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| This was a very simple project and a cheap way to make a grave. I took an old very large brown bath towel, covered it in spray adhesive, then sprinkled it with sawdust and leaves. You can use any kind of towel, and die it brown,, this one was just the right size. Then I used wadded up plastic grocery bags underneath to give it a mound. Along the edges I used 16 penny nails and tacked it down so the bags wouldn't sneak out and blow away. The perfect grave! |
| This was one of my first creative ideas, made in 2004. (Before the yard grew into what it is now). It is a simple and easy arch. I picked up an empty cardboard carpet roll from Lowes, and cut it in half to make 2 six foot sections. The top is just cardboard folded into a rectangle with the bottom corners left open. The columns fit up inside to make an arch. I painted the whole thing with a flat grey primer and then sprayed it with a stone texture paint. The bottoms of the columns have a plastic insert that has a smaller hole that fits nicely over the rebar in the ground. |
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| This was a project that I 1.) wanted to be very cheap, and 2.) wanted to be easy to put up, take down, and store. What I decided on was a chain link fence with PVC posts. I started with buying 100 ft. of plastic chain off of Ebay, quite cheap, $10, plus shipping of course. If you have to buy it from a store, you will pay big bucks! I checked around and found it was pretty much $1 / ft. every where. Since I needed close to 100 ft. I chose to look on line. I didn't have much choice in color, so what I got was lavender. I know, lavender... EWWW. Lavender and Halloween don't go together, that's why it has been painted! |
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| What a pretty color! This is actually bird toy plastic chain. The links are 1 1/4" in length |
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| Painting in progress, I used Krylon plastic paint, 4 cans worth! This stuff was a pain to coat. The links twist and turn as you're spraying. |
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| These little goodies are the toppers for my fence posts. I ordered them from Century Novelty on line. They come in a bag of 24 for about $6. The eyes have been opened up and a hole drilled in the bottom. Each will have a small battery powered candle lite in it. |
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| For the posts I used 3/4" PVC. I bought "7" 10' lengths at my local Home Depot. Those were cut into three 40" sections per length. So for my yard size I had 21 fence posts. I also picked up 21 caps, which I drilled a hole in the top of each one.. |
| drilled caps |
| 40" cut PVC |
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| In case you're wondering, the long screws are being used as handles, so I can hang on to these while painting. They won't come off until everything is completely painted. |
| I used Krylon Hammered finish plastic paint. I really like the look. |
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| I have my PVC glue, and I'm getting ready to put the caps on the posts. Do this in a well ventilated area. |
| Once the caps are glued on and dried, I painted the rest of the pole. Here you can see I have marked the poles 3" down from the bottoms of the caps. |
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| I drilled a small pilot hole on each of my marks. These will hold the 1" drywall screws to hang the chain on. |
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| This is what the screws look like, they blend in fairly well. |
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| Here is the finished post. Remember the hole I drilled in the cap? That is where the pumpkin was attached. I used the 1" drywall screws for that also. I used 1/2" conduit cut into 2 ft. lengths to slip the PVC posts over. They will give the fence stability. |
| This is a close -up of the pumkin, you can see the little battery powered lite inside. After opening the eyes up, I found out that you couldn't see them very well, so I ended up using black marker to outline them. |
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| Here is what the finished fence looks like. It will enclose my cemetery and props. |
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| Here is a night photo, it's kind of blurry, but you get the idea. These little guys show up pretty good, and will define my cemetery |
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| Since my original arch was so plain, I decided this year for 2006, I would add some decorative touches. |
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| In the upper left picture you can see I used some "Great Stuff Foam" insulation. The top of the arch was coated and left to dry. I then used a utility knife and shaped it and sanded it. I decided I didn't like the plain grey color, so I did a mottled green coat of latex spray paint, then used 2 colors of faux stone finish, green and a grey/white. The top center picture shows the wood lettering I glued on and some ivy that I placed to help hide the cardboard seams. The picture to the right shows the finished arch, you can see I added ivy down the columns also. The owl on the top was a great auction find for only $1! (this picture was taken where I work, made a good storage place until I needed to put it in the yard.) |
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