Carnevil Party Pictures

Here are some pictures of the carnival all set up.  I didn't have time to take any during the party.  Stuffed animals were given for winning a game.  The ball at the Fortune Teller stand was filled with Fate cards.  If you got a bad Fate you had to go up on the Side Show Stage and act out whatever the card said.  We also had a rock climbing wall and a BB gun shooting range.  I didn't get pictures of the shooting range.

Finished Haunted House

It is so dark in the haunted house that the camera couldn't see.  In the video below I used a spotlight.  I will try to take another with a brighter light so you can really see each room.

Building a lake

We decided it would be fun to add water to our haunted house.  There was already a plan to enter a cave so why not have to cross some dark water on a tiny bridge to get there.  The cave idea was created because half of our haunted house is under a metal car port and the other half is outside of it.  Since the car port has walls down part of the side you have to duck under the wall to exit.  This makes for a great cave entrance.

We started by finished the walls to the floor with plywood.  We rounded out the opening with the plywood and later covered the door with lots of Styrofoam to save the heads we are sure will make contact.  We outlined the water area with logs and wood we had on hand and screwed them together well.  There will be a lot of pressure on these from the water so they need to be well connected.  We built our bridge out of wood we had on hand.

The framing is built and the tarp walls are going up. I forgot to mention in the video that we are covering the tighter walkways with cardboard before we put on the traps just give a little added protection for people who will be bumping into them.

Haunted House Day 4

Its really starting to look like something now!  Just two weeks left till the party.

Haunted House Day 3 - How its built

We are well past half way in building the walls for the first building of our haunted house.  I thought I would take  this opportunity to show how we are doing it.  We started by lining up the first row of pallets and screwing them to each other.  This gave us the basic building design.  Because the walls were all screwed together  they would T off of each other and this kept the walls upright.

Once we had the whole building set up the way we wanted it it was time to add the second row of pallets.  First we cut short pieces of wood and screwed those inside the existing pallets like this:

Haunted House Day 2

The first load of pallets are here and the walls are starting to go up!!

Carnevil banners

I have now moved on to painting my banners for the Carnevil.  My rocking Nanny has been very helpful by keeping me company while I paint.  These are very simple.  I cut up an old bed sheet for the banners.  I used my projector hooked to my computer to display the word on the wall.  Then it was just a matter of centering my banner on the wall with the words and tracing the letters.

Latest Creation

This is the first step in my new rocking nanny prop.  This beauty will be rocking a baby in the nursery in our haunted house.  I started with a basic wig head. You can see where I hollowed out the cheeks, eyes, and mouth and inserted the eyes.  The eyes are made from a ping pong ball cut in half.  The pupil was printed off of the Internet and glued in place. 

From there I built up her facial features with tin foil taped into place.  She was covered in paper mache fashion using paper towels to create the wrinkles.  The hair was weave hair purchased off of ebay.  I glued this in place using the same paper mache glue mixture.

Next I will build her body with pvc and a motor to make her rock.

Haunted House day 1

The first building has been emptied out and the flagging tape has gone up to mark the walls.  Next week we will bring in the first load of pallets and begin construction.  I am very happy with the layout of the first room.  I want to get the inner walls put up before the outside walls so that we will have some breeze while we work in the 100 degree days.  Once we get it all dried in I can begin working on some of the larger props I want to build.

Craigslist miracle

This weekend I was able to buy out someone's entire Halloween Collection!  I am now sorting through 13 boxes of props, lights, spiders, and lights.  A day sorting through the attic is in my future.  Where will it all fit??

I have also been realizing that time is passing way too fast.  It is time to start working on some large props for the hayride!

Outlining the basics

Eight months until next Halloween and I am well into the prep stages. Most of my friends think I am nuts to start so soon but to pull off the party, the haunted house, and the hay ride will be a big undertaking. .

I thought we were off to a good start with our 25 foot square carport being the Haunted house. The plan was to divide it into 6 rooms.  After mapping out the rooms with some tape it became obvious that it was just too small for everything I wanted to include.  Thankfully we have another slightly smaller carport right beside it.  Our new plan will be to connect the two which should give more than enough room.

Guests will go through both buildings and find the hayride ready at the exit.  They board that and go directly into to hayride.

This year's theme will be Halloween Classics.  The house will contain Halloween classics like ghosts, witches, and vampires.  The hayride will follow some of the great classic horror firm themes.

I did find a great site to help me organize all of my thoughts.
Follow me on Pinterest.com

In the beginning...

OK, so this is my first experience with blogging and I'm a little nervous about how it will go.  We shall find out together, I guess.  I plan to mainly focus on one of my loves, Halloween, since I already have several full websites for my other love, chinchillas.  With that said, I am sure some chinchilla stuff will inevitably find its way here too.