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

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

Posts tagged "halloween":

Monster Prom band, part 3: Frankenstein keytarist!

The finished Frankenstein standing in my yard in daylight.

Last but not least! I learned a lot of important lessons when I was working on our demonic singer — mostly that I didn’t want to do anything that complicated again for a long time! :) So I figured out ways to make our Frankenstein monster keytarist a lot simpler. The key here was to keep most of the shapes much more geometric and simple rather than organic and curvy. You can see the guy’s torso and legs and left arm are basically just simple box shapes. Read more…

Published by Manning on October 29th, 2024 | No Comments

Monster Prom band, part 2: demon singer!

This demonic singer lady is one of the most challenging things I’ve ever made! I wanted to try to make a free-standing life-size human figure, using just my normal techniques with foam board and tape and stuff. This was a first for me and it worked out pretty well!

The demon singer lady pretty much completed, standing at her microphone; she does not yet have her guitar

I started with the legs; it was critical to design these to be strong enough to stand up on their own and to support the weight of the figure. (Although I cheated a bit with the microphone stand; coming up.) Read more…

Published by Manning on October 29th, 2024 | No Comments

Monster Prom band, part 1: alien drummer!

For our Monster Prom Halloween party, my main project was our monster new wave band. I started with the alien drummer because I knew he would be the easiest!

The first idea I had in creating the drummer was to re-use my paper maché alien mask from last Halloween as the head of the drummer. So that saved me a ton of time and materials right off the bat! Read more…

Published by Manning on October 29th, 2024 | No Comments

Halloween 2024 theme: Monster Prom!

I’m posting our Halloween theme a bit later than usual this year because I’m so swamped with projects that I forgot! I’ve really bitten off more than I can chew this year but I think the results are going to be a lot of fun. Anyway, this year’s theme is Monster Prom, and we’re going for a sort of 1980s synthwave vibe with our color scheme. Read more…

Published by Manning on October 14th, 2024 | No Comments

Big brain alien costume!

I made this big-brain alien costume for Halloween 2023! Here’s how I done did it!

Me wearing my alien costume

Hooboy, this was one of those projects where I was in such a rush I didn’t take nearly as many process pics as I usually do. But I can give you the gist of how I did all this. I started out with the three basic big shapes: the shoulder armor, the head tube thing, and the brain. Read more…

Published by Manning on October 31st, 2023 | 2 Comments

48″ flying saucer Halloween decoration

I made this 48″ flying saucer for our 1950s sci-fi Halloween party! Here’s how I made it.

This thing required a lot of math, and A), I’m bad at math, and B) the materials I use are not very precise so sometimes the pieces just don’t work out perfectly even though I’ve done the math correctly. Read more…

Published by Manning on October 31st, 2023 | 1 Comment

Giant robot Halloween decoration

With just a few days left before our 1950s-themed Halloween party I decided to make this simple giant robot statue, loosely based on the robot I drew for our animated party invitation. Read more…

Published by Manning on October 31st, 2023 | No Comments

Halloween 2023 theme: UFO!

This is another Halloween theme that I’ve been eager to do for many years! 1950s sci-fi, flying saucers, little green men, et cetera et cetera. I drew all of this stuff in Photoshop with my tablet, and animated everything in Adobe Animate. Read more…

Published by Manning on October 3rd, 2023 | No Comments

Lifesize paper maché Nosferatu statue!

Check this thing out! For Halloween 2022 our party’s theme was the 100th anniversary of the film Nosferatu (well, the U.S. release) and I wanted to try making a lifesize paper maché statue of good ol’ Count Orlok, aka the guy that jabronis like you call Nosferatu.

Read more…

Published by Manning on November 3rd, 2022 | 1 Comment

Halloween 2022 theme: Nosferatu, a Century of Horror

For many years I’d been waiting for 2022 to roll around so I could do this Halloween party theme; it’s the 100th anniversary of the film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror!

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Published by Manning on November 2nd, 2022 | 1 Comment

New Halloween party invitation: Prick or Treat!

My wife and I skipped Halloween last year due to the pre-vaccine Covid situation, but this year we’ve decided to throw a small, outdoor, vaccinated party. There’s no real theme and we’re not making a ton of decorations, but I did want to get back into the rhythm of creating an animated invitation to get people (including me!) excited. Here it is!
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Published by Manning on October 12th, 2021 | 2 Comments

New Orleans Devil Man mask — the sequel!

I made a mask of the New Orleans Devil Man back in 2015 for my “Voodoo Bayou” Halloween party. I no longer have that mask, but I made another similar one this year because I’ll be in New Orleans for Halloween and I wanted to reprise the costume. I wasn’t trying to make the same exact mask again; I figured I’d just start over and include a lot of the same elements, but let the style go in different directions as I work on it.

New Orleans Devil Man mask

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Published by Manning on November 4th, 2019 | No Comments

Paper maché bear trap prop

I made this paper maché bear trap prop as part of my Halloween costume for my Summer Camp Slasher party. It was pretty easy!

Bear trap prop - painting finished

99% of my projects start with lots of foam board and tape and end with paper maché and paint, and this one was no different. I started out by building the “jaws” of the bear trap. I measured and cut out a few 1.5″ strips of foam board to serve as the jaws, minus the teeth; those will come later. Read more…

Published by Manning on October 29th, 2019 | 1 Comment

Paper maché machete, hatchet, meat cleaver, sickle, etc props

I made all these paper maché weapon props for Halloween 2019 — a machete, a meat cleaver, a sickle, a scythe, two hatchets, a hand saw, a pitchfork, and a few knives. They were easy!

Paper mache meat cleaver, knives, etc - spray painting

I used a lot of the same process for these that I did for my paper maché kitchen knife prop last year and this paper maché axe that I made a few weeks ago, so check out that article if you want some more details and pics. Read more…

Published by Manning on October 29th, 2019 | 1 Comment

Paper maché archery target decoration

I made this paper maché archery target decoration for my 2019 summer-camp-slasher-movie-themed Halloween party! Here’s how I did it…

Paper mache archery target with skeleton decoration - finished!

Paper mache archery target with skeleton decoration - cutting out foam board

Paper mache archery target with skeleton decoration - making the circle box shape

I started by deciding on a size for my target — 36″ in diameter. I taped two 30″ x 20″ sheets of foam board together with heavy duty shipping tape, and drew a 36″ circle on ’em. (See my article about drawing precise circles here.) I cut out this circle with an X-acto knife. I then made a second copy of the same thing.

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Published by Manning on October 28th, 2019 | No Comments

Skeleton bunkbeds!

I made these skeleton bunkbeds to transform my apartment’s bathroom into a summer camp dormitory for my 1970s-summer-camp-slasher-movie-themed Halloween party. They were easy!

Skeleton bunk beds prop - done!

The bunkbeds consist of a few main parts: the beds themselves, the ladder, and the vertical supports holding up the top bunk. I made all of these out of just foam board, tape, and hot glue, using my usual techniques Read more…

Published by Manning on October 28th, 2019 | No Comments

Paper-maché severed head props!

I made these severed head decorations for Halloween 2019, using paper maché and clay and a bunch of other stuff. They were fun! Here’s how I made ’em…

Making a dozen paper mache severed heads

I started with a couple of styrofoam heads I already had laying around; one dude and one lady. I’d bought these ages ago for some project or other; I don’t even remember what it was specifically because I’ve ended up using them for a million different things — as a stand for masks I was working on, as a base for other Halloween head props I’ve made, etc. Read more…

Published by Manning on October 28th, 2019 | 4 Comments

8-foot foam board rowboat prop

I made this big rowboat prop for my 2019 Halloween party — Summer Camp Slasher! It was a somewhat complicated project but I tried to simplify everywhere I possibly could and take every shortcut I could find. I made this whole thing in one afternoon!

foam board rowboat prop - finished!

Here’s my weird idea I came up with for creating this slightly complex boat shape: I started with two giant foam board panels — one to be the bottom surface of the boat, and one to span across what would be the open upper surface; this one would be removed when the shape was done. Read more…

Published by Manning on October 22nd, 2019 | 9 Comments

Paper maché fireplace prop

I made this paper maché fireplace for my 2019 Halloween party — Summer Camp Slasher!

Paper mache fireplace prop

Of course I started by measuring and sketching the fireplace to make sure it would be the right size for our wall and tall enough to reach our ceiling. I built the basic big shapes using my usual method for building box shapes out of foam board. Read more…

Published by Manning on October 14th, 2019 | No Comments

Fake wood summer camp sign decoration

Here’s a quick and easy one; I made this summer camp sign mostly by re-using techniques I made up a few years ago for these fake wooden signs. Here’s how I did it…

Fake wooden sign - hatchet prop!

I started with two sheets of foam board; one for the wooden planks and one for the background. I cut wavy lines with an X-acto knife to make the four planks, and I trimmed the background piece to be a bit smaller.

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Published by Manning on October 11th, 2019 | No Comments