Tag Archives: Spiderweb

Happy Friday the 13th!

It’s a big day, everyone.  We have a Friday the 13th in October, and I’d hate for anyone to waste it.  It’s been 11 years since we’ve been able to celebrate one of these bad boys in the month of Halloween, and we won’t have another one until 2023.  Let’s make the most of it.

So what should you do?  Let me give you some options:

1. Carve a jack o’ lantern (or at least buy your pumpkin if you haven’t already).

2. Go to a haunted house.  Yes, the lines might be long tonight, but they’re only going to get longer the closer you get to THE BIG DAY, so why not go on Friday the 13th.

3. Watch a scary movie.  Happy Death Day is in theaters today, and it’s getting pretty good reviews,  I might go tonight to see this one myself.  Or if you don’t want to go out to watch a movie, just watch the original Friday the 13th in the comfort of your own home. You own it, right?  Of course, you do.

4. Have fun with some Halloween crafts.  Check out some tutorials on YouTube, or check out some of my past posts about corpsing a skeleton, making your own hanging reaper, making a giant spiderweb for your front yard, or playing around with some cheap Dollar Tree skulls.

5.  Take a walk around a dark cemetery.  Or a forest.  Or a dark road.  Just do something creepy.

There you have it.  No matter what you do, just make sure it’s fun.  Have a Happy Friday the 13th!!!

Scary Easter?

So I’m all about horror and making things fun and scary, but I’m really struggling with a creepy way to celebrate Easter, the most pastel of all holidays.  There just aren’t a lot of options here.  I mean, the holiday mascot is a fluffy bunny.

But I’m going to try my hardest.

First of all, the Easter horror movie selection is (not surprisingly) lacking.  There are only a handful, so I would recommend watching Easter Sunday (2014) and Peter Rottentail (2004).  I haven’t seen either, but Easter Sunday has some pretty good reviews, and Peter Rottentail just looks weird and funny in a very B-movie way.  Just Google it to look at the villain.  Michael Myers he (she?) is not, but it’s still promising.

Also a good idea would be to check out Critters 2.  It takes place near/on Easter, and there’s an excellent scene of the Easter Bunny getting attacked and killed.  Not the real one, just a guy in a suit.  Check it out:

Pretty cool, right?

Second, maybe find a way to maximize the creep factor of the day by being creative.  Start by making some spiderweb dyed eggs.  Just check out the many tutorials online.  You could even draw some skulls on non-dyed eggs with a sharpie.  That’s pretty simple.  And if you have kids that are on board the horror train (Side note: I feel like if that’s not a thing, it should totally be), give them some scary movies and gross toys in their Easter basket, which could totally be jet black, by the way.

Pastel is not a requirement.

So there you have it.  I tried and – just maybe? – succeeded.  I hope you all have a very creepy Easter.  Let me know if you have any other scary ways to celebrate.

How to Make a Giant Spiderweb

We’re now 6 days into October, so I hope everyone’s Halloween decorating is going well.  I had a full Saturday putting out all of my yard decs, and I feel a little more complete now.  Halloween-time just does that to me.

I’m sure there are some of you out there that feel like you need a little more oomph to your yard, so I thought I’d give a quick tutorial for a simple project that makes a big impact: a DIY giant spiderweb.

Surprised?  You shouldn’t be. That’s the post title.  Keep up.

So for this little project, all you need are a few simple items.

Processed with Snapseed.
Processed with Snapseed.

As you see in the pic above, you need a good length of clothesline, a few yard stakes, and scissors.  They’re not pictured, but you also need some nails to attach the cobweb to your house.

You basically want to make a six-pointed star with your nails and stakes, with the nails for the top three points and the stakes for the bottom three.  If you’d rather use hooks to attach the web base to your house, that would work, too.

The bottom side point stakes should be positioned a little behind and several feet away from the bottom point stake to ensure you get a good shape to your web.  If you position it too closely, your cobweb could turn out looking a little square.

Optional: If you feel so inclined and your circumstances allow it, you can make an eight-pointed star by using an extra string of clothesline  and a few more nails/stakes.  I think a six-pointed star is sufficient, but you can do this if you want.

After you have your nails and stakes positioned, take an end of the clothesline and tie it to your first nail.  String the clothesline to the stake, tie it off, and repeat it with the side points, crossing over the center string.

To make the rest of the web, start with the center ring.  Tie an end of the clothesline to the center line.  Then, you’ll just wind your rope around each line until you get back to the center line.  See the pic below:

Processed with Snapseed.
Processed with Snapseed.

Doesn’t look to hard, does it?

And that’s really all you have to do. Rinse and repeat until you get the size of web that you want.  If you want to make sure your strings don’t sag, you can put a drop of glue where you wind the clothesline around itself, but I’ve never had a problem without it.

To make it even better, add a skeleton or body to the center of your web.  My mother-in-law had a few large spiders on hand when I made this web for her last year, so it really made an impact.

Processed with Snapseed.

There you have it.  It’s such an easy project to do, and as you can tell, it gives you a big bang for your buck.  I hope you try it out. Let me know what you think in the comments!