Haunt Hacks 2021 Brick Stamping

brick

From the Haunted Attraction Network this is day 2 of our 61-day Hauntathon. Counting down to Halloween. Are you struggling to paint that pesky brick pattern? Today’s haunt hack is for you.

Hi, I’m Scott Swenson from A Scott in the Dark Periodic Podcast for Haunters, and this is one of our Haunt Hacks. Now, these are little chunks of information that will help haunters during the haunt season. This particular one is unusual for me to give because I’m not really a scenic guy, but if the non-scenic guy can give a decent haunt hack on a scenic shortcut, that means it’s got to be easy and anybody can do it.

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Brick Wall Painting Troubles

Scott: Almost every haunt I know at some point in time has a brick wall or a fireplace or something that’s made out of bricks. What I normally see is people will go in and paint the whole wall the color of the bricks and then go back in and add the lines. My suggestion is this is backward, there’s a couple of reasons. Number one because then all of your bricks somehow have this connecting pattern which never would have happened, and secondly you lose some dimensionality because the grout, which is the lines between the bricks, is actually sticking out farther than the bricks themselves.

Scott’s Easy Trick for Stamping Brick Walls

Scott: So here is my haunt hack, this is one of those tools that is used when you’re putting in tile and you swipe the grout flat, it also makes an ideal brick stamp. So, I think some of you can probably guess where I’m going with this. Instead of painting the whole all the color of your bricks, paint the whole wall the color of your grout. In other words, the color you want between the bricks, that can be anywhere from gray to brown to white, even black in some occasions.

What you want to do is take this, I guess it’s a trowel, I told you, not the scenic guy. Take this rectangular stamp, I’m going to call it a brick stamp from this point forward. Take your brick stamp and mix up the colors of your bricks, like throw in some, some reds and some

burnt umber’s and maybe a little black here and there depending on what color or how old you want your bricks to look. Don’t mix it all up so it’s nice and smooth, just kind of drop it in there, and then take your brick stamp blop it into that paint and lay your bricks on one at a time.

Why This Haunt Hack Works Well

Scott: What this does is it gives a more mottled, varied approach, and actually you can turn it upside down each time you go across. Each time you stamp it, it’s going to change the way the colors and the paint on the brick mix and match. Just stamp it all the way across and then go down, and of course, stamp it all the way back. Remember, bricks do not line up on the edge. Bricks are alternating, so you have to do like 1/2 stamp at the end so that you get your bricks in the right place.

The nice thing about this approach is when you lift this off it the paint buckles up just a little bit and it gives you a little more dimension. As I said, it also makes it so that your whole wall doesn’t look like it’s just a bunch of lines painted on a red wall.

Learn More About Scott and His Advice

Scott: So that is my haunt hack for now. Keep an eye out here on the Haunted Attraction network for more haunt hacks throughout the season. Or, if you’d like to learn more about how I feel about haunting you can listen or watch my podcast A Scott in the Dark Periodic Podcast for Haunters, you can check out some of my books, or you can visit my website ScottSwenson.com and you can sign up for my newsletter.

So, until the next contact, this is Scott Swenson saying happy haunting.

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