OUTDOORS:
The Cemetary There are less expensive headstones, but if you want it to look impressive, stay away from the "cutsie" stuff. A more authenic look will be much more impressive.
A big problem people have is getting them to stand up. Nothing quite digs into the ground enough. I recently discovered a good soloution...Shish Kebob sticks. Specifically metal ones. If you push them through the stone itself from the back at a 45 degree angle into the ground they stay well and staked for several weeks. We bought ours in a local dollar store, if you don't have one, try a Lechters kitchen store.
See the small example below: Headstones ranged on the lawn is a good start. Now you just need to haunt it. As you can see we have our devil working his way out of the grave. You need a good sturdy mask for this, and we stuffed ours with paper towels and used our "Kebob stakes" here again. The gloves, stuffed make a nice touch to this. Make sure that whatever masks you use have "eyes" filled in. There are small slits where the wearer would ordinarily look through, but,
as you can see, the appearance is that of a creature with eyes.
Even though we bought ours elsewhere, Spencers also carries the exact mask we bought: The Walkway There are several options you can use to achieve this. One is to use full size lanterns and either suspend them or put them on the ground.
Below is a link to a fog/smoke machine, this is the best price we found at only 79.99! Outdoor Lighting Blacklights, although very effective indoors loose their character outdoors. Morbid Crime Scene Watch for more on Outdoors to come!!!
WITHIN THE WALLS:
Lighting Other accents you can do involve indirect light. A strange and glow from behind a piece of furnature or underneath a couch will be extremely visable in the dim lighting. Using a blacklight in a confined space can be a fire hazzard. I recommend light sticks. These make a safe inexpensive alternative. Two or three can cast quite a glow and give a neat effect.
You can also do a party lit entirely by candles. It will create an evening and and an atmosphere your guests will remember. Just be careful of your candle placement, the can be a fire hazzard. Illuminations offers this neat candle arrangement that we used for our food table. An indirect strobe light (i.e. aimed away from people) or strobing blacklight can be a nice touch. A Medieval Atmosphere I realize that these pieces are expensive, there are less expensive alternatives that still look pretty good. These are good for a party and under dim light look pretty real (not like a REALLY cheap plastic sword). They start at about 19.99. There are other decorative things you can do to add to the atmosphere besides swords and weapons. Pewter goblets make a nice touch. I have these up on the mantle and on shelves. They set a great mood year 'round.
Cauldrons 1. For a punch bowl. If you go out an purchase an inexpensive plastic cauldron (or if you happen to have one handy) that is water tight and clean to use for a punch, you can add an extra kick to make it creepy. We add a couple of chips of dry ice to our punch once it's mixed. Check in your local yellow pages for an ice cream distribution company, or frozen foods. Often they can sell you a small block of dry ice for a few dollars. You can carry it in an ordinary cooler and make sure you use gloves to handle it, it's really cold.
You can take a small chip approximately 1 cubic inch and drop it into the punch. First, it will bubble, it will get cold and it will develop a nice fog at the surface. The effect lasts a little while, but we do not recommend putting a bigger chip of dry ice in your cauldron because it could crack it (yes crack plastic). It's a really nice effect and it doesn't affect the taste of the punch since, when it melts, it goes from solid form directly to gas (C02). A 1 cubic foot block in a cooler will stay for about 12-24 hours.
2. Even if you decide not to serve a punch, a cauldron can make great decoration too. You can either follow the instructions above and just use some water instead of punch, or try a specially made smoking cauldron. Miscelaneous Jumps We filled it with M&M's. There was a good jump any time somene who didn't know took a candy and a hand came down on theirs. The only important thing to note with this one, is that it's light sensitive. Keep it near a source of light (even a dim blacklight or candle will do).
"I am Dracula. I bid you 'velcome.'" A lifesize Dracula (Bella Lugosi) propped behind a door can be a great shocker for any party. Get one that talks and says 8 lines from the original Dracula and you've got a "must have." We found him through the "Dark Shadows Store" and the screams were truely priceless. Click his image below to take you to the Dark shadows store.
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The cemetary for a party is considerably easier and cheaper since you don't need to purchase stone.
You can get some inexpensive (19.99-39.99) foam headstones that are pretty realistic.
Spencers Offer's these:
I've linked the above icons to Spencer's site if you wish to purchase them.
However I suggest a little additional silver and charcoal grey spraypaint to "age them" a bit. A good suggestion would be to darken them around the edges. Look at the difference in the picture below of the aged stone compared to the non aged one.
Make an entrance that sets the flavor for the night. A lantern/torch lit walkway sets a tone.
Now that you've set this up, you need to light it. We used spot lights on ground spikes. Using white spots is fine, but using colors can add a much more dramatic effect. We used Red and Green filters. These are easy enough to get for Christmas and work perfectly for the eerie glow.
This is a little toung in cheek, but still nice and gory. During a police investigation, the police chalk outline a dead body on the ground. We took it one step further and chalk outlined a body with, and arm 3 feet to the left (severed) and a leg 2 feet below (severed) he rest of the body. A bit of fike blood here doesn't hurt either. You can further spruce it up with somebarrier tape.
Key to establishing a spooky atmosphere is lighting. The most inexpensive and most effective changes you can make is to use the existing light fixtures you have and simply change the bulbs to either colored party bulbs (red, green or blue) 40 watts or BELOW, or
and more effective is blacklight bulbs. Below is Spencer's least expensive and smallest blacklight bulb. The do make larger ones, but the idea here is to keep the atmosphere dim.
This is one of those decorating ideas that is good year around. If you are serious about cultivating this atmosphere in your home, there is nothing like displaying some beautiful works of metal. The pictures below are linked to the Franklin Mint, and if you click on them you can get a better idea. I have several of these in my home and they are admired by everyone.
These are great because they can serve two purposes.
Giving someone a good "aaahhh!!!" also has some value. We got one of these:
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