Party this weekend

mandy0221 · Post by **mandy0221** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 3:32 pm

So my Halloween party is this weekend. And I am starting to get nervous but excited at the same time. I have been decorating all month but I need to go all out this week and really step it up.

Anyone else celebrating this weekend. I know Hooch is - the 28th right? Thats when mine is. Too bad I have already had a few cancelations : ( but that wont stop me. Oh and I forgot to mention....still have NO costume!!!!!!

Any ideas for last minute decorations? I am pretty much out of money but ANY ideas are welcome...it fees like I dont have enough up.

kevin · Post by **kevin** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:37 pm

Styrofoam headstones aren't too expensive to make if you want to add a graveyard (if you dont have one). Not free, but some gray/black paint, and maybe some hot glue to stick some thin ones together to make them thicker/sturdier...

You got fog? Add a chiller to keep the fog on the ground... again not free, but cost me $28 for the 50qt chest, and about $15 for the PVC tubing (http://www.gotfog.com) and mesh to make it work. Still need to flat paint my cooler tonight and seal it, another $8 for the caulking and spray paint. But the effect, especially with dry ice (about $1 a pound) cooling it is very kewl. If only I could find 3 inch wide vacuum hosing to direct it easier.

MHooch · Post by **MHooch** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 11:49 pm

mandy0221...this year I have really gotten into little orange string lights. Our local stores have Halloween stuff on sale already, and they are pretty cheap to start with. And I am a big fan of black and orange crepe paper...an old idea but very festive (and also cheap). Put the TV on mute to a channel playing scary movies...free "decoration"! The important thing is not the decor, but the fun you guys will have! Hope it's a BLAST!!

mandy0221 · Post by **mandy0221** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 11:56 pm

Thanks for the ideas. I forgot about the crepe paper. And I also wanted to get one of those giant spiders....I also love the orange light ideas.

I am not on a NO budget...just a low budget. I think I might make the doorways all have crepe paper hanging to give it more of a spooky feeling. I think the scene really sets the mood for the night!

MHooch · Post by **MHooch** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 12:42 am

mandy0221...you know what I put in my doorways...cheescloth. Very inexpensive at WalMart, buy it by the yard, then cut it to fit the doorway, and go to town with the scissors...the more ripped up, the better it looks. TA DA! Instant cobwebs!

Spooky · Post by **Spooky** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 8:36 am

My party is on Oct. 28th too. I am not really nervous, cause I have done so many that I feel pretty relaxed on this one, and am kind of in shock that I have so much done already.

I am going this morning to get so Halloween cards for people, and I have to buy some painters tape, cause I am going to cover my TV room ceiling with crepe paper and balloons, and regular tape takes the paint off.

Balloons and crepe paper do make the party feel like a party. And they are both inexpensive.

Those cardboard cut outs are awesome too, cause they are cheap, and so are the scene setters.

An Idea I really like, that I saw on TV, was they had cut out a bunch of bats out of black construction paper and just polluted an entire room with bats...on the ceiling... on the walls, it look like a swarm of them, and was very cool.

TigerStrong · Post by **TigerStrong** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 12:21 pm

cheesecloth has gotten hard to find around my town, but Martha Stewart has a great (CHEAP) idea on her website. Just take a black lawn garbage bag and cut it into 2 inch wide strips, then pull them to stretch them out, and hang it in your doorway. Not a good description. Do a search for Martha Stewart Halloween. you'll get a page with a list of stuff. Find Witch's Curtain and take a look.

I made black posterboard bats one year for my invitations: one large bat with two small bats hanging from each wing (by invisible thread). As I made them, I hung them on the chandelier above my table to keep them from getting tangled up, and I so loved the effect that I created more for decoration. Now they're packed away ready to bring out every year, and i move them around, sometimes hanging them over the table, sometimes in the foyer. They end up being very realistic. But it's a lot of time.

And surely you've already covered as much furniture as possible with white sheets. Even just covering one or two pieces has the necessary effect.

Are you a reader? I always pull any and every book that has a creepy title and leave them laying around the house: Nabokov's "Invitation to a Beheading" in the powder room; Gogol's "Dead Souls" laying on a coffee table with Thomas Mann's "Doctor Faustus," Alice Sebold's "Lovely Bones," Nietzche's "Beyond Good and Evil, and Freud's "Totem and Taboo" stacked on the piano. You get the picture. Even better if you have witchcraft or dragon books in addition to Dracula, Frankenstein, and Portrait of Dorian Grey! Even books that aren't creepy, but are old. They can add a great effect too. (And if you come from New Orleans, as I do, you might even have some great pictures of cemeteries, or books of voodoo! You can have fun getting really creepy, falling into character as you pull all eerie things you own into one or two rooms (or in my case, the whole downstairs)!

TigerStrong · Post by **TigerStrong** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 12:41 pm

I forgot to mention: check out magazines. I have a great full page picture of Johnny Depp from a magazine a couple of years ago. He's wearing a great billowy Victorian looking shirt, slouched down in a chair. Everything in the room has the look of an old castle. I painted just the hint of fangs on his lips, and a drop or two of blood on his collar. I hang it on the fridge with my bat magnets (from Bat Conservation International's website) -- I LOVE bats, and love to brag that I've been bitten by one!

mandy0221 · Post by **mandy0221** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 8:04 pm

Hey everyone thanks for all of the ideas. I am going to def. do the ceiling thing....I was always curious how to hang stuff up there but SPooky gave me a great idea - painters tape. Then I can just disguise it with cobwebs.

I am so excited. I am getting started tomorrow!

MHooch · Post by **MHooch** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 10:24 pm

Spooky, I actually did the swarm of bats thing one year...we were getting ready to paint the living room so we didn't care if tape took off paint. I wish I had a digital picture of it, it was great. We also hung a border of black paper around the edge of the ceiling, cut all choppy to make it look like a cave...it was awesome! (But it did take forever to cut out all those bats!)

mandy0221 · Post by **mandy0221** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 12:13 pm

SO tonight I am stuck babysitting from 4 until gosh knows when. So I think I am going to make a target trip and get some black construction paper and get started on some bats. I got some plastic/rubber ones from my Halloween partner but I think I might do something different with those.

Yay I am excited. I really want to wow people this year. SO that way they let me have the party every year.

Pennywise11 · Post by **Pennywise11** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 1:38 pm

Well that sounds like a bit of fun tonight. You might be able to get the kids involved too if you need to keep them under control... Another good one is black and orange construction paper and make a Halloween chain. I have a few around my house. My daughter had a great time making that last year.

boz · Post by **boz** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 5:39 pm

Hey this is bozz at work and yes I am nervous about our dry-run rehearsal party Sat. night........we put flyers in mail boxes for our maze.......hopefully we can manage and it goes well........not sure the turn out will be.......but we will crank it all up and give it our best shot........I'm sure we will need to make adjustments as we go.............sure hope the garage is not too scary......no fun if nobody will go in....lol..........?!?

mandy0221 · Post by **mandy0221** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 9:49 pm

Hey Boz - from the pictures you have posted it looks like you will have A LOT of people turn out. How is the weather there? Here is is NASTY and rainy and cold!!!!!

I wish I could come to your maze and garage. Hope it all goes well. Let us know how it turns out.

boz · Post by **boz** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 1:51 pm

mandy0221 wrote:Hey Boz - from the pictures you have posted it looks like you will have A LOT of people turn out. How is the weather there? Here is is NASTY and rainy and cold!!!!!

I wish I could come to your maze and garage. Hope it all goes well. Let us know how it turns out.

Thanks........yeah I wish you everybody else could come.......its real nasty here in Ohio......handed out a few more flyers.........and posted some rules on the garage......I'm getting a little more nervous.......don'tknow what to expect.......sure has been a lot of work......have a little more to do.......hope the turn out is decent......so I did this all for something.........need good weather too......gonna make a few more flyers.........found a cool website......Skullandbone.com...........check out the posters there........very cool !!!!I will update you all with pics after Sat. night and with more Tues night to come.......I have a live cam hook up too.