Halloween 2010 - Another Successful Year

A close to perfect year weather wise. A wind kicked up about mid-way through Trick 'r Treating, which of course killed the fog effects but otherwise everything went great. We gave a few scares and everyone left with a full-sized Hershey bar.

Sleepy Hollow Scarecrow Head

Carved a Funkin this morning. Think I might have cut myself.

Distressing the Animated Coffin Top

I had a question about creating the texture on the Animated Creepy Coffin. Since I used soft cedar fence boards for that prop, it was pretty easy to use a rasp bit on my electric drill to distress the wood.



No special technique was used. Just go at it until it looks like you want it to look.

Inside the Animated Creepy Coffin

Many of you have seen the Animated Creepy Coffin I made for Halloween 2006. I never got around to doing a proper how-to for that coffin.

However, I've had several questions about the mechanism used in the prop so I dug up several old images of the internal mechanics.



The bottom of the front of the coffin lid is attached with a couple of hinges.



A wiper motor with a crank arm powers the coffin lid at the top.



A clevis pin and a couple of brackets attach the crank arm to the top of the coffin lid.

Giant Skull

Like many others this year I could not pass up getting one of the giant skulls from our local Costco. The sound is lame and I really don't like the LED eyes but I think I can use this skull as part of an huge imposing creature for Halloween this year.

Fall Is On The Way

There are certain indicators of the impending return of the Halloween season. One is when our local Costco begins stocking my favorite seasonal brew. Happy camper here.

Trick 'r Treat Scene 2009

As I mentioned in a previous post, our Trick 'r Treat scene was one of the few we were able to get set up during the very rainy Halloween 2009. Unfortunately, the rain let loose again before I could get many good night photos. The photograph above is one of the few that I managed to take with the Nikon D90. I think the sheet draped scarecrow and the fence worked pretty well.