# House of Horror Party



## singe

howdy all!

I'm new, and this is my first post. My fiance and I bought a house last year, and we never had a house warming. so to celebrate our 1 year anniversary as homeowners, we are hosting a HOUSE of HORROR party! We are totally inexperienced at creating haunts, but I thought y'all would enjoy the projects and may even be able to help when we get stuck on something!

Below is our invite we just sent out via email and facebook:










I designed it around an old issue of Tales from the Crypt. fiance drew the creepy version of our house.

(full size version: http://www.vivaidea.net/Invite.jpg)

We are basing the whole thing on vintage schlocky pulp comics. We'll have 6 distinct areas built around a classic tale of terror:

Foyer: Mad scientist/alchemist lab and library

Living room: abandoned/haunted parlour

Kitchen: Witch's Kitchen (all the food and drinks will be integrated)

Back deck: Voodoo Cannibal Island

Hallway: Condemed Mine Shaft

Bathroom: Monsters of the Deep Sea

I'll put up progress shots as we get to work


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## RoxyBlue

Welcome to the Forum! You're going to be very busy for the next few weeks

I really like the comic boook style invitation.


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## remylass

Welcome. What a fun idea. It sounds to me as though you have a good head start on things. I love the invites.


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## singe

been working on some stuff for the Voodoo Cannibal Island portion. Here's my almost complete tiki. not sure how to finish the inside. i plan on lighting it from inside, so should the interior be painted black? white? reflective?










stiff mailing tube










cut out mouth and eyes, modeled features with celloclay










finished with a layer of brown crepe sheet, from the party store. brought out details with watered down black acrylic, then sealed.










look how woody!

and next time... voodoo doll, ornamental hanging skulls and impaled-skull tiki torches!


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## Spooky1

The tiki looks great, and I love the invitation! Good luck with the party.


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## Pumpkin5

:jol: Excellent invitation and tiki pole! Welcome to the forum! Your invitation is very retro and professional looking. I am impressed! It is amazing how great your tiki pole is. It looks like a real tiki pole, and I have bed made out of two authentic carved tiki poles, so I should know. Very well done!:jol:


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## ghubertu

Great idea with the comic invite and your tiki pole looks fantastic, can't wait for more pics!


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## Jaybo

Are you sure you are new to haunting? You're off to a great start! You guys have some definite talent there.

Oh, and I love the crepe paper texture on your tiki.


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## Warrant2000

Awesome tiki and invitation! With your obvious creative skill, you should have no problem jumping right into haunting. People that make stuff instead of buying pre-made stuff have a special place in our bloody, barbwire-encircled hearts. 

Remember to include lighting and sound to your different areas

Here's Haunted Tiki Island, great place for ideas for your tiki section.

Be sure to hide a sea monster behind the shower curtain to literally scare the pee out of your guests.


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## fick209

Love the invitation and the tiki! Good luck with the party and welcome to the forum!


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## singe

thanks for all the great feedback and encouragement! i'm starting to feel like we've bitten off more than we can chew in the next 3 weeks, but it's still lot's of fun! we're really trying to only make and find props to both save $$ and give ourselves a little bit of a challenge. we both work mostly with computers, so it's been refreshing to get our hands messy 

we're lucky enough to have a Goodwill junk warehouse in town where they just wheel out gigantic bins of crap that perhaps wont sell at the stores, is damaged or not worth pricing. then people just paw through it, fill carts and pay $1 a pound. it has so far been the most fun ive had pawing through crap. you end up getting stuff practically for free. if things look heavy, they just say a price, and apparently you smile and accept or frown and they go lower. almost everything we've paid for has been from there!

more progress shots this weekend. good luck with all of your Halloween projects as well!


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## singe

some inside stuff...

shrouded window









in-progress witch in the crazy kitchen of making things. we are super messy makers :/


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## Plastic Ninja

Wow looks great singe! Keep up the good work


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## singe

*exotic beetle specimen box*

kids' puzzle box with plexi panel and painted plastic beetles.









tada! the ocular device is somehting we found at the goodwill bins, and the spinal model is from a medical warehouse we used to live near 









i was compelled to actually identify and classify them correctly. :nerd:


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## singe

*better flickers*

we'll have some kids around so no open flames at the party. but i also really wanted to use this witchy candle holder. so i dug out some flameless candles i got at Big Lots after xmas. unfortunately the orginal look of the flicker tea lights is unacceptable for props seen close up. ooh shiny!










i then proceeded to drip real wax all over them till about 1/2 of the plastic flame cover was buried. then i cut around the flame with an x-acto and pulled out the plastic flame cover and plug of wax.










2 small tapers did 6 tea lights in about 2 _Treehouse of Horror_ episodes (45 min)


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## singe

Warrant2000 said:


> Here's Haunted Tiki Island, great place for ideas for your tiki section.
> 
> Be sure to hide a sea monster behind the shower curtain to literally scare the pee out of your guests.


wow thanks, that tiki haunt is so inspirational!

and don't worry, i have three poseable tentacles with individual suckers i made for an art show a few years ago. was thinking they could be squirming out of the toilet tank, but i do like the shower idea...


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## singe

ok that got me thinking about the bathroom and i had to do a quick set up. we have tons of that seaweed, and lots of jellyfish, shells and one of those water effect projector/speaker things that you hook up to an mp3 player.










i need to go pass out now.


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## housedragonmom

I am doing a House of Horror, too. It is funny that we are both are pretty much doing the same stuff in the same rooms. I am doing a bug room in one bathroom and a witchy powder room in the other. I have been wondering what to do in the foyer and your lab idea may work for me. Thanks for the ideas and good luck...looks really good so far!


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## singe

ooh! bug room is a good idea. we have a bunch of creepy crawlies for outside in the swampy jungle.

here are the labels i made for the Lab. 2 sets, Chemicals and Poisons.



















Just print them out on letter sized label paper, or regular paper and use double stick tape or glue stick. depending on the look you want, you can also age them with smears of strong tea, soy sauce or water colors.


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## Death's Door

That invite is the best!!!!! I love the tikki. You did an awesome job with making the tikki look real wood.


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## debbie5

OMG!LABELS!!thank you SO MUCH! there are not many of these online to choose from ! they look great!


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## debbie5

I've got to ask: are you guys artists, graphic designers or what?? Do tell, as your stuff is SO frakkin cool.


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## debbie5

(cries) I cant use rapidshare! I dunno WHY!


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## debbie5

Awww, shucks....that party looks so durn fancy n all (wiping disty toe of shoe back n forth in dirt...looking down, hands behind back) Must be nice ta be invited to one of them shindigs n all...Halloween sure is fun when ya have a party ta go to..


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## singe

awwwww if you were in Texas i'd invite you! i'd love to have people around who will appreciate the details! i have a feeling much of it will go unoticed through the drunken haze... :/

debbie, check your forum email for labelsssssssssssss.


and yeah, we're both freelance designers and illustrators. i ran into the same problem as you, everything online was too low res for printing, or looked too modern. we're going for an atomic early 1950's look for the lab stuff. i searched for packaging from that era to get the look right. no guarantees on scientific accuracy on those formulas! but maybe they'll be useful anyway!


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## Peyjenk

WOW! This is amazing. I especially love the tentacles behind the toilet. I can't wait to see the finished product/s.


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## debbie5

"debbie, check your forum email for labelsssssssssssss."

No labels came in the haunt mail. Wah.


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## debbie5

I find a lot of great graphics in old children's books: anatomy, egyptian/ancient cultures...usually for free as discrards from library. Old mags too have great fonts & layouts to snag from their medicine ads. I miss working as a designer. But not working with the nutsy managers!


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