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One of the most awsome and easy effects for a haunt of any kind is using a blacklight.
You can use a black light bulb, which looks like a regular round light bulb usually costs $0.99 to $1.99. These do not give off very much of a black light effect at least not as much as a florescent bulb. CAUTION! -- These light bulbs get extremely hot and can easily start a fire or cause severe burns! A single drop of water (example-if you have them outside and it starts to sprinkle/rain) will make these bulbs explode! Florescent black light tubes, these cost more and their price depends on the size/length of the tube, you can buy the fixures at your local hardware store (ace, menards, lowes, home depot, etc.) and are fairly inexpensive approx. $10.00 or so for a 4 foot fixture. You can buy these in several different lengths (sorry if I missed any)6 inch hand held unit, 12 inch, 24 inch, 4 foot, or 8 foot. Or you can use the twisted florescent tube bulbs that you can screw into a regular light socket. These have a 100% true black light effect. These work great in "treble Lights" (The hanging light fixtures auto mechanics use),in porch lights, lamps, clip lights, pretty much any fixture that you can put a regular household light bulb into. Using the treble light works wonders because you can hang your lights anuywhere you want or need the light source to be and you can use them inside or outside. There are also flourscent tube "treble lights" I bought mine for $20.00 at Sears, they are craftsman brand and come with a 17" white florescent tube and a built in hook. I buy the replacement black light florescent tubes and put those inside the treble light and they work great, and the fixture is made of a real tough, hard plastic so your tube is very well protected. If you are planning to use a black light outside and your part of the country gets rain and/or snow around Halloween, I recommend using the florescent treble lights because of the added protection of the tube, especially if you are planning on laying the light fixture on the ground, the regular bulb treble light does not have a covering over the bulb becuase of the heat it produces. So as I learned, if it does start to sprinkle or rain outside the water will hit directly onto the round bulb and it will explode, and glass is everwhere. A bad safety issue and a bad experience especially if you have about 20 or more of these outside like I did, believe me, and one heck of a mess too. Also, if you have them on the ground and someone trips or falls on the round bulb in the treble light the bulb will shatter and people can get severely burned and/or cut. What to use with you black light? Here is a list of items you can get that will glow with a black light! To view a list of things (solid and liquid items you may have at home already or can get a grocery store) that glow under a black light and to learn what color they will glow click HERE to goto the "Things that glow under a black light" page! Glow in the dark items: stars, bugs, snakes, stretch spiderwebs, paint, glues & fabric paints (great for lettering the containers usually have a small tip on them already!), cups, plates, hot glue, eyeballs, brains, maggots. Scene setters: some of these have glow in the dark paint on them, other wise add some to what you want to glow yourself! Want to make items glow? Buy some rit whitner brightner! This comes in either powder or liquid form. It glows a light bright blue! And is invisible in regular light! But keep this in mind where ever this gets on your skin even if you wash it off it will still glow until you "wear" it off, kind of like a marker. Use the powder to mix with water in a bucket! Soak stretch spider webs, cheese cloth, or what ever you want to glow in this mixture for an hour then let dry. Use the liquid to use with a paint brush! Paint specific areas of items that you want to glow! Paint skeletons, messages on walls, eyeballs on dolls/stuffed animals, toxic drips coming from the walls or containers, etc! |
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