Haunting Your Yard!

So it’s done! 

We finished our Halloween headstone in honor of Edgar Allen Poe.  Shane did a great job with the carving of the raven.  I am still trying to decide if I want to add more aging though.  There is fine line and if you go over board, then the headstones become unreadable.  While we do put lighting on our headstones at night, it’s subtle lighting – so painting the headstones/tombstones too dark turns them into a blob at night.

This weekend we also started a set of custom headstones for someone who wants to use them as centerpieces on tables for a wedding rehearsal dinner that is taking place Halloween night.

For the first time we stopped at Lowes and got the foam there.  We were a bit surprised – Shane noticed that there IS a difference between the pink foam at Home Depot and the blue at Lowes – the blue foam is denser.  He said it cuts different and is more like wood.  He seemed to like working with it better.  I did notice it isn’t as porous – which means for me the priming of the foam first is even more important.  There really isn’t any difference in price, so we may be going with the blue foam from now on out.

So I’ve really been debating as whether or not to get a Halloween costume for our newly adopted dog, Bridget.

I personally think she has a lot of “costume potential” so to speak.  First off, she is a very, very laid back dog.  Very gentle, and goes with the flow.  I actually think she would wear a costume without trying to get it off – but there in lies the risk….it’s not like doggy Halloween costumes are super cheap.  I could spend the money and she may only have it on long enough for a picture (which I suppose might still be worth it).

A few years ago, we had another dog, Rusty.  I never bought him a costume, but I did buy him a jesters collar.  Problem was, it had little bells on it and that dog was so scared of everything that he was scared of himself with the collar on!  Rest in Peace Rusty…that reminds me – we should make a headstone in his honor (he died of old age).

Now we do have a cat, Sophie, but we all know there is NO WAY a cat would ever wear a costume.  If you have one that does I would LOVE to see pictures.  Photoshopping a hat onto their head doesn’t count.

So here is my idea with Bridget.  For the last two years, Shane and I have dressed as vampires.  We’ve got pretty nice costumes if I do say so myself.  This year Dylan will be joining our ranks.  We have ordered him a vampire costume and once it gets here, we plan to take a family portrait at my friend Kim’s Photography Studio here in Longmont – Balsman Photography.  So it would seem like a really good idea to have Bridget in the photo too.  This is what I found – it’s a “dogula” costume.

Admittedly, this would be really cute.  Picture it on Bridget.  Sitting there in a formal family portrait with the three of us.  It would be great.  I know some people absolutely HATE it when people dress up their pets.  But it is Halloween after all.  And there are some other, really funny pet costumes out there.  I found this one at BuyCostumes.com.  You can dress your pooch as a Star Wars character, or a playboy bunny maid, even a nun.  There was even some things for cats on there.  Now in the photos the dogs did look a little humiliated – especially the dog wearing the Wizard of Oz Dorothy Pet Costume.  Go take a look – even if it’s just for a giggle.  If you like to dress of up your pet for Halloween I’d love to see pictures!  Just send me an email and maybe I’ll start a section on the website!
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You may have seen what is called “creepy cloth” online and at Halloween stores.  It’s something that could be used as curtains, or just a way to create a creepier effect.

I’ve seen it being sold for up to $1.75 a yard.  Considering this is probably one of the EASIEST things you can do yourself, to go buy it is a huge rip off.

Basically what “creepy cloth” is, is cheesecloth that is dyed and ripped up.  Cheesecloth has a TON of uses in a home haunt.

For example, I have taken a basic foam skull and glued layers of cheesecloth to it, then used fishing line to string up different parts of it, to give the effect of a flying ghost.

And when you get your own cheesecloth, you can then dye it a variety of colors to fit whatever your need is.

My recommendation would be to go to a fabric store – a real one, not a store that carries fabric in a section of the store.  You can by it in bigger quantities.  We got a box of it at Hancock Fabrics.  The normal sale price is 69 cents a yard (see – you’re saving a bunch of money already!).  We happened to get extremely lucky the day we went in – it was on sale for 33 cents a yard.

One thing we plan on doing with some of ours is hanging it from the ceiling in our garage in the voodoo scene, to give the feel of a swamp.  I got some black fabric dye and Dylan and I did a batch yesterday.  The first batch came out on the blacker/grayer side – the second, because most of the black pigment went into the first batch, came out on the bluer side.  I took a picture to show the difference.  I’ll have to play around with the colors as I’m not as thrilled with the bluer color.  We did this in a large bucket as well, which watered down the dye a bit.

I then decided to start experimenting a little with colors.  I have a huge box of this stuff, so why not.  I took some green food coloring and put a few pieces on a bowl.  I really didn’t let them sit too long.  It actually came out very interesting – almost a glow in the dark effect, so I’m interested in see what it looks like under lighting.

So really, this is one project that even the most un-crafty person can do themselves and save a bit money.  Once you start really looking at the cloth, you’ll start coming up with a lot of possible uses.   Like ripping it into strips and hanging it from props to create a mossy look.  Just think outside the box and you’ll discover that cheesecloth can be a home haunters best friend!

If you are new to the home and yard haunting for Halloween, I’m sure you’ve done a lot of research on the internet regarding headstones, graveyards, etc.  There is a lot of information out there and some amazing pictures of some yard haunters set ups.

It can be a little discouraging if you are just getting started because most people, like us, with the big set ups and large Halloween graveyards have spent years building up their stash.  To have a truly cool looking graveyard takes a lot of time and well, cash.  Even if you make a lot of the props yourself.

When we started our graveyard years ago, we started out small.  Most of the headstones from the earlier days have been replaced with the more realistic, custom ones.  If you are just getting started, a great way to do that is by using things you might have just sitting around the house.  We actually used to go dumpster diving because there was a lot of new construction near where we live.  So many of our first headstones were made out of wood and painted.

Wood is definitely not as easy, in my opinion, to work with as the foam.  But it is sturdy.  We did find it more challenging to stake to the ground.  With foam you can put a metal rod right up the inside of the foam.

Another method we sometimes use to vary our headstones is to glue pieces we’ve created using plaster of paris and molds on to the foam.   Many designs we etch out of the foam, but the plaster of paris pieces are another good option and there are tons of molds to pick from.  Once you’ve primed it and painted over it, it looks like it’s just part of the headstone.

We had some questions recently regarding our tombstones that I thought we would answer:

The foam from  Home Depot is the pink sheets in the wood/building section.  You can get the same type of foam at Lowe’s – there it is blue.  Depending on the size of your tombstones, you can get multiple headstones out of one sheet.  Left over pieces make great “markers” – small, rock type pieces that have maybe only a date on them, or nothing.  We’ve seen these in many cemeteries – small little pieces propped up.

You do have to be careful about the paint you use as some (especially spray paints) will eat the foam.  Some people use that technique to carve the stone.  We use tools to do that.  Latex paint is always the way we go.  I put a primer on first, then the color.  Check the “oops” paint section  – that is where we have gotten most of our paints at a fraction of the price.  Once you put a base coat on, you can start doing more specialized techniques to “age” your stones.  Putting paint on heavier in areas where you think it would look like the stones would naturally “leach” minerals – then take a spray bottle filled with water, spray the paint, let it start to drip, and then what I do is use a dry paint brush to drag the paint down.  I keep doing that until I get the look I want.

Finish your stones off by adding moss.

The tombstone Shane is working on here in the picture he just started.  It is an Edgar Allen Poe headstone.  He is carving out a raven on a branch at the top.  With this headstone he carved out the areas around the picture to bring the raven out – sometimes he’ll do the opposite and etch the picture in – which is always easier as he can use a dremel for that.  This technique takes longer.

So this weekend Dylan finished up editing the Save the Date teaser:

Halloween Date Teaser

He did a great job!

That’s pretty much what got accomplished other than finalizing the plan for the walk through in the garage on Halloween night and going over to the Resource Recycle place and getting two cool old chairs with claw feet and a cool old door as props – all for $30.

We did go over to Spirit Halloween while in Boulder, but nothing seems to entice us any longer.  All we walked out of there with was vampire fangs for Dylan and a bottle of latex for Shane for some mask he is going to do.  Although that place is expensive so it’s a good thing that’s all we left with!

Shane and Dylan finished the coffin on Monday and it turned out better than I would have ever thought.

So the first picture here is the coffin completed as far as all the trim and decorative pieces put on.  They filled in all the cracks and holes with wood putty, allowed that to dry, sanded it, etc.

Sunday we went back to the shop and they started staining.  Dylan would do the brushing on while Shane would do the wiping off.

To give it a bit of an older look they would leave the stain on longer in certain areas before wiping it off.

Monday they worked on adding the lining.  I didn’t go out to the shop with them, so I have no pictures of while they were doing it, but it was pretty much putting batting down, putting the satin over the batting, and stapling it to the coffin.  They brought it home Monday night since we had plans to use the coffin in the little “mini movie” we were doing for our Halloween Party save the date.

Here is the finished coffin on the outside and the inside.

As you can see, it turned out quite nice.

Last night we did the filming and they also took a few still of me in the coffin.  Here is how that turned out: