My Hitchhiking Ghost Yard Decorations

[shawn68]

I created the hitchhiking ghost this year for our yard. This is the night photo, I will post a daylight photo today.
They glow under a black light using liquid laundry detergent.
I have had several people come by and ask if I would be selling these, I told them all three for $100 dollars.. Is that too cheap or too high?

 

[PrincessNancy96]

LOL! Those are cute!!! As for pricing, I don't know.. I'm so bad w/ pricing...

Remember, you can't post "for sales" on the DIS...and what you have stated does not promote that, it talks about people stopping by the house; so you are okay with what was stated.

 

[nicurn]

I created the hitchhiking ghost this year for our yard. This is the night photo, I will post a daylight photo today.
They glow under a black light using liquid laundry detergent.
I have had several people come by and ask if I would be selling these, I told them all three for $100 dollars.. Is that too cheap or too high?

OMG!!!! Those are TOOOOOOO cute! I would keep them personally. How did you make them? (of course if it involves plywood and a saw... my husband might kill me. )

 

[shawn68]

Yes, plywood and a jigsaw. I have an orbital jigsaw and it works wonders. (black and decker)
I will be keeping these, but people came by and wanted me to make some more for them.
If you want to pm me I will give you the designs. It took me about two hours to cut them out, which is the only hard part there is.

 

[PrincessNancy96]

Shawn,
I'm going to print of this photo to show to my father in law.. he might want to know how to make them... hope you don't mind...

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Those are so cool. Great job!

 

[shawn68]

no problem at all, in fact I am loading better day pics for everyone to view.

 

[shawn68]

Ok, here are some daylight shots of cemetery. It all stands in front of our storage shack, which makes it even more creepier since the shack looks pretty old and scary anyways.

I did use M.T Tomb from the haunted mansion graveyard as well as the Here Lies Fred.
The Lester Moore is actually from the Boot Hill cemetery in Tombstone.

Ezra

Gus

Phineas

 

[tubachick]

cool! Great job!

 

[rlovew]

Awesome job!

Rebecca

 

[aprincess@mail.com]

wow, those are awesome!

 

[AnnetteF]

Your ghosts look wonderful! You won't believe this but I actually just drew the hitchhiking ghosts on pieces of foam board which I'm going to cut out, paint, and stand up in our trunk for a "Trunk or Treat". I was also thinking of doing them on plywood sometime in the future (would have to be for next Halloween at this point) and using them in our yard. Can you tell me more about how you use the black light, and what you do with the detergent? I would love to try to get the same effect. And are the tombstones there to block the lights and other hardware?

I love your artwork. Are those original drawings or did you copy them from something? I actually copied mine from a haunted mansion pin.


As far as pricing, I really think that $100 for the 3 of them sounds too low for all the time and hard work you put into these. Think about it this way - what would Disney charge for something like this if they ever decided to offer the same thing as Halloween decorations. I would expect to see these in the Disney store or the theme parks selling for maybe $75 - $100 each. I don't know if a lot of people would be willing to pay that much, but I also don't know how many you really want to sell. If you want to sell a lot of them as a litlle sideline, then maybe go a little cheaper? But if you really just did it primarily for your own yard and enjoyment, but you have a few people who want them that bad and are willing to pay, I would charge a higher price. Nothing costs more these days than time and artistic talent, and artwork that is all hand done and the labor that goes into these shouldn't come cheap.

 

[shawn68]

Yes, the tombstones are there to hide the black lights. I actually went to Lowes and got an outdoor spotlight for 7 dollars, went to Spencers and picked up 2 black lights, or any party/halloween store. Make sure it is a true black light. Many stores sell lights that are painted a purple black color and call them black lights. Do not but one that looks like a regular bulb that is painted black. They are called black lights, but are not.
I read a lot about what a true black light will show up with, and found that liquid laundry detergent actually contains phosporecent additives to make brights look whiter in sun. All I did was use a small paint brush and lightly went over my pieces. Now remember mine are wood with polycrylic over them to protect them, so test a piece of the foam first. Next, just put in front of the black light and you have glowing ghosts.

 

[AnnetteF]

Thank you so much! I probably won't try it with the foam boards because the trunk or treat is going to be in daylight, anyway. But I would like to make them on plywood in the future and when I do, I want to try that. Thanks for the tip!

 

[shawn68]

No problem at all. Have a great day!

 

[ppony]

OMG! SO CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Me thinx I have a job for hubby!. I'd love to paint some but I have a deathly bad fear of power tools! CUTE!!! I like this better than the ones they sold for a mint a few years back. Easier to store too! Mind if I make a few?

 

[shawn68]

Be my guest. If you need the pattern just let me know.

 

[ppony]

You're SO sweet! I'll just draw them up quickly so I'm not copying you outright (I don't like doing that, it's a whole artist thing but it's TOTALLY cool for others and for you to be awesome about sharing! ) and I have an artograph for viewing up pictures on walls for my murals I do. So I'm good! Won't get it done in time for THIS Halloween darn it! POO! I wish I ahd come to this forum sooner. I'm just been all wound up in teh cruise and DVC planning.

Funny thing is I just downloaded "Haunted Mansion" on my computer last week. Screenshots RULE!

 

[kdzbear]

Those are fabulous! You have some amazing talent!

 

[Sandy321]

I love how you found out that laundry detergent will "glow" with a true black light!!

Do you have to repaint the detergent?

Thanks for sharing -

I have lots of "wants" and no follow thru!!