Trick 1: Paper mache bat and spider
Materials:
paste made by mixing one fourth a cup of flour and five and a half cups of water
strips of old newspaper
string of red or orange Christmas lights (or two LEDs and a 3-volt power supply)
small-gauge wire from a hardware store
paint brush
masking or duct tape
black matte spray paint
party balloon
black pipe cleaner
black yarn
Steps: Fashion the wire into a three-dimensional bat or spider shape. Use a balloon for the back of the spider and pipe-cleaner for its legs. Leave wire sticking up for use as a hanger. Check out www.papermache.com.
Cover the frame with one or two layers of paper mache, setting two Christmas lights or LEDs poking out as the eyes. Tuck the rest of the string of lights or the power supply inside, where it will be out of sight. Make sure the cord from the lights or power supply pokes out.
Let the paper mache dry completely, then a spray paint the unit black and let it dry.
Hang up your new bat or put your spider on a web of yarn and plug it in. Scare kids. Repeat.
Trick 2: Glow-in-the-dark gravestones
Materials:
glow-in-the-dark paint
two shades of gray paint
paint brush
saw
pieces of wood approximately 1-foot square and
1-inch thick
Use a pencil and draw the outline of a gravestone on the wood and cutout using the saw.
Paint the resulting shape light gray, let it dry and then speckle it with darker gray paint. Add a few cracks for ambiance.
Make pencil sketches of spooky, old-fashioned lettering on the face of the gravestones. Use tacky or profound epitaphs, such as ” Ann Mann: Here lies Ann Mann/Who lived an old maid/But died an old Mann.”
Fashion a brace for the back using scraps of wood.
Trick 3: Pumpkin carving
Materials:
pumpkin
knife
standard screwdriver
string of blinking light bulbs
Steps: Gut the pumpkin by cutting a round hole in the top,
making sure to cut at an angle so the top doesn’t fall back in, and scoop out the seeds and goop with a big spoon.
Use a pencil to draw a sketch of a scary, funny or downright obscene design on the smoothest face of the pumpkin. Try www.extremepumpkins.com if you need inspiration
Use a knife to trace the outlines, being careful not to cut completely through the pumpkin.
With the flat head of the screwdriver, scrape away a thin layer of the areas where you want light
to show through.
Place a string of blinking Christmas lights inside, and run the cord through a notch in the top.
Bonus Tricks:
While wearing gloves to protect your hands, put some dry ice in a bucket and set it outside your doorstep or near your gravestones to create low-lying graveyard-style fog.
Play a CD of spooky sounds downloaded from royalty-free Internet sites (remember, the RIAA is watching).