The bright side to Government Shutdowns????

Husbands stay at home and can’t get away from crazy decorating Halloween Loving wives.

But now that the shut down is over,

 my husband is more than overjoyed to be going back to work.

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I found this Witch and Cat Lawn Ornaments project YEARS ago at http://www.marthastewart.com  Her instructions are very simple, and easy to follow.  The hardest part is the using the jigsaw, which turns out to be a very small straightforward tool (especially since I made Warwick do it.)

I’ve given you our step by step directions, which vary only slightly from Martha  Stewart.  I will tell you this though. . .when going to the store, the conduit was not sold in the sizes that she recommends, so in my directions, I’ll list what I purchased,  and you can go directly to her site if you wish to see what she used. One more thing! You can see the prices I paid (in blue) giving a rough estimate of cost.

Martha’s step by step is HERE.

What We Used:

4-by-8-foot piece of 3/4-inch plywood for witch (available at home improvement stores) This was big enough for the witch and 1 cat.   
Repositionable spray adhesive ( Michael’s  $3 with 40% off coupon)
Jigsaw (available at home centers – we borrowed)

1 quart of black latex paint/semi gloss for easy cleaning (available at home improvement stores $9 -$12)

Paintbrush (Dollar Store  $1) 

Hammer and screwdriver

 

5-foot piece of heavy (metal)-wall conduit for witch (3/4″) (available at home improvement stores $2.73);

24″ inch wooden stake for each cat (available at home improvement stores – $0.43) – you may want to paint it black.
Three 2-hole conduit straps (3/4″) to affix conduit to witch ( home improvement store – $1.17 pack of 4.)

Two more 2- hole conduit straps  for affixing the broom and lantern to the witch (choose size depending on broom size – I used 1 – 1/4″ strap)  $1.65 pack of 2

 

One small metal key ring (used to affix the lantern onto the conduit strap).

10 wood screws (#8 x 1/2″ for witch, broom, and  lantern conduit straps) $1.17 pack of 4

3 long wood screws for attaching stake to cat ( #8 x  1 -1/4 ”  pack of 8 $1.50 available at home improvement stores)

Broom (Michale’s   $2.99), 

Similar lantern (Ross, TJ Maxx, and Marshalls  $7.99 -12.99 – Make sure your lanterns says Indoor/outdoor!!! )
Witch template
Cat templates

 

*Be sure to hold your screws up to your plywood, stakes and conduit straps to make sure they are long enough, but not too long!!!

Directions:

1.) Print out the Witch Template and the Cat Template. Tape Together according to instructions.

2.) Cut it out.

3.) Lay the particle board onto a large sturdy table. Using the repositionable spray adhesive, glue the template onto the board.

4.) Cut out the shape using the jigsaw.

5.) Paint the plywood black!

6.) Affix stakes and conduit to the back of the silhouettes by placing the silhouette on a flat hard surface. Place conduit in the center of the silhouette and determine placement.  Ideally the conduit should hang over 12 inches from the bottom of the witch. Attach the figures to the conduit using the 3 conduit straps and 6 screws.

The same procedure can be done with the cats, however we affixed a wooden stake rather than conduit. (Our Home Depot and Lowes do not sell conduit in 3 ft sizes. So rather than cut it ourselves, we opted to purchase a 24″ wooden stake.)  Allow 8 inches to hang over the bottom of the cat silhouette. Affix 3 screws onto the back of stake and affix it to the plywood silhouette.

7.) Hammer into the ground to display. (Actually this can be a little harder than it looks. We dug a small hole (slightly smaller in width than the conduit) about 8 inches deep with our drill. Then we placed the conduit on the back of the witch inside the hole and hammered in the rest of the way.  With the cat, we just hammered the stake right into the ground 🙂

Now sit back and enjoy! So much Fun!!!