Make Halloween Props

This Halloween, have the spookiest yard in your whole neighborhood. Halloween wouldn't be the same without some fright-astic props to give your guys and ghouls a fun scare. Here are some classic Halloween decorations that you can make to give your yard that extra creepy feel.

Steps

Making Fake Bones

1. Gather your supplies. To make fake bones you will need old newspapers, masking tape, sheets of plaster cloth, a gallon of water, and several tea bags. You also have the option to paint your bones if desired.
2. Create a bone shape out of several pieces of newspaper. Roll up several pieces into a tube shape. Roll others into small balls of various sizes. Make enough newspapers balls and tubes so that the ratio is 4 newspapers to balls to every 1 tube.
3. Connect the balls to the tube shape with masking tape. Place two newspaper balls onto each end of the tube to create the most realistic bone shape.
4. Make tea using a gallon of water. Use tea bags; loose tea is not good for this project because you do not want any tea leaves to get on your finished product. The tea will be used to dye the plaster cloth used in the next step.
5. Dip 1 piece of plaster cloth into a bowl of the tea. Plaster cloth is a cloth that hardens into an outer shell when it becomes wet and is then wrapped around a surface (such as your newspaper bones.) Dipping the plaster cloth into the tea will dye the cloth a yellowish grey and will give your bones an aged look.
6. Remove the plaster cloth from the tea. Squeeze the tea out of it by running the cloth between your middle and index fingers. If your plaster cloth is too wet when applied to the newspaper, your newspaper bone might lose some of its shape.
7. Smooth the plaster cloth over your newspaper bone. Start at one of the ends of the bone and work your way down to the other end. Cover the bone in plaster cloth pieces. When the bone is entirely covered, place it somewhere safe to let it dry.
   • Small bones should take several hours to dry. Larger bones may take up to a day to dry. Test your bones for dryness by touching them. If the plaster cloth still feels wet or slightly sticky, continue to let the bones dry.
8. Paint your bones white or some other color. Only do this if you do not care for the aged coloring that the dyed plaster cloth gives your bones.
9. Scatter the bones around your yard or stick them in the ground.

Making Gravestones

1. Gather supplies. You will need large foam boards, a utility knife, dark grey paint and light grey paint, a plywood board, a paintbrush, and a sponge. You should also get a stencil if you would like to stencil your letters on rather than freehand them.
2. Purchase pieces of blue or pink insulating foam boards. These can be purchased at Home Depot or other hardware stores. Foam boards take paint well and are sturdy and durable.
3. Pick out a gravestone you would like to create. Look at photos or go to a cemetery and take notes on the shape you would like your gravestone to be.
4. Use a utility knife, jigsaw, or regular serrated knife to cut the foam into the shape you would like your gravestone to be. Give it a rounded top, make it rectangular, or make the top pointed-it is up to you.
   • For a more ornate look, cut multiple pieces of foam out. These can be glued side by side for a wider gravestone. Play around with shapes. Cut the foam pieces into arches, circles, triangles, etc.
5. Glue pieces of foam together if you want to make your gravestones thicker. Make sure that the two pieces are cut in the same shape. Use a construction adhesive (like PowerGrab or DAP) to glue the pieces together.
6. Glue the gravestone onto a base. The base can be made out of plywood, plastic, etc. it just has to be heavier than the foam tombstone (so that the gravestone doesn’t tip over.) Apply the glue to the bottom of the gravestone and hold it onto the base until it dries. Once relatively dry, let it stand and dry on its own for several minutes.
7. Paint your gravestone. The most effective paint is exterior grade, latex house paint. Start with darker paint first and ‘stain’ your gravestone. Paint on any cracks or weather stains with this darker color.
8. Paint the name, date and epitaph onto the gravestone. Use a dark paint to do this. Use a stencil for the letters or paint them on freehand. Your gravestones can be funny, realistic, or scary. For realistic headstones, head to your local cemetery to get a sense of what normally goes on a gravestone.
   • You can also choose to paint your letters on last, after all of the others layers of paint have been put on. They will stand out more if you choose to paint them last. You can also paint them in red to give them a spooky, less-realistic look.
9. Paint your gravestone with lighter paint on top of the previous, darker layers. Make sure to paint around the name and epitaph (these should remain dark). Use a wet sponge to blend the light and dark paints for a more realistic, weather-stained look. Let the paint dry.
10. Place your gravestones on your lawn. For an even spookier look, place them near Make a Spooky Ghost Craft for Halloween or cover them in fake cobwebs.

Creating Severed Feet

1. Gather your supplies. You will need a pair of old shoes, old newspapers, two homemade bones (you can follow the directions listed above), tape, and red paint.
2. Select a pair of old shoes that you know you will not be wearing again. They can be any type of shoe-tennis shoes, high heels, dress shoes etc. but do not use open toed shoes.
3. Stuff the toes and bodies of the old shoes with newspapers. Make sure that you can’t see any of the newspaper from the mouth of the shoe. This will give the shoes the appearance that there is actually a foot inside of them.
4. Tape a bone into the shoe. Take a bone that you have made (see Making Fake Bones above) and tape it up against the back of the inside of the shoe with duct tape or masking tape. Make sure you put enough tape on so that the bone does not fall over and out of the shoe.
5. Pour or paint red paint onto the top of the protruding bone. Let the red paint drip down the leg and into the shoe for a more realistic look. Splatter the paint onto the shoe. Let the paint dry.
6. Place the severed leg near your door. You could also have it propped against your car or leaning against a homemade gravestone.

Building a Doll Head Aquarium

1. Gather your supplies. You will need several dolls (that you can take the heads off of), a utility knife, weights, a vase or tank, red glass beads, water, glue, red dye, and a wooden spoon.
2. Remove doll heads from doll bodies. The number of doll heads is up to you. You can use old Barbies or other types of dolls. Dolls can also be purchased cheaply at dollar stores. Make sure you are not using a doll that somebody cares about; the heads will be very challenging to reattach to the body.
   • It is best to use doll heads that are hollow because it will be easier to cut the eyes out and it looks spookier.
3. Remove the doll’s eyes. Use utility knife to cut the eyes out of the head. Be very careful, as utility knives are incredibly sharp.
4. Glue weights to the inside of the doll’s head. Vary the weights from head to head so they don’t all sink to the bottom of the tube. Leave some heads without weights. Construction adhesive (like PowerGrab or Gap) works best for this project.
   • Weights can be bought at a hardware store. You can also substitute weights for rocks.
5. Paint the bottom of the doll’s head or neck (if still attached) red. This will give the doll a bloody, scary look. Let the paint dry.
6. Purchase a large glass or plastic vase or tank. Make sure that the vase or tank is large enough to hold all of the doll heads you have made. The vase can be any shape but some typical styles are rectangular or round.
   • Vases can be substituted for actual aquariums if you have one you wish to use.
7. Place stones, glass beads, or aquarium ground coverings on the bottom of the vase. Use red glass beads for an extra creepy look.
8. Fill the vase or tank with water. If desired, add red dye to the water and still with a wooden spoon. This will make the water look like it is blood.
9. Add the doll heads to the water. Let them sink to the bottom or float on the top. Adjust their positions for the spookiest possible effect. Make sure you put the aquarium somewhere where there is enough light to admire it by.
   • If you are using the doll head aquarium as an indoor decoration, use it as a center piece on a table or place it next to a bowl of candy.

Other Scary Halloween Prop Ideas

1. Create a gore gateway. Make any entrance (such as your garage) extra spooky. It's a nice, cheap, scary prop that is sure to scare the living daylights out of your Trick-or-Treaters!
2. Make a coffin to place alongside your gravestones. No cemetery of horror is complete without an open coffin or two.
3. Frighten the kids with a dummy dressed up as a vampire, zombie or other ghoul. Place the dummy in a coffin, near a bowl of candy, or hanging out of a tree.
4. Decorate with Alien Cocoons for Halloween by making some creepy alien cocoons. Watch out, the invasion of the body snatchers might begin in your own front yard.
5. Make Realistic Cobwebs to hang across your front door, in the trees near your house, or on your car.
6. Add a terrifying center piece to your cobwebs with a Make a Fake Man Eating Spider Victim. Because, who isn't afraid of gigantic, vicious spiders?
7. Make a 'Levitating' Witch Broom to your yard with a levitating witch's broom.

Tips

• Combine props for an extra spooky look. Stick a bone in the ground in front of one of your grave stones.

Warnings

• Be careful when using knives, especially utility knives, as they are very sharp.

Things You'll Need

• Old news papers
• Masking tape, duct tape
• White, red, grey, black paint
• Plaster cloth
• Glue
• Old shoes
• Foam boards
• A sharp knife such as a utility knife
• Paint brush
• Sponges
• Doll heads
• Vase, tank or old aquarium
• Weights
• Water
• Red dye (optional)

Sources and Citations

See also

• Make a Scarecrow
• Make a Spider Web
• Make a Haunted House
• Make a Halloween Dummy
• Make Fake Guts for a Halloween Dummy
• Make a Coffin
• Make Pumpkin Candles
• Decorate Your Yard on Halloween to Be Scary
• Decorate for Halloween
• Create a Gateway of Gore for Halloween

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