Take a Tour Through Haunted Hallows (Halloween Village Display From 2019)

Better late than never! I am definitely late sharing my Halloween village from 2019. 

Take a tour through my Haunted Hallows 2019 Halloween village display.

Spooky Spectral Swamp Tree How-To

Glowing swamp trees illuminate a spectral blue when under UV blacklight

I've tried to use the trees from my Christmas display in my Halloween Village but found that they ruined the Halloween ambiance I was aiming for and I didn't want to spend a bunch of money buying retail Halloween trees. 

I researched the various methods that others have used to make their own model trees. Surprisingly the same basic steps were used by almost everyone. Basically, a piece of wire is twisted over and over to create the trunk and branches. So, I decided to give it a go, but I add my own spooky twist to the design.

Spooky Spectral Swamp Trees

Materials

• 3x3 piece of cardboard
• 20-30 gauge wire (speaker wire or floral wire works well)
• Hot glue
• acrylic paints (browns, greens, black)
• Floral moss (any color)
• (optional) a handful of sand

Instructions 

1. Paint a 3-inch x 3-inch piece of cardboard to look like the terrain of your village. Set aside to dry. (You'll notice in my photos that I did not do this step first and ended up wishing I had because the cardboard's color difference was visible beneath the tree
2. Cut 30-50 strands of wire into approximately 6inch - 9 inch pieces. The pieces do not need to be exact & you do not want them all to be equal lengths.
3. Using 5-6 strands of wire, hot glue the end of the strands together on one side to create a "bundle". Make 5 bundles
4. Beginning on the glued end twist the bundles together loosely, progressively twisting tighter and tighter. Do this to all 5 bundles.
5. Glue all 5 bundles (glued ends down) onto the painted piece of cardboard
6. Twist the glued loosely wrapped end of the 5 bundles together to create the tree trunk. Use glue if necessary to hold the bundles twisted together

1. Adjust the tightly twisted ends  of each bundle to be bent in different directions, mimicking the gnarled branches of an old tree
2. Untwist just a few wires from each bundle and bend them in all different directions to create small branches jutting out from the main big branches 
3. Coat all of the branches with hot glue. Drizzle hot glue all over these wire bundles letting the glue drip from the branches

1. Once all the hot glue is dried and you are satisfied with the effect, paint over the glue using browns and greens. 
2. Glue brown or green floral moss to your painted swamp tree 
3. Optional: glue sand and rocks onto the cardboard to blend the tree base in with the terrain
4. Set up your tree in your village under a blacklight to get the glowing effect 

Alternative Methods

I came across this tutorial on www.instructables.com for making wire trees. I haven't tried their method of wrapping the wire around two nails, but it sounds like it would be a great time saver and I can't wait to try it. 

The 2 photos above are from instructables.com "How to Make Quick and Easy Model Wire Trees" by lukeaness 

2020 Retail Halloween

2020 Retail Halloween Village Pieces

Target

Lemax Spooky Town Halloween Village

Landscaping: Glowing Slime Waterfall

Glowing Slime Waterfall 

Materials

• Hot glue gun & glue sticks
• Popsicle sticks
• Cardboard 
• Green acrylic paint
• Neon green acrylic paint
• Neon yellow acrylic paint
• Glow in the dark paint
• White chalk pen
• Can of paint-on Polyurethane 
• Triple Shine acrylic spray 

Instructions

    Constructing a Base for the Waterfall

Using cardboard and popsicle sticks create the support piece for your waterfall.

I created an L-shaped ledge using a piece of cardboard then glued popsicle sticks to the "ledge" and braced the bottom of them by gluing more popsicle sticks to create a flat bottom. Finish the base by gluing a piece of colored paper in front of your popsicle sticks to hide them.

TIP: The hot glue gets really heavy, so keep this in mind while constructing the base. Include a counterweight to weightdown the waterfall, otherwise, it will topple forward.   

   Waterfall Construction 

Once your base is constructed you can start creating your waterfall. This is done by layering hot glue in streams, painting, then adding more layers of hot glue. 

Note: Depending upon your hot glue gun, be careful during this step. If your hot glue gun has heat settings, you will want to turn it to the cooler setting. You will find that you remelt the previously laid layer and it may flow down the waterfall in unintentional ways.

When you have gotten a nice layering of hot glue, pause and add some paint. I used glow-in-the-dark paint to make this layer really pop. Once the paint has dried, layer more hot glue on your waterfall until you are happy with the effect, then paint the waterfall.

    Painting

Choose your waterfall colors based upon your village theme and how you want it to appear. Since I designed this for my Halloween Village I decided to go with a slimy green effect.  To get this slime effect I painted everything green (except the glow-in-the-dark areas already painted) using "Christmas Tree Green" acrylic paint. I then added some neon green on top to highlight the stream sections. To further highlight I used neon yellow very minimally on the edges of each stream section. I finished painting it by adding a light reflection effect. I used a white chalk pen (purchased at the dollar store) to dot on top of the yellow highlights where I thought the light would naturally reflect off a liquid. 

    Seal, Shine, & Protect

I wanted my slime waterfall to have a glossy finish, so I coated it with a layer of paint on polyurethane then topped that with a triple shine acrylic spray-on sealant, and let it dry for 24 hours before handling. 

 

 

Halloween Village Cemetery

Rundown Spooky Cemetery

No Halloween display is complete without the rundown spooky cemetery

Whether you are crafty or not, a rundown cemetery is easy to create. It requires minimal materials, time, and effort. And, mistakes only add to the creepy rundown feeling.