A Halloween Haunt Directory.
It may seem like something terribly simple to create and rather ineffective.
Well ok, it is simple but it’s not ineffective! It really added something to the yard haunt for its first year, 2008. It was a great focal point in the middle of an otherwise busy, scary and colorful blur of terror and mayhem!
In addition to “breaking up” an area that naturally blends together due to lack of a bazillion square foot space, the yard haunt directory kind of names things and makes people go, “Oh, that’s what that is. Cool.”
Supply list:
a bunch of scrap wood
a pole or post suitable for attaching the scrap wood, ours is 6′ feet tall
a bunch of paint
a bright white light and fixture
a boyfriend (optional, but recommended)
We cut up the wood into different shapes and sanded it down. Make some point a certain way or look all jagged or whatever. Be creative.
I free-handed some of the lettering and others I printed, cut out and painted over.
Paint it up! For me, I used flat, dark colors for the cemetery (BONEYARD) and bright colors for the Carnival, website ad and Hell directional signs.
This is the kind of project where it’s much less brawn and more painting and just zoning out and being artsy (my kind of Halloween project).
Eventually you will have to mount the post where you want it, I am fortunate enough to have a strong boyfriend named Guy who went out there and buried a great big wooden post, and made sure it wouldn’t fall over and bonk anyone on the bean. If you can’t find a Guy anywhere, I will rent him out for a reasonable fee.
On Halloween day, we drilled the wood signs into the wood post and when it was all over, we removed the screws and stored the signs away. We flashed a bright white light directly onto the Halloween haunt directory and it really looked great amongst the rest of the colorful stuff going on. Since the very bottom sign pointed down and read “You Know Where”, we filled a small cauldron with water and put a little ultrasonic fogger in it that also changed color and we were all set.
The grown-ups loved it, especially the “You Know Where” sign.
As a bonus it also got the website out there a bit, although most people won’t remember it as they’re too busy laughing at us scaring the hell out of their kids.