[Cherryh3ad]

Haunted tree reveal!
I was cutting it short close on my tree! I was literally finishing the touch ups right as my husband was putting it together yesterday! Even though I did not get a chance to paint it, it still looks great! I got so many compliments on my tree and people couldn’t believe I made it. Now that I know the process of making these, I think I can work a bit faster for my next one. I have a huge front yard and I eventually want to have 3 or 4 to give my graveyard a spooky look.

special thanks to:

green arts video for tree bark
https://youtu.be/HdISAT1UGLg

The Dark Gardener for his tree tutorial
https://www.halloweenforum.com/memb...s-like-thee-but-i-just-made-haunted-tree.html

 

[JW Halloween]

Awesome Prop!

 

[Ladyfrog]

That is awesome!

 

[HauntedWyo]

Your tree turned out awesome. May I ask how you lit it?

 

[Cherryh3ad]

Your tree turned out awesome. May I ask how you lit it?

Thank you so much!
This was made mostly with recycled items.
For the basic form, I got ahold of some thick and heavy fiberboard cores that a factory was giving away (I found them on craigslist) most people that make these either use chicken wire or concrete tube forms.
The rest is paper mache
The mache paste that I used was just flower and water that were boiled to mix well (some people like to add white Elmer’s glue but since I have toddles running around, I did not want to risk it.
For the details like the face and the “crown” I used rolled up newspapers and my hot glue gun.
For the bark I used painters paper (Kraft paper)
For the roots I actually used masking tape and plastic bottles that I smashed up a bit to get some character (and I was to lazy to crunch up that much paper to make up the forms lol) I just added newspaper smashed into balls to both sides of the bottle to make them longer and give them shape, then taped them to the trunk.
For the arms, I used PVC pipes and some sort of pipe flange my husband use (he took care of putting it together lol) and a PVC pipe “adapter” that he was able to put in the flange.
In a few days I will upload an album with pictures I took of my progress as I was building the tree.

 

[HauntedWyo]

I watched the progress you posted so far and was very impressed. What I was wanting to know was what did you do to light the tree inside. What kind of lighting did you use? How did you get it inside? Did you uplight or downlight?

 

[KingOfHalloween]

Well..... I wished I would have known this 7 years ago when I threw a massive party for a fundraiser.

I ultimately took a chainsaw with me into the woods and cut some large branches down.

They looked nice once I had them set up, but this idea would have saved me some back pain lol.

 

[Cherryh3ad]

I watched the progress you posted so far and was very impressed. What I was wanting to know was what did you do to light the tree inside. What kind of lighting did you use? How did you get it inside? Did you uplight or downlight?

The lighting was literally the easiest part of this tree lol since my husband put the tree on a wood pallet and then put plywood for extra support, he just cut out a hole to run an extension cord with a light socket. Since the core was about an inch thick, he put a nail and tied the socket to a sting and hung it close to the face lol.
I used a color changing LED light bulb with a remote. At first I had him with red eyes but then I decided to put it on fade so his eyes changed color

 

[Cherryh3ad]

Well..... I wished I would have known this 7 years ago when I threw a massive party for a fundraiser.

I ultimately took a chainsaw with me into the woods and cut some large branches down.

They looked nice once I had them set up, but this idea would have saved me some back pain lol.

Lol PVC pipe IS way lighter that actual branches! To be honest, I was seriously considering putting real branches when I was trying to figure out how to make the tree. But since I can’t work a chainsaw and the chances of finding 2 good big branches on the ground were slim, I looked for an alternative. I set up my arms so that they can be removed once it came time to store it. In addition hopefully someday in the future I can find a way of animating them! (That’s going to take a lot of research lol)