Graveyards for Dummies, Pt. 2

ok -

So I started with

• 8x5 feet of polystyrene Insulfoam (Lowe's)
• wooden garden fencing (Lowe's)
  
• black felt (Michael Levine)
  
• plastic chain (Target)
  
• some skewers (had in my kitchen)
  
• a ton of gray and black spray paint (Michael's)
  
• some gauze (Michael Levine)
  
• one very large spider (50% off at Great Indoors)
• some foam craft letters (Target)
  
• Malibu solar lighting (Home depot)
• Solar flicker candles (I hope to find a better and more honest supplier before next year)
  

One great thing about the Santa Ana winds is that trees come down the weeks before Hallowe'en. This gives me plenty of opportunity to grab tree branches full of dead leaves and twigs for witches brooms and leaves for the graveyard. I take full advantage of the free stuff, yo.

Once the spray paint on the tombstones is dry, I used black foam lettering for the epitaphs. By the way, I didn't get nearly enough black letters and found that a little black acrylic paint adheres to the foam just beautifully - even over fluorescent yellow letters. You can't even tell they were yellow. There are some great epitaphs on the net - though I chose dead people I actually know. Way more realistic that way. Put the letters on before you stick 'em in the ground.

I inserted the skewers into the lawn (heavy duty ones are best) and then inserted them into the polystyrene tombstones. Trying to do it the other way will make you cry.

I stapled some gauze - which was heavily discounted due to holes (woot!!!) onto the beam above my front door for some curtains through which my treaters have to walk through. Muy scary!!! Then I took my 6 foot spider and staple gunned him to the outside of the house. He kinda freaks Michael out a little bit.

Next I took some felt and measured the mantle and the side windows seen below. Remember if you're doing two of something, especially symmetrical, just fold the fabric in half and then in half again. Just cut out the center and you have two perfect window silhouettes seen below. I did the same thing with the mantlepiece.

Now for the lighting. Solar is your friend. My house was built in 1951. I have no outdoor outlets so I got solar lighting and hid the lights behind the cheap tombstone I bought at Target to light up the others. Then I bought some solar flicker candles (loooong story) and hung them from the trees with heavy duty black upholstery thread. They look like they're floating in mid air. Spooky. Also, I can leave them on all the time and they don't wear out like battery powered candles would.

For the final piece, I have a bit of spider webbing which I will use SPARINGLY!!! and I'm going to hang some super light white threads in front on the door step so they tickle people's faces as they come up to the door (feels like a spider web!).

Here's the finished product.

Happy Hallowe'en!