Mini DIY “Boo” Halloween Sign

You guys, Halloween is one of my favorite times of year! This year I’ve been putting together all sorts of Halloween decor to decorate our large front porch and many rooms in our home. I have some spooky, some fun and some just traditional. As I was working in my workshop the other day, I came across some small scraps of reclaimed barn wood and I immediately had the perfect idea for another decor item: a mini DIY “Boo” Halloween sign. Here’s how I made it!

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Mini DIY “Boo” Halloween Sign

Supplies:

–Wooden board, any size you want that will stand on it’s own.

—Cricut Explore Air™ 2 machine  – Get Free Shipping on orders over $75 with code FREESHIP!

—White Chalk Paint

—Medium Paint Brush

–Paper Towel or paper plate

–Black Chalk Paint

—Polycrylic Spray

Prepping the Board:

This is your chance to make any changes to your board that you want to. You could paint it, stain it, sand and distress it, just whatever you like! I opted to use a dry brush technique with white chalk paint to get this whitewashed effect. I really love it. You just add some paint to the brush, dab it off onto a paper towel, then run it across the board in even strokes. Since this is reclaimed wood, it catches the white in some areas and not in others and gives it a great textured effect. I just love those saw marks!

Cutting the vinyl stencil:

The first step for this project is to cut out a vinyl stencil. Use the Cricut Design Space to lay out your word, then follow the instructions to cut out the design. This design is really simple since it’s just one word and you don’t have to upload an image, you just have to type in the word and choose the font you like.

Applying the stencil:

First you need to weed the letters out of the vinyl to give you a negative image in which to paint.  You literally just pull off the parts you want to be painted.

Next, apply the stencil. There are a couple ways to do this. When I have a small project I tend to just use a strip of masking tape, like I did here.Just be careful that the tape is not super strong because if it is it will be hard to peel off of the vinyl once it’s on the wood. Another option would be to use Cricut Transfer Paper which actually works better, but I try to conserve it since it’s a little more expensive. It’s definitely easier to work with though! I’ve heard you can use Glad Press n Seal, but I haven’t tried it.

Lay whichever transfer material you use across the word making sure that it catches all of the pieces that would come unattached, like the centers of each letter. Rub it firmly on the vinyl to make sure the vinyl sticks to it. Then remove the backing paper and align the stencil on your wood where you want the word to go. Slowly remove the tape, keeping it close to the board as you peel it back. You may have to hold the vinyl to the wood a little as you remove the tape.

Painting BOO:

Now use your black chalk paint to paint your word. There are a couple tricks here. One, use very little paint on your brush. If you apply it too heavily it will seep under the vinyl stencil. You can paint a coat of ModPodge first which will make it less likely to seep under, or you can just paint carefully. I wanted to be sure that it was easy to do without the clear coat first and it worked great on this one. For larger projects I almost always use a coat of ModPodge, but that’s totally up to you.  One note: chalk paint is the best paint for this, in my opinion. It doesn’t peel or stretch at all when you take the stencil off. Carefully just pull the stencil off the wood. With chalk paint you can do it right away or wait until it’s completely dry.

All done!

And there you have it! An awesome little mini DIY Boo Halloween sign that you can put on any table and shelf. Don’t you think it looks great with the rest of my decor? (I actually made two and this is the 2nd one. The only difference is the font I used.)

Other Cricut or DecoArt projects you may be interested in:

DIY Just Breathe wooden sign using my Cricut

Cricut Explore Air 2; My First Projects!

DIY Copper + White Cedar Planters