#2 Spooky Decorations

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This is the tradition that tells everyone in the neighborhood that yours is the house to visit Halloween night for trick-or-treating.

As a tradition, however, this is my first of many to come as my daughter no longer goes trick-or-treating, which means I’ll be home to greet all the kiddos myself for candy and hopefully a little scare for their Halloween delight.

Radioactive zombies are the theme of this years yard makeover and the impact will be enhanced with a green glow permeating from each zombie and toxic waste barrel for a chemical meltdown source of undead strength.

This is an exciting, cool concept that I’ll have the pleasure to continue to add more and more every year.  I also added a giant spider web and spider to the yard for more spooky fun as the spider is hovering over a body wrapped in a silk cocoon made out of simple upcycled empty milk and water jugs.

This post will show you how I made each element and includes finished pics and video taken Halloween night for maximum viewing pleasure.

Spider Web Scene

I have three tall oak trees close together in my front yard that will provide a perfect home for a giant spider and her webbed trap which will include a cocooned body ready for her to snack on.

Spider

An exciting advantage to working at a sign shop is the privilege of having a CNC Router table to use to cut out any shape you want with no time and effort.  I just simply browsed a menacing spider image and asked to have it programmed in to the size I want and material.  Of course you don’t need a fancy machine to cut out the spider–all you need to do is draw the spider on a piece of plywood and cut it out and paint black.  See pic below of mine…

Body Wrapped in a Cocoon

This isn’t a new idea as I’ve scene many pins on Pinterest on how to make a super light weight human form using just empty recycled liquid containers.  This was a plan started in the summer time as I had to accumulate enough empty jugs to make up the correct shape.  Once I had the shape I used clear tape to hold the containers together and then I wrapped it in a cheap white party table cloth which will later be wrapped with white string and strung up in the web.  See pic below…

Putting it all Together

I put a gallery of photos to click on below to see the progress and finished web effect.  I just strung up white string, screwed the spider in place and finished off with specific Halloween web decorating material from Wal-Mart…

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Zombie Scene

Once again I utilized my ability with having a CNC Router table at my disposal to have life sized zombie silhouettes cut out for the scene.  I also had 55 gallon drum shapes cut out with a vinyl prints of the yellow color and toxic symbols on them to give the scene it’s story on why the zombies are here and glowing green.

I screwed some of the zombies and drums to a platform and standoffs for support and then came the tedious work of hot gluing and taping over 400 green Christmas lights total to the back of the props for the radioactive glow effect.  It’s important to note that the finished props with lights has to be closely in front of the house or each other to get the full effect of the lights permeating behind them.

It’s also a benefit having Halloween close to Christmas as I was able to get the lights I needed because the stores start earlier and earlier every year for buying Christmas decorations.

Zombie Effect Gallery of Photos

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Final Touches

The last couple of things I did to tie it all together were the window features.  I brought the inside of the house to life by incorporating two of the biggest windows facing the front of the house with lighted and animated projected action.

Just above the radioactive zombies I put in a zombie window poster scene designed to be scene with a light on in the room so the poster gave a glowing effect and eerie look.

Last, but certainly not least, was the projected animated Halloween “spooky” scenes on a loop of five different scary themes playing out as a motion picture on the front large window.  I originally bought this projector a few Christmases ago for the Animated Santas and elves to go along with my obsession for Christmas light displays.  I was pleasantly surprised that the memory card that came with the product also has other holiday features including Halloween.  Some of the scenes witnessed Halloween night were dancing skeletons, zombies trying to escape the window, talking jack-o-lanterns and a ghost.  For the full effect of the projected scenes click on the video below of  my yard Halloween night.

Thanks for gendering on my adventures and stay posted as I’ll be expanding on this idea next year–maybe include more zombies and a fog machine.