DIY Spider Yard Decor
With spooky season upon us, I naturally am decorating my house. While cleaning out my garage I found some PVC pipe laying around that I had no use for, and decided to make a piece of yard decor with it, while keeping the spooky theme alive!
Materials Needed -
*this photo was taken before I started, so not everything is pictured* It’s rather hard to put it all out before you start a project that you might not know exactly what you need until you’re making it.
PVC Pipe - (2) 1inch x 10ft
3/4inch roughly 2ft (I just had scraps left from this size)
8 - PVC elbows - 1 inch
Empty water jug or something similar
Electrical tape - I used 2 full rolls
Hand saw
Measuring tape
Marker
Felt cloth
Black spray paint
Liquid nails
Scrap card board
Googley eyes
Garbage bag
Step One - Get measurements for ‘legs’
I had 2 10ft long pieces of pipe. I divided 20 by 8 = 2.5. This is how much length I knew I would have to yield 8 legs. I then decided I was going to make each leg as so - 1ft + 1.5ft, connected together.
Step Two - Cut Pipe
With those measurements I marked off on each pipe 8 1ft sections and 8 1.5ft sections. My husband cut the pipe using a hand saw - it cuts very easily.
Step Three - Make Spider Body
To make the spider body I was originally going to just use the jug and paint it. Well that wasn’t looking so good, so with some playing around this is what I ended up doing.
Attached water jug to smaller size pipe with electrical tape. I then took an old towel and wrapped that around to give it some size. I did this with you guessed it, electrical tape. I then took a black garbage bag and wrapped that around the towel.
Step Four - Paint legs
I grabbed some spray paint and gave the cut legs and elbow pieces a good coat.
Step Five - Attach legs to body
Now this is where it got tricky. I had a heck of a time getting the pipes connected to the body piece I made. I had thought about buying some more pvc pipe and getting more connector pieces and connecting it that way. Well, if you have read any of my other posts - I typically like to do and complete projects with things that I have on hand in order to save money. I was determined to do this project while spending as little as possible. I cut a piece of cardboard I had lying around and taped it to the body. This gave me something a bit more sturdy to attach the legs to.
I then grabbed some liquid nails. I put that all over the cardboard piece and laid it down on the pipe.
I put some weight on it and left it for a while. I ended up having to put more liquid nail on and allowing it a full day or so to dry.
I also added a piece of cardboard to the bottom of the pipes.
Step Six - Put together
Finally after a day or so of letting the liquid nails dry I was able to attach the bottom part of the legs. Well to my surprise - I only purchased 6 of the 90 degree connectors. After another trip to Lowe's to grab 2 more, it was looking more like a spider!
I went to town with electrical tape to make sure the legs were real secure.
I also wrapped the pieces of pipe where the connector piece was with electrical tape to make sure they wouldn’t come apart
I wasn’t loving the way just the garbage bag was looking - I had to cover up the cardboard and tape anyway so I just grabbed some extra felt fabric I had laying around and sewed that around the body.
I grabbed some thread and sewed the fabric together to give it a more finished look.
Step Seven - Add eyes
After setting the spider in my yard I decided it needed some eyes, so I glued some goggley eyes on and that’s it! A fun yard decor spider. This isn't perfect - that was never the intention but for the cost of only having to buy the connector pieces - I'm happy with how it turned out!
The cost of the project will greatly differ from person to person. The cost listed is what it cost me to make.
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You did a great job!
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Looks like a giant Cootie! Lol
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Good job, thank you for sharing! Not sure how heavy your spider is but do you think 4 tent stakes attached to the bottom of the legs with electrical tape would be enough to hold it down in case of wind??