Boo! Get Crafty for Halloween.

My favorite (only?) Halloween decoration from last year. I'm obviously in the Halloween spirit MUCH more this year! Thought I'd re-post for a little Friday inspiration.

As soon as the leaves start to turn yellow I put out the fall decorations. I love decorating with the seasons in general, but not necessarily with each holiday. Halloween, for one, usually gets passed over in favor of earth tones for fall. Maybe it's because I find so many of the Halloween decorations to be, ahem, not really my "aesthetic" as Tim Gunn would say.

This year I'm going to "make it work" (sorry - no more Project Runway puns) by designing my own little Halloween signage.

I found these letters at Hobby Lobby for $1.25 each (plus they were 30% off - score!). The Halloween-themed scrapbook paper was 2/$1 and the black paint was $0.89 at JoAnn Fabric. All pretty inexpensive supplies.

I started out by painting the backs and sides of the letters black - you could do orange, or any other coordinating color you'd like.

After the paint is dry, lay each letter face-down on the back side of your scrapbook paper. Trace them, then cut the letters out. You don't have to worry about trimming them to the perfect size at this point.

Cover the front of your letter with a thin coat of Mod Podge, then stick the scrapbook paper on. Smooth out any wrinkles and allow to sit for 15 minutes before adding a coat of Mod Podge on top of the paper. I find using one of the sponge brushes gives me the nicest finish. Let this sit for another 15 minutes then add a second top coat. Allow letters to dry overnight.



In the morning, you can clean up any uneven paper with an x-acto knife, then take a fine-grit sandpaper and run it along the edges until they're smooth.

Take the tiniest amount of black paint and your sponge brush and apply the paint to the corners to give the letters an antiqued look. This would also probably work with a black ink pad.

If you'd like to hang these on the wall, small picture hooks can be purchased from any hardware or craft store and added to the back of each letter.