Firstly, you take a cardboard box, fold it and tape it so that it provides a solid base. You can perhaps get your hands on some cheap plywood to serve as a foundation but I had none in hand and I didn't want to invest too much money on it. Size is 2 by 2.5 ish.
Use some garbage bags to serve as a protection to the ground so things don't get messy and the wife doesn't complain.
I went ahead and spray painted it with some generic black paint I found at the one dollar store, it was pretty decent.
Let it dry for an hour or so then apply a 2nd layer if you'd like, once again, wait an hour or so.
I bought some cheap Halloween strings from the 1$ store (they cost me 1.50 each actually) and I took some red tipped bulbs and put them at the beginning at the line, so that the orange lights will twinkle. I daisy plugged them and tested them out.
I then took a dozen or so Coke type bottles and cut them off the top which will serve as a cheap "bump" for the coals. I then taped them to the cardboard and put the bottles on them. I tested to see if everything was fine once again.
I placed them in a fashion to provide a "coal throne" for my Witches Cauldron, which will be my Project B.
I then used some expanding foam in a can ($5) to carefully cover the Coke bottles and provide an artsy fartsy landscape. I ran out of foam (they don't seem to sell the MAX EXPANSION foam in these parts for some reason) so I went out and got another one... a bigger one. Sadly, the foam was blue. Not ideal as I prefer white as it can be spray painted better but it'll do.
After one layer
Finishing expanding foam touches.
I let it dry overnight. (an hour or two is enough but I was tired and Castle was on)
The next day I started with one coat of paint.
I let it dry for an hour, letting plenty of air in the garage. Then I applied a 2nd coat.
I allow it to dry and I tested the lights.
How it looks like in the dark.
Sadly, no flash does it no justice (this was like the best out of 5. However, to the human eye, it's pretty damn sweet looking.
I will touch it up one more time with paint, then move on to Project B.... "Smoking Witches Cauldron".
