Halloween props with a price that won't cause nightmares.

Not all props have to cost an arm and a leg. With a little imagination (yours or the internet), a little time and a few dollars you can make props that will still blow away those cheaply made department store variety.

There are two ways to approach making an inexpensive prop. Survey what you have and find the inspiration to make something from it or figure out how to make your inspiration come true on a reasonable budget. Now obviously you’re not going to create an animatronic army for $20, it’s going to take a few more bones than that but you can make some very nice props for around $20. There are even challenges based on being able to build a great prop without breaking the bank. Two that I know of are Hauntforum’s $20 prop challenge and Halloweenforum’s $10 prop challenge.

Remember my Petrified Tree and this tombstone?

Both were created for the $20 prop challenge.

As a matter of fact almost all of my props come in or under the $20 mark. The Pumpkin Thief with pedestal was around $17.

Sometime I find something or a neighbour will drop something off just to see what I’ll do with it. That was the case for what was a Christmas type of white tree.

I had already removed all the garland at this point but wasn’t sure what to do with it. It greeted me every day in my shop until I had bumped one of my plastic skulls onto the floor. Then I had an idea. With the skull, the tree, some left over cloth from another prop and a post I created this.

I attached the skull to the post and used the tree branches upside down to look as if they were growing out of the skull. Wrap in black fabric, added some hot glue to look like webbing and drop in a red LED. Now I happened to have everything lying around but even with the previous purchase of the materials I have about $12 into this prop.

So it is possible to create great looking props and still have a little money left over to buy candy for the TOT’s. So let your creativity fly and give your yard a little atmosphere this Halloween.

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Tags: Arts and Entertainment, crafts, Decorations and Props, halloween, haunt, Holiday, petrified tree, props, Pumpkin Thief, Skull, the haunted yard, tombstone

• December 16, 2011
• Projects
• 4 comments