gruesome graveyard

the JOL this year was from a martha stewart idea and stencil. the pumpkin i got was apparently a concrete hybrid because i could not get the tools to touch it. i actually had to use a dremel to just remove the relief parts and a chainsaw to cut the top...well maybe i didn't use a chainsaw but looking back that would have worked. so this idea of cutting/carving less and adding black paint to bring out the features worked out nicely. for the duration of the photos you will get to experience ohhhhhh.....the gruesome graveyard! (say all italics with a spooky voice!)

dollar tree tombstones, severed hand luminaries (more on that in another post below) and tea lights.

light up bone lights, an old piece of a picket fence (that i could never throw out and now glad i didn't) and old moss i picked up from the ground of the local park.

black birds (i got on clearance several years ago post halloween) perched on the tops of the markers and in the background is the tree of the dead with hanging skeletons done by pumpkinbutt himself. we also had the green strobe going and the fog machine!

haunted insides

here are a few shots of the inside halloween decor. on the mantle is a dead tree branch...free, moss...free, a few crows..1$ each from dollar tree, tombstone revamped (more on that in a post below)...1$, construction paper bats...had on hand.

these are tombstone rubbings that i did while visiting my mom in NC several years ago. i draped the tops with moss and then applied a few of those sticky stretchy mice. i bought the mice on clearance a few years ago not realizing that they were of this composition. i had no idea what to do with them until now. the sticky mice work awesome on mirrors and picture frames...oh the possibilities now!

the dolls are up all year 'round but i added to the display with a framed embalming certificate from 1933 that my brother fished out of a local dumpster behind a mortuary...i don't ask questions, like why were you dumpster diving there!? i am just thrilled to have it.

some of the vintage stuff. it's hard to come by when you aren't willing to play 500 bucks for it on ebay. i have been lucky enough to get most of it from thrifts over the years.

display of the universal monsters stuff. it looks better when just the little purple lights are on and the camera flash is not, but would have been blurry.

gravemarker portrait piece

here is, in my opinion, an extremely cool and simple revamp craft project involving a dollar tree styrofoam tombstone. so it started as a styrofoam tombstone...

i then cut away the skull relief with a kitchen knife. then printed out a picture of pumpkinbutt and placed it accordingly.

i have future plans of adding spiders, moss and wording with a humorous twist (similar to "i told you i was sick"...not sure what just yet though...it will have to involve legos) i would like to do his name on it also a-la the simpson's tree house of horror credits (ex: james "hell" brooks). many unexplored possibilities!

creepy hand luminary

meet the severed hand luminary! (seen in the background...kinda hard to miss). i was faced with the dilemma that cemeteries are just so gosh darn dark but wanted the lovely severed hands to not go unnoticed! so i came up with a quick and neat solution ...take plastic severed hand from dollar tree....

dremel a hole in the palm and insert a flame less candle tip inside (conveniently also from dollar tree). now it has become a flickering morbid addition to the dark cemetery grounds!