How to Make a Monster Yard Spider

Its that time of year again and the planning has begun. How do you make this year's Halloween better than last year? How do you have the yard that no one else will have? Make your own decorations. That's how. And nothing says Halloween like a monster spider creeping in his giant web.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 6 feet chicken wire, 15 inches wide
• 50 feet of 1/2 inch copper tubing
• 3 to 4 yards of black polar fleece or equally thick black fabric
• 2 sq ft white fabric
• Two 3 inch styrofoam balls
• 2 brown or black ostrich feathers
• Newspaper
• Longhaired fun fur
• Red velvet or ribbon - optional
• Black duct tape
• Hot glue and glue gun
• Scissors and pliers
• 1 inch zip ties
• T-pins
• Work gloves to keep the spider from biting you

1. 

   The frame: Cut the chicken wire into two pieces, one 2 1/2 feet long and the other 3 1/2 feet long. Bend the ends together on each piece, making two tubes.
   
   Take the smaller tube, close off one end by bending inward, and stuff it full with newspaper. You want a slightly rounded look when it's done. Bend in the other end of the head to keep the newspaper in.
   
   Bend in one end of the larger tube to make the body. Take a couple zip ties and attach the head to the closed end of the body. You want the head to be smaller than the body, so be mindful of how much newspaper you use. For the body, you can bend the chicken wire out in the middle to create the bulbuous body look.

2. 

   The Legs: Now that you've got the frame, add the legs. Take the copper tubing and cut it into four 10-foot lengths. Thread them through the body. You want the copper tubing to be about half way extended on either side, creating the eight legs. Once done, stuff the body until filled with tightly wadded newspaper to hold the legs in place. Bend in the other end of the body tubing, and push in a little to create the right body shape.

3. 

   The Skin: Alright. The spider is starting to sort of look like a spider. Time to give him some creepy skin. Cut eight strips of black fleece, 2 or 3 inches wide and four to five feet long. Hot glue the fleece to a leg starting at the base of the body and gluing as you work out to the tip. Make sure you wrap the entire leg. When you get to the end, cut off any extra excess fabric, leaving enough to cover the end of pipe. Repeat for the remaining seven "legs."
   
   Once you've covered the legs, go ahead and cut larger pieces to cover the body, since you're done with it. Leave the head uncovered, but make sure to save enough fleece to cover it later.

4. 

   The Pincers: Every spider needs a mouth. To give your ghastly friend his, cut a 1 foot long piece of the copper tubing and bend it in half. Stick it through the chicken wire at the front of the head. Wrap the ends with black duct tape and then wrap the pinchers with the fleece, gluing from the top down again.
   
   Now that you've done the pincers, go ahead and wrap up the rest of head in the remaining fleece. You want to make sure the whole body and head are now covered in the fleece.

5. 

   The Eyes: For the eyes, take the two styrofoam balls and cover them with white fabric, gluing the fabric to the styrofoam. Cut out a circle of black duct tape, cut out a pie shaped segment from inside that, and stick it to the front of the white ball. Use the t-rings or large heavy duty pins to attach the eyes to the head, allowing them to stick up and out.

6. 

   For a little extra creepiness, remove the feathers from one side of each ostrich feather and glue it to the top of each eye. If you can't track down an ostrich feather, no sweat. The stuff that makes up a good ole fashioned feather duster works just as well.

7. Cut out a tongue shaped piece of red velvet and glue it between the pincers to complete the face if you like. Take the longhaired fun fur and line the body with it to give the spider it's furry feel. Examine your work, and add the fur where you feel it would be most effective. The underside of the body, hanging in tiny pieces from the legs, a little bit from the head.

8. Whew! Alright, you've got your spider! He's huge, scary looking, and ready to terrorize some kids! Don't forget to give him an equally monstrous web to call home.
   
   Don't worry if it rains, he wont fall apart on you. If anything, the rain and other outside influences will only serve to make him look even more ghoulish.

Tips & Warnings

• In step 2, if you tape the ends of the tubing with duct tape it'll help prevent sratching.
• Copper tubing is extremely pliable. Just squeeze the tube with some pliers and then bend it back and forth to break it off.
• In step 4, if you use 2 to 3 inch wide strips of the fleece it wont bunch as bad and you can ensure a more even surface.
• In step 5, to add a bit of that extra "pizzazz" paint the white surrounding the black eye with white liquid paper (white out)
• Be sure to use caution when dealing with the chicken wire and copper tubing. Both materials have extremely sharp edges. Use work gloves at all times and keep an eye out for little ones.
• The hot glue is, of course, HOT. Be aware of what bare skin is exposed, and what surfaces you're putting the hot glue gun down on.

[tessieann]

on 9/24/2009 Sounds like a fun creepy decoration - my kids would love it!

[jmcgeough]

on 4/10/2009 It would be great to make this spider. It would be good therapy since I am terrified of spiders. :)