Mansion at Midnight

Monday, November 2, 2015

Tale of a Halloween Fright on a Halloween Night

Twas a tale from a long time ago

A spooky tale as the story was told

A tale of a Halloween Fright

That occurs on every Halloween night

Ghosts that appear this time each year

Such a sight that made the villagers fear

So warnings with sign by candle light doth shine

But there's no turning back now

On to the scene of the crime

You see in these parts before this village built
Lived a bewitching spinstress named Leota Oakbrook

With riches and wealth being unsurpassed
Inevitable was her future not to last
She was pursued by three suitors with a wicked plan
And to their devices thievery soon began
They tried to steal her money instead of her heart
And thats where their evil plan soon fell apart

Their actions resulted in deadly consequence
All three perished with out penance
See they were poisoned but mistakenly
Miss Oakbrook drank the potion intended for three
So now in her death her spell has been cast
To bring back their spirits from the past

So walk these fair lanes and streets of this hollow

But look over your shoulder to be sure your not followed

By these ghosts from a Halloween past

Three ghosts and a wicked spirit who didnt last

As they haunt here on this special night

Be forewarned of this spooky fright

And be wary of the evil witch's spell

So get your treats, perform no tricks and do not dwell

And be careful in this village on Halloween

For the ghosts come a haunting and are often seen!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Here is to these truths we do present

a video for viewing and to document:

And here is daytime shot for non-vampire folk:

Monday, October 26, 2015

Getting Ready Part 2

Well here is the final installation for my Warning for the folks in my village. It is Dave Lowe inspired who is prop master on the Hallmark show Home and Family. You should check out Dave Lowe Blog

Simple build and low cost... I had the hangar existing and the hay bale as well (it will be reused in our Fall and Thanksgiving decorations)

I managed through the craft of non-green thumbery to have the flowers partly die on me, so they lend itself well to halloween installation.

The raven is a $1 store raven, the sign is a dollar store $1 foam board. I painted it with old bad coffee (because that is appropriate for halloween right?) and just painted the edges with watered down black paint and dry brush. Then the wording was done by Sharpie ink pen

The pumpkin is a $1 plastic pumpkin, I cut out the eyes and mouth and put a $1 solar light inside it.

The candle hanging off the hanger is an old candle that was finished so I just wrapped twine around it and inserted a solar cell for the cap... I placed orange plastic wrap that the local penny saver is sent in and just stuffed it in the glass and inserted the solar light... at night it glows and illuminates the sign with a subdued orange glow.

All and all a nice and inexpensive halloween decoration

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Getting Ready....

Dash the Cat modeling this years Warning sign....

The sign will be posted out front on maple tree.... with a flickering lantern to warn passersby at night that yes indeed on Halloween there will be ghosts and goblins in the Village!

I got a foam board from dollar tree store (it was of course $1), painted several coats of old black coffee over it a few weeks ago and really soaked it several times. Let it dry and then I cut out the edges and with a rag and some diluted black paint dusted the edges to make it look burnt. Then I simply used a sharpie black pen and wrote the lettering

Monday, November 3, 2014

Halloween Set Pics and Video

I estimated we had about 100 trick or treaters that night. Great weather!. I will probably do the same set next year, may just add a few things. People were taking pictures like crazy! Glad they enjoyed it!

Some of the pics and videos are out of sync from the actual set build.... so in some of the pics you will see some of the props and others not installed yet... I dont have video of overall comprehensive display of the finished product, just not enough time to put it all together in one comprehensive video and picture:

Here is the front yard and basic overview of the display, basically view from the street::

Here is the view from the driveway as the trick or treaters walked up on their way to get their candy. At one point I had about 20 people standing in the driveway having their kids in costumes getting their picture taken:

Here is snapshot of the boys from the ol' cemetery singing the Grim Grinning Ghosts song from the Haunted Mansion:

Here is the front entrance walkway, my haunted chandelier all flickering and flashin':

And here are some videos... hope they dont load too slow...

And here is the front walk and haunted chandelier:

Here is projection effect for Singing Busts for Grim Grinning Ghosts:

And here is projection effect for Madame Oakbrook haunted bust:

Hope you enjoy!

In Irons

Friday, October 31, 2014

Grim Grinning Ghosts Projection over Front Door

Here is my front door header including the Grim Grinning Ghost boys from the ol' cemetery singing a creepy tune from Haunted Mansion..... took the pics around midnight too! (Mrs Irons peeking her head out the door: "Are you ever coming in?")

Here is a pic:

Here is short video... no sound effectively... heck it was Midnight!

Monday, October 27, 2014

Dave Lowe Inspired Spooky Sign Post

My...my...I do have a blog, I never said I would be good at it... its been far too long.... but this year will post some new prop builds.... and here we are!

Dave Lowe simply rocks and if you have never seen his Blog you are truly missing out.

Dave some time back posted a prop of a haunted sign post and with his inspiration I made a sign post too.

I added some dollar tree crows that I hacked led eyes in and also found a lantern at Target and put a flicker light in with a FS2 fluorescent light starter...it yields a great flicker effect with a night light bulb. The signs I got off Amazon I just didn't have time to make them but they look nice!

I think it came out great! THANKS DAVE