Thread: My yardhaunt asks for sugestions, please

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I do a yard haunt at my aunt and uncle's house which they love, but I am limited on funds. Luckily my uncle has worked in construction his whole life and taught me some so I've been able to make a lot. I'm looking for inexpensive improvements this coming year, so I'm asking for some new idea's. I try not to make it too scary for the little ones. So far I have a fence around the yard made out of dol's that I painted and I have the neighborhood kids cover with spider webs, a mummy half out of the ground, a few mummified heads coming out of the ground, new last year a coffin and skeleton. So far my idea's for next year are to cover my tree with spiderwebs and hang cocooned people from it. Maybe a huge guy like micheal meyers (standing figure), my neighbor had one one year and it scared the crap out of me in the daylight it looked so real, and PVC candels around my tombstones. Also my tombstones are all names of horror movie charecters, I have

Mickey Knox
Mallory Knox Together Forever in Hell

Mary Worth Bloody Mary

Charles Lee Ray Chucky

Pennywise

Hannibal Lector

Norman Bates

This year I saw someone did Stuntman Mike, so I will be doing him ( I loved that movie)

But I would love more idea's though, two idea I saw on here and loved loved loved but dont have the storage room for are the Beloved tombstone and the reaper. Sorry I'm so long winded

Dani

here are some pics ( a couple tombstone were broken by the wind, they dont call it the windy city for nothin)

The first thing I would suggest is to pick a theme. Then, you can decide what direction you can go. I pick theme by either picking a movie, book, era or video game, or anything else that would help focus your design and also help you have an art direction.

For example: This year I was watching the latest Terminator movie, Terminator: Salvation. I loved everything about it: The sets and the costumes really got to me. But, didn't want to have actual terminators running around so I tweaked it a little bit and am going to have zombie robots. But I am keeping the post-apocalyptic time and the rebels fighting them (the costumes were great). Now, every prop or decoration I use has to fit in that theme.

Hope that helps.

i think you should take one of those styrafoam manniquin heads and turn it into a ghost. have you seen the fcg's? you could assemble something like that even if you don't put the motar to it. cheesecloth and tonic water, a couple of clothes hangers, and a black light light bulb behind it to make it glow in the dark.
how about making some spider sacks too.
and some flicker candles out of pvc. that would be nice.
i like what you got so far.

You can make pvc forms and make some creatures stalking your cemetery.
Buy old costumes and clothes from a thrift store. That will be really cheap for you. PVC is around a $1.25 for a ten foot pole. Storage is minimal, too, take the pvc apart and fold up the clothes, easy to store.
Make your Reaper!
Make a t-frame with the pvc, use your costume for height and arm length, add a piece for the neck and put a milk jug over it, tape stuffed gloves to the ends of the arm pieces. Pop your costume over top. Slide your pvc on a rebar pounded into the ground and you will have your Reaper!
For some finishing touches:
Stick a couple of glow sticks in the jug and it will glow thru' the screen face of the costume, too. Tape crumpled newspaper around the "shoulders" of the pvc frame to bulk it up a bit.
You can make a lot of pvc characters using costumes and masks and really add to the cemetery.
Good luck!

put some flying ghosts up. construction outfits sometimes throw out old pvc pipe (unused stuff). maybe you could find some around from differnet companies in your area. The thrift store is a great place to go and def. hit the yard sales....lots of people get rid of their old halloween stuff. my wife and I buy the strangest things at yard sales and destroy (i mean..imagineer them...lol) to fit what ever theme is happening in that year. if you can imagine it, you can build it. but it looks good so far.

forgot to add...we also make our tombstones and the pvc pipe (we use for everything)

Thank you so much for all the ideas. I guess my theme is a creepy graveyard, with fictional horror charecters. I tried a ghost one year but it gets so windy that he was destroyed before halloween even got here, but i didnt do as good a job as your talking about. I live in the suburbs of chicago and the wind is factor. I'm deffinatly going to try the PVC people idea. Thanks again
Dani

I agree with ice...you can't go wrong with a flying crank ghost.