Mystical Portraits This is my Houdini Bleeding Portrait. This effect is more of a filler than a main effect. This prop is fairly easy to build and cost around $12, provided you already have a pump. This is a rather easy effect to create. The picture will be seen, then ignored, but after a large thump and noticing that she is now skinless, people will wonder what happened.

Follow Chris Silvia's Directions for the Bleeding Portrait at Chris's Crypt

For a picture frame I bought some molding that was on sale for $.32 a foot. I then wired them up and painted them, it turned out to be real easy to do. The tricky part is how to get the molding to keep from splitting. A good way to do this is to drill a hole about an inch from the point, about a 1/4 in. in on each side and run wire through them and tighten firmly.

A good way to keep your water from splattering all over is to use some shoe repair glue, or I suppose clear hot glue will work and make some large channels near the edges to keep the water where you want it.

Another good idea is to put it in an area that is well lighted. I found out after Halloween that allot of people didn't see this effect because I had it too dark in my haunted house to see.

Keep your cut or hole near the bottom because it will be difficult to get the water up high on your picture. I first wanted it to bleed from a gash in his forehead, but the water wouldn't make it up that far, so I had to bring it down to the neck.

Step 1: Print Pictures
Find a picture that you want to do. To get the picture into separate pages you need Paint Shop Pro, or some other paint program (MS Paint won't work).

Step 2: Glue to poster board
Cut out off the edges, paste, or spray adhesive your pic to a piece of Poster board, cover open areas with white paper.

Step 3: Build frame
Take two pieces of board (3 ft buy 2 inches?) and router the edge out (1inch wide?). Assuming you have you frame built (houdini directions) now attach those to the back with the routered edges on the insides. Put them sticking up at least one foot above the edge of the frame.

Step 4: Mount Pictures
Take your original picture and attach it to the back of the routered wood pieces, this will stay stationary. On the other picture, poke a hole through so you can run your fishing string through it. I wish I had a picture to show this, but I forgot to take one, so I'll have to explain it. Now the way the picture works is the transforming picture just falls down in front of the other one via the routered boards. To do this I had a board mounted directly to a stud in the wall , up high enough to be completely out of the frame, but still in the routered guides. I had the string tied to the center of the top of the picture (the poked hole), ran up above the frame to the board mounted to the wall, through an eye hook I put in the board and down to where I could work it. I stapled the end to the wall so I could find it. Also you should put a board under the frame to keep the picture from falling through. You should just be able to pull the string and have the picture above the frame, let go and have it fall into place.