Halloween Diorama Made With Thrift Store Finds

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Square feature image of the finished graveyard diorama set in place in an old square 11" x 11" drawer that can hang on the wall or sit on a shelf. The background image shows a spooky illustration of a Halloween town with lights in the windows, a haunted mansion in the distance and haunted house in the foreground. This 3-demensional scene features a vintage ceramic witch an eerie grapevine fence in front and a grave yard with four gravestones set on a hill of Spanish moss. The image is on a dark background with orange mini fairy lights to light the inside.

Make a spooky Halloween diorama using items around the house and thrift store treasures.

I’ve been scouting for vintage Halloween items to decorate my antique store booth and came across these lovely vintage witch figurines.

They were only $.50 each and I thought they would be perfect in a diorama or fairy garden.

I chose to make a graveyard scene but create any diorama you like from a haunted library to a spooky pumpkin patch! Below is a video along with details on how to make one.

Photo of two ceramic vintage witches. Both are smiling and painted in muted dark blues, blacks and maroon. One holds a jack-o-lantern and the other has a broom with a black cat by her side. This miniature figures are about 3-inches tall.

Halloween Diorama – How-to Video

YouTube video

How to Make a Halloween Diorama

STEP 1: Gather Some supplies

To start, you’ll need a few miniatures and an old drawer. If you don’t have a salvaged drawer, a deep tray or shadow box will work too.

Besides thrift stores, you can find Halloween miniatures on Amazon, Etsy, and Dollar Tree. I bought the mini gravestones for this project on Amazon and found the orange mini-string lights at Dollar Tree.

Other supplies you may need include Spanish moss, scrap wood, paint, glue, a drill, wood screws, and a printable as a background image.

Photo of supplies used to make a Halloween miniature scene. These include an old small drawer, ceramic vintage witches, a metal mini jack-o-lantern, wood fence and a spooky scene printout to use as a background.

STEP 2: Paint And Apply A Background Image

Paint your drawer and use Mod Podge to adhere a background image to the inside.

Using matte Mod Podge to apply the background image to the inside of the drawer to set the scene for my Halloween graveyard diorama.

The drawer I’m using is just under 11 inches wide so I decided to print a background image on 11″ x 17″ paper at the office supply store. This cost just a few dollars and the colors came out amazing!

The digital image for my spooky graveyard scene was purchased from this shop on Etsy, if you’d like to check it out.

STEP 3: Add the Finishing Touches

Now for the fun part, adding the miniatures and final touches!

First I added a grapevine fence I found at an antique store. To my surprise, it was the perfect fit. I attached it to the bottom with two wood screws.

Photo of the bottom of my Halloween miniature scene. Shown is the bottom of the drawer where I used two wood screws and a drill in the foreground used to attach a mini fence for my graveyard scene.

See the video above for more details on this project.

Next, I used wood glue to secure scrap wood pieces to the inside of the drawer to create a hill for my mini graveyard.

Closeup photo of a Halloween diorama with a grapevine gate in place and a stack of three pieces of scrap wood glued in place to make a hill structure for a mini graveyard.

To glue the rest of the miniatures in place, I used GE Advanced Silicone Adhesive. I could have used hot glue but I like silicone for its long-lasting hold.

For this Halloween miniature scene I used GE Advanced Silicone caulk to hold all of my miniatures in place. This adhesive works great to glue multiple surface and I've found it to have a better hold than hot glue.

Last, I strung mini lights across the background, tucked the battery pack inside the drawer (to the right of the graveyard), and covered the scrap wood hill with Spanish moss!

Square feature image of the finished graveyard diorama set in place in an old square 11" x 11" drawer that can hang on the wall or sit on a shelf. The background image shows a spooky illustration of a Halloween town with lights in the windows, a haunted mansion in the distance and haunted house in the foreground. This 3-demensional scene features a vintage ceramic witch an eerie grapevine fence in front and a grave yard with four gravestones set on a hill of Spanish moss. The image is on a dark background with orange mini fairy lights to light the inside.

This diorama sits easily on a shelf but I added picture wire to the back to hang it by later.

Add picture hanging wire or a sawtooth to the back of your mini scene if you plan to hang it up!

How cute is this little Halloween vignette? Here are a few more photos. And, I still have that second vintage witch, so maybe a fairy garden next time.

Vertical feature image of the finished graveyard diorama set in place in an old square 11" x 11" drawer that can hang on the wall or sit on a shelf. The background image shows a spooky illustration of a Halloween town with lights in the windows, a haunted mansion in the distance and haunted house in the foreground. This 3-demensional scene features a vintage ceramic witch an eerie grapevine fence in front and a grave yard with four gravestones set on a hill of Spanish moss. The image is on a dark background with orange mini fairy lights to light the inside.
Closeup photo of a mini graveyard in a DIY Halloween miniature scene. There are four gravestones measuring about 3/4" each surrounded by Spanish moss.
Photo of a vintage ceramic witch holding a jack-o-lantern in a miniature Halloween diorama. The background is a haunted house illustration. The print has been decoupaged to the inside of an old thrift store drawer and miniatures like the witch and a fence in front have been added the scene for a 3-dimensional look.
Pin ready image for an Easy DIY Halloween Diorama. The image is a closeup of the background of the diorama. Pin this image to your Pinterest craft boards to come back to later!

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