Seen no signs of Halloween? Make some

Published 1:30 pm Friday, October 5, 2007

Leaves are falling and there’s a chill in the air, which means it’s time to start thinking about holiday decorating.

The first festive event for many is Halloween, and this week’s projects can help dress up your home in the spirit of the season.

Our Halloween signs are made of wood, paint, glitter glue, decorative stickers and a couple of other embellishments that can be omitted if desired.

To make your own sign, come up with an idea — use the suggestions below for inspiration — and choose your shape, colors and embellishments accordingly.

We settled on “Broom Crossing” and “Mad Ghoul Area” for our samples.

The first step is to sand the base board and wooden letters (you can also paint the letters on the sign if you don’t want to use wooden letters) and coat with a primer if necessary. Do a test to see how well the paint you’ll be using covers the wood to decide whether or not you need a primer.

We used a “patio paint,” which can be found in craft stores and is designed to be used on outdoor decorations, and no primer was necessary.

Apply two to three coats of paint to the base board with a brush or painting sponge and allow it to dry thoroughly. While the board is drying, paint the wooden letters if you’ve chosen to go that route.

When the paint is dry, glue the wooden letters in place or paint the phrase on the board. Be sure you’ve planned the letter placement carefully in advance to avoid mistakes.

Let the phrase dry, whether paint or glue, before adding embellishments.

We selected some themed stickers and glitter glue to decorate our signs, applying the stickers first. We then ran a line of glitter glue (purple for the “Broom Crossing” sign; green for the “Mad Ghoul Area”) around the outer edge of the base board. Using the same purple glitter glue, we dotted it onto the face of the sign randomly, and did the same on the ghoul sign with orange glitter glue.

To hold the sign, we attached a picture hanger to the back.

For final embellishments, we added a flying witch to the broom sign and a ghastly ghoul to the other sign. These additions are optional, and you can let the signs stand alone if you wish.

If you plan to use the signs outside, we suggest that you apply a couple of coats of sealer to protect the decorations. The paint may be designed for outdoor use, but the stickers and glitter glue are not waterproof.

Halloween sign suggestions

Here are a few ideas for Halloween signs. You can insert words of your own choice and embellish accordingly to personalize.

Example: “Cross traffic does not stop” might be “Cross bats do not stop.”

Watch for Witches

Beware of Bats

Ghoul Zone

Goblins at Play

Stop for Zombies

Howling Ordinance Strictly Enforced

Low-Flying Vampires

Chains Required on Monsters

Dead End

Haunted Hollow

Spider Xing

Ghastly Lane

Bad Witches Keep Right

Compact Brooms Only

I Brake for Ghosts

No Shrieking After Midnight

Werewolves on Leashes Only

For our online readers…

We want to mention again that if you are reading Craft Corner online and the photo is not included with the column, please contact us at jrocoffin@aol.com and we can send the photo to you via e-mail.

Coming soon…

Homemade soap makes a great gift for folks of all ages and interests, and Otion — just a jaunt up the road in Bellingham — offers classes and supplies for making decorative soaps, lotions and lip balms.

We paid a visit to the store recently and will share our experiences with readers in an upcoming column.

Contact Jonetta Coffin at jrocoffin@aol.com.