Some additional props I made this year are the upside down portal and a Chrissy. For Chrissy, I found a cool YouTube video of someone making her from an old Halloween Spirit prop. But the prop is discontinued and I could only find it on sale for $350 – $400 and I wasn’t willing to spend that much.

So for my budget Chrissy I started with a Styrofoam head that I already had and Billy Butcherson’s body. I used this screaming nun mask as the template for her face (I searched lots of masks and this is the best I could find for my purpose). I bought a bunch of pool noodles for her limbs, and used some heavy wire from Lowes to bend and form the noodles. I also bought some teeth for her mouth.

For her costume I used a girl’s costume, sweater, socks, sneakers, and wig. I also ordered this dickie to cover up the corpse body from Billy.

The biggest adjustment was the mask. I cut out the eyes and mouth. Then I painted the mask. I used landscaping fabric to fill the void of the eyes and mouth. Then I pinned the mask to the Styrofoam head. I cut the heads neck at an angle to make the head a little crooked. I added some teeth and the wig to her head. BTW, this wig is great, maybe the color doesn’t match Chrissy 100%, but the hair style does.

Oh yeah, I also bought her hands, but they didn’t arrive on time so I had to order replacement hands. They weren’t quite what I wanted. I couldn’t find any female hands. I even tried to make my own hands, but that turned into a big mess. In the end, I just used wire in the hands to break the fingers, and I painted them because the were too pink.

Next up was the portal to the upside down. I used a painting canvas, spray foam, red film, and lights. I cut a gash in the canvas and painted the canvas all black. Then I laid the canvas out on plastic and sprayed the expanding foam coming out of the opening. I also had a couple go across the opening. Then a spray painted black. Once dry I flipped it over, carefully to add the red film and lights. I just used tape because I was afraid of hurting the foam. Then I attached a wire to hang it on the wall.

Oh yeah, and I bought these because they were awesome and I couldn’t make them myself.

I lied. My Stranger Things decorations were not done. I found a new Facebook group called DIY Halloween Decorations and Props and I have been getting tons of inspiration from these talented people. I decided to add to my Stranger Things decorations.

Several members of the group made the demo dogs. one used the Home Depot Wolf skeleton as a base, some used bottles and pool noodles, some molded their heads, some one used a yoga mat. So I had a lot of ideas to work from and I decided to use pool noodles wit heavy wire running through. Then I used some one litter bottles to fill out the thigh muscles and a milk gallon jug to fill out the chest.

I added additional wire for the feet and then I wrapped everything with self sticking bandages. I tried to paint the bandages, but they just soak up the paint. Then I used some spray paint on then, but that didn’t add too much color to him.

The hardest part was the head. I decided to use foam clay in a bowl to create the inner mouth. Then I measured the bowl on poster board, measured out the circumference for five petals and made a template for the petals on poster board. I made cut out five petals from EVA foam. Once the clay had dried, I pulled it away from the bowl. This was my first time working with foam clay. It’s pretty funky. I think I need a lot more practice, especially if I want to use it for sculpting. Then when I glued the petals to the bowl shape, only 4 fit. I guess the foam had shrunk, so my demo dog only has 4 petals for his head.

I painted the inside of the mouth red, the EVA foam also absorbs the paint, so it took about 4 coats of paint. Then I painted the outside of the head beige to match with the body. The teeth were made from fake nails that were cut into claw shapes. I used these for the claws also. Then it was a matter of hot gluing everything.

So next year I definitively want to improve his head, and maybe build out his body a little more. But he’s still pretty cool and cheaper than buying the wolf skeleton.

Oh, I also made a Chrissy and an Upside Down portal, so more to come.

Well, as I’ve been writing about, my theme for Halloween this year is Stranger Things Season 4 and I’ll be dressing up as Eddie Munson. I started by trying to re-create the Grandfather Clock from the first episode. Then I built Vecna using a lot of foam and tape. And most of my other decorations center around Eddie’s story from Season 4.

Most of the stuff I used for decorations I found on Amazon, a couple of demobats to hang from the porch, a Stained glass poster to hang on my storm door, bats, pom poms, Tigers patch, and door mat. I also found Dusty’s hat, but that link doesn’t work anymore. I’m surprised I couldn’t find more.

A few things came from Etsy including a Hawkins sign, a Vecna garden flag, and headphones. And I bought a bunch of stickers from RedBubble to make my signs and a poster of Eddie’s guitar.

A hung the grandfather clock on our tree and made a Chrissy sign with a pom pom and Tigers patch. A blue spot light shines on it at night.

I put Vecna on the front porch and used my vines to attach him to the porch posts. I also added vines to the house in several locations. My vines were several sizes because I used foam sliced in strips, for the thicker vines, and clothesline and dollar store clothesline for the smaller vines. They were wrapped in black duct tape and/or electrical tape. I also had some white spooky cloth that I wrapped around the vines in some locations.

Part of me wants to create a ton more vines to cover the house. And the other part of me say, just let it go.

My second prop for Halloween this year was Vecna. I wanted a life sized Vecna for my decorations, but I couldn’t find anything, so I made it.

I started with a Styrofoam head, cut off the nose and used modeling clay to add the embellishments to his face. I also learned a lesson about Styrofoam. I already knew not to spray-paint Styrofoam. Now I learned not to add modeling clay directly to the Styrofoam. It will eat away at the Styrofoam as well and cause it to sink away, until eventually it just falls off and leaves the eaten away Styrofoam. In this particular case, he kind of reminded me of Vison from the Avengers.

So after my first failed attempt, I decided to try again, but this time I made sure that I primed the Styrofoam a few times first. This time the clay stayed on and I was able to finish his head with paint and some doll eyes.

Next up, creating the body. This took a lot of foam and white duct tape. Oh, and a few wire hangers, plus some spooky hands. I started with the arms, then the legs, created the body and then taped them all together. Even Mara Jade jumped in to investigate.

I used brown packing paper, soaked in water and wrinkled up to glue on. Before papering the body and legs I speared the body with a broom handle because I wanted to use an umbrella stand to hold him up.

Once the “skin” was on I started painting, and painting, and painting. Plus I attached the head to the broom handle also.

I already made many vines for the house and to attach him to the house. I used lots of cut foam, clothesline, black duct tape, and electrical tape.

But, I found some great YouTube videos from Cris Alex, with lots of the embellishments for Vecna, including the vines, cones, and veins. It really helped me to take him to the next level.

My husband says he is the best thing I’ve ever made, and I have to admit that I’m pretty proud of him.

This year’s Halloween theme is Stranger Things Season 4. There are 2 main props I plan to make, plus many decorations I put together. I’ll also cosplay Eddie Munson. The first prop I made was the grandfather clock, which will be hung on a tree, to simulate the first time we see the grandfather clock in the fist episode (I grabbed this photo off the internet to help me see the details to create the clock, as well as several other photos I found).

Materials:

Box

Cheap clock

Gold scrapbooking paper

Black marbled scrapbooking paper

Clock hands

Styrofoam circle

Plexiglass

Cork coaster

3 wood blocks

Styrofoam balls

Dowels

Paint

Glue

Toilet paper rolls

Gold tissue paper (gift paper)

Chains

Grandfather clock pendulum

Sharpie

Spiders

I started with this 12 x 12 box I found at Walmart. This was the exact shape I was looking for, so I started by painting it all black inside and outside. Once the black paint dried I used metallic gold, metallic copper, and dark granite to add stipes/splotches on the black paint, then used the dark blue paint to cover/smooth out the paints. I wanted to give it an old, antiqued look.

I found a cheap clock that I wanted to use for the clock face, but the clock face was glued onto the plastic, so I had to break off all the plastic bits surrounding the clock face. Then I cut the plastic with scissors to make it as smooth as possible.

I found an image of a seconds dial online and printed that out. I cut the seconds hand from my clock hands kit to a shorter size. I cut the black marble paper in a circle to place on top of the clock face. The black circle was glued on top of the clock face and then the seconds dial was glued on top of that (under the XII). I used a glue gun to glue the seconds hand onto the seconds dial.

I glued the gold scrapbooking paper inside the wood box. Then I used the glue gun to glue the clock face into the wood box.

Next, I took the Styrofoam circle and cut it in half to have a half circle. The box was 12 x 12, so I got a 10″ diameter circle, so I’d have 2 extra inches at the top. I painted the Styrofoam the same way I painted the box, as well as the 3 wood blocks. At the same time I had a piece of card board that I cut to fit inside the half circle. I glued more gold scrapbooking paper to the cardboard. I took the cork coaster and painted it black The minutes hand from my clock hand set was glued on top of this. Then this was glued on top of the gold cardboard. Then the gold cardboard was glued to the Styrofoam with a glue gun. Now the whole thing was glued together, on top of the clock box, using a glue gun.

To make the Grandfather clock weights, I used toilet paper rolls and glued the gold wrap on top of them. I made four. I also bought an actual pendulum, so I didn’t make one, but as a back up I would have used another cork coaster and the gold wrap, if I had to make one.

I drilled holes in the bottom of the box so the weight and pendulum chains could hang through. I attached the chains, weights and the pendulum to the box. Next I glued the plexiglass on top of the block. I specifically purchased a 12 x 12 size so I wouldn’t have to cut it. Originally I wanted to crack or break it so I’d have the cracks in the glass, but the plexiglass was too strong. Probably best anyway because it probably would have been harder to glue that on if it were broken.

I used a sharpie to draw the cracks in the glass. Then I glued little spiders on the plexiglass. I tried to use a spray rubber to help protect the clock from the elements since it will be outside for a month. Unfortunately, despite the layers of paint and sealers that I had on the Styrofoam, it still started to melt a little when I applied the rubber spray.

I bought some shellac, so I will likely add more waterproofing before hanging up the decorations in October, but for now, the clock is done and is waiting to be hung on the tree.