Halloween 2019

A quick pinterest search for pumpkin towers will show you the inspiration for this project.

We used

• 1/2 inch pvc pipe for the upright.
• 5 pumpkin pails per tower (that we picked up at the local thrift store for $.50/pail)
• scrap 2×4 to make a cross base.

Using a 1/2 inch hole bit in the drill, we drilled two holes in the pumpkins. One hole for the PVC to go through and the other for the white Christmas lights. After drilling holes in the 2×4, we forced the pvc pipe into them to make a solid base. We then thread the pumpkin pails on the pvc. Once the pails were on the pvc, we threaded the Christmas light through the other hole, allowing clumping of the lights per pail. To top off the tower, we got witches hats that were hot glued to the pvc.

The dead and breakfast sign was a fun build. ABS pipe and foam insulation board make the majority of the structure.

I began free-handing the design of the sign with a pen on the insulation board, then used my electric foam cutter to cut it out. While I let a couple coats of white house paint that I had left from painting … the house… dry I printed out the lettering. Cutting the lettering out I used a pen to trace the stencil onto the sign. Carefully, I filled in the stenciled lines with black paint. I added some smudges and the lines to make it look older.

I attached the sign to the ABS using cup hooks and S-hooks. I had to hot glue the hooks into the sign because there wasn’t anything that was substantial enough to screw into.

The ABS is 2″ for the upright and 1″ for the arms. The fitting in the center follows this.

The top of the ABS gave my a nice perch to place a lantern. Completing the “lamp post” look I was going for.

What ship is complete without lights! I wanted the lights to be light… so I made them out of foam board. I free-handed the first one to get an idea for the parts, then used it as the template to create 7 more.

I used:

• page protectors to simulate glass
• plastic cocktail glasses (I cut off the base) and a ping pong ball for the top
• bent wire hangers to hang the lamp

For the actual lights I purchased real wax LED candles that were battery powered. I didn’t want to have to go and turn on and off the candles every day so I bought some 12v flickering LEDs that I soldered 2 lights each to a pigtail. Now each lantern was supplied a 12v power cord that I could plug into a standard 12v wall-wart that I have from old electronics.

To finish off the lantern I spray painted them black. I found though that I should have put a base coat on first, as the foam board sucked the paint right up.

The crowning achievement of the builds. The “sunken” pirate ship, complete with the captain that is still at the wheel had many parts.

The main body of the ship is 4 pallets that I had laying around, some scrap 2×2 and some metal brackets to hold it all together.

The sail was made from a white sheet (the cheapest queen I could find), pvc pipe made to look like wood, and rope.

I started by cutting holes into the sail. I used an old coffee can as a template for the “cannon ball holes”. Once they were cut, I used black spray paint to make “charring” where the cannon ball burned the sail.

For the cross beams, we had fun using rasps on 2 inch pvc then applying a stain to the pvc to make it look like wood. I was pleasantly surprised by the way it turned out.

Completing the look, I used 1/2 inch rope to tie the sail to the cross beams. I installed grommets to give it more strength.

Lastly, there is the mast. The mast serves dual purpose for me. It is the base of my mega-tree for the Christmas display and the mast for Halloween! It is made up of two “top rails” for a chainlink fence, that are guyed out for stability. At the top I installed a pulley, where I threaded paracord long enough to make a loop just like a flagpole.

What is a pirate ship without a helm (ship’s wheel)? My skeleton pirate needed to be able to hold on to something as this ship is going down.

I sketched the general design that I was going for. Using a nail, string and pen to make the circles.

With the help of my new toy, an electric foam cutter, I cut out the helm. The initial cuts were blocky. Once complete, I took the rasp to it and rounded the corners.

Finally I added a brown paint to the whole thing to make it look more wooden.