This is the best of best. A Halloween decoration that's one part Halloween and one part April Fool's joke. Both days revolve around scaring the shit out of each other - one of them was just smart enough to lessen the blow with an offering of candy.
Halloween is one of those love it or hate it holidays. I happen to love it. The goth, the decorating, the darkness, the creep. I love giving my house a dark, eerie quality. Of course when you own a 180 year old house, you could fill it with marshmallows and rainbows and it would still have a dark, eerie quality.
I decorate the inside of my house for Halloween about 2 weeks before the event. There's black netting and lace thrown around, spiders, weird things in jars, and bones piled up in strange places. You know. In places one wouldn't normally pile their collection of bones.
I hate the kids though. Well not the kids specifically so much as opening the door for them every few minutes. That bit I hate. Stupid kids eating all my candy. Also it really kindda ruins the dark vibe I have going on when little Susie shows up with her bright smile and sparkly princess costume.
So I guess I was wrong about that whole love it or hate it thing regarding Halloween. Seems like you can both love and hate it.
7 years ago I tried a little Halloween DIY on a whim. I wanted a Halloween decoration inside that was quick, easy and fun to do. A glow in the dark drawing on my staircase wall.
I did a big skull.
7 years ago.
It still glows in the dark at night.
I forgot about washing it off after Halloween then when I noticed it again around Christmas I thought it was funny that it was still there. And from there it was just a matter of always forgetting to wash it off.
Almost a decade later, yup, it's still there. You don't see the glow in the dark paint on the white walls at ALL. Especially not in my dark stairway. Not until it's completely dark.
So if you do this and you don't wash it off of your walls it will glow on forever. I can guarantee it. Actually, I can guarantee it'll glow on for 7 years - I'm just assuming it will also keep glowing for the rest of eternity or until I wash the wall.
Halloween Wall Decoration - Glow in the Dark Skull
Obviously you can draw whatever Halloween themed thing you want on your wall. I went with the outline of a skull because it's a pretty simple but effective.
Materials
- Glow in the Dark face paints or crayons
Tools
- Paint brush
Instructions
- Decide on an image you like that is simple to draw as an outline. The skull is fairly easy but if you want even easier do a pumpkin, a bat or a spider. Crows and demons are excellent choices as well. Obviously.
- Next you have to decide where to put this. Remember wherever you put it needs to get a fair amount of light (natural or artificial) in order to "charge" the glow in the dark aspect. You also have to put it somewhere that is completely dark at night. A hallway or staircase works well.
- Using a small paintbrush paint the glow in the dark paint on the wall in the shape of your desired creepy thing.
- Keep the light on throughout the day to ensure it'll glow bright at night.
Notes
Don’t do this on really dirty walls because when you go to wash the glow in the dark paint or pencil marks off you’ll have a big clean spot where the drawing was and you’ll be forced to either live with it, or wash your entire wall/s
You don't have to draw something, you could also just write frightening words on the wall like - I'm watching you, Go Away, or my personal favourite, This Item Isn't on Sale Anymore.
Recommended Products
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I've included links to glow in the dark makeup paint in the how-to above, but if you're shopping for this during October MOST dollar stores sell glow in the dark paint so that's where to get it if you can.
The paint I used for this (that has lasted 7 years as I mentioned) was a $1 tube of glow in the dark face paint from my local Dollarama.
Why use face paint and not regular paint?
Because you can't wash regular glow in the dark paint off of your wall.
To do your skull portrait there's really only one thing you have to keep in mind. Placement. The glow in the dark makeup "charges" under light. So you have to do your picture on a wall that gets direct light for most of the day. Either from natural sunlight, or from a nearby lightbulb. It also needs to be in a place that's going to be very dark during the night so you can see it when it glows.
It's glow in the dark paint, not a neon sign so remember those two tips above.
I drew my skull on the wall freehand with a small artist's paintbrush. It's fairly hard to see where you've put the paint because it's basically clear, so feel free to do a really light pencil outline first on the wall.
(note: Don't do this DIY on really dirty walls because when you go to wash the glow in the dark paint or pencil marks off you'll have a big clean spot where the drawing was and you'll be forced to either live with it, or wash your entire wall/s)
I chose to do the skull portrait at the bottom of my staircase because there's a pendant light right there to charge the glow in the dark paint and the area is really dark in the middle of the night (which is when I wanted the skull to show). If you strain you can barely, barely see the outline of the skull in the photo above. That's what it's like during the day. You can't see it unless someone really points it out to you.
But at night, when the staircase is dark …
… it shows right up.
This Halloween craft WORKED OUT GREAT.
These are real pictures of my real staircase with the real glow in the dark paint. And yes. I've since painted those stairs. One coat anyway. I've been thinking about the second coat it for 5 years now. Stop rushing me.
This is the image I used as reference for my skull. I should remember exactly what a human skull looks like since I had a pet one growing up. I brought it in for show and tell.
I originally did a crow painting on the wall but it didn't look like a crow for some reason. It looked more like an elbow with a beak. So I washed it off and started over.
Which brings me to my next point. The makeup washes off the wall no problem. I just used a damp cloth to get rid of it when I made mistakes, so don't worry about that. HOWEVER, test your walls first just to make sure. That's me covering my ass by the way.
You can do this project from beginning to end in about 15 minutes. That's less time than it takes to eat a $18.99 box of assorted mini chocolate bars.
And just slightly more time than it takes to run out and buy another box.
We had a human skull, too, when I was a kid. My uncle acquired it during his studies in medical school. Fast forward about 50 years, when my sister tried to get rid of it, she discovered it’s illegal to possess one. Oops. What do you do now?? It might be different in Canada...
Karen, you buried the lead! When you were a kid, WHERE did you get a human skull? Asking for a friend.
It was my grandfather's. :) Well, not his specifically, but he owned it. ~ karen!
We've lived in the sticks for the last eight years so no trick-or-treaters for us. I did discover that a number of people around here leave entire bowls of candy out on their porch for you to help yourself from while they drive their kids into town. Mind blowing!
that's pretty cool….since you only use basically a dab on the kids you have a whole tube left over! maybe i'll put a glow in the dark to-do list above my husband's side of the bed!
i.love.that.
Mummified cats and rats available at World Market. Just there yesterday. Rats already on clearance. I wanted a cat, but was too cheap. I may have to go back.
We of course did Halloween when my son was "that age." Then, the damned newpaper started publishing an annual list of the Best Neighborhoods to Trick or Treat In." Guess where we live? Yup. They descend in hoards-- many of them far too large, uncostumed, and carrying plastic WalMart bags. So nowadays, we dress up like an abandoned house every year. Shades drawn, porch light off... And more candy for me! Heh.
This is pretty cool. I'll have to look for the makeup. I bought a craft size bottle of glow in the dark paint over the weekend. Then I found a package of table tennis balls at the Dollar store. I gave them two coats of paint today, then colored a black circle in the middle with a Sharpie. They're stuck in a columnar cypress, in pairs, in the front yard. I can't wait for it to get dark to see how my creepy little eyes turned out. :)
Love to garden googley eyes! ~ karen
Okay freaky bone-wreath lady, check out http://www.campagnabronze.com/Words.html
All new Halloween ideas, and she's in Ontario. You'll love it. The niece may not...
Yup. GREAT stuff! ~ karen
Hate the kids too! But LOVE the candy!!
LOVE IT!!!! I have glow in the dark make-up for my face this Halloween, so now I might need to get some more because I have massive amounts of decor that needs to be glowing!
God.....love Halloween, the holiday, not the kids. When my kids were in elementary school I volunteered to create the haunted house in a portable for their fall festival. I have friends in the morgue business, so I had some vintage coffins and horrible monsters that would sit up and scream...it was so great that we were disappointed if a kid ran out the back and wasn't crying! We would yell back in "too many happys" and the volunteers worked their asses off even more to make them cry! This was the last year they had the festival and my kids wouldn't even go in because they knew how good I was at creating the "scary". Also had several letters to the principal that it wasn't appropriate for the younger children. Man....that was a great Halloween!
Good grief, no wonder that was the last year they had the festival!
Do you still have the creepy baby?? I hate the creepy baby..hate..her..
I share your love of Halloween. I can't wait to set up my graveyard, flying bats and spider webs.
I'm going to try the glow in the dark makeup for handprints on my graves or footprints up my front path.
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Halloween gives me the creeps too.
Some years ago, after the little kids were all done with their trick or treating, i was alone in the house. It was after 9 p.m. There was a knock on the door and I opened it to find ,standing on the lower step of the porch, someone ( an adult male) dressed as a witch with a frightening rubber mask on, and carrying an open handbag.
I didn't know who it was and never did find out. I just wanted them gone. The street was deserted and the witch had "her" purse wide open. I was taken aback but, jokingly said, " aren't you a bit old for going door to door?" and proceeded to step forward to drop some candy into the handbag . In one quick move, the "witch" grabbed my wrist tightly.and wouldn't let go. No words were said, but I was quite terrified as I wriggled loose, stepped back and closed the door. I'll never forget that feeling.
And that's why I feel nervous now at Halloween!
But, I have been thinking about painting some rocks in the driveway with Glow in the Dark paint.
Whoa, dude. That sounds like a total serial killer type of story. I am sitting here freaked out for you.
I afraid the scary witch lady would have been eating her rubber mask if it would have been me she grabbed..
One night a few weeks after moving into my university dorm, I woke up at 3am with dark-adjusted eyes and realized someone had once drawn pentagrams on the ceiling with glow-in-the-dark something-or-other. Freaky indeed.
Great idea! Love it! Keep up the great work! And BTW! ...
LMAO!!! ; )
Little creeps takin' ALL MY candies!
Love it. Off to get some paint for the garage door now!
I LOVE this idea!