Halloween Haunted House and Graveyard

Because my hubby is going through chemo, I am not planning the office holiday party this year.  But, the staff was feeling down, so I told them I would host a Halloween luncheon.  This way the numbers are down to just the staff, and he has a chance of attending.  The long counter in the office "kitchen" is two feet wide.  So I bought 2 foot wide by 8 feet long of artificial turf.  Perfect.  I bought another sheet of 2 foot wide by 8 foot tall pink wall insulation for the haunted house.  The entire front of the house is covered in fun foam.  I had to go to Hobby Lobby to get the gray color.  I used white for the windows and painted them with yellow water color.

Hubby wanted to help, but since it was his day without a headache from the first spinal tap, he accidentally cut the insulation at two different lengths.  This pattern was actually my second choice, but I went with it.  Below is the graphic image I used and enlarged to make the pattern.

Since the taller piece was four feet tall, I didn't have room for the taller top of the tower, so I moved it to the left side and left off the chimney.  Below is the graphic  for my first choice.

I had used elements of the top house with a couple of towers from other houses. But...in the end I like the results I got.

 The top of the house needed some bats on wires, so I made these out of gray and black fun foam.  Below is the pattern I used.  I used white out for the eyes and a sharpie to outline them and draw the mouth.

I masking taped the wire behind the gray body, then glued the gray front over the wire.

I needed a fence, so I found all of these wood pieces at Michael's.  The pointed sticks were actually the directional signs I used at the Safari baby shower last year.  I nailed the posts onto the square pieces.  I nailed the two cross bars to the end posts.  I super glued the pickets to the bars.  I had painted each piece black first. 

The tombstones are more foam insulation.  Remember I used my burning tool for cutting or melting the shapes.  We got four tombstones per piece of two foot by two foot board of insulation.  Home Depot had the smaller pieces already cut.  We grabbed two.  We made two more stones from half of the second floor, then divided the other half of the board into bases for the stones.  I traced epitaphs from printed pages, then used my engraving tool to dig out the words.  I painted the words with a black sharpie before spraying them gray.  I need more practice making these.  

I got the cute stuffed ghost on Etsy.com.  I think he adds just the right scary presence.
I will update this post after I've decorated the office for the party. 

He has hair today, even if it is orange.

Here is the house in its party setting.

Pumpkin Trifles and Pumpkin Cheesecakes

Orange Lanterns and Carved Pumpkin Contest

Winner of Two Jet Blue Round Trip Tickets for Best Costumes

First Place in Pumpkin carving Contest