[frstvamp1r]

This "prop" I read in a magazine years ago which takes about 5 minutes to do (if that) and is cheap. They called it "floating orbs". We've all seen those "ghost photos" of "orbs" or "balls of light" before, this is how you can make them float above your house. Get a pack of black or dark blue balloons (so that they are hard to see at night),a pack of white balloons, a spool of black thread or fishing line (figure about 100 feet worth for each "orb"), and cheap glow sticks you can find at a dollar store. Activate all your glow sticks by snapping them, then put them in the white ballloons and blow them up with air. Now inflate all your black balloons with helium and tie about 6 feet of string between the black and white balloons (one black balloon per white balloon), then run 100 feet or so of the line from the white balloon so that the black balloon is holding the white balloon up and the 100 feet of string is tied off somewhere near the roof of your home. Now you have one glowing floating orb. Run as many as you want at varying heights above your home. Now people will see floating glowing orbs above your home. Great locator for people to find your home for a party or haunt.

 

[Front Yard Fright]

That's a great idea!
Have you done this yourself?
Do you have any photos!
Sounds very interesting!
.

 

[frstvamp1r]

I have done it myself, didn't take any photos because, well, Mother Nature decided to make it very very windy that year and so literally all the "orbs" were flying horizontal instead of vertical, had to take them down.

 

[Ghastly Joker]

My mother's friend went to Gettysburg and got her fairshare of ghosty white orbs on her video camera. It was quite creepy to see. Then one of my buddy's went and took a few pictures, no white orbs, but inside of a closed building, there was a pale white, almost THE GRUDGE looking face in the window. I was freaked out by that one quite a bit.

 

[dave the dead]

My mother's friend went to Gettysburg and got her fairshare of ghosty white orbs on her video camera. It was quite creepy to see. Then one of my buddy's went and took a few pictures, no white orbs, but inside of a closed building, there was a pale white, almost THE GRUDGE looking face in the window. I was freaked out by that one quite a bit.

well , now you know that they were just balloons with glowsticks....hope that eases the freaky feeling you had.

 

[Desmodus]

An alternative to glow sticks is the small LEDs that Walmart sells in the Craft section, where the wedding type stuff is. They twist on/off, and they're actually designed to be inserted into balloons! Bright lil suckers too ! You can buy them in pairs or in tens. They rock.

I've also read somewhere where someone had the idea of using infared LEDS in balloons; the thing here being that you can't seem them with the naked eye, but if you take a digital camera or camcorder, they will show up! The CCD (charge coupled device) that the camera "eye" is based on is sensitive down in the IR range.
Proof of concept: take your TV remote, and aiming it towards your digital camera or camcorder, press a button while look at the camera's screen, you'll see a white light on screen that your naked eye doesn't see. It's freaky. You can even take the whole shebang into a dark room, and use your tv remote like a flashlight, the camcorder will see the walls "light up" as you shine the remote around (holding down a button of course).

I would imagine, with a little trail and error, that you could inflate the flowing balloons directly with helium, (rather than use the black balloons)and by establishing a counter weight system with sinkers or something, have the balloons simply float around on their own accord, balanced to not float away nor fall to the ground - providing it isn't too windy. Or maybe that's just a pipe dream.

 

[frstvamp1r]

wow...from simple glow sticks we knocked that Martha Stewart idea into the 21st century with IR LED's. HA, take THAT Martha Stewart. LOL

 

[skeletonowl]

hmmm...i'd have to see how it looks. I would think people would be confused.

 

[frstvamp1r]

Skeletonowl, how would people be confused? On making the orbs or just seeing glowing floating things above a house? I don't understand what you mean.

 

[kdouglas75]

anyone who tried this, have a picture?

 

[pyro]

i need to make a trip to the dollar store it will cost 5 bucks , i have to try it

 

[frstvamp1r]

Kdouglas,
I've used the "floating orbs" prop twice in my haunt...first time the wind just killed it and made them fly sideways almost the whole night, I had to take them down because they were actually getting caught in other people's TV antennas and satellite dishes. The second year I did it, it worked fine, but never thought about taking photos of it, was too busy keeping an eye and coordinating everything else around my haunt.

 

[Toktorill]

I had a similar idea to the glowing orbs some time ago- but instead of putting the glowsticks inside the balloon I wanted to tape them to the outside. I was going to use 3, one of which is hidden from view due to the balloon being opaque enough. Instead of a glowing ball, the visitors see two lights close together: a pair of eyes. :googly: