Another Haunted Halloween Party at Skull Valley Graveyard!

It’s never too early to start thinking about your Haunted Graveyard party!  It is a little early but you could start planning your props and even start making them.  Especially if you want to go all out like I do!  Every year I decorate my yard as a haunted graveyard called Skull Valley Graveyard.  Then I hold a party for friends and family in the caretaker house at Skull Valley Graveyard.  This is the invitation I send out every year.

 

This is the graveyard before I totally redid it for 2015. 

The fence is made out of ½” pvc pipes cut in various lengths with 1x2s used as the side rails.  I cut holes in the rails and inserted the pvc pieces, then I glued them in place in 8’ long sections.  Once the glue was dried I spray painted the sections with black paint to make it look like metal.  I found tiny skulls at Walmart very cheap and glued them on the tops of the pvc pipes to be the fence finials. 

I made gates the same way only I cut 1” wide pvc pieces from an 8” diameter pvc pipe and glued them in between the ½” pvc pieces.  The gates were screwed to the gate posts which were made from 2x2s framed with luan ¼” thick boards screwed outside of them.  Then I painted them with spray paint that made them look like stone.  I put lamp post lights on the tops and wired them so they lit up at night.

 

I made many gravestones out of 2” rigid foam board which can be purchased at Lowe’s or Home Depot.  It comes in 4’ x 8’ sheets and I cut it into various sizes for different gravestones.  Some were 2’ x 2’, some 2’ x 3’ etc. since in real graveyards all the gravestones are different.  I engraved some of them with a soldering gun which gets very hot and then it melts and engraves the foam board (do this in a well-ventilated area).  Then I engraved some with a dremel.  The engraved letters were painted with black paint and the rest of the gravestone were painted with different shades of gray and tan to simulate stone.  I had green spot lights set up to shine on the graveyard at night to give it a spooky glow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My most popular attraction in my graveyard is my Grim Reaper who is 6’ tall.  To make it you need to create a PVC pipe frame then put chicken wire over the PVC pipe frame.  Then you use burlap coated with “monster mud” and hang it on the frame.  Monster mud is drywall compound with black outdoor latex paint mixed in with it.  Once the monster mud coated burlap dried I spray painted it with spray black and gray rubber paint also purchased at Home Depot.  This makes it waterproof and more durable.

 I made a coffin out of 2” foam board and painted it with brown spray paint.

 

For the party itself the biggest hit is the candy hunt in the graveyard for the kids.  It like an Easter egg hunt only it’s tiny treat bags with candy, toys and stickers in them.  The tiny treat bags I bought at Dollar Tree which were 40 for $1.  I bought many stickers and tiny toys very cheap off of Oriental Trading Company which is an internet company.  I also buy a Halloween piñata which the kids love from Party City.  One year I had a witch on a broom and another year it was a large pumpkin.  I’ve had a bob for apples contest and a Halloween costume contest too.

 

 

 

 

 

The inside of the house is also decorated.  This is the haunted fireplace mantel.

Here's the stairway rail all decorated.  This kids love the big spider!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The food is all Halloween themed.  I serve Ghoulash, deviled eggs with black spiders made out of black olives on them, barbeque monster eyeballs (meatballs in bbq sauce), I make a brain jello with watermelon jello (the color looks like a real brain) using a brain jello mold I purchased online, I found real looking gummy worms on Oriental Trading Company which I put around the brain jello.  We make fruit spears on wooden spears and stick them in a carved out pumpkin to look like his hair.  Then I had made graveyard Halloween cupcakes and cookies.

 

I have all the adults and kids dress up in Halloween costumes which is a hit with the kids, after all how many times do they get to see adults act like kids?

 

 

 

My annual Halloween parties are a huge hit.  The kids look forward to them and the games.  The adults have fun too!  It’s a great way to get together and a safe environment for the kids at Halloween. 
 http://bit.ly/1UjkEaZ

It's Cheeseburger in Paradise party time

Everyone loves tropical Hawaiian themed parties.  Jimmy Buffet’s music goes right along with the tropical theme.  Combine the two and hold a “Cheeseburger in Paradise” Party!  I hold one every summer and they are always a big hit.  First you need to create a tropical atmosphere.  I hold mine on my back patio where my pondless waterfall, I designed and built, is located.  During the party I have Jimmy Buffet and other tropical music playing (I have wireless speakers which I hang from the pergola outside).

 

My patio is the perfect tropical setting for a tropical themed party, with the sound of the waterfall.  There’s also zebra tropical grass and hibiscus bushes growing all around the patio.  I have bamboo tiki torches around the perimeter of the patio for evening time.  In addition, I have two tiki totem pole statues which I have attached to two poles of my pergola.
 

                                    I also have a tiki totem pole statue by the waterfall.

 

I made a bamboo tiki counter with a couple of tiki masks on the front for putting food on. 

 

 

I also made a tiki grill shelter made out of bamboo poles with thatch     roofing.

 

 

 

 

Then I made a sign to put at my drive way which I copied from a similar sign I saw in Key West.

 

 

 

I purchased a tiki side table with an online company called Design Toscano which is very different.  I hang paper lanterns from my pergola which I purchased from an online company called The Paper Lantern Company they are very cheap to buy and give a tropical look. 

 

I put plastic table cloths in tropical blue and green on the tables set up for people to eat at and also on the tables with the food.  I purchase tropical plates and napkins from Party City along with tropical colored plastic silverware to match.  All of my plastic serving bowls, plates etc. are all color coordinated in tropical blues and greens.

  I also purchase leis in various colors from Dollar Tree  
  for $1 each for each guest to wear.  I found some
  tropical straw hats with an online company called
  Shindigz for guests to wear too.  It was funny how the
  guests come up with different ways to wear them!  I
  also tell the guests to dress in tropical clothes.      

 

 

  

 

I always have some games for the kids and adults to play.  I made a regulation size corn hole game, I also have lawn jarts, I set up a volleyball net and other lawn games.  I get some bubbles from Dollar Tree for the younger kids to play with, I have a small kid size pool and water table for them.  For the bigger kids I have one of those Intex pools which they love to play in.  I made a limbo set with some bamboo poles I purchased online and there is a limbo contest.

  

 I make the food to go along with the tropical theme.  Since it is a Cheeseburger in Paradise theme party there are cheeseburgers and brats cooked on the grill.  Sides include potato salad, pasta salad, tropical colored jello, chips and of course Key Lime pie.  I always make a tropical punch and have other drinks including frozen margaritas and frozen pina coladas which are a hit especially if it’s very hot out.

 

When the sun goes down, the tiki torches are lit, the paper lantern lights hanging from the pergola turn on and the party continues.  I have a fire pit made out of landscape blocks on my patio and we light the fire and have smores and roast marshmellows.  What a great way to end a fun filled day!

http://bit.ly/1O0tMtM
 

Haunted Halloween Party

You can be the hit of the neighborhood with a Haunted Graveyard party!  Yes it’s a little early to start thinking about Halloween but some of the props for the graveyard take a while to make.  I have one every year, I decorate my entire front yard as a spooky graveyard called Skull Valley Graveyard.  Then my annual party is at the Cemetery Caretaker House (my house) at Skull Valley Graveyard. I totally remade my graveyard this last year with all new props which are more durable. 

 

 

The fence around the new graveyard is made out of picket fence boards cut into four pieces then I aged them by chopping into them with my circular saw.  When they were all cut I painted them a dark brown and screwed them into 4’ fence sections. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fence posts were framed with 2 x 2 boards with 1/4”
lauan boards screwed on the outside.

 

 

 

 

 

Once the fence posts were all made I applied thin set (a cement mixture used for laying tile) on the outside of them to make them look like stone and then painted them with outdoor gray paint.  I screwed life size plastic skulls on the top of them.  I used brackets and zip ties to connect the fence sections to the fence posts.  On the two fence posts on each side of the driveway I hung old candle hanging lanterns.

 

I made some gravestones out of 2” rigid foam board which can be purchased at Lowe’s or Home Depot.  It comes in 4’ x 8’ sheets and I cut it into various sizes for different gravestones.  Some were 2’ x 2’, some 2’ x 3’ etc. since in real graveyards all the gravestones are different. 

I engraved them with a soldering gun which gets very hot and then it melts and engraves the foam board (do this in a well-ventilated area).  The engraved letters were painted with black paint and the rest of the gravestone were painted with different shades of gray and tan to simulate stone.  
                       

        

       Since I didn’t have time to make all homemade gravestones I also bought some at Home Depot and then screwed 1x3 boards on the bottom to weight them down.  I painted those boards to match the gravestones (black and gray).

My most popular attraction in the graveyard is my Grim Reaper who is 6’ tall.  I made a new one this year also.  To make it you create a PVC pipe frame then put chicken wire over the PVC pipe frame.  After that you use burlap coated with “monster mud” and hang it on the frame.  Monster mud is drywall compound with black outdoor latex paint mixed in with it.  Once the monster mud coated burlap dried I spray painted it with spray black and gray rubber paint also purchased at Home Depot.  This makes it waterproof and more durable.

This year my new addition was my skeleton couple sitting on my front porch with their dogs.  They were purchased from Grandin Road which is an online company.  They were a big hit.

 

Also new this year was a wood life size coffin which I made and then painted black.  It had a lid which I propped open.  I bought a latex rubber dead man head from one of the Halloween stores which I put in it.  I put a red spot light in the base of the coffin shining up toward the head to make it look spooky.

This is a video of one of the spooky graveyard ghouls we added this year purchased from Grandin Road.

 

 I put spot lights set up to shine on the graves at night.  This is a perfect setting for the spooky Halloween Party which is always after dark.

 

The biggest hit for the kids is the candy hunt in the graveyard.  It like an Easter egg hunt only it’s tiny treat bags with candy and stickers in them.  The tiny treat bags I bought at Dollar Tree which were 40 for $1.  I bought many stickers and tiny toys very cheap off of Oriental Trading Company an internet company.  The treat bags are hidden around the graveyard.  I divide the kids into two groups, 5 and under and then older than 5.  The 5 and under can have an adult go with the to find the treat bags.  We hide the treat bags for the younger group in easy to find spots.  The second favorite game the kids like is the Halloween piñata.   

This year I added a few new games for the kids.  I did musical chairs to the song Ghostbusters with prizes for the winners.  I also did a Halloween floating duck game where the kids picked up a Halloween decorated duck until they found one that said “yes” on the bottom.  The rubber Halloween ducks were purchased from Oriental Trading Company I glued small metal washers on the bottom of them to keep them floating upright.  For the pond I bought a 2’ x 4’ Halloween buffet cooler that inflated which I ordered from Shindigz another internet company.

The food is all Halloween themed.  I serve Ghoulash, deviled eggs with black spiders made out of black olives on them, barbeque monster eyeballs (meatballs in bbq sauce), I make a brain jello with watermelon jello using a brain jello mold I purchased online, Halloween decorated cupcakes and cookies.  I also make fruit spears with various pieces of fruit on wood shish kabob sticks which are poked into a carved out pumpkin to look like the hair.

 I have all the adults and kids dress up in costumes which the kids love.  After all how many times do they get to see adults act like kids?

 

These annual Halloween parties are a huge hit and everyone looks forward to them every year, especially the kids.  What a safe way for kids to have fun at Halloween!

 

http://bit.ly/1TjEKBF

 

This nautical themed baby shower will keep the fun floating along!

How many baby showers have you been to where you were watching the clock counting the minutes until you could leave?  Using ideas from this nautical themed baby shower I gave my daughter will make your baby shower one that the guests won’t want to leave!  This shower was held at a reception hall but the same ideas and theme could be used anywhere.  What’s great about the nautical theme, other than it is very popular, is the ideas here could be used for either sex of baby.  This shower was for a boy but could easily be adapted for a girl with pink used in place of navy blue in all the decorating.

The invitations were an idea I found on Pinterest and had them personalized for me.  I ordered navy blue envelopes from Staples to mail them out.

I created the entrance with two nautical life rings with Welcome Aboard on them.  I found them on Amazon very cheap ($3.78 + $1.01 for shipping), they came from China and took a while to be delivered.

 

At the entrance were two long tables, on the one table we put the cake for everyone to see and then on the opposite side was the table with the nautical diaper cake, the scrapbook pages for guests to fill out and the lunch menu tents with each guest’s name and meal choice they had RSVP’d with.

The diaper cake was created with size 2 diapers rolled up and taped, nautical ribbon from Michael’s to hold each layer together and nautical painted wood cut outs from Amazon glued on the front of each layer.  It was three layers with blue crinkled paper on the layers and around the bottom to finish it off.

The scrapbook pages were for the guests to write their “Wish for Colton…” and sign their name.  I created many pages decorated with nautical themes with stickers and cutout anchors.  The nautical scrapbook paper was purchased at various craft stores (Michaels, Joann’s and Hobby Lobby).  A picture of each guest was taken with the guest of honor having the baby (my daughter).  There were navy and red Sharpie markers for the guests to write with.  After the shower I glued the picture of the guest with my daughter on the page they had written. Then I put them in the scrapbook for a keepsake.

To continue the nautical theme, I put fish net on all the tables with some of the small anchors I had painted.  The centerpieces on the guest tables were red Gerbera daisies which were used as prizes later.  I had chocolate candy bars made with the baby’s name on the front and the back had a thank you, these were ordered from Shindigz (they had the best price around). 

This is the wrapper for the candy bars.  The top is the front with the baby's name and the bottom is the back with a thank you.

They were placed at each placemat (navy blue paper placemats from Gordon Foods).  We also ordered foaming hand soaps in red and blue colors from Bath and Body Works and tied nautical ribbons around them.  These were also placed at each placemat for each guest as a thank you.  I found red square small dishes and I put individually wrapped white lifesavers in them in the center of the tables (3-4 bowls per table).

I found some large card board unpainted anchors at Hobby Lobby and some wood unpainted anchors at Michaels which I spray painted some navy blue and some white but they could easily be painted pink or any other color.  The large anchors were hung on the walls, the small ones were scattered on the tables on the fish net.

On one wall of the room I hung a nautical clothesline, using a cotton rope with nautical themed baby clothes in red, white and navy.  The baby clothes were for the baby. This was a great decoration as well as being reusable.

The cake was ordered from a local bakery with a picture I had found on Pinterest with a few changes that I made.  The cake was not only was beautiful but it was delicious too!

I did not have the usual boring games that most showers have since most people do not like them.  We did a diaper raffle, where if the guest brought a box of diapers they were entered in the raffle.  There were two prizes for these which were beach bags with “a day at the beach items”.  We put flip flops, a beach towel, suntan lotion, sun screen, a magazine, candy, chips, a reusable cup with a straw and a bottle of flavored water in each bag.

 To win the Gerbera daisy flower centerpieces I had a silk Gerbera daisy which I gave to a random person at each table to start with.  Then I read a funny little story about my daughter going into labor and her husband trying to get her to the hospital with lefts and rights in the story.  Each time a left was read the silk daisy was passed to the left and each time a right was read it was passed to the right.  The guests had fun laughing at the story and the person who ended up with the silk daisy won the centerpiece.

http://bit.ly/1V1Qasb