# My first time decorating after stealing (borrowing) all of your ideas.



## jasonmmiller1975 (Oct 17, 2017)

Here are some of the pics of my yard this year. I'm just about done. I started building everything around the last week of September and have been going nonstop ever since! 

I got a lot of ideas off of here and youtube, but I tried to add a little change to each to personalize it. There were a couple things that I was really happy to have come up with the idea on my own only to find out someone had already made something similar!

Anyway, here are a few pics with some descriptions of what I did:

I started by making a couple small 3' columns:









Then I got some dollar store plastic skulls and glued them to the tops...









But I didn't like that so I took them off and bought some light bulb extension cords and drilled holes and turned each column into skull lamps using the same dollar store plastic skulls:

















Then I found these at Costco:









And decided I needed to attach them to some larger 5'6" columns that I needed to build









complete with built in bluetooth speaker and power strips to hide all the lighting

















Then I found that somebody on here made a sign that I had to have (I'll look up his name later so he gets credit for an awesome design)

















And after setting up everything I found that the street light in front of my house was washing out all my lights so I made a cover out of a trash can


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## jasonmmiller1975 (Oct 17, 2017)

THEN I found these pumpkin projection things online and had to try that so I immediately ordered a projector and started building a tombstone to hide it:









I was having problems getting the projector to aim exactly where I wanted to so I made another trip to Home Depot to make this contraption:









I didn't want to leave the back open but I didn't want to enclose it and have the projector heat up so I went with a cheap fix:


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## jasonmmiller1975 (Oct 17, 2017)

The only things I didn't build that I really wanted to were the tombstones (except for the one to hide the projector and speakers)


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## jasonmmiller1975 (Oct 17, 2017)

AAAAHHHHH!!!! Why are all my pics sideways and upside down?? anyone know how to fix that?


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## jasonmmiller1975 (Oct 17, 2017)

Here are a few other pics from around the yard


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

Wow really nice work there. Love everything you did and you really were kicking butt if you only started end of September. The column plaque came out fantastic.


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## jasonmmiller1975 (Oct 17, 2017)

Ghost of Spookie said:


> Wow really nice work there. Love everything you did and you really were kicking butt if you only started end of September. The column plaque came out fantastic.


We moved into the new house on September 15th, took a few days to start unpacking, then I got this crazy idea to decorate for halloween. I had to wait a few days because we went to LA for a week , but as soon as I got back it's been all out construction. I still have tons of pieces of pink foam swirling around in the wind in my backyard because I haven't had time to clean up. 

The plaque is my favorite part. It took me like 4 hours to chip away everything. I almost want to put a spotlight on it


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## HauntedWyo (Apr 13, 2017)

Very nice, for only having a couple weeks to do it all. 
This has been a great site to come and find all sorts of ideas and inspirations. I love the fact that so many share tutorials on how to make numerous cool props and effects. Even better is that so many are willing to help when you have a question or run into a problem. Look forward to see what all you make for next year when you have even more time to work on things. I bet your yard will be the envy of the town.


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## jasonmmiller1975 (Oct 17, 2017)

HauntedWyo said:


> Very nice, for only having a couple weeks to do it all.
> This has been a great site to come and find all sorts of ideas and inspirations. I love the fact that so many share tutorials on how to make numerous cool props and effects. Even better is that so many are willing to help when you have a question or run into a problem. Look forward to see what all you make for next year when you have even more time to work on things. I bet your yard will be the envy of the town.


I love that aspect of this site as well. Do you think it's better to have people ask for you to do a tutorial or should you just make one if you think it will help? 

As for next year, I sure hope so. I've already started on a couple tombstones, but I've shelved them until next year. I'd really like to start earlier in the year then I can take my time with the painting and a couple other things I sort of half-a$$ed. Getting the projector had me looking into stuff I would have never thought about. That's going to be fun. Another bonus will be cost...being able to spread this out over the next year will feel a lot better in the wallet than all this did.


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## jasonmmiller1975 (Oct 17, 2017)

Is it just me or are all the pics I posted sideways? Anyone know how to change that? Any chance a moderator could rotate them for me?


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## lilibat (Aug 10, 2015)

Nothing freely offered can be stolen.


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## mariem (Oct 7, 2012)

Your pics are sideways but sorry I don't know how to help you with that. 

Great job on the yard decorations. You were sure working full out if you only started in Sept. I haven't even started decorating yet.

Marie


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## jasonmmiller1975 (Oct 17, 2017)

mariem said:


> Your pics are sideways but sorry I don't know how to help you with that.
> 
> Great job on the yard decorations. You were sure working full out if you only started in Sept. I haven't even started decorating yet.
> 
> Marie


Good thing there's still plenty of time!


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## mrincredibletou (Sep 17, 2007)

Great stuff, Love all your work.


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## Gayton81 (Oct 15, 2017)

Fixed pics for ya















































































































































Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Maniac Marshall (Sep 17, 2017)

very nice craftsmanship. I love those columns, hidden speakers were a great idea


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## iggyman72 (Oct 17, 2012)

Looks fantastic! Nice work. Actually so nice, that it really doesn't matter whether the pics are sideways or right-side up.


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## Ghost of Spookie (Sep 28, 2008)

I'm pretty sure they won't rotate the photos. This has been discussed before about sideways photos. I usually post all my photos from my MacBook to my album here where I can see if the photo is going to be sideways and if so then correct it's orientation in Photos, but in another forum I post to occasionally I've encountered this issue when posting photos coming directly from my phone. Try this on your phone: take a photo you want to post and before doing so go into it and edit, rotate it several times, bringing it to the position you want it oriented to and then SAVE it. See if that then imports the photo correctly this time. Try it on one of the above photos since you know those came in sideways. I've seen some people say they needed to make a slight change to the photo like a slight crop and save it for it to work.

I've seen so much discussion on this issue on forums but think the gist of it is something about how the photo gets tagged internally when you take it and some software forum packages like this one don't handle it the way you expect. Supposedly by making a change and then saving it with the new info it fixes it. I'm on my laptop now or would try it to tell you it works or not.


As for tutorials, just go to the tutorial section and create your own thread. I know I'm interested to see how you did your plaque and what you used to chip it out. Also love how you used the wing nuts in your projector booth to be able to raise or lower the projector shelf. At least I think that's why you used them.


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## HauntedWyo (Apr 13, 2017)

If you want to share how you made some of your things, then feel free to start your own thread in the tutorial section. I'm not that good with how to write out instructions and even worse at trying to video me building something so I don't do tutorials. But I am willing to offer help as best I can to anyone who is trying to create something that I made. 

I'm sure you will find it less stressful on you, both in time and money, next year when you can start earlier building things. I plan to start back up on builds this coming Feb. or March at the latest. In the meantime I can be looking for supplies to use on the cheap. Lots of goodies go on clearance after the holidays. Lots of stuff gets donated to thrift stores and goodwill as well after the holidays. One nice thing about having some ideas of things you want to build for the next year or 2, you kinda know what to look out for when yard selling, or thrift store shopping. I still look at everything with an open mind, because sometimes I find something and get an idea for a build I wasn't even thinking about.

Anyways, again great job on what you have created so far. Can't wait to see what all you come up with for next year.


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## Malicious (Sep 8, 2014)

Great work! I love the skull lights. That plaque is killer and does deserve to be highlighted with lighting ! 

About the photos being sideways ... That happens to me if I post pictures from my i phone im wondering if it has to do with the screen rotation function in the phone. I have to open my photos with paint and save them to my computer then post them to have them be right side up!


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## chicofox (Oct 17, 2016)

Ghost of Spookie said:


> I'm pretty sure they won't rotate the photos. This has been discussed before about sideways photos. I usually post all my photos from my MacBook to my album here where I can see if the photo is going to be sideways and if so then correct it's orientation in Photos, but in another forum I post to occasionally I've encountered this issue when posting photos coming directly from my phone. Try this on your phone: take a photo you want to post and before doing so go into it and edit, rotate it several times, bringing it to the position you want it oriented to and then SAVE it. See if that then imports the photo correctly this time. Try it on one of the above photos since you know those came in sideways. I've seen some people say they needed to make a slight change to the photo like a slight crop and save it for it to work.
> 
> I've seen so much discussion on this issue on forums but think the gist of it is something about how the photo gets tagged internally when you take it and some software forum packages like this one don't handle it the way you expect. Supposedly by making a change and then saving it with the new info it fixes it. I'm on my laptop now or would try it to tell you it works or not.
> 
> ...


This is a very good take on the problem. There is an add-on for FireFox that allows you to rotate images for situations like this which might be handy for some people


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## Edmund K (Aug 18, 2017)

Gayton81 said:


> Fixed pics for ya
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Okay, Gayton81, how'd you do that ???? Amazing work, and thanks for the pics!


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## Cephus404 (Oct 13, 2017)

Malicious said:


> Great work! I love the skull lights. That plaque is killer and does deserve to be highlighted with lighting !
> 
> About the photos being sideways ... That happens to me if I post pictures from my i phone im wondering if it has to do with the screen rotation function in the phone. I have to open my photos with paint and save them to my computer then post them to have them be right side up!


Phones have an "up" that is coded into all images they take, regardless of what the picture looks like when you take it. You have to be aware of which direction "up" is, otherwise you will get pictures posted sideways or upside down on forums where the software reads that "up" and acts accordingly. Even taking it into most video software and changing orientation won't change that hard-coded "up".


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## Gayton81 (Oct 15, 2017)

Edmund K said:


> Okay, Gayton81, how'd you do that ???? Amazing work, and thanks for the pics!


If you’re working from a computer you need to import your pics into whatever photo app you use and rotate. Most Mac and windows computers can auto detect which is supposed to be up and automatically rotate the image for your viewing even though it’s sideways. So open your photo editor and rotate and save. I did it from my iPhone by saving the image, editing and rotate the image and re-posted.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## jasonmmiller1975 (Oct 17, 2017)

That's awesome!! Thank you very much Gayton81! I appreciate it!


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## jasonmmiller1975 (Oct 17, 2017)

Ghost of Spookie said:


> I'm pretty sure they won't rotate the photos. This has been discussed before about sideways photos. I usually post all my photos from my MacBook to my album here where I can see if the photo is going to be sideways and if so then correct it's orientation in Photos, but in another forum I post to occasionally I've encountered this issue when posting photos coming directly from my phone. Try this on your phone: take a photo you want to post and before doing so go into it and edit, rotate it several times, bringing it to the position you want it oriented to and then SAVE it. See if that then imports the photo correctly this time. Try it on one of the above photos since you know those came in sideways. I've seen some people say they needed to make a slight change to the photo like a slight crop and save it for it to work.
> 
> I've seen so much discussion on this issue on forums but think the gist of it is something about how the photo gets tagged internally when you take it and some software forum packages like this one don't handle it the way you expect. Supposedly by making a change and then saving it with the new info it fixes it. I'm on my laptop now or would try it to tell you it works or not.
> 
> ...


It's funny, The whole reason I used my Macbook instead of my iPhone to post was because I ran into the sideways photo problem before on other forums, but it only happened when I posted from my phone. Obviously I didn't want that to happen so I transferred all the pics I wanted to my Macbook and it happened anyway! I'll definitely try what you said though in the future.

I'm definitely going to make a tutorial on a few of my projects. As for the wing nuts, that's exactly why I used them. I could have just as easily used regular nuts but I wanted to be able to adjust it a little easier while still being able to watch the image on the pumpkins. It works great!


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## jasonmmiller1975 (Oct 17, 2017)

mrincredibletou said:


> Great stuff, Love all your work.


Thanks! That means a lot coming from you. Your house is sick! I can't imagine how long it takes to set all that up let alone store it all. I'm "lucky" all I had to decorate was my small front yard. maybe some day...


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## DandyBrit (Sep 6, 2013)

Amazing work - and all in such as short space of time.


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## mrincredibletou (Sep 17, 2007)

jasonmmiller1975 said:


> Thanks! That means a lot coming from you. Your house is sick! I can't imagine how long it takes to set all that up let alone store it all. I'm "lucky" all I had to decorate was my small front yard. maybe some day...


Oh just wait, your one of us now...........you will be spending September to decorate (and love every minute of it)!


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## dbruner (Aug 23, 2012)

Your yard looks great! I have the same problem with sideways pics. I upload from my phone to my computer and they look fine, but go sideways when I post.


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## wickedwillingwench (Sep 16, 2011)

i am so impressed. If I get to make my Cali-road trip next fall, I wanna swing by! Hell, I'll bring YOU candy.  

great, great job!


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## jasonmmiller1975 (Oct 17, 2017)

Anytime! Next year is going to be ridiculous. 



wickedwillingwench said:


> i am so impressed. If I get to make my Cali-road trip next fall, I wanna swing by! Hell, I'll bring YOU candy.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## Halloweeeiner (Sep 20, 2007)

nice work man!


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## wickedwillingwench (Sep 16, 2011)

i am so impressed. If I get to make my Cali-road trip next fall, I wanna swing by! Hell, I'll bring YOU candy.  

great, great job!


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