60 days until…..

Halloween!!! I know; I know… I have so neglected my blog this year, but I have a good excuse. So I was still working away on Halloween props after the New Year.  So come February I decided to take a short break from Halloween. I had planned on starting back up in April but then April came along and I was like…no I’ll start at the end of May or beginning of June. Well then the unfortunate occurrence of being unemployed happened. That meant I could not spend money on Halloween at all. It took me about a month and a half to find a job (and my wife has even went back to work at the hospital). So now that school has started back up, and we’re both working, I can finally start on some projects. On my list for this year are a mausoleum and maybe a few more tombstones. I know…it’s not that ambitious but hopefully next year will be much, much better…. Last year I had seen where someone had made a creepy cradle tombstone for a baby, and I wanted to “copy” that but I think I have found a better one. I saw this picture on a cemetery photography site and said to myself “this one I must make.”

I know it is a lil creepy...but I love it for some reason... So that is what I plan on doing for my birthday weekend (next week J) I'll post pics as I'm working on it :)
Happy Haunting all!!!!

My family is

the best family ever!!! How else can you describe a wife that gets her husband this book ...

for Christmas??? She so enables my obsession at times. See she knows that for next years haunt I am not only doing the outside of the house but I am also planning on doing the front room as well. And part of what I am doing involves Post-mortem photography or Momento Mori. (Click the link for info on this topic). This book is chock full of the things... I'll post a review of it as soon as I can...Also she helped the kids pick out and purchase an original Death portrait for me. (Yes, even my kids enable my obbsession.) Is it wrong that my two 13 year olds and soon to be 10 year old see nothing wrong with buying me a picture of a dead person??? So yeah, I believe I have the best family ever. Those that truely know me also know I honestly HATE the Christmas season, but I do have to say that this Christmas is in my top 10 days of my life (so far). The kids this year made it awesome:)

I did get some other cool stuff...a wood burner with 4 tips (which will also be used on next years haunt), an awesome cast iron skull bottle opener, and maybe my favorite gift of all a ukelele... I know odd. Anyway, I'll think about scanning and posting the pic that the kids got me sometime this week....

I hope your "other holiday" was as fruitful as mine:)

Happy Haunting!!!!!

~Bill

I lied....

when I said I was not going to build any more props until after the New Year. Last night I finished yet another tombstone. This time I did something different. I saw this picture :

I was like wow...I love this. So I tried to copy it. Here is what I got:

Now that I am looking at it I think I have just a few more touches to add then I'll be finished. I was trying for that "sandstone" look. Not sure if I achieved it or not. Jen likes it, the kids approve of it, so I suppose I'll add it to the cemetery next year.

Until next time....

Happy Haunting!!!!

~Bill

The Rott Family Plot

I figured since I already had Fester N. Rott & Diane Rott, I might as well go one step further. The dates I have on both of those two lent themselves to a sad truth that I decided to use. When we go visit the older cemeteries, we always see graves for youngsters all over the place with the dates in the 1800's. So I decided to give the Rott's an infant son....Willy
So today I made Willy's gravestone:

Here's another pic of the stone:

The stone says : Willy Rott... Born 1842... 18 mos. ... Sleep, my little one, Sleep
 I have the stone in betwen his mom & dad:

Maybe next year I will fence off a section so they have their own lil family plot. Jen says this is really creepy, but for me it just fits into the whole vision I have towards realism...hehehe
Tomorrow is the big day!!!! My anniversary and Halloween!!!! Woohoo!!!!
Happy Haunting!!!!
~Bill

Pictures of the yard

One of my many challenges is night photography. I suck at it. Normally that would not be an issue; however, since my yard looks the coolest at night with the lights and the smoke, it does tend to cause me issues with sharing what my yard looks like. But here are a few that I think are ok....

I wish they were better but they give you an idea of the yard at night...
Happy Haunting!!!!
~Bill

New Tombstone: Fester (Diane's Husband)

So since I completed Diane Rott's gravemarker I thought I should also do her husband's...Fester N. Rott....

I carved the Angel of Death and the hourglass the same way that I did the cat on annie's stone.

The epitaph reads " It does my heart a world of good...To see you in a box of wood"

Only 9 more days left... I'm so excited!!!!

Happy Haunting!!!

~ Bill

Tombstone: Diane Rott Finished

As promised here is the final picture of the tombstone:

I think I am finished with it. We're getting closer to the BIG day.
Happy Haunting!!!!
~Bill

New Tombstone: Diane Rott

So yesterday I made a new tombstone: Diane Rott ( play on the words Die n Rot). Here is the pics... I still think I am gonna weather it a bit more, not sure yet though....

And another....

and the inscription/epitaph...

And here's a night shot...

Only 13 more days and so much left to do. We put the ground fog machines out tonight and did a test run. I think they will work well. Fog acts different here in Florida than it did in Utah.
Anyway, off to work on another Tombstone.
Happy Haunting!!!!
~Bill

Completed: Gavin's Crypt

Yesterday, being Saturday, was finish Gavin's crypt day. In all honesty, it is 70% his, 30% mine. (Especially, since he ditched me yesterday to play with a friend....lol) So here it is:

I think we did a good job on it. I am pleased with it so far. He ditched me after we got the top built, so I had to paint it. I did the opposite of what we did to the sides... I sprayed the entire top with a base coat of white and I let it dry. Then instead of using a roller I sprayed the entire top with a coat of black and used the hose on mist to "wash away" the paint. Here I am washing it away:

Here is what it looked like after I washed the black away:

I think I like this effect better than when I base coated black and washed the white away. And yes, the name on the crypt is one of my wife's great grand-mother:

And here is the finished top:

I added some moss to it (hoping it made it look "spookier and older"). The next few shots are of me putting it in the yard. I modified the "plan" for the crypt by putting pvc tubes on the inside to hold the rebar so the crypt is more secure.

Inside the crypt I added a green spot light facing inward and a fog machine (also facing inward). At night the green light shines through the cracks and "holes" that are in the crypt. It looks really creepy. Our camera takes really crappy night pictures so I am working on getting a good shot to post.
So the inspiration for this is from the Mitchell's new book "How to Haunt your House Book 2" page 20. I suggest you guys go and grab you a copy ASAP (so you can make cool stuff too!!!!)
More to come......Happy Haunting!!!!!
~Bill

Gavin's Crypt

Well, as I said in a previous post, Gavin (my 9 year old son) is working on the Tomb Cover from How to Haunt Your House Book 2 (by Shawn & Lynne Mitchell). Here's his progress... We should be completely finished by the weekend, I think we'll be finished sooner...

We've measured the panels and he is getting ready to use a jigsaw for the very first time.We did have an ambulance on stand by just in case...

Here he is actually cutting. He did an excellant job. I was very proud of him... in fact, we were able to dismiss the rescue squad that was on stand by.

I drew some lines on the wall panels, and gave him the dremel tool. I told him to trace the lines. I also said they did not have to be perfect... again, surprisingly, no one had to go to the emergency room.

After he dremeled the lines, he took a wire brush to make them a little more "crack-like".

So this is one of the panels ready for painting. I didn't take a pic of it but we primed it with Monster Mud and then sprayed the entire panel black.

 After the black base coat dried, we went outside. I read somewhere about a technique for weathering where you roll a lighter color over the black and then use a hose to "wash away the top layer". this is what we were trying...

Here Gavin is spraying the panel with water. I think he did a great job so far. For me the jury is still out on this technique. I'll make a decision after we've finished. We still have a few more details to add the the panels..

This is the front panel so far....

 

 This is one of the side panels....

This is the other side panel......

We still have the lid to make. Everything is cut out. We just have to glue it all together and detail it before we can paint it. As soon as we are finished I will post the pics....

Happy Haunting All!

Annie's Stone in the yard

So here is what I think I'll do with Annie's stone. I hope that she likes it:)

I used part of a store bought prop from last year... I wanted it to be special or as special as it can be... So here ya go Annie:)

Happy haunting!!!

~Bill

It's begun....

So tonight I started to put the display up... Just positioning the tombstones, but still it's a start...

 Angel statue

 Bird bath & Skelamingo/ memory garden

 Creepy statue

 another creepy statue

 Grave marker

 Another grave marker

 Annie's Stone

The Smith's stone by Jen

So to recap.. I think by the "big day" I should have a total of  5 home made stones/markers completed... the rest of the display will be filled out with store bought stones... I will be adding more details as the month progresses..more pics to follow....

Happy Haunting

~Bill