by Ashley Horne
Halloween is always the most celebrated holiday of the year at our house. We were thrilled last Halloween when more than one child told us we had the best decorated house in town. So, of course, that inspired us to get bigger and better this year!
We continue to look for easy projects that are inexpensive and fun to construct. It’s also important that our kids can help create each masterpiece.
One of the new projects we will be completing for this Halloween is a scarecrow. Better yet, we will be making a reusable scarecrow frame that disassembles for easy storage.
For this project we will need the following:
- 1 – 12’ 2”x4” piece of lumber
- 1 – 2 ½” bolt with nut
- Old clothes (pants, hat, shirt, shoes, bandana, etc)
- Newspaper, straw or other material that can be used to fill the arms, legs, head, etc.
- 1 – Paper grocery bag
- Raffia
- Markers
- Cordless Driver Drill
- Drill bits
- Circular Saw
Follow these simple steps to create your very own scarecrow:
- Use your circular saw to cut the lumber into one 8’ section and one 4’ section.
- Mark the midpoint on the 4’ section (at 2’ with pencil). Use your drill and drill bits to drill a hole large enough for the bolt to fit through.
- Locate a spot on your 8’ section where you want the “arms” of the scarecrow to be (usually 3’ from one end will be good). Drill another hole.
- Use your bolt to put the pieces together. The nut can be screwed tight so that you can choose how you’d like the arms tilted and then lock them into place. Please note: when you are disassembling your scarecrow for storage you just loosen the bolt, fold the pieces together, and tighten the bold to keep both pieces secure.
- Determine where you’d like your scarecrow to stand and push the 8’ section into the ground.
- Draw a face on your paper bag. Fill the bag with leaves or crumpled newspaper to stuff. Slide the bag over the top of the 8’ section and then use several pieces of raffia to tie the bag closed and to the post.
- Put the clothes onto the scarecrow frame. Stuff the clothing with whatever material you have chosen and then use the raffia to tie each section closed. Leave extra raffia or straw coming out of each section as if the stuffing were spilling out.
- Add a hat of your choice and stand back to see your completed scarecrow.
