Thread: help with outdoor decor...

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i have lots and lots of indoor stuff, but i'm definately lacking in outdoor decor. i want some ideas of some easy things that i could do...maybe an easy theme, or things that i can easily make and have them be weather proof too. i had an idea to make a half coffin that was coming up out of the ground like it has floated to the surface over the years...any ideas of how to make this? now that my dad is here too, we can make things...he has lots of tools and he and my mom love halloween as much as i do!

I think tombstones are one of the easiest, cheapest, and most efficient props for outdoors - can be made from cardboard, foam, or wood. Easy to cut out, easy to paint, and hundreds of tutorials and resources.

One of my favorite things is boarding up the windows of the house. That, along with a cemetery scene, adds a lot of flavor for little effort and money. There are several tutorials on that as well and my favorites are made from foam (though cardboard would work as well).

Scarecrows - good 'ol scary ones. Tall, menacing, leering over the tots as they walk by.

Every once and a while, I'll make a shrouded figure and place him inches away from where the kids have to walk (pvc frame, chicken wire for girth and some old fabric thrown over. Hooded so you can't see a face). Just watching the tots eye him down as they hesitate to walk by is hilarious - get a couple of them made and have one be a real person. Ooooh the humanity -- I mean hilarity.

As far as the coffins go, I actually had two half coffins given to me last year. It's made out of plywood (looks like scrap wood). There's a large base to keep it from tipping, then just cut to shape and screwed together.

For outdoors....hmmmmm. Well the only really spooky thing that comes to mind is the graveyard or a Spiders den.

Cheap graveyard...right up my alley. If you have access to some old palettes (the kind the forklifts move around). They are great for building coffins from. Easy tombstones are plywood (if you don't mind not having the thickness of a real tombstone and crosses (again palette wood). Using wood is best so you don't have to worry about weather (except for REALLY high wind). If you have a lot of trees, buy the moss stuff you can get at places that sell silk flowers, and drap it from trees to spook it up.

You can even use the palette wood to make broken down fencing.

Spiders den: Find a dollar store and buy lots of the fake webbing. Stretch it everywhere. Add some cheap plastic spiders. Make at least one large spider (queen idea) and take some old clothes/shoes stuff with plastic grocery sacks for bulk and wind it all up in the webbing and place the big spider over the victim.

Ways to make a Large Spider: Depending on how big you want it. (The bigger the better) For a Medium sized one you could get a Styrofoam ball about the size of a head (a little $ but not too bad - again from floral shop). Paint it black, use wire for legs (lots of things you can use for legs). For Large spiders, you could make one (flat one) out of plywood. Or check out the props section here...I'm sure we've got some tutorials on spider building.

Lighting is crucial for effect. With the right light even the flat props look good.

Gargolyes, Graveyard, they have little ground braker zombie monster guys, evil pumpkins/scare crows, many people use bluckys from big lots and modify them.

Also fog machine for the big night works well along with strobe lights, earie music and even color changing lights.

Kallie - something that I'm adding this year that will be (hopefully) pretty simple and easy is a pumpkin patch. Make a scarecrow, add straw or hay on the ground, or bales if you can get them, fake pumpkins, real pumpkins, carved and not carved. I've got a bunch of pumpkins that are the plug in kind, but because all my electric outlets will already be used, I'm putting those cheap battery operated candles in them.

There are lots of things that can be done with a blucky. Corpse 'em out, stand them up, have them hold something... just even "lying around" can add some ambiance (sp?).

Lighting is such an important, yet often overlooked, aspect to any yard haunt. Here is an excellent website, -Skull And Bone- It gives tutorials on spooky vs. nonspooky lighting.
Even the best yard haunt looks crappy if the lighting's not right. I highly recommend you check it out, no matter what you do with the yard, decorations-wise. Have fun!

Don't forget to use your windows! I placed "Michael Myers" in our front window with a strobe light. It even made the adults walk faster. hehe He was super simple too, scrap wood making a "T" screwed to a wood base with a flannel insulated shirt thrown over it. The head was a plastic grocery bag stuffed with other bags to make the head. Tape it to the "T" and place a $.99 mask over it. People will only see flashes of him so you there's a TON of room for imperfection.