Haunted House Silhouette

Here are a few quick pictures of the Haunted House silhouette that we display on our mantel every few years.  I don't have it completely set up, but thought I would add some pictures while I am thinking about it. I made this 10 or more years ago and unfortunately, it is really starting to show it's age.  

This is a large two piece silhouette, which was cut out of heavy duty poster board.  The tree (on left), small hill (that you can barely see on the right) and small flying bats are part of the back piece; which is placed against the wall.  The house, grass, gravestones and fence pillars are part of the front piece; which is placed about 5-6 inches in front of the back section.  It is lit using a long light, which is sandwiched between the front and back sections. 

It's been 10 years, and I still remember this silhouette being a CHALLENGE to make.  The poster board was thick and really difficult to cut through.  OMG, cutting out those fine details...let's just say, I remember learning several new swear words while working on it.  I can't imagine having to eventually redo it.  Oh, I do love it though!

 Blessings, Tracy

Halloween Window Silhouettes

Our Halloween Silhouettes lit up and shot from outside.  You can see another close up view of these silhouettes here and here.   You can also see our large "Witch on Broom" and "Fading Ghost" silhouettes here.

  **See below for updates & a brief "How To".

**Update - Several people have asked me where we purchased these Halloween silhouettes & if the were vinyl.  All of our silhouettes were painted on cheap white fabric.

For these silhouettes - 

1. We cut cheap white fabric into long panels.
2. We traced the design onto fabric.
3. We painted the silhouettes using "dark gray paint" (Martha Stewart tip). The gray paint will appear black when lit.  Make sure you paint the silhouette on the side of the fabric that faces towards the outside. Also, make sure you protect the surface that you are painting on, since the paint can bleed through the fabric.
4. We hung the silhouettes in our windows like curtains, using a small/thin peice of dowel at the top. Our windows are vinyl & just happened to have a small pocket at the top that works perfectly for hanging these.  To hang, we just slightly flex the thin piece of dowel & feed the ends in these pockets.
5. I usually light my silhouettes with either clip on work lights or table lamps. The window silhouettes in this post were lit using table lamps. I placed the lamps on the floor & centered at the base of each silhouette. I removed the lamp shades & replaced the regular bulb with colored spotlight bulbs. You can purchase these bulbs at places like Home Depot. I use two lamps for the witch and caldron silhouette, since these windows are really large & one lamp did not light it well enough. 
   ** Be careful that your lamps are not placed too close to curtains & that they do not get tipped over! These spotlight bulbs tend to run pretty hot. I close the bedroom doors when these silhouettes are lit. Even though I use sturdy lamps, I wouldn't want to risk our cats accidentally tipping one over or burning them selves on the open *hot* bulb.

I get a lot of people on my site looking at our Halloween window silhouettes.  If you would like additional silhouette ideas, I stumbled upon a great DIY site with some awesome Haunted House Silhouette ideas.  Take a minute & go check them out.

Blessings, Tracy

Oh no! I have "BATS IN MY BELFRY"....Umm, I mean foyer!

We have around 50 bats spinning in our foyer during Halloween.  When it comes time for Trick or Treaters, we dim the lights and it looks really spooky, with all the bats gently swaying and spinning.   When the neighborhood kids come to the door and look up to say their "Trick or Treats", all they see is tons of bats floating over our heads.  It's really fun to see some of them simply become speechless (not is a scared way, of course).  They just stare without saying a word until we snap them out of it by saying, "Happy Halloween".  ;-) 

This picture shows just a few of our bats, with the rest spinning over my head and behind me, while I snapped this shot.  Sorry...it's nearly impossible to get a good shot of these little devils. 

Blessings, Tracy