Thread: Evolution of a graveyard...

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2003 - "Our" first setup for the big party

2004 - Part 2

2005 - First setup in new house

2006 - 2nd at New House

2007 - Our last HW party due to work moves and babies! Every square inch of the house, inside and out was HW.

2008 - We moved to a new house right at HW and only set up HalloWindow.

2009 - Hard to really see, but the graveyard was setup well and my HHIAB and props were doing the trick. My monster in the box didn't want to work that well.

2010 - Moved YET again, barely had time to setup. Everything was done behind garage doors so I could close up shop quickly. Biggest hit was trashcan trauma mixed in with real trashcans...


2011 - TBD, but I am excited!

I don't know about everybody else... but I really think the evolution of people's haunts is fascinating. It's great to see where someone started and how far they've come. <3

2011 marks only the 4th year Ghouliet & I have been doing this... and there's not a whole lot of variation in those first 3 years. I'll get back to you in another 6 years or so. :B

Originally Posted by Lil Ghouliette

I don't know about everybody else... but I really think the evolution of people's haunts is fascinating. It's great to see where someone started and how far they've come. <3

2011 marks only the 4th year Ghouliet & I have been doing this... and there's not a whole lot of variation in those first 3 years. I'll get back to you in another 6 years or so. :B

I don't think I have pictures that go back far enough, but perhaps I can explain to you the evolution of my yard, as it seems to be a large interest.

A few years ago, exact year is unknown to me at this moment, I was surfing YouTube which was common for me at the time and stil just as common now. And I found a video of how to make tombstones out of styrofoam. Well, I was sold. That's where it started for me. As soon as I could I got a few sheets of discount styrofoam, the white beady/bally stuff. And loosely followed the video, but moreso followed my Old Man's directions and thoughts. So I cut out my tombstone shapes and ended up making letters and basic shapes out of thinner sheets of the styrofoam and used them as stencils. Layed them on, tacked them down and spray painted lightly over them with black spray paint. Leaving some partially eaten styrofoam with bright white letters, back by a misted grey colour. That was the first year.

The second year I saw door and tree hangers around in stores that were 2-3 feet tall and selling for $20-$30 a piece. I wasn't going to pay that. My dad had some scrap pieces of plywood and other lumber laying around. I scavenged those and made a basic T shape. My gramma found some cheesecloth at Fabricland for fairly cheap for the project. I asked her to dye it a greyish colour and it came out more purpley than anything. But I used it. I also had picked up Bag o bones from Walmart for the skull, hands and feet. (Now that I think back, I found a lot of DIY Halloween stuff that year). I wanted to try Dr.Kreepy's corpsing technique which involved latex and cotton balls, but a cheaper, easier alternantive was elmers glue, water and cotton balls. It didn't work out so much. But I had my T made of scrap wood, and draped the purple cheese cloth over it. Lightly sprayed over it in spots with more black spray paint and it darkened it up nicely. We used some welding wire to make arms extending from the shoulders and stuck hands on them. As well made a skull hanging sort of thing and draped some darkened cheese cloth over that for the hood. I ripped and cut the nice rounded and straight edges of the cheest cloth and nailed him to my tree.

That same year I found a coccoon victim how-to after the big night and saved it for next year. So that's what I did. From the following year I had a bargain barney or something from Walmart as well. Just a bag of hodgepodge styrofoam bones with wire in them. I hot glued some a skull to a spine and some other bones together. My gramma again found stuff called "stitch-witchery" which is somewhat translucent, but very fiberous. It made for perfect looking spriderweb stuff. She sewed up a teardrop shaped bag with an opening and we insterted the "torso" into it and closed it up. I glued on some dollar store spiders and cheapo stretchy spiderweb stuff to top it off. Again this year I found next years project. A monster-in-a-box.

So the MIB was last years project. I scavenged some pallets and with the help of my Old Man we ripped them apart and used the planks to build a box. Scavenged a wiper motor from a project vehicle in the yard and bought a motion sensor light. Hacked it to make it run the wiper motor (with some doing) and that was last years prop. Note that everything previous to this was also put out. I've been adding on every year since the first. Or trying to.

This year I want to do a spit-roasting corpse, a ToT'r cage hanging in the porch, and gravegrabber/groundbreaker and update the tombstones with some carving and weighted bases. A lot of it is dependent on getting some blucky's. If that falls through, then I guess I'll be working on building my own skeleton torse for the gound breaker and the other projects will have to wait.

Wilbret,

Love the progression your graveyard has gone through...can't wait to see this years pics with the new place!

i love the one for 2006 it's awesome! where'd you get the lighting?

All the lighting was off the shelf
-xmas spotlight posts with colored bulbs. Put some on dimmers to reduce effect.
-landscape lighting for specific lighting. Use color gels as needed.
-string lights where needed
-4' UV bulbs or UV wash so tombstone epithets glow
-In 2007 I started using HHIAB to control my lighting effects. Wow.
-about 1 mile of extension cord!

-HW night i would have my foggers running. I would use a fog chiller every year, but it almost never worked due to the wind, but either way the fog really gives the light something to diffuse off of.

In 2007 I went pretty heavy on LED bulbs, which allowed me to run more on one cord than ever before. Big incandescent bulbs draw a lot and get HOT, LED bulbs are practically no fire risk at all.

You can't beat a good graveyard on the big night! I have spent a great deal of time on my graveyard over the past 5 years. 25+ tombstones and props, 100' of fencing, coffins, etc. But I think that there comes a point when it becomes too much and I believe that I am approaching that point. There is so much to see that much is missed. I find that when people go through the graveyard a 2nd and 3rd time you hear them say "wow I didn't see that before". All of us that do a graveyard theme work hard on realistic tombstones, grave grabbers, etc. but I feel that alot of the detail is lost by people enjoying it. I love the graveyard theme and will always have it but is there a point of too much to see??

What beautiful homes you've lived in...oh and the decor is great too

great looking pics. Especially love your windows in the 2010 pic.

Neat idea.

2004. First in the new house, had about 3 weeks to set up, just me, my mask, and a couple torches.



2005.

New mask, more skulls, the first on poles. Our first (pathetic) walk-through.

(sorry, crappy pic)



2006, our first 'big' build. Started in the spring. First plaster skulls from molds...



2007: 5 skulls were cool, let's make 100! Walkthrough enters side yard, creates traffic jam...doh!



2008: 100 skulls were cool, let's make 300! and a skeleton...and walkthrough around the ENTIRE house. (unfortunately bad camera year...the good one broke.)



2009: "less is more" 2008 was too crowded, I'm getting bored with the headhunters, spread out ~200 skulls through front and back. Bring pumpkins back to the yard...




2010: weather destroyed all the props towards a theme change in July, "The Harvest" will be easy and different...



2011: Work is making it difficult to get things done. "The Harvest" will get a few additions...