Impaled Vampire Heart

$20 - $25 (based on 2025 prices) 
Makes one heart 

After 2023’s vampire graveyard, I started toying with the idea of doing a larger vampire theme and this impaled vampire heart is what I hope will become the first in a long line of props for that haunt. Although I went with a small frame, you can go bigger for an impressive statement piece. In fact, you could pair this with the mounted vampire head to create a massive display with several impaled hearts and decapitated heads. 

• One vinyl heart
• One 7” x 10” oval picture frame
• One 10 oz. can of interior/exterior, fast-drying spray paint in flat black*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in burnt umber*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat olive*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat purple*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat red*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in khaki*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in metallic gold*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in mustard yellow*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in tan*
• One sheet of copy paper with Baudelaire’s poem “Le Vampire” printed on it
• At least four tablespoons of dark roasted coffee grounds
• One pan large enough to soak the copy paper
• One two-inch wooden disk
• One two-inch wooden spool
• Eight inches of metal chain
• One silver cross pendant
• One 0.3 fluid ounce bottle of red food coloring*
• One 4 oz. bottle of clear, all-purpose tacky glue gel*

1. Remove the backing and glass from the frame and, on a newspaper-lined surface in a well-ventilated area, give its surface one to two even coats of black spray paint. How many coats you apply will be determined by how much of the original paint needs to be covered to prevent it from showing.  

2. Moving in small sections, use a sponge or paper towels to pat gold paint onto the frame. Then, dull the sheen and add distress by randomly patting olive paint along the frame. You could also apply a wash of brown and flecks of black to create the illusion of dirt.

3. Add the coffee to twelve cups of boiling water. The longer you allow the coffee to brew, the darker the stain. Likewise, greater amounts of coffee will produce a richer stain. Since I wanted irregular spots rather than a unified discoloration, I placed the copy paper on a baking sheet, splashed coffee onto its surface, allowed the liquid to sit for a few minutes, and then moved it to a space to dry.

4. Apply a light layer of glue to the frame’s backing and adhere the copy paper to it. Although I pressed it as smooth as possible, you can create folds and wrinkles for further distress. Then, trim the excess paper to conform it to the backing’s shape.

5. Give the entire heart three coats of mustard yellow paint. This will serve as a base for the other colors, so you may need less depending on the thickness of your coverage.

6. Working from light to dark, stipple the heart with red and purple paint, building up layers to give the organ depth. If one color becomes too overpowering, you can use the other to dial it back.  

7. Form the stake by gluing the wooden disk to the top of the spool. Do not worry about the other end because it will be hidden inside the heart. For an alternate look you can use a scrap of wood or a thick stick.  

8. Starting with a base coat of burnt umber, stipple khaki and tan onto the stake to make it look like old wood. Then, complete the patina with light lines of burnt umber for wood grain.

9. Cut a hole in the center of the heart and insert the stake into the opening. For visual interest, nestling it at an angle with the disk facing upward.  

10. Use a sharp knife or pair of scissors to cut the back of the heart open and bulk up the organ with bubble wrap or foam. This will give the heart more heft and also keep the stake in place. Following this, glue the opening closed to prevent the stuffing from coming out.

11. Center the heart on the backing and glue it in place. It may be beneficial to temporarily reattached the frame to the backing to ensure the organ is actually centered before permanently adhering it.

12. Remove a link from the metal chain and use wire cutters cut it in half. Following this, use a 5/64 bit to drill two holes for each of the half links and run the chain across the heart. The chain’s length will be based on the size of your heart, which means you may need to decrease or increase the measurement to accommodate your version.

13. Detail the top of the stake with the cross pendant. This embellishment is entirely optional. You can choose not to incorporate it or use a different item, like a decorative brooch or a date burned into the wood.  

14. In a plastic container (because the food coloring will stain, use something disposable or that you won’t mind dying), pour in your desired amount of clear glue gel and slowly add red food coloring to the solution until it reaches the sanguine hue you desire. Then, reattach the backing to the frame and, on a newspaper-lined surface, smear the heart with the blood.

15. The prop can be left as it is or enhanced further with additional details like a plaque with the name of the vampire, a rosary, or a string of garlic.

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.

“A Night-Piece on Death” (A Poem)

Published in 1714, English poet Thomas Parnell’s poem “A Night-Piece on Death” launched a literary movement within Britain known as graveyard poetry. In the poem, the narrator leaves his study for an evening walk that eventually leads him to a cemetery, where he begins to ruminate on life and the inevitability of death. Parnell’s structure became the model for a bevy of graveyard-poem imitations throughout the first half of the eighteenth century. Typically set in a cemetery, the works – with their melancholy tones and dark imagery of coffins, ghosts, and skulls – are explorations of life’s ephemeral nature and the potentials of an existence after death.[1]

By the blue taper’s trembling light, 
No more I waste the wakeful night, 
Intent with endless view to pore 
The schoolmen and the sages o’er: 
Their books from wisdom widely stray, 
Or point at best the longest way. 
I’ll seek a readier path, and go 
Where wisdom’s surely taught below. 
How deep yon azure dyes the sky, 
Where orbs of gold unnumbered lie, 
While through their ranks in silver pride 
The nether crescent seems to glide. 
The slumb’ring breeze forgets to breathe, 
The lake is smooth and clear beneath, 
Where once again the spangled show 
Descends to meet our eyes below. 
The grounds, which on the right aspire, 
In dimness from the view retire: 
The left presents a place of graves, 
Whose wall the silent water laves. 
That steeple guides thy doubtful sight 
Among the livid gleams of night. 
There pass, with melancholy state, 
By all the solemn heaps of fate, 
And think, as softly-sad you tread 
Above the venerable dead, 
“Time was, like thee they life possessed, 
And time shall be, that thou shalt rest.” 
Those graves, with bending osier bound, 
That nameless heave the crumpled ground, 
Quick to the glancing thought disclose 
Where Toil and Poverty repose. 
The flat smooth stones that bear a name, 
The chisel’s slender help to fame 
(Which ere our set of friends decay 
Their frequent steps may wear away), 
A middle race of mortals own, 
Men, half ambitious, all unknown. 
The marble tombs that rise on high, 
Whose dead in vaulted arches lie, 
Whose pillars swell with sculptured stones, 
Arms, angels, epitaphs and bones, 
These (all the poor remains of state) 
Adorn the rich, or praise the great; 
Who, while on earth in fame they live, 
Are senseless of the fame they give. 
Ha! while I gaze, pale Cynthia fades, 
The bursting earth unveils the shades! 
All slow and wan, and wrapped with shrouds, 
They rise in visionary crowds, 
And all with sober accent cry, 
“Think, mortal, what it is to die.” 
Now from yon black and fun’ral yew, 
That bathes the charnel-house with dew, 
Methinks I hear a voice begin 
(Ye ravens, cease your croaking din, 
Ye tolling clocks, no time resound 
O’er the long lake and midnight ground); 
It sends a peal of hollow groans, 
Thus speaking from among the bones. 
“When men my scythe and darts supply, 
How great a King of Fears am I! 
They view me like the last of things: 
They make, and then they dread, my stings. 
Fools! if you less provoked your fears, 
No more my spectre-form appears. 
Death’s but a path that must be trod, 
If man would ever pass to God; 
A port of calms, a state of ease 
From the rough rage of swelling seas. 
“Why then thy flowing sable stoles, 
Deep pendant cypress, mourning poles, 
Loose scarfs to fall athwart thy weeds, 
Long palls, drawn hearses, covered steeds, 
And plumes of black, that, as they tread, 
Nod o’er the scutcheons of the dead? 
“Nor can the parted body know, 
Nor wants the soul, these forms of woe. 
As men who long in prison dwell, 
With lamps that glimmer round the cell, 
Whene’er their suffering years are run, 
Spring forth to greet the glitt’ring sun: 
Such joy, though far transcending sense, 
Have pious souls at parting hence. 
On earth, and in the body placed, 
A few, and evil, years they waste; 
But when their chains are cast aside, 
See the glad scene unfolding wide, 
Clap the glad wing, and tow’r away, 
And mingle with the blaze of day.”[2] 

Works Referenced

Fabrizi, Mark. Historical Dictionary of Horror Literature. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2023.

Parnell, Thomas. “A Night-Piece on Death.” The Works, in Verse and Prose, of Dr. Thomas Parnell, Late Arch-Deacon of Glogher. Glasgow: Robert and Andrew Foulis, 1767. 89-92. 
____________________ 
[1] Fabrizi, 129-130. 
[2] Parnell, 89-92.

Lucia Mask

$30 - $40 (based on 2025 prices) 
Makes one mask

I bought several horned masks during 2024’s after-season clearance sales because I needed the horns for some projects and it was cheaper to purchase the masks than it was to buy the horns by themselves. I didn’t want to waste the masks, so I decided to create a few interesting pieces drawing inspiration from opera. For this version, I made a mask of Lucia from Lucia di Lammermoor. In the opera, Lucia is engaged to be married to Lord Arturo but is in love with Lord Edgardo. On the night of her wedding, she kills her husband and, drenched in his blood, descends the stairs telling Edgardo they can now be together. The mask represents that scene and Lucia’s insanity that ensues after. 

• One 7” x 5” plastic face mask
• One sheet of white copy paper with the lyrics to “Il Dolce Suono” printed on it
• One 4 oz. bottle of decoupage medium
• Sixteen artificial flowers in a variety of colors and sizes
• Fifty artificial leaves
• One cameo brooch
• Two four-inch strings of pearls (or one eight-inch string cut in half)
• One chained pendant
• One 0.3 fluid ounce bottle of red food coloring*
• One 4 oz. bottle of clear, all-purpose tacky glue gel*
• Three decorative stick pins
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat black*

1. Remove the horns from the mask and save them for another project. Then, trace the outline of the openings onto a sheet of cardboard, cut them out, and glue them into the space once occupied by the horns. Because I was repurposing a mask from another project, this step was necessary to give the mask a solid structure; however, you can skip this stage by purchasing a mask without any holes.

2. Tear apart the copy paper, isolating individual words or lines, and cover the entire surface of the mask with the pieces. This process works best if you move in stages: apply a layer of decoupage medium to one section, press the paper down until it sticks, and repeat the process. If you want to add an additional level of age once the paper has dried, you can water down brown acrylic paint and brush it over the mask.

3. Create a floral crown along the upper edge of the mask, leaving a one-inch section in the middle free for the brooch. For visual interest, refrain from clustering flowers with the same color and size together. Following this, give the crown additional bulk and by gluing clusters of leaves around the blooms, reserving a few leaves for step four.  

4. Glue the brooch in the space between the flowers and flank it with the remaining leaves. What detail you decide to use is entirely up to your chosen aesthetic. You can add a decorative pendant or locket for an alternate look.  

5. Glue a string of pearls above each eye, hiding the ends in the foliage. You want them to dangle down but not obstruct the wearer’s view, so you may need to adjust the length of the stands to fit the size of your mask.  

6. Glue the pendant near the eye and hide the end of the chain in the foliage. Like step four, what you use is based on your theme. You can substitute the pendant for a crystal or diamond attached to a chain or skip this step entirely.  

7. In a plastic container (because the food coloring will stain, use something disposable or that you won’t mind dying), pour in your desired amount of clear glue gel and slowly add red food coloring to the solution until it reaches the sanguine hue you desire. Then, on a newspaper-lined surface, splatter the mask with the blood. I packed a straw with the liquid and used it to blow the blood onto the mask; however, you can dip a spoon or paintbrush into the mixture and fling it on the mask.  

8. Accent the mask with the stick pins, nestling them among the flowers. As with all of the decorative items used for this prop, you can replace them with objects that match your aesthetic. Likewise, you can increase or decrease how much of these embellishments you use.  

9. To give the mask a finished look, paint the inside black and apply at least two coats of decoupage medium to serve as a sealer and prevent the paint from rubbing off while wearing it. This is entirely optional, especially if the mask is meant only for your wear; however, if you plan to sell the mask or give it as a gift, this adds a level of professionalism.  

10. If the mask did not come with a means to fasten it to the wearer’s head, you can create ties with white ribbon to match the white paper covering its surface.

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.