2012 Props: Zombie Lanterns

Here is a quick costume accessory that I whipped up for our Midwest Haunters Convention masquerade ball costumes. I knew going in that a simple zombie costume just wouldn't cut it, so I took two old IKEA lanterns that were in my basement and created voodoo zombie lanterns.

Here is what I did:

I started with 3 cans of spray paint: Krylon Indoor/Outdoor Satin Black, Valspar Plastic (68123 Satin Chestnut), and Valspar Interior/Exterior Satin (85202 Satin La Fonda Copper).

I started by lightly cleaning the old lanterns.

I taped over all of the glass with masking tape and coated it with the Satin Black base coat.

After the black base coat had dried, I did an uneven, light coat of the Valspar Chestnut, being sure to leave portions of the black base coat visible. When the Chestnut dried, I very lightly spattered the Valspar Copper over everything. This made it look like speckles of rust. I was able to get the paint to spatter by doing quick, light taps on the spray nozzle from a slightly longer distance away than if you were trying to get a full coating.

At this point, I repeated the same Chestnut misting and Copper spattering to an 8-foot section of black plastic chain that I had picked up at Lowe's. The 8-foot section would then be cut into two 4-foot sections, one for each lantern. I also coated two quick links in the same paint, as they were used to attach the chain to the lantern handle.

Once all of the paint was dry, I attached the chain with the quick link and removed all of the masking tape from the glass panels on the lantern. I then put an LED flicker tea light in the lantern to see where we were at. Notice the spatters of the Valspar Copper to mimic rust.

I then used some old brown latex paint that was heavily watered down and streaked it on all of the glass panels. This gave a nice, smudged look. When the brown paint had dried, I took some heavily watered down old green latex paint (the same paint that I use for all of my tombstones) and gave a light, overall wash to the rest of the lantern. This gave a really nice patina and completed the weathered look. The final detail was to add some spanish moss, and to snap some atmospheric photos of our new voodoo zombie lanterns. They were a big hit at this year's MHC masquerade ball and they will definitely be a part of our zombie costumes from here on out.

Photo by Laura Dark Photography.