The Dimmick Family's Halloween Haunt
Graveyard
Making Tombstones Glow Under Black Lights
Nov 2nd
I wanted to make some of the details of my tombstones “pop” more under the black lights that I use in my haunt. I opened a yellow highlighter and soaked the fluid-filled cotton stick with water to make a kind of paint to brush onto the tombstones. Once the highlighter fluid/ink was dry I hit those spots with a flat clear spray paint to seal it.
Mother Nature 1, Tombstones and Fence 0
Nov 2nd
On Sunday, October 24th, there was a terrible storm that came through and damaged several of my tombstones and “power washed” a lot of the paint off of my fence columns. The wind and rain were fierce. I was really frustrated and upset, but was relieved to find that an anonymous neighbor of mine found the missing tombstone pieces and returned them to my house. Thank you to whoever found them. Here are some pictures of the aftermath of the storm.
Graveyard Fence with Stone Columns and Wrought Iron Panels
Nov 2nd
Last year I made a quick and simple graveyard fence out of free, used pallets and promised that I had big plans for this years fence. Well, here it is.
This beautiful fence is made from plywood, 2x2s, 1″ and 2″ foam, 2x3s, 1/2″ PVC pipe and decorative finials. Instructions on building the columns can be downloaded here. They are the Vile Things columns with a modified wrought iron style fence, rather than the wood fence they make.
Repairing and Strengthening Tombstones
Oct 17th
I’ve been collecting various tombstones over the years and every year I get frustrated when the wind blows them away or the screws or stakes holding them in the ground rip out or break them. The little plastic “T” stakes they come with DO NOT work to keep them from blowing away. This year I dedicated some time and budget to repairing and strengthening all of my tombstones. Here is what I did and it seems to be working so far:
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- 1″x1.5″ around the base glued with Liquid Nails and nailed to 1″x6″ board
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- Sealed and textured with joint compound
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- Painted with exterior latex paint to seal and waterproof joint compound
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- The whole gang.
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- They stand on their own now too. Useful for storage and using on hard surfaces.
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- Spray painted with gray and black to try to match original colors. Holes are for staking to ground.
Graveyard Candles
Oct 27th
One of the candle clusters out in the yard without the flash. Awesome!
To add to the creepiness factor of the ambience of our haunt I wanted to have a lot of candles sitting around lighting the headstones and walkway. I bought a couple dozen battery-powered tealights that flicker like real flames off of Ebay from Zest Candles. I bought a 10′ piece of 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe and was able to cut about 22 4″, 6″ and 8″ pieces. I sanded all of the black writing off of the pipe, then filled them with expandable foam. When the foam was thoroughly dry I cut the excess off, then pushed the foam down to allow the tealights to sit inside the pipe with the “flame” exposed. I then used hot glue to make the “wax” drips down the sides. I was going to paint the pipes with UV reactive paint, but I was pleasantly surprised that the hot glue was already reactive and we think it looks cooler to have just the drips glowing and not the “candle” part.
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- 1 1/2″ PVC pipe cut and sanded.
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- Filled with expandable foam.
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- The foam cut and pushed down into the pipe.
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- Applying the hot glue.
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- Applying the hot glue.
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- Looking good.
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- They turned out better than I had hoped.
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- One of the candle clusters out in the yard.
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- One of the candle clusters out in the yard without the flash. Awesome!
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- Notice the spots of orange from the candles throughout the graveyard.
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- With the flash.
