DIY: Making A Life-Sized Stay Puft For Halloween

Have you ever gone Full Fangirl on something? To the point where people look at you funny and your family suggests you get out more? 

I mean, we're all fans of stuff, of course. That's probably why you're here. There's just a special kind of joy in going ALL IN on one particular fandom sometimes, really letting that geek flag fly to extreme.

I remember once after a 7-day Disney cruise my whole family got off the ship... and went straight to Walt Disney World. We were basically drunk on Disney. We couldn't get enough. We were sharing trivia and visiting the characters and laughing like little kids in a way that I never had before from a day trip to the park. It's like our joy in the fandom got turned up to 11, fueling off each other and all our time spent immersed in this thing we loved.

The past few weeks have been like that for me with Ghostbusters. I really only have John with me on this journey, but the more I lean in and let my inner geek run amuck, the more fun I've been having - even while fighting a 3-week head cold, ha. I don't usually live and breath Ghostbusters, but for right now I'm really focusing on celebrating this one fandom... and it's been rather glorious.

Which is all a long-winded intro to the Halloween decorations John and I've been making this year! You've already seen my Stay Puft-kin, but we have much BIGGER builds in the works, too, and I think it's finally time to give you a peek at what our Trick-or-Treaters will see on the 31st.

First and foremost is the thing we've been working on for at least 6 weeks now: a nearly life-sized Stay Puft head to go on our roof, so it looks like he's climbing over our house.

Our first prototype (done in miniature) had a hilarious muffin-top hat:

... But our second test modal was just about right:

So then we just had to make one 5 times bigger. These are made of dollar store plastic tablecloths sewn together, so at least the material cost is cheap.

Fast forward a week when we learned our ceilings are much too low:

 

 Although inflating this in our front room was HILARIOUS.

A tip of the giant hat to John for all his hard work sewing this monster marshmallow together. After lots of experimenting he learned a zigzag stitch is the strongest way to go, though these seams are still very delicate and prone to ripping. (White duct tape is our friend, lemme tell ya.)

We had to trek Stay Puft to a different location with higher ceilings, but even that was perilous:

 Stay Puft really lets his fans go to his head.

 (Eh? EH??)

Also that's our friend Bianca painting in his face, because she was so excited we couldn't stop her. :D

Next we had to attach tie-downs, fill dollar store bags with rocks, and do several more tests outside, making small adjustments or repairs each time. He's kept inflated with a small household fan we already owned; we just turn the fan on low once he's full - which takes less than five minutes.

Stay Puft in the Swamps of Sadness. FIGHT AGAINST THE SADNESS, STAY PUFT! 

(Also you better believe our neighbors slowed waaaay down as they drove past our yard during these tests. Just keeping up our reps as the Weirdos. ;P)

Then after all THAT John had to construct a lightweight foam ramp to keep Stay Puft level on our roof. We've had one successful roof test so far, but now we need to paint all the tie-down ropes and bags black, because we didn't realize they'd still be really visible at night. Whoops.

Cross your fingers with us that Stay Puft's seams all survive 'til the big night! We're hoping to do a full test run with ALL the house decorations in the next few days, so I can get pictures for the big reveal here on the blog in time for Halloween. (This will be a One Night Showing: all our decorations are too fragile and/or expensive to leave outside!)

The next time you see this guy, he *should* be peering over our roof - and with a finished hat. 'Til then, here's a gorgeous sunset shot from our front yard:

Oh! Dimensions: The head is 12 feet tall and 9 feet wide, and we used 12 dollar-store table cloths. The face is painted with acrylics, then top-coated with spray lacquer to make it water-resistant. With the tie-downs & rocks, the material cost on this was right around $30. Hit me up with any other questions in the comments!

*****

Next up, I wanted a Terror Dog, but we also don't want to scare little kids. So we took the silly approach and made a Snoopy-style doghouse.

This is all pink insulation foam held together with hot glue. We used a soldering iron to melt in the lines for the wood planks.

John and I were both pleasantly shocked by how well my wood grain paint job turned out:

The trick is to apply two shades of paint at the same time with the same chip brush, blending until the brush is dry, and then dragging a bit to get those speckled sections. It also helps to go really fast; this whole roof took me about five minutes to paint.

I sketched the outline of a Terror Dog head on more pink foam, which John cut out with a utility blade. Then I sanded the edges to round them:

 We covered the eyes with a clear piece of plastic we sanded (to diffuse the light), then glued dollar-store red lights behind them.

 I painted the whole head black, then used a lighter gray to add highlights for dimension:

The final touches were some plastic dollar store chain, and a curtain of black velvet in the back.

(This is a video still, so it's blurry. I forgot to take an actual photo!)

 

John also added some scary growling sound effects, but I don't think we'll use those... or if we do, not until later after the little kids have gone home.

Oh! And just tonight we added fog piped through the doorway, which looks suuuuuuper cool. I'll post video with the final reveal, so you'll have to wait for that.

 

Our house is never boring.

But wait! THERE'S SO MUCH MORE.

From the beginning John and I've been hoping to make some kind of interactive photo op as part of our outside decorations, which is daunting, to say the least.

What I really wanted was a way for kids (and adults!) to take a picture of themselves catching a ghost while wearing a proton pack - but without us having to stand outside and put the pack on each person.

I don't ask for much, right?

Towards that end John and I spent far too much money at Spirit Halloween on a pack AND Slimer (though happily with 20% off coupons!), and then John went and BLEW MY MIND by making this:

 

 This is straight off the camera, no editing!

The proton pack itself (not pictured off to the right) is attached to an adjustable stand, and the wand is held in place with a steel bar. So to take a picture you just have to stand with your back to the pack and act like you're holding the wand. In the low light it will look like you're actually wearing the pack!

 We're still working out some safety details (tripping hazards, etc), but I *think* this is going to work, and I am SO DARN EXCITED.

The real magic is that proton stream, which John made by wrapping a red plastic tablecloth around white LED rope lighting. Then he taped blue EL wire haphazardly down the whole length for the crackly lightning effect.

Here's a movie screen shot for comparison:

He nailed it, right? EEEEEE so good.

 

 So that's nearly everything we've got in the works so far! I also have a glowing No Ghost symbol for the front door, some "slime" trim for the window boxes, and I think we'll be bringing out the Thestral and calling it a "ghost horse" for the night, heh. (Hey, if you've got it - and by "it" I mean a life-sized horse skeleton - flaunt it!)

 I'm terrible at visualizing things before they're done, so I'm both excited and terribly nervous about putting it all together outside. I hope it comes together, and that Stay Puft doesn't pop, and that I can take some decent photos & video to show you guys! (I forgot to mention we have a flame light for Stay Puft, so we can make him look like he's on fire!)

I hope my descent into Fangirl Madness here has given you a smile, since it's really brought me a lot of joy this month. I think John's caught the bug, too, because he went thrifting on his own this week to find the perfect aluminum bowl, which he then spent 20 minutes drilling to turn into a vintage style colander.

Yep, by all accounts I'm going to be sporting some tres chic headgear this Halloween:

 

Let's hope it's not too taxing.

Can't wait!

*****

UPDATE: It's done! Come see the full reveal of our Ghostbusters house here.

Here's a teaser of what to expect:

**********

 And now...

SHOPPING TIME!

Have you seen this animated eyeball doorbell?

When you ring the bell, the top opens to show a moving eye!

Eyeball Doorbell

 

I saw a video of one last year, and immediately fell in love. I think this is a cheaper version, but for only $15 I may have to get it. Oof. How did I end up getting roped into decorating this much for Halloween?! I can see this being a slippery slope. :D