your trip!


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## Xane (Oct 13, 2010)

Halloween Scream said:


> March 8th: Well, I've officially bought all of the glow-in-the-dark paint in a 10-mile radius, and since it takes FOREVER for my local Michaels and JoAnn stores to restock, I had to give in a order some online so I can finally finish my {January} project.


For future reference, you can often find glow in the dark paint in Home Depot and Lowes and some of the larger Walmarts, usually in pint cans (hardware section). Our local Home Depot clearanced it out, I got the last pint left, but the other one still carries it at regular price.


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Thank you Xane! I wish I would have known about this beforehand. I originally thought I needed the fabric-specific glow in the dark paint, but now I realize that anything probably would have worked.

March 17th: Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! I hope you all had a great week. What projects did you work on? Today I tried to resume my painting with a different type of glow paint. I bought Martha Stewart brand, and, even though I'm usually a huge Martha fan, I have to say I was hugely disappointed. The paint didn't glow at all! It's as if they accidentally put the wrong label on plain old green paint. So I guess I'll be making a pilgrimage on Monday to the next closest Michael's. Oh well, at least today's party was a success. In the spirit of "2012: The Year of Halloween", I know you all will appreciate my St. Patrick's day outfit!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

*said in his best John Wayne impression* Well ahll be, little lady! That there is the best durned St. Pat's attire that side of the Mississippi! Lol! 

Seriously, the shirt is awesome! Happy St. Patrick's Day 


Idk, it doesn't seem like I've gotten much done. Except that I've finally gotten back to working on the obelisk since it's going to be late next week (or there about) when the custom ball bearings I ordered for the raven finally arrive, and work can begin anew. The obelisk base is about 75% covered with the base layer of my carpet moss...until I ran out of sap green acrylic this evening (I'm feeling your pain on the finding paint issue, I bought Michael's & JoAnne's last bottles of Sap Green), and had to stop for the night. Supply run to an art store on the morrow!  


It's been fun (sarcasm fully intended), because the layers have to be applied while each surface is horizontal to prevent sagging. So you do one side, and then the sides of the buttresses that are facing upwards, and then wait for that side to harden fully. After that, I grab my neighbor to help carefully turn it so the next side is facing upwards for it's coat. Being careful to set it down evenly so that the stress from the weight is distributed evenly across the side facing down, so that the underlying foam and base coat won't crack or be punctured.


It's a little worrisome while doing it, but it's been fine so far. Nothing like that moment of paranoia when it finally has all it's weight resting on it, and you're standing there hoping it won't crack under it's own weight. Anyway, I grabbed some silk grass and some fall colored silk red maple leaves to put in little plugs around the base plate in the moss patch that "surrounds" and appears to climb up the obelisk base. I'd really love to have some vines crawling up the obelisk too, but I've still not been able to figure out a way to make the top detachable for storage with the vines in place. 


At a full height of 7' 7.5", being able to detach the obelisk from the base is pretty much a necessity with off season storage considerations and ease of carrying factored in. So the vines may not being compatible with my evil master plan...more's the pity.


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## Dark Passenger (Aug 22, 2011)

Great shirt, Halloween Scream Good luck with your ongoing mission for the right glow-in-the-dark paint.


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## VGhoulson (Oct 9, 2011)

I wore the same shirt!!!!!!!!!!!! :d


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## halloween71 (Apr 22, 2007)

Halloween Scream said:


> Thank you Xane! I wish I would have known about this beforehand. I originally thought I needed the fabric-specific glow in the dark paint, but now I realize that anything probably would have worked.
> 
> March 17th: Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! I hope you all had a great week. What projects did you work on? Today I tried to resume my painting with a different type of glow paint. I bought Martha Stewart brand, and, even though I'm usually a huge Martha fan, I have to say I was hugely disappointed. The paint didn't glow at all! It's as if they accidentally put the wrong label on plain old green paint. So I guess I'll be making a pilgrimage on Monday to the next closest Michael's. Oh well, at least today's party was a success. In the spirit of "2012: The Year of Halloween", I know you all will appreciate my St. Patrick's day outfit!


Love the outfit!!!


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Raven's Hollow - How heavy are your vines and what are they made of? Would it be possible to have small squares of velcro hooks placed at strategic spots on the obelisk and the plush side of the velcro attached to the vines? I used a similar method when I created a "Woodland Wonderland" theme or something of that nonsense for a high school dance back in the day. I was able to use the leaves as attachment points, which hid the velcro entirely. It looked as if the vines were crawling up the walls and posts.

March 18th: Finally got around to starting my "major" March project - completing the cemetery fence. We finished quite a bit of it last year and it really made a great impact in the yard, but we ran out of time to completely surround the grass. Adding the last side won't make too big a difference to the average person walking up to the house, but I'll feel like it's finally complete. Plus, any new props/tombstones that go in the cemetery will be well protected from trick-or-treaters.









You can see in the picture how the fence just sort of stops mid-front yard.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

@ HalloweenScream: Thanks, that's a great suggestion, but I don't think it will hold up to the pressure of the vines I have in mind. I've got access to a huge bunch of wild grape vines, and was considering using them for a very organic feel. Which with having to work them around, would have a little too much torque for velcro. 3M dual lock, is a little too strong of an attachment & would probably break the vines just getting them apart (just thinking out loud here, so to speak). Albeit, I wasn't thinking of using leaves at all, just a dead looking mass of vines wrapped around the obelisk. Something like this:











I've been giving thought to cutting them and drilling into the cut ends, then gluing a small piece of dowel into one side to make a joint for attaching/detaching the upper & lower parts of the vines. Using the dowel as a pin to effectively connect the two sections of each vine. That sounds like a recipe for an accidental drill bit buried deep in the hand though. That's my kind of fun, right there! Lol! :/


I'm thinking that the major breaking point may be being able to carry the base without breaking the vines off. As the base plate for the mossy patch growing up from the ground part of the illusion, is just over 3' wide, and 29" from front to rear. Which makes it an armful to carry as it is, weight not withstanding. In fact due to the weight and large footprint, I really doubt that I'll have to stake down the base at all, except in the most serious of storms. 


Idk, I may have to nix the vine idea entirely so I can just get this one completed, and move on to the next project. 


Oh, I almost forgot, the dulling spray didn't work as well as I'd hoped. So I went over the plaque with a light mist of flat black, and darkened the areas immediately surrounding the lettering and under the top edge with a watered down acrylic black to mute the background a bit more on the grave marker stone. When it's dry tomorrow, I'll get a pic to show the changes.


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## Spookilicious mama (Feb 27, 2008)

*Well I think this is my my new favorite thread! I think it is fabulous that you are devoting some time each day to your halloween haunt and party. I wish I had the time. Right now I am focused on finishing my degree and have not time to make any halloween related stuff but I can live vicariously through you You have however motivated me to at least think about the projects I would like to get finished THis is great and I look forward to following you on your journey to Halloween 2012!*


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

@Raven's Hollow - that picture is seriously awesome and I see why you'd like to create that look. One other question - is there anything above where your obelisk will go (like a large tree or house eve), or will it be free standing in the yard?


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Halloween Scream said:


> @Raven's Hollow - that picture is seriously awesome and I see why you'd like to create that look. One other question - is there anything above where your obelisk will go (like a large tree or house eve), or will it be free standing in the yard?



Thanks, I very much agree.  I think it ratchet's up the creepiness factor exponentially with the vines crawling all over it in a seething mass.  The stone's designed to be a free standing centerpiece in the middle of the yard, and it's the one that contains the sound system & acts as a central power distribution center. I may just have to reserve the idea for a stone that's a little more manageable in size. In other words; one that's not over 6 ft. tall, and doesn't require disassembling for off season storage.


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## oaklawn Crematory (Jun 25, 2010)

Halloween Scream said:


> Raven's Hollow - How heavy are your vines and what are they made of? Would it be possible to have small squares of velcro hooks placed at strategic spots on the obelisk and the plush side of the velcro attached to the vines? I used a similar method when I created a "Woodland Wonderland" theme or something of that nonsense for a high school dance back in the day. I was able to use the leaves as attachment points, which hid the velcro entirely. It looked as if the vines were crawling up the walls and posts.
> 
> March 18th: Finally got around to starting my "major" March project - completing the cemetery fence. We finished quite a bit of it last year and it really made a great impact in the yard, but we ran out of time to completely surround the grass. Adding the last side won't make too big a difference to the average person walking up to the house, but I'll feel like it's finally complete. Plus, any new props/tombstones that go in the cemetery will be well protected from trick-or-treaters.
> 
> ...



Completing the fence is a must....BTW You have a very nice house.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Well, here's the pic of the revision to the paupers plaque. I changed a bit with the aging on the plaque itself, and highlighted the moss with a little more dry brushing to bring out the colors a slight bit more.  Better?


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## Spookilicious mama (Feb 27, 2008)

*That looks awesome Raven!!*


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

oaklawn Crematory said:


> Completing the fence is a must....BTW You have a very nice house.


Thank you for such a kind compliment!

@Raven's Hollow - Your plaque looks amazing. The average trick-or-treaters (and their parents) probably don't walk away from a yard haunt saying "the weathered metal effects on that place were incredible!" (I too spent time getting my PVC fence to look like real iron), but it's those fine details that make them walk away saying "that house was incredible!!". Keep up the great work!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Spookilicious mama said:


> *That looks awesome Raven!!*






Halloween Scream said:


> @Raven's Hollow - Your plaque looks amazing. The average trick-or-treaters (and their parents) probably don't walk away from a yard haunt saying "the weathered metal effects on that place were incredible!" (I too spent time getting my PVC fence to look like real iron), but it's those fine details that make them walk away saying "that house was incredible!!". Keep up the great work!



Thanks for the kind words ladies, very much appreciated!  Lol! Honestly, you're lucky if half of them notice you went to the trouble to do anything other than lighting & fog in the mad dash for the candy.(which is kinda hard to miss when you do a London Pea Soup like I do)! Yeah, I'm not even counting on 10% of the through traffic even noticing this particular one on H'ween. It's the little details that really sell the illusion to the masses, even if they don't notice those details directly. But for those that stop and take a moment to look around...  


Oh, and speaking of fencing... I started running 2x6's through the table saw last night milling them down to pickets for assembling the fence sections. It's pretty cost effective too, yielding 24 pickets per 8' board. That part of the project list looks like it might come out under budget, but it's a little to early to say, "Yay! More $ for other projects!", just yet. 


In case I've not mentioned it, I love your fencing HS.  You should post a close up photo, to highlight all that effort


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## oaklawn Crematory (Jun 25, 2010)

Raven's Hollow Cemetery said:


> Thanks for the kind words ladies, very much appreciated!  Lol! Honestly, you're lucky if half of them notice you went to the trouble to do anything other than lighting & fog in the mad dash for the candy.(which is kinda hard to miss when you do a London Pea Soup like I do)! Yeah, I'm not even counting on 10% of the through traffic even noticing this particular one on H'ween. It's the little details that really sell the illusion to the masses, even if they don't notice those details directly. But for those that stop and take a moment to look around...
> 
> 
> Oh, and speaking of fencing... I started running 2x6's through the table saw last night milling them down to pickets for assembling the fence sections. It's pretty cost effective too, yielding 24 pickets per 8' board. That part of the project list looks like it might come out under budget, but it's a little to early to say, "Yay! More $ for other projects!", just yet.


I came to the same conclusion but I am running 2X4's thru the table saw. The standard furring strips tend to break easily. The 2X4 parts should be sturdier and cheaper but slightly larger than the strips.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

oaklawn Crematory said:


> I came to the same conclusion but I am running 2X4's thru the table saw. The standard furring strips tend to break easily. The 2X4 parts should be sturdier and cheaper but slightly larger than the strips.



Yeppers, much less expensive that way. I just happen to have a bunch of 2x6 & 2x4 yellawood P.T. I bought when doing a deck for a buddy last year, that I've been dry storing since. So that's what I'm using.  Furring strips are pretty well useless to me, except for their intended purpose imo. Especially when consideration is given to the price of just ripping studs instead. 


Right about now, I'm wishing DeWalt would hurry up and send my circular saw back from it's warranty RMA. I could rip cut these pickets with it in about half the time it even takes to set up with my table saw. Frankly, I'm a slight bit miffed over it. Because 1 month old $200+ circular saw should not just die out of the blue. Chalk one up to manufacturing defects. I should've kept my old reliable Dewalt, but I wanted a little more cut depth than a 7 1/4 blade could muster. 1/2 the passes to cut the end off a 6x6 was very nice indeed while it lasted. :/


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Raven's Hollow Cemetery said:


> In case I've not mentioned it, I love your fencing HS.  You should post a close up photo, to highlight all that effort


Aw shucks, thank you. Okay, twist my arm...









You can't really see too well in the picture, but I sprayed the whole thing with a textured metal finish. It really looks like iron!

March 20th: Happy Spring everyone! Today I finished my March quota of paper bats. Man it's tempting to start hanging them now, but I think I will have to wait until at least July


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Halloween Scream said:


> Aw shucks, thank you. Okay, twist my arm...



Oww, quit it!  




Halloween Scream said:


> You can't really see too well in the picture, but I sprayed the whole thing with a textured metal finish. It really looks like iron!



Looks awesome! Which is ofc superior in all ways to a "Good from afar", which is usually far from good!   




Halloween Scream said:


> March 20th: Happy Spring everyone! Today I finished my March quota of paper bats. Man it's tempting to start hanging them now, but I think I will have to wait until at least July



Happy Spring right back at you  

Yeah, that'd be a good idea to hold off for a lil' bit. Otherwise you might get people walking past your home like I do, squinting to try and see what it is I'm actually building. I can hear it in the "look"... 


"Whut inna hai-yull is tha-yut Earl?!?" And Earl's look says: "I-oh-know Mama, but I tha-nk tha-yut thare boy ain't rah-aight!" 


Bunch of uncivilized savages.  It's so bad here I have to order my coffee to get whole bean. Ever tried running pre-ground coffee through a burr grinder to make espresso? Not a pretty picture. Although yes, we have many Starbucks here, but they are well beneath my standards. The only thing in life that I may be considered snobby about, is my coffee (and on the rare occasion that I drink, my beer or liquor). Sue me. Lol!


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## Xane (Oct 13, 2010)

Halloween Scream said:


> Thank you Xane! I wish I would have known about this beforehand. I originally thought I needed the fabric-specific glow in the dark paint, but now I realize that anything probably would have worked.


I completely missed that this was for fabric. Nope, I don't think that would have worked at all. You can probably order screen printers glow in the dark paint in larger quantities online though.


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Hello everyone! It seems like things have been pretty quiet across the board. Is everyone on spring break? I myself was sick for the better part of last week and hardly got anything done. Oh well, back to it! I'd love to see what everyone has been up to.

March 27th: Still not feeling so great so no major building. Instead, I took time to update my guest list for this year's party. Since there will be people coming from out of state, I will be sending save-the-dates out in April (I know, I'm a little nuts). If everyone on the list came this year, it would be over 80 people at the party!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Eww, sorry to hear that HS. Hope your feeling better  Congrats on the huge expected turnout for your party! 


As for myself: When not on my little vacation, and while waiting on the raven's custom bearings, I was certainly busy. Either @ the shop, where it's been...hectic, to say the least. Or, I've been tearing along on projects, and not leaving much time for socializing online. The cemetery arch itself is nearly ready to be painted (14 ft. wide to span my entire driveway), and I just have to build the stanchions that will hold the arch & cap the columns when it's completed. 


Hurricanes & tornado's aside, with a total thickness of 1 1/2" of plywood, I doubt anything not classified by the insurance co.'s as an "act of God", will take this one down! I am pretty pleased with how it's shaping up, too.  


I'm debating with myself atm, I know everyone's really wanting updates on my animatronic raven. But, I really need to get this arch up on it's mounting system before it warps/twists/etc. under it's own weight. So I may spend the next couple of evenings working on that, before going back to the raven. Then show everyone the blue print that's been in my mind for the raven's pivot assembly for his bowing motion, afterwards. 


And after putting in a 14 hour work day today, I'm too tired to even sleep. So pardon me if I'm rambling incoherently. :/


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## oaklawn Crematory (Jun 25, 2010)

Halloween Scream said:


> Hello everyone! It seems like things have been pretty quiet across the board. Is everyone on spring break? I myself was sick for the better part of last week and hardly got anything done. Oh well, back to it! I'd love to see what everyone has been up to.
> 
> March 27th: Still not feeling so great so no major building. Instead, I took time to update my guest list for this year's party. Since there will be people coming from out of state, I will be sending save-the-dates out in April (I know, I'm a little nuts). If everyone on the list came this year, it would be over 80 people at the party!


Got a cold HS? I guess you are having muffled screams. I hope you get over it soon; nothing worse than having a cold or the flu in warm weather. What a drag!

I’m having suffering from ADHD. I’m working on four projects at once and getting nothing quite done. I’m hoping to finish building all four in two weeks and have them ready for painting sometime when it warms past 60 degrees again(probably May).

Then again, I might start another one instead…..After all they can be painted all at once!


Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Hi everyone! Man it's been a crazy few days, and I admit, not much has gotten done. However, I FINALLY finished my first major project. Oogie Boogie is done! He's just a little lopsided since I will wait to add the remaining fiberbill until I set him up in October (otherwise it will just compact in storage). He glows well in the dark and under the black light, so it was worth the quest for the perfect paint. I can't wait to hear updates from you guys!


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## Dark Passenger (Aug 22, 2011)

Oogie Boogie was worth the wait, HS, he looks fantastic


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## oaklawn Crematory (Jun 25, 2010)

Oh yes....very well done...


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## oaklawn Crematory (Jun 25, 2010)

The tempt has been so darn cold. I haven't done anything but get some ink done.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

I think Oogie came out wonderfully! Well done  


For myself, meh... it's been a long week and a half. With an after hours contract on a server farm updating hardware, and pulling 16-18 hr days. So I've not gotten much of anything accomplished at all, on the Halloween front. All good, the jobs completed and I have to finish cutting a few pieces for the arch stanchions today before I can assemble, texture, and paint them. 


What I did run into was a serious problem with the lettering I'd cut for the arch. After priming the letters, I sprayed them with a color that looks similar to a black nickle as a base coat. Which would have been great, except that the solvents were a little too strong, & they penetrated the primer coat in a couple of cases eating heavily into the foam. I've successfully used the primer/basecoat method several times before to protect foam so that it could be sprayed (metallic colors look terrible when brushed, unless you intend to have a brushed finish). In point of fact, I used it on the Paupers Marker, so you can see how well it _usually_ works. Not this time though, more's the pity. 


But, be advised: Valspar metallic paints in the rattle can's contain *LOADS* of solvents, and is a definite no-no for use with this sort of thing. I'll just have to count it as an unfortunate learning experience... :/ Rustoleum metallics work perfectly however, for anyone that's interested. I'm befuddled atm, & unsure at how to proceed. I may try to salvage the affected letters to hopefully avoid wasting materials, but barring that, I may not have a choice in the matter. It's a bit frustrating, to say the very least.


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## Paint It Black (Sep 15, 2011)

Oogie Boogie turned out sooo well. I just love him.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Good news! I managed to save the affected letters (and one of my Raven's that was pretty bad off too)! HAPPY, HAPPY, JOY, JOY!!! *Does the happy dance*  


Well, it's 10:15 & I just came in from applying the last coat flat black base coat to the scroll work, for my stanchions that will hold the arch. I hope you guys have some training pants in your size lying about... Because, I believe this is going to be other worldly when it all comes together. I am extraordinarily pleased with how it's shaping up so far   


Edit/ I just realized that I totally forgot to eat dinner in my ecstatic haze... Whoops!


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## Midnite Spookshow (Jan 25, 2012)

Well it's been a few weeks and I took a little break, kinda lol Had a lot of family stuff going on and not much time for Halloween  But, now that things are back to normal I can get back on track yay  I got a few plans figured out but I want to finish one project first before I start diving into more, something I always have a tendency to do because I get so darn excited! 

I've decided to give my pumpkin head a second chance, thanks to everyone's encouragement  I whipped up a batch of paper mache clay and it seems to be working well, it's adding weight and sturdiness which is exactly what I need for it being outside for a month. I think I'm going to have to re-do the whole mouth though, the weight has smashed it down and you can't really see through it. So....looks like I will be creating my own teeth and that scares me a bit lol But I'll never learn unless I experiment and now is the best time! 

HalloweenScream- LOVE Oogie Boogie! He's fabulous and I love the detail you've put into him  I have been the same way as you, with your bats....Now that I've been using my cricut like crazy I just want to start putting them everywhere! But the same goes for me, I have a Jack Skellington head candle holder on our stove and people ask why I never put it away for halloween....It's an everyday decoration, duh! lol 

Ravens Hollow- I'm glad you were able to recover your letters! I can't wait to see your arch. That is probably the next big thing I will be working on, I ran out of time last year and they could look a million times better. You're just like me, I get so wrapped up and involved in stuff I forget to eat....whoops! 

Now that I am offically back from my hiatus I will be checking back as much as possible. I'm loving everyone's progress so far and am anxious to see the future progress and I'm hoping I can post some of my own soon too


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

@Raven's Hollow - I CAN'T WAIT to see your arch finished! I think it's going to be spectacular!

@Living Dead Girl - Good luck on your pumpkin head!

April 10th: Purchased the remaining supplies to finish the cemetery fence. If the weather cooperates I'll be doing some spray painting later today. Everyone have a great rest of the week - I'm off to Yosemite for some {probably frigid} camping! I'll check back in on Sunday.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

@ Living Dead Girl: Don't put too much pressure on yourself, it's not good business  Personally, I think you'll do an absolutely awesome job on the teeth! Glad to have ya back, & hope you enjoyed the break!  You and I both for sure! Guilty as charged on the back and forth over many different projects too. But, I've resolved to finish the arch before getting back on the animated raven. Mostly, because a freaking 14' wide arch is taking up a bunch of space, and it's nearly impossible to work on anything else in the lab until it's finished (and put away). I'm having to work in the driveway until it's done, and with the prototypical Florida spring weather in the 90's already... Yikes, hateful!   


@Halloween Scream: Mmmm, Yosemite sounds really, really yummy right about now with the heatwave we've been having. Color me envious! Have a great trip! 



Not much new to report. My computer had a weird burp in the raid array that killed an SSD & a hard drive that had my backups yesterday, and I've spent all of my free time since trying to get everything back to normal. Well...normal for me anyway (read: highly customized, to the layperson).  


Also, my ordered case of LED flicker candles came in, and I am very disappointed for a couple of reasons. Primarily because-they-don't-FLICKER! Seriously, not one works correctly at all. Second, because they have white led's instead of yellow or amber as pictured on the site.  


You know, I normally would just order straight from the manufacturer or a main distributor overseas. But, this time I decided to order from a stateside vendor in favor of getting them in less than a month's time. People complain about dealing with overseas vendors, but I only have problems when ordering from U.S. based distribution companies. They offered to just refund me today, and let me keep the product. Honestly, I have 300+ loose white LED's laying around in parts bins, and 600 more on two 15.5m reels of led tape. What do I need with more white LEDS? I already have enough white LED's to light up my entire side of the neighborhood. Much less, cheap low quality ones? Just more junk to accumulate that I don't need, and won't use. 


Sorry, I'm venting. My apologies to all. Yeah, I know. Most people would be grateful for the offer, but they are totally worthless to me. I just want what I ordered, or else I'd not have ordered them at all.


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## Midnite Spookshow (Jan 25, 2012)

@Halloween Scream- have fun camping! and thank you  

@Raven's Hollow- Oh how I wish I could get a few days of that weather! We got a little bit of snow here yesterday morning lol Thank you! I cut the teeth off last night and I need to make the mouth opening a little bigger in order for any teeth made to look decent. I'm sorry to hear about your candles.  What a PITA! I am also looking for flicker candles (tealights) for the pvc candles I made, but the hard part is not really being able to tell the quality on different levels before ordering them. Vent away! If anywhere this is going to be the best place because I think we all can relate and understand your frustration  I've tried talking to others about stuff and I get the "WTF" blank stare lol 

Got a little bit of more work done on the pumpkin last night. When I opened my clay container I realized there was some mold that I haven't seen before and I don't know if it was just me or my hungry belly but it made me really shaky? So.... looks like I'll need to make some more tonight. I'm having a hard time trying to figure out what to use for veins that is practical. I tried using some wire last night but when the clay dries its rock hard and I couldn't get it to pierce through. I even tried an exacto knife and it broke my blade! So I'm thinking yarn is looking pretty good about now  

Hope everyone has a good weekend! I'll be busy in the workshop and will hopefully have something to show come Monday


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Heheh LDG! I'd happily trade you some heat for a little touch of winter, except it was suddenly very nice today and in the low 50's when I woke this a.m.  Too bad that I only just got home an hour ago, it would've been a perfect day for prop work. 

The candles will work out in the end, as I'm going to keep the shells, and when the 100 yellow flicker LED's I ordered today come in I'll just replace the ones in the non-working candles. Except...ugh, more work to get something working right, that should've worked right to begin with. The story of my life... lol!  No worries, everyone gets the WTF stare around here at some time or another, when talking to a civvy bout H'ween stuff. Just tell them "It's a Halloween thing, you wouldn't understand". 


I think that's a pretty good idea with the yarn! I can't wait to see how your pumpkin comes out! Although I think it'll be a just a touch of awesome in the a.m., with a 100% afternoon chance of fabulous! Happy Friday everyone!


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Hello guys! Wow, that was more than a little break. Craft shows and orders (a.k.a. real life) definitely got in the way! I'm finished with all of my major spring events now, so I can get back to work. I can't wait to catch up and see what everyone has been working on!

May 7th (!): Still recovering from the weekend, I decided to "ease back in" to Halloween planning today. I started organizing my save-the-dates to pass out in the next few days, and I browsed through all of the new "Halloween Food" ideas on Pinterest (great work everyone who's pinning there, by the way) for inspiration.


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## Wifeofrankie (Apr 12, 2012)

i hadn't seen this thread in a while, so i thought i would look it up. i just want to say that i have been following this thread since it was started. it was the one that inspired me to finally join the halloween forum. 

halloween scream, i really love the oogie boogie you made. i even had to show my husband. we think its awesome.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Glad you decided to join in on the fun, WifeofFrankie.  Honestly, I've been so busy at the shop, and spending what little personal time I have had building, I'd totally gapped on this thread.  No matter, Iiiiiii'm baaa-aaack!  

HS: Hope everything's going well for you guys! Has business lightened up enough where you're not running ragged with it?


LDG: How's that JoL coming along? You've been silent for a while, and I want some pics!  


Me? Well I've been tooling along on my columns & making good progress. I'm getting ready to finish building the equipment racks inside of them, and I'm just about to cut the base plates after finishing up the fog chiller in the right column's base just a few minutes ago. The water drain line/valve in the base will be finished tomorrow right before the base plate is permanently attached. The air intake fan is mounted in the left one (where the majority of the electronics, computer, and mixing board will be), and filter screens are mounted flush in the exterior, where the rocks over the base will obscure it from sight and present a protective drip edge, but not hamper air flow. 


Also going into the left columns base, is an 8" subwoofer with a 300 watt amp to give a little more bottom end response to the sound at the front of the yard. Although I am still trying to decide how to make it less visible. 


Throw in the fact that I'm converting my lightning setup to LED's, and making my own LED panels...and I've obviously been quite busy. Before anyone asks; no, there aren't any pre-made LED fixtures/bulbs that suit my needs. I need a wide angle, medium throw light. Something on the order of 160° horizontal dispersion x 120° vertical. So yeah, I have to make my own...which is lame, but you do what you have to do sometimes. At least it gives me a reason to break out my LED tape reels, which just happen to be 9500 K color temp (a slightly purple tinted white). Perfect for simulating lightning.  



I've already fabbed the rear housing and positioned the LED's, I only have to make the mounting brackets, lenses, and solder everything together at this point. Almost there... So much work, and so little time. All praise is due to The Great Pumpkin, I wish I had a helper sometimes. Lol!


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Wifeofrankie said:


> i hadn't seen this thread in a while, so i thought i would look it up. i just want to say that i have been following this thread since it was started. it was the one that inspired me to finally join the halloween forum.
> 
> halloween scream, i really love the oogie boogie you made. i even had to show my husband. we think its awesome.


First of all - Thank you so very much! I'm glad this thread won you over and that you joined. I'll admit, Oogie Boogie is still sitting in my bedroom. I don't have the heart yet to put him away yet.

Now - okay, I was missing in action again for quite some time. Just got back from a three week camping/four wheeling trip through the Pacific Northwest. It was so amazing! Highlights include hiking old-growth rain forests in Olympic National Park, diving through Deschutes National Forest, and stopping at several top-notch microbreweries. I did not work on anything Halloween related, at all. But... during the two day drive from Washington to San Diego, I read Halloween Forum posts for hours! I am unbelievably excited to start working again. I can't wait to see what everyone has been up to, and I hope that others will once again post their daily Halloween progress. 

RH: I can't wait to see how the fog is going to come out of your columns! I'm starting to think more about that chiller design we talked about a few months ago.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Sounds like a great vacation! Right up my alley in fact, 'specially the hiking & 4 wheeling. Microbreweries...well, being that I don't drink anymore, on the rare occasion that I do it's always something exceptionally nice!  


Well HS, I wish I could tell you that I could've stuffed a reverse flow chiller into the column, but I really needed the upper portion to remain usable for storage, considering the footprint of them. So it's just a standard dryer vent hose type, with a capacity of 120 lbs of ice. The columns are pretty huge, and very heavy. I just picked up a large set of caster wheels to build what amounts to a furniture dolly to move them around. Yeah, they are that heavy. 


Take a peek in my album if you like, and that's where I was at about a week and a half ago. I've gotten the upper columns textured, and have been working on them as much as my busy schedule has allowed. Which is to say, not as much as I'd like. But, I am closing the shop for the full weekend, and I plan on getting some work done for sure. There is however, still a good deal of work left before they're finished.


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

May 8th: Spent most of the day unpacking and cleaning up from our road trip. I did find the time to take out and start organizing some of the smaller projects I'll be taking with me to Colorado later this summer (creating creepy Christmas ornaments for my NBC themed tree, for example). I also went through my trip pictures and pulled out some of the "spooky tree" shots. Who wouldn't love an entire forest of those dead trees in their haunt?


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Anyone else have a good weekend progress report? I unfortunately don't. All I managed to do was to print off my remaining pumpkin patterns from "Spirit of the Zombie Pumpkins" before my membership expired (I highly recommend checking out this pattern site if you haven't already). I also cut out my May quota of bats, so I'm back on track here at least.


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

As good as can be expected, considering the nasty storms we had lurking all weekend, and everything I really needed to do, being outdoors oriented. Glad to hear you're all caught up, and those are some awesome trees btw.  I did get the final stone color coats & drybrushing finished on the driveway columns, textured/painted the fence brackets & gate hinge brackets, and added the rust stains to the columns underneath the faux iron brackets. 


I really need to get back to cutting rocks, because I have probably close to 300 more to make, but honestly, I'm tired of messing with them atm. There's no one to blame but myself. Because I wanted some depth to the stacked stone around the base, & instead of just taking the easy way out, and routing out a single piece of foam, I chose to laminate foam and cut them. It will be worth the effort in the end, no doubt. But, it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel from here. :s


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

June 21st: Happy Solstice everyone! I can't believe the days are now getting shorter and we're getting so much closer to fall weather. This year is flying by! I finally have some substantial progress to report. All of my save-the-dates are completed, mailed out, or delivered. It was awesome to see the reactions from friends and neighbors and to hear "I've already been thinking about my costume". What a difference a few years makes! I also finished spray painting enough wood and electrical conduit to make an additional four 8-ft sections of cemetery fencing. My goal to is have the fence finished before we leave for Colorado next week. And finally, I can now admit to the real reason why progress has been slower than anticipated this year. Along with the camping trips, here is what I've really been working on:









Baby HS due 12/8/12! 

I would love to hear/see everyone else's progress! @Living Dead Girl - I haven't heard from you in a while! How are your projects going?


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## stick (Apr 2, 2009)

You are making a little screamer. Congratulations on that up coming project.


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## matrixmom (Oct 29, 2010)

Congratulations!


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## Specterkev (Aug 17, 2003)

woot a future haunter is comming!!


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## im the goddess (Mar 10, 2012)

Congrats!, that's a great picture (of the baby) by the way.



Halloween Scream said:


> June 21st: Happy Solstice everyone! I can't believe the days are now getting shorter and we're getting so much closer to fall weather. This year is flying by! I finally have some substantial progress to report. All of my save-the-dates are completed, mailed out, or delivered. It was awesome to see the reactions from friends and neighbors and to hear "I've already been thinking about my costume". What a difference a few years makes! I also finished spray painting enough wood and electrical conduit to make an additional four 8-ft sections of cemetery fencing. My goal to is have the fence finished before we leave for Colorado next week. And finally, I can now admit to the real reason why progress has been slower than anticipated this year. Along with the camping trips, here is what I've really been working on:
> 
> View attachment 115571
> 
> ...


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## Spooky_Girl1980 (Jul 12, 2010)

Congratulations Halloween Scream!!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Congrats HS!!!  Ah yes, another future haunter to add to the fold. Excellent!  


Well, for the most part, everyone knows what I've been doing from my columns & arch thread. A couple of little addendum's to throw out there: 

My class T amplifier project, ostensibly for the columns...except in the off season where it'll be used as part of my new computer sound system (they are for my tweeters, bi-amplifying my custom monitors. Although they'll drive some full range sound exciters in the columns). It's only 15w x 4 channels atm, but 2 additional channels will be added to in the near future. I'm about to put in the binding posts, and the intake filter for the cooling fan. Had to make it look pretty, since it's going to sit on my desk for 11 1/2 months out of the year. 


For the record, I don't like the knobs either, and I'm looking for something more suitable. 



















And the sound to servo controller (Halstaff's PicAxe based design) for the Raven animatronic (controls the beak movement), waiting for a little bit of soldering station love.


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## Midnite Spookshow (Jan 25, 2012)

Halloween Scream said:


> View attachment 115571
> 
> 
> Baby HS due 12/8/12!
> ...


Yay!! That's great HS!! Congrats  I can definitely see how that can slow down yoiur progress lol have you found out hwat your having yet? other than a future haunter in the works? 

My projects were put on a temporary hold. I've had quite a roller coaster of events happen within the past 2 months and have been a little down in the dumps and completely unmotivated/ uninterested. I'm starting to feel like myself again, and need to get my butt in gear lol All those things that I have on the to-do list are no where near being completed! However, I have been successful in my weight loss/ diet area which had been taking up a significant amount of time. Now that I am in a routine, I can schedule my days around better and make my projects a priority. It's so good to be back and to see everyone's progress! I really missed it, now....IT'S TIME FOR ME TO GET TO WORK!


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## Wifeofrankie (Apr 12, 2012)

Im so happy for you Halloweenscream. Thats the most important project you could be working on. Now you will have a little minion at your side to help you with all of your projects through the years. Its so cool to watch them get ideas and add to the haunt.

I have yet to really get started. I've lost my enthusiasm. But tonight my husband really wants to start a big prop hes been thinking of. Hopefully it will help breath new life into my mood. Fingers crossed.


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Thank you for the congratulations everyone! When I pictured having children, the thing I thought of the most was how fun it was going to be to share holiday traditions with them, especially Halloween. We don't know what we're having yet, but will find out in a few weeks! Glad to hear from you Living Dead Girl - I'm sorry if you faced any hardships in the last few months, but I'm glad you're feeling your spirit again. Wifeoffrankie - I din't really start anything last year until August and there was still plenty of time to get a few projects rolling, so don't worry if you don't feel like starting quite yet.

July 5th: I finally had a nice, productive week! I'm in Colorado visiting family, so large-scale projects are on hold for a while. Instead, I focused on small detail items that usually take place last minute. First, I chose my detailed 2012 party menu. It's pretty similar to previous year's but I'm adding a jello brain mold (if I can find a heavier duty mold than the one that broke on me) and a "seven layer spider dip". I designed all of the party stationary I use (table cards for the food, costume contest voting cards, etc.) using _Burton's Nightmare_, a fantastic free font that will match my NBC theme. Since I want to change up my basic orange and black table scheme, I spent a considerable amount of time searching for and Pinning black and white striped party goods. And most importantly, I bid on (and won!) a tuxedo with tails that will become my husband's Jack Skellington Halloween costume. For only $30 I'm getting a real tux that will look so much better than the considerably more expensive goofy pre-made costumes! Overall, a strong start to late summer!


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## Trinity1 (Sep 5, 2009)

Congratulations!!! YAY!! So exciting. That really is a great pic of the baby....I can usually never tell what exactly I'm looking at


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Whoo hoo! 101 days left to go! This was about the time last year that I started thinking about Halloween. Thank goodness that isn't the case right now, or I'd be really far behind! 

July 15 - July 22: Another nice week! My brother is in town visiting, and even though we were supposed to work on some remodeling projects in our rental house, we decided instead to build Halloween props . The main project was constructing a fog chiller to go with the new Chauvet 1800. No minor build, it took us two full days to complete. I want to paint the whole thing and do a little detail work to finish it before I post pictures and video of our test run. We also built 32 more feet of cemetery fencing, enough to go around the entire front yard this year. The only thing left to do is put on the finials and touch-up the paint! Finally, I started designing what I want the entryway/dining room to look like for the party this year. This is the area of the house that we change up the decor to fit the party theme! 

Hope everyone had a nice, productive week!


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## Raven's Hollow Cemetery (Jul 3, 2011)

Good choice of projects to work on. Remodeling can come later, the crunch time is here for Halloween though!  I can't wait to see your results with the chiller, I bet it's awesome!  


Fence, I'd rather not talk about atm. Makes my thumb ache!  


Otherwise, yeah it's been productive. Not as much as I'd have liked ofc, but reasonably so. Since my last update I've...











(starting from top, left to right)

========================================================================
Built (2) random servo controllers, with provisions for up to 5 servo outputs for animatronic projects.

2nd row- Built my eyes in the bushes controller, and completed my Raven's sound to servo controller. 

3rd row (middle)- started assembling a dedicated DASA III type serial programmer for ATMel ATtiny & ATMega AVR micro controller IC's. Just waiting on some resistors & diodes to arrive to complete it. 

4th row (left)- built a dedicated programmer board for PicAxe micro controller IC's, with the capacity for 20 pin chips.
=====================================================================

The latter two are for long term cost savings, instead of having to build the programming circuit into each project, and incurring additional materials expenses with each. Now, you just plug the chip into the programmer, program it, and swap it to the correct board. Just being prudent there.  I'm sure not many are interested in this sort of stuff...but it's the sort of stuff that runs the cool animatronics that everyone loves. 


Also working on the columns/fence/gates as I have time to do so. Although with the weather lately, and working a 2nd job...I have less time than I'd like to do so.


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