Harry Potter Halloween Yard
This year's theme was Harry Potter Halloween! Most of my decorations where handmade while the rest were purchased from Amazon. This planter was purchased at Walmart on clearance for $7!
We bought the pumpkins at Eastern Market in Detroit, 4 large,
and 4 small. All the large pumpkins were $4 each and the small pie pumpkins
were a $1 apiece.
The hay bales were purchased down the
street at $6 each. We got 4 hay bales and we spent about $50 total downtown
that day.
I spent about a month collecting paper
towel rolls and toilet paper rolls for the floating candles. I followed the
tutorial from Pins and Things-How to
Make Floating Harry Potter Candles. These are the candles I
used from Amazon, $10.99 for 24 flameless LED tea lights.
Here's what I would note from the floating
lights DIY:
- Paint then hot glue
- Paint and give more attention to the
bottom\inside of rolls
- Just use spray paint
I am not very good at following
directions. I like to take my own creative path and learn from my mistakes.
Therefore, it was very difficult to get everything painted after I had the
"wax drips" on the tubes. Spray paint was a life saver when it came
to the intricate details. When I tried to poke holes in the tubes for the
fishing line the paint cracked a bit. However, these weren't displayed in a
high traffic area and were only up for the evening. It wasn't a big deal for
this project.
I got these banners from Amazon and I love
them so much! I was going to make my own, but these fluctuate around $10 each.
I budgeted and got each house banner and the Hogwarts banner. It saved me a ton
of time and effort!
The letters,
I purchased from Hobby Lobby last year. I painted them with acrylic paint and
hot glued bamboo skewers on the backs as ground stakes. They're priced at
$3.49 but Hobby Lobby has such great deals, I know I didn't have to pay full
price.
The best Amazon tip is to put things you
like in your Amazon Lists or Cart because they will update you when the price
has changed! Also check Amazon's Today's Deals because you can get items at 99%
off! That's how I got the lights in the window. It's a color
changing LED light strip I impulse bought for under $20. It's a lot of
fun and I just taped it along the 4 windows on the inside.
The cart trick can be used for other
stores too. I used it for Joann Fabrics to get this boneyard spider!
I saw this in the store at the beginning of the season for $99.99! I picked
this guy up for $39.99 and got 5% cashback from using one of my credit
cards. It has gone even further on sale to $29.99 if you can find it in stores!
He's supposed to be the body of Aragog many years after he has passed.
I used another tutorial from Pins and
Things on how to make a dementor! I
changed up the materials a bit by using a plastic table cloth instead of black
fabric. I picked up a couple black ones from Walmart for
$0.97. This tutorial also recommended dying your own cheese cloth. The
light grey on the dementor is
where I tried that technique. I didn't like how it looked so I purchased black
cheese cloth from Hobby Lobby and Walgreens. They are competitively priced so
shop around!
Here's what I would have done differently:
- Use thin pool noodle
- Make dementor stationary
- Method to keep hands in an upward
position while hanging from tree
Pins and Things made this tutorial for a
prop that is used indoors so I had to improvise since I wanted it to hang
outside. I have a height challenge myself so, it was difficult to get this
guy up in the tree. After he was up, the higher branches were too far out of
reach to tie his hands up.
The pool noodle I used was from the Dollar
Tree and the inside was too thick to get his shoulders in a creepy position.
Next time I would use a thinner material and remember to shape his shoulders
before the electrical tape places everything. I think it would have really
helped with his look.
He's been up in the tree for about 2
weeks. The plastic table cloth and black cheese cloth has held up tremendously.
I also placed cheese cloth over his face and tore a hole for the mouth. I would
also recommend her technique for any type of bone making! I used this
wire for $10.44 on Amazon and I used most of it for this one dementor.
I also made a Patronus to
scare off the dementor.
The construction is like the packing tape ghosts that were popular this year. I
projected a profile onto a large piece of cardboard and cut it out. Then I
covered the whole piece with plastic wrap and covered that with clear packing
tape. Then I cut along the profile of the dear and pulled out all the cardboard
and sealed the edges again with the same packing tape.
My initial idea was to have fog going
through the deer and billow out the profile. I tested it out and it does work
but I didn't have time to set it up. Instead I pointed the fog machine towards
the wall and let it float up. I covered the wall with 2 black plastic table
cloths and purchased this
light for about $14 to shine on the fog and stag. This is also a price
varying item.
There is fishing line on the tip of each
antler and on the rump. I taped the other ends of the lines to my gutter with
black duct tape which I also used to hang the banners.
The fog machine I got from Walmart for
$28 and I made my own fog juice by following this
video. The fog machine is behind the pumpkin and the light is up on the
gas meter.
I also made a little Deathly Hallows symbol from some trimmed
branches and electrical tape 😊.
That's it for the Harry Potter yard. I did buy some clearance solar
spot lights, but they do not work for this project or time of year. There was
not enough sunlight to charge during the day and stayed on for 2 hours at
most.
Kids LOVED the fog machine and deer! The neighbors said people
stopped and took pictures earlier in the week too 😊. It was so much fun and easy to do myself, a month in
advanced, after work most days. I will probably do this same setup next
year!
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