Author: David

I’ve made some new Halloween props for 2017:

The spirit ball was a quick on using items I already had laying about.

Also, the skeleton swing got an upgrade to free standing this year.

It’s mid October 2017 and I’ve had the skeleton swing out and some lights up for a week now.

I’ve been refining some props and pondering what others can be completed in time for the 31st.

I got some more work done the (long) weekend on my props for Halloween 2016.

This garden arch was free via Gumtree.  I extended the depth (to suit the plastic mesh I already had) by cutting 7 new bars from old curtain rods.

The wooden base was free (pallets) and will keep the bottom of the legs spread out.  The arch will go just in front of my patio with the wood backing onto the step up.  I’ll also put some striped tape on it so people are aware of the step in the low light.

The general idea is to attach fake vines (20 x 2.4m ones for $20 on eBay) to the mesh.  Some pumpkin (or similar) lights will provide illumination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second prop is a simple swing made from some old nylon rope (painted to make it look more like sisal rope) and a wooden seat (free pallet wood again).  It is tied to the branch of a tree in my front yard.  The skeleton is from Costco.  I plan to animate it using a wiper motor pulling on a thin line attached to the back of the seat.  Small LED spot lights will illuminate it from above and below.

Well, they say “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

I saw this gazebo frame sticking out of a bin in front of a hire place up the street from work,

so asked if I could have it.  I’m guessing it got trashed in the recent strong winds.

 

 

 

 

10 minutes later we have some raw materials for a future Halloween prop.

 

 

I had 151m of CAT6 cable left on a old reel, but the reel itself had broken.  Luckily the cable was still formed in a coil shape.

 

I managed to carefully unroll it by attaching one end to the street light pole

outside our house and walking down to the corner of the neighbours with it.

I did this 3 times to get 3 pieces of approx 50m length each.

My neighbour did come out to ask what I was doing !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had to untwist some of the excess curls from it.

So, 20 minutes later I have 3 nice rolls of CAT6 cable.

Cable saved to be used another day  🙂