DIY Spooky Halloween tree lawn decoration

Spice up your front yard this year by making your own spooky Halloween tree lawn decoration. It’s actually super easy and super eye-catching. You and your neighbors will love it. Check it out.

The reason why I made this awesome spooky tree was for the annual Thanksgiving Point Scarecrow Festival. This will be my fourth year entering the festival. So, I was really excited when I found this awesome video that gave me step-by-step instructions. I decided to try it out myself with a few adjustments. Check it out.

Gather your spooky Halloween tree supplies

All together, it cost me about $50 for all of my supplies, which isn’t much considering how much those life-size Halloween lawn decorations cost at the store. Here’s what you’ll need:

2 concrete tube forms 10″ x 48″ You can also special order an 8-foot concrete form that is 14 inches around but I didn’t have time. You can find these at most hardware stores or buy online on Amazon.
2 1x3x8 planks of wood
3×3 plywood
Gorilla glue
Duct tape
Short wood screws
Butcher paper
Spray adhesive
Gray exterior latex paint
Polyurethane spray
Black spray paint
4 heavy duty “L” brackets
Floral moss
Artificial leaves
Twine
Halloween decorations like pumpkins, spiders, lantern and/or skeleton bird

Supplies for spooky tree. — Concrete tube forms, plywood and wood planks.

Assemble your spooky tree

I put together my spooky tree over the course of a few days. But you could really do it in an afternoon if you wanted to. Here’s what you’ll need to do to assemble your spooky Halloween tree:

Tape together the two concrete forms to make one tube that is a little less than 8 feet tall. Then, using a permanent marker, draw a large mouth, eyes and jagged shapes on the upper section of the tree. You can be as creative as you would like. Then, with a sharp knife or a jigsaw, cut out the shapes you just drew.

Spooky Halloween tree — Our scary face for our tree.

Cut the planks of wood so they are the same height of the tree. Glue them to the inside of the tree using Gorilla glue and then secure along the length of the tree on both sides with wood screws. You may have to wait for the glue to dry overnight.

Cover the exterior of the tree

Crumple up pieces of butcher paper, lay it flat and spray with adhesive. Then attach to the tree. Continue the process until the entire tree is covered. Poke through the sections where the eyes and mouth are and fold in and secure with duct tape. Careful not to get the spray adhesive on your hands. It’s super annoying to get off!

2. Paint the entire tree with gray exterior latex paint. Allow to dry and then spray with polyurethane to give it a protective coat. Then, spray the inside of the tree where the mouth and eyes are with black spray paint.

Secure tree to base and add branches

Finally, screw two “L” brackets to the bottom of the tree directly into the plank boards on the inside and to the plywood base. This will allow you tree to stand upright without falling. Then, screw in two “L” brackets higher up on the tree to the sides of the mouth on both sides.

Find two creepy branches. Make sure they’re not to heavy since they will be supported by the “L” brackets. Clear away any extra dead leaves and screw the branches directly on top of the “L” brackets. The end of the branch should be flush with the tree.

Decorate your spooky tree

Now for the fun part! Glue some floral moss onto the base and then hot glue some artificial fall leaves on the base as well. Cut a small hole into some of the leaves and then tie them with twine onto the branches.

Glue some creepy spiders climbing up the tree. Add a skeleton bird to one of the branches and hang a small lantern. Finally, stack some pumpkins in the corners for a final touch.

I hope you like the way your spooky Halloween tree turned out. This is a great decoration that you can put in your front yard every year. Just unscrew the base and the branches when you want to store it. Voila!