Little Props and Horrors! Haunted House Roundup

Halloween is our favorite time of year! It’s a perfect holiday for makers because we get to stretch our creative muscles and make some really fun props and decorations that we can share with our entire community throughout the season. It’s a time when anything goes and you can show off your skills. Whether your theme is scary, silly, funny, magical, whimsical, or high tech, there are no rules for a DIY Halloween and your neighborhood kids are sure to enjoy it no matter what you build! Here’s a roundup of some of our favorite haunted DIY projects to inspire you to make your Halloween more magical:

Bubbling Witch’s Cauldron

The Witch’s Cauldron is a classic Halloween prop and incredibly fun to make! Elevate a store-bought cauldron by painting on a rusty finish. Mix ModPodge with oatmeal and paint it green to create a chunky, overflowing witch’s brew. Burning embers are easily simulated by spraying expanding foam over orange string lights. Use small ultrasonic pond foggers to create bubbles and mist rising from inside. A tripod made from lightweight bamboo poles is perfect for hanging your cauldron above your glowing coals.

Halloween Tombstones

No Halloween haunt is complete without a creepy cemetery! To create your own custom tombstones, start with XPS insulation foam and carve your shape and an epitaph with a rotary tool or a utility knife. Add an instant faux stone texture by spraying it with water and running over it with a heat gun. Seal it with Drylok for a sturdy, weather-proof finish and paint it with gray, green, brown, and black acrylic washes.

Creepy Wallpaper Stencil

Going for the haunted Victorian mansion look? This genius hack by VanOaks Props will let you quickly re-create the look of antique wallpaper without the tedious work of moving and aligning a traditional stencil. The secret? Use a lace curtain! This and a spray gun will let you paint an entire 4×8 wall panel in just a few minutes.

Giant Jack-o-Lanterns

Create a Halloween display straight out of Alice in Wonderland with these giant whimsical jack-o-lanterns by Kara Kent Designs. Starting with a giant block of foam, carve your rough shape with hot wire tools and then sand it smooth. Cut it in half to hollow it out and carve in the face. After gluing it back together, sculpt a twirly stem and some high points around the eyes, nose, and mouth to give it that extra spooky character. Hard coat it to make it durable and finish it with paint.

Monster in a Box

This wildly fun prop from Craig Jameson uses an Arduino and an old car wiper motor to create the illusion of a scary monster trapped inside a wooden crate! The Arduino and motor turn a cam that shakes the top of the box, while LEDs and a fog machine create the illusion of something sinister hiding inside. In this detailed Instructable, Craig provides the schematics for wiring everything up as well as the Arduino code to create your own Monster in a Box.

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This article appeared in Make: Vol. 78.