Olivia - A Busty Little Halloween Prop

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Howdy Halloweeners!

An ultra quick tutorial today for an ultra quick prop. In trying to assemble more items for the spooky shrine I'm building into this year's haunt, the priority has been to build unique, but not incredibly time consuming pieces. Meet Olivia, (again, named by my kids) a spooky bust that took just a few hours to build.

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Tagged Halloween Prop Building

Betty: A Nude, Coyote-Skulled, Satanic Statue

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How to make a creepy looking statue for your haunted house.

Hi folks! Apologies ahead of time to the science-leaning fans of the blog, because I know it's been awhile since I've put out that sort of content, but I have another Halloween prop tutorial to share! Huzzah!

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Tagged Halloween Prop Building Sculpture

Shrunken Head Corpsing Tutorial

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So here's another little homemade prop for 2012's Haunted House. While I realize there are a gazillion corpsing tutorials out there, this method involves building up facial muscles in clay before the latex stage, providing some increased realism and a better armature to apply the goop.

I took a drive to Hamilton this weekend to check out the Canadian Haunted Attraction Conference, and although there were all sorts of different goodies available for purchase at different prices, my biggest score cost only 50 cents.

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Tagged Halloween Prop Building Skulls Tutorial Zombies

Corrupting an Angel

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A very short post to show you a neat little Halloween prop I finished the other day, for use in 2012's haunt!

I'm doing an early 1900's theme in my haunted house this year, so I've been trying to amass all sorts of knick-knacks to sell the scenery. I understand of course that most of these smaller items—things like old dolls, tools, food cans, etc—will probably never be noticed on their own. However as a whole, they'll help set the scene properly.

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Tagged Crafts Halloween Prop Building

Growing on graves: The spooky story of Lichen

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If you read this post carefully you'll witness a blogger desperately trying to unify two completely different subjects, those being Halloween and science. You'll then notice an attempt to trick the audiences interested in each of those subjects into believing that this post was written specifically for them. What can I say...whenever I'm being sneaky, I like to be honest about it.

Yesterday morning I had a creative meeting with a director in the downtown Toronto neighbourhood of Cabbagetown, and as fortune would have it, I arrived early. So, with about half an hour to kill I jotted over to the area's famous Necropolis Cemetery, and started shooting reference stills for some of the tombstones I've been working on.

What's that you ask? Tombstones?

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Tagged Biology Halloween Lichen Props Science

Homemade Demon-Head

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I made a demon appear out of thin air. My kids named him. Here's how you can do the same.

Ever since I discovered the amazing work being done at the Hellizondo Haunt in California, I've had this itch to start making more home-made props. So I did some reading, watched a few online tutorials, and started to work on my very own glow-in-the-dark demon head.

Wait, let me backtrack. To those unaware, Halloween is a pretty big deal around my house. Yes, Halloween 2011 has already passed and yes, it's getting close to Christmas; but none of that is capable of knocking the ghosts and goblins out of this noggin. Even though I'm proud of the haunts I've put together over the years, the hand-made quality of the haunts at Hellizondo left me feeling just a little bit inadequate, and placed a rather sizeable creative burr inside my bonnet.

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Tagged Art Crafts Demon Halloween Haunt Sculpture

The World's Most Beautiful Haunted House

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Sorry folks, I just can't stop talking about Halloween these days.

Ever since I joined the Canadian Haunters Association, it's been all that's on my mind. Last night was the CHA's November pub meet, and by attending I had a chance to talk shop with all sorts of seasoned scare-mongers. The ideas they shared with me were invaluable, and my 2012 haunt will benefit from their advice. 

And yet when I returned home from the event, my appetite for all things spook-tacular was still unsatisfied. So I jumped on the web, started searching for examples of other home haunts, and happened upon something truly astounding.

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Tagged Art Halloween Haunt Haunted House Props

Haunted House 2011

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Boo!

Halloween is done, my body aches from head to toe, and hundreds of children in my neck of the woods now have slightly more demented nightmares. I'm happy to report that this year's 'greatest day' was a resounding success. We had more people than ever before, from kids to adults to the elderly, and it really feels like we frightened them all. 

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Tagged Halloween Haunted House Scary

Another Haunted Home

Legacy

Halloween is nigh, and the nightmare making is in full effect, so a super quick post follows. Here goes.

Friday's tour through one of Toronto's brilliant homemade haunts inspired me, so last night I took a trip to see another nightmarish display. This time it was Legacy of Horror, and I was able to have a nice long chat with its creator about all things haunted-house related. 

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Tagged Halloween Haunt Haunted House

Next Level Haunted House

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A tour of a really serious haunted house - and I'm too scared to be jealous!

Halloween's a busy time around these parts. The haunted house construction is in full swing, and I spent a good portion of the day painting props with fake blood, hanging fabric, and building makeshift furniture.

Tonight the wife dragged me away from it all just long enough for a nice meal out, and afterwards she convinced me to go exploring. See, Halloween is such a busy time that I never get to see any of the other haunts in town. Tonight my bride convinced me to do just that, and man was it inspiring.

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Tagged Halloween Haunted House
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