Every year we greet our local trick or treaters with our giant sized home-made spider. He sits right in our entrance way on our Front Porch. And he is sooooo easy to make! All you need are 4 black garbage bags, a pile of newspapers, a few twist ties (at least 5), some white paper to make a face, and some tape.
It was such a gorgeous day, that I decided to build this year's spider out on the front lawn. As usual, I get my kids involved in the process. We are not after the "perfect" decoration. We are about DOing instead of BUYing!
Step 1: Take two of the garbage bags and use a twist tie to gather up the corners at the closed ends of the bags (they look like little pig tails).
Step 2: Now, turn the bag inside out. The corners with the twist ties should look rounded.
Step 3: By now, if you are building your spider out on the front lawn like I was, you will have collected a number of curious block kids LOL! Put them to work! They get to crumple up all the newspaper. You will need enough to stuff one bag almost full, and the other half full.
Step 4: Use your twist ties to join the two bags together. I tuck the extra plastic from the half full bag into the neck of the full bag. You may need a couple of twist ties to get them to stay together.
Step 5: Time for the legs. Cut each of the last 2 bags lengthwise into four strips. Unfold the eight strips to make eight long legs. Now go to your neighbor's house and ask to borrow the stapler (yes we have a stapler, but of course we were right out of staples when I needed them duh!). Then staple the legs to the large body on the spider (four on each side). Then return the stapler to your neighbor.
Step 6: Using the white paper cut out a spider face. Use your imagination. Our spider face looks different every year. Depending on where you live either tape the face onto the spider head (the smaller bag) or use your stapler. I found out masking tape doesn't hold too well if the temperature drops below freezing (one eye'd spider LOL).
Step 7: By now, you will have attracted the moms and dads of the kids who are helping you build the spider. They are just in time to see you try and hang the beast up on your front porch. We have a couple of u-nails on the under part of our porch roof so I can tie the spider up using string. Then using a piece of rolled up masking tape, tape each leg (at the "knee) up to the roof so there is a bend in the leg. Voila! One creepy giant spider!
Step 8: This is the most important part! No matter how attached you become to your spider, it goes out into the paper recycle and the trash when Halloween is over. Building the spider is one of our traditions. The last thing I want to do is try to find a place to store this thing during the rest of the year!
