DIY Life

Disney's Haunted Mansion ride is beloved by many, and we're nearing the best time of year to go on it. (How many times have I been on it? Oh, um, like, a lot.) But some people just love it more than the rest of us, so there are entire web sites devoted to the ride's history and how it works, as well as ways to bring a little of the enchantingly spooky magic into your own home.

We're dying for you to join us after the break, for everything I could dig up related to the Haunted Mansion: its history, the four different versions of it, how some of its best tricks are accomplished, how to haunt your own mansion, and a ghost host of crafts... including how to get in touch with a few from a dearly departed page. Hop in your Doom Buggy and join us!

Haunted houses hold fascination for nearly everyone, especially around Halloween. Real or claimed to be real haunted houses can provide significant food for thought although they are seldom any scarier than a trip to the grocery store. If you want a haunted house experience for Halloween this year the first thing you might consider is trying to find a house that's haunted in your local area, but if you want a haunted house of your very own, you can try using some spooky music, lighting and props to send a chill up your neighbor's spine.

Start by considering your lighting, replacing outdoor lights with colored bulbs or even black lights can cast an eerie glow around your home. Try green bulbs for out in the yard, red bulbs for closer to the house and black lights inside. If you add in those black lights, you'll get the full affect from your guest's costumes which often feature colors that glow under black light. Consider stringing some of that fake spider webbing around the area of the light bulbs to help cast spooky shadows and add to the ambiance. Strobe lights in the bushes and in upstairs rooms can look very freaky and you will also find that yard torches can give a very "realistic" haunted feel to the area surrounding your haunted house. Just please be careful not to burn up any of the kiddies.

If a designer calls her site "Monster Crochet," she's practically required to have some horror-themed patterns on it. And so it is with Regina Rioux Gonzalez, whose awesome designs you might have seen in magazines like KnitScene and Crochet Today.

Regina's latest pattern is this Bloody Saw Scarf, which I first saw over on Craftster. It's made in a basic, worsted-weight wool yarn: the entire saw portion of the scarf is crocheted in gray, then the "blood" is crochet-embellished on top of it, on the "toothed" edge. Look closely, and you'll see that there are even handles at the ends of the saw!

Some of you will dig it because you're into the Saw horror franchise, others will make it for a horror fan friend, still others will just think this is attractively witty, silly, and/or gross. Whatever your interest in it, you can get the pattern from Regina's site for $5. While you're there, check the sidebar: you might be interested in patterns for her Wearable Web spider-web shawl ($5), her Dem Bones Scarf that looks like connected bones ($5), and her "monster fingers" pattern (free).

Now that you have made your own unique Halloween costume, it is time to think about making a unique trick or treat bag to go with that costume. When I was a kid, we used pillowcases large enough to hit up the whole town for all the goodies we could possibly eat. But those were also the days that you could go trick or treating without a parent tied to your every move and apples were safe to eat too.

The Dollar Store has cheap orange gift bags, all kinds of stickers, glitter, and different colors of construction paper. For complete instructions on this idea, check out eHow.com. You can decorate your goodie bag anyway you wish.

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get a head into a jar? I mean, sure: you can try to squeeze it into a bulk mayo jar with a wide mouth. But believe me, that skull is going to get in the way. And you can't just go around beheading people until you find a head that's the right size to actually fit: that would be totally uncool, and it would keep you from getting invited to the better Halloween parties.

...Or so I've heard.

But faking it? Faking it is easy. Check out these Head in a Jar instructions from Mad Haus Creative.

All you need is a large jar -- the sort that looks like it might be large enough to hold a head -- and a photo of a corpse-like face. In this instance, the photo is a texture map created for 3-D animators. Print it out, pop it into the jar, push it around until it looks right (or, more to the point, utterly sick and wrong), maybe add some hair... and bam, you're in the garage scene from Silence of the Lambs.

Deeply squicky, yet almost completely effortless! That's my kind of scary.

M.A.C. Cosmetics is known for their glamorous makeup: available in a bewildering array of shades and renowned for quality, many items in the line don't cost much more than their higher-end drug-store counterparts. The line was created for film and photo studio use, but is quite popular with beauty devotees as well.

Now M.A.C. has created a group of Halloween costume makeup ideas, and put it on their site. There's a series of categories: Dark Side has spooky-glam monster makeup, the looks under Graphically are all patterns, the Optical Illusion category is self-explanatory (and would take a lot of skill to replicate), Pretty Things is full of more illusion makeup (feminine "masks" and animals), and Robotniks is all about our shiny metal friends.

The person who suggested this post to CRAFT said that they believed the looks could be replicated with any Halloween makeup. I think that depends on the skill of the artist. You're definitely going to have an easier time getting good results with higher-end products than you will with a $4 greasepaint palette, but these ideas are a good starting point.

However, you might not find it worthwhile to buy all the suggested shades if you only want them for one night; some of these looks require ten different products. Keep in mind that M.A.C. cosmetics have fine textures and are highly pigmented, if you're trying to find substitutes. (L'Oreal's H.I.P. line would probably be a good starting point, along with some theatrical products from Ben Nye that are available at many costume and theatrical supply shops.) Though it's not DIY, you could also always contact your local M.A.C. counter about having one of their artists try to replicate the look you like.

[via CRAFT.]

Are you waiting for the holiday events to begin, the spooks to come out, the candy, the pumpkins, the madness, or maybe just a ton of holiday themed instructions and how-to's? Wait no more, we've put all of our best holiday ideas in one place for your enjoyment while you let the kids caramel their own apples, wait, you might not want to do that with the stick! Your brother's eye is not an apple!

We got you covered. DIY Life presents the place for it all this Halloween, the Ultimate Halloween section of our site. Check it out, there are costumes, parties, decorations, special effects, and more. Whoever did this page -- and it might be a ghost -- really wanted to help us with our spooky plans and scary fun this year.

The Halloween page is said to be haunted, but that is unconfirmed as of yet, feel free to haunt it yourself to be sure. Oh yeah, also, BOO!

LED eyes, the perfect accessory for your Halloween costume. You'll look like a demon wearing these frightening lights over your eyes. The best part is, it only cost $1. Here's what you'll need:

Materials

1. 330 ohm resistor (any 200-500 ohm will work)
2. 2 Miniature LED - red
3. Battery adapter
4. 9 volt battery
   
5. Crimp connectors
6. Velcro strap
   

Take a look through the full instructions and accompanying pictures. It's really interesting to see the actor wearing the headband in light contrasted with how frightening she looks in the dark.Sit at your front door to terrify trick-or-treaters, or wear them as an original accessory to your Halloween party. It is a quick and cheap Halloween trick that sure to be a popular DIY hack this year.

[via: Hacked Gadgets]

As I was driving along our country roads today on my way into town, I had a hard time keeping my eyes on the road. Our leaves are such beautiful vibrant colors of red and orange that the beauty of the trees literally took my breath away. I started thinking about all the falling leaves and how much fun it would be to rake them up and then tumble into them with my little girl. It used to be such fun as a kid, and I must confess, it is still a blast.

Since the calendar says it is now fall, it is time to start thinking about making all the Halloween decorations and putting them out in the yard. Such a decoration would be a scarecrow. Scarecrows are so easy to make and can be put out now and left up until the first day of winter. Join me after the break to make your own sitting scarecrow.

Marie Antoinette is one of those historical figures who's life and death captures our interest and perks our curiosity. She was the beautiful and eccentric bride of King Louis XVI of France. In 1793 she was beheaded for the crime of treason. Her rich life and gruesome death are probably the reasons that she is constantly used for costume inspiration. I've seen many variations of a bloody Antoinette, but I have never seen a costume as well done as this Headless Marie Antoinette Costume.

Nicole Magne, the creator of this costume and a brilliant Canadian artist is one of the MAKE Halloween contest winners. If you're thinking of taking it on, this costume is going to take you a good chunk of time, but the results are well worth it. Beginning with the initial sketch where she conceived the idea through the complete costume, she outlines each step along the way. The accompanying pictures should help you get an idea of what each step should look like. You'll need decent sculpting and sewing skills to pull this off. Her commentary is hilarious and the end result is both stunning and scary.

I'd imagine it would be hard to keep your head in that position all night, but she comments that it wasn't too bad, and well worth the effect I'm sure. If you're still looking for that memorable Halloween costume, this might just be the one.

Anyone who's ever been in the unfortunate position of having to plan a funeral knows that funerals are shockingly expensive, and that the coffin itself can be a large part of the cost. But if your wood shop skills are decent, it's totally possible to build your own coffin, to be used when necessary (even if "when necessary" means "at your next Halloween party").

Aside from that, there are some people out there -- who know who they are -- who think that coffins make smashing home decor. This kind of undertaking would be perfect for them as well. I realize that some of our readers will find this morbid: sorry about that. (Sunshine and kittens to resume soon!) Everyone else will find more details after the break.