John and I are waiting another year to bring back Ghostbusters for Halloween, since the new movie won't be out 'til November, and we were really banking on it to help this year's kids recognize the theme. (Seriously, the amount of kids/teens who had no idea who Stay Puft was crushed my soul.)
So instead we decided on another 80s paranormal classic that absolutely none of the kids in our area will recognize: Beetlejuice.
I already had Beetlejuice on the brain thanks to Universal's new haunted house and all the new Beetlejuice merch at Spirit: Halloween, but what really sealed the deal was this photo:
You are, of course, technically correct. However.
1) That one costs hundreds of dollars,
2) you can't walk under it, and
3) where's the fun in buying something when you can spend dozens of hours and every ounce of frustration trying to make it yourself?
:D
We turned again to our trusty Dollar Tree tablecloths:
These things are tissue thin, but sew together like a champ. We used 4 to make our first arch: one per side tube, then two to form the arch itself.
For the bases we cut circles from pink foam insulation and taped the tablecloth tubes underneath them:
This gives the arch a flat base that we can later stake into the ground. (You could also use Dollar Tree foam board if you don't have pink foam.)
To inflate our arches I bought these USB fans from Amazon for $6 each. (The price keeps fluctuating between $6 and $10, I'm waiting for it to go back down to buy a few more as back-ups.) They're USB so you'll need a power adapter to plug them in, but happily Dollar Tree has those for $1. Score!
John cut circles into thick foam squares which we duct-taped to the side of each arch to form a little docking station. The foam is stretchy enough that we can pressure-fit the fan in place. We've popped the fans in and out of these little airlocks half a dozen times already, they hold and work great.
Arch #1 turned out.... a little big:
