The whisperer in darkness re-cover

After my first attempts at bookbinding, documented in this and this post, I decided it was time for another attempt! My first book didn't turn out so great. I made the hinge all wrong, and the book is almost impossible to open without tearing something. It would still make a fine prop for Halloween displays, so I'm not throwing it away...

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Necronomicon re-cover, part 2

In the previous post, the Necronomicon got a new cover. But the new cover is too boring. It's just a plain faux leather cover, it needs something extra! The Simon Necronomicon has this glyph on the cover that looks like a pentagram with some extra lines in it; I believe Vin Diesel had a tattoo of it in "Babylon AD". Since I'm too lazy to come up with something more original, I'm gonna put this glyph back on the cover. But I'm not too lazy to put some effort in it, so here we go...

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Necronomicon re-cover, part 1

Here's a project I have had in my mind for a long time, and now I finally started it. One of the blogs I follow, MRX Designs, has quite a few posts on bookbinding, more specifically on making new covers for books. I've been wanting to give it a try myself, so here we go. There are two posts on the blog I mentioned that do a great job of explaining the entire process in detail: Demo Book #1 (part 1) and Demo Book #1 (part 2). A third one explains the process of creating a faux leather covering...

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Flashback: paper maché masks

These two masks were among my first creations ever. I made them for Halloween parties, but they were quite uncomfortable to wear. The technique is pretty simple. You take a balloon, glue strips of newspaper over it and when the layer of paper maché is thick enough, you pop the balloon. This gives you a basic oval shape to work with. Of course, you...

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The cemetary gate, part 3

The last post in this series! Last time, I talked about monster mud and painting. The gate pillars were finished, and all that was needed now was the arch that spans the gate! The arch Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the building of the arch, but everything more or less speaks for itself. I used a few sections of 40 mm PVC tube and some...

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The cemetary gate, part 2

In my previous post, I explained how I built the frames for the gate pillars, and the styrofoam cladding. In this post, I will continue with the construction of the pillars. They need to be coated with monster mud, and painted. I did find liquid drywall compound, the stuff everybody else seems to be using, but I didn't buy it because it is much more...

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The cemetary gate, part 1

This is the most ambitious project of our haunt. The visitors will enter our spot through this gate. It will consist of two pillars and an arch between the two pillars. It will be constructed from wood, PVC tube and styrofoam. I wanted to build a fence as well, but I don't have enough time for that. This part of the tutorial will deal with the pillars....

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Tombstones, part 3

Time for the final part of the build! In the previous entry, I described building the cross and coating everything with Monster Mud. One thing left: painting! At the time of writing, only the cross is finished. As I said before, I'm working on five tombstones. When they're all finished, I'm gonna take them outside for a series of decent photos. Painting The...

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Tombstones, part 2

Okay, here's the second part of my build log! In my previous entry, I talked about the design and construction of the styrofoam shapes. I had already made four tombstones with the names or horror writers on them. I wanted one more, a cross, before I proceed to the next step. The cross The cross is made from another 5 cm thick styrofoam slab, and a...

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Flashback: the jar of eyeballs

This is a prop I made a few years ago for a Halloween party. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the entire build, so I'll try to explain it as good as possible. Here's a list of materials I used: Empty jar (I believe it contained pickles) Pingpong balls Hot glue gun Acrylic paint Glossy acrylic varnish Images of irises, printed with a color...

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Tombstones, part 1

Here's the first part of my Halloween props series for this season. I'm gonna start with a few tombstones. They will be made from styrofoam, and coated with Monster Mud, a mixture of latex paint and drywall compound. I plan to build four regular tombstones and one cross. The stones will bear the names of horror writers: Mary Shelley, Edgar Allen Poe,...

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