Manning Makes Stuff - Halloween decorations, paper mache masks, costumes, party ideas, and more

Evil mechanical dolls Halloween costumes!

These were my fiancee’s and my costumes for Halloween 2010. They were our first-ever his-and-hers couple’s costumes, and we threw them together pretty last-minute! The only complicated/time-consuming part was the paper maché turnkeys that went on our backs. I had never done paper maché before and had no idea what I was doing, so they ended up having really rough, uneven surfaces. The base for the keys was foam board and poster board, all taped together and then paper maché’d over, then painted silver with acrylic paint.
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My nightmare-themed Halloween party

The theme for my Halloween party in 2013 was: nightmares! The name of the event was Night Terrors, and I chose purple and green as my main color scheme for the party. Here’s some info about the decorations we made, our costumes, the animated invitation, etc.

Invitation — I create a short animated invitation for my Halloween party ever year; it really helps set the mood and establish the color scheme and give people some inspiration for their costumes. Here’s the invitation I sent out for Night Terrors. Note: there is audio. Also, it’s made in Flash, so it won’t work on an iPhone/iPad.
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