Halloween Subway Art Sign

I know, I know, it's not quite October 1st, but I just couldn't help myself.  I've been planning and waiting to get my Halloween decorations up and this weekend I finally got it done.   I wanted something a little different this year and decided that I loved the idea of classic black and white decor.  I only had the wreath from last year.  So I didn't have much to go on.   I did have a bunch of leftover stuff from past projects that I figured I would use.

I've saw this little saying somewhere and I thought it would look so cute on my porch.  I went out to my craft room (actually my garage...) I had a 2 1/2 foot board left over from my sons industrial shelves and some flat black spray paint that my husband used for something.  The only thing I purchased for this project was a couple of white paint markers, I found for $2 each at my local Walmart.  I got 1 with a fine tip, and 1 with a medium tip.  So this project cost me $4.  Not bad, not bad.

I sanded the raw edges of the board and put it down on a piece of plastic.  Then I went a little crazy with the black paint.  I also used it to paint a couple of old candlesticks I had that were just hanging out in a closet, and a lantern that I found in the Easter clearance section at Tai Pan Trading for 

75% off.  

Once I got the board painted black I had to decide how I wanted to put the words on the board.  I don't have a cricket and I didn't want to pay a bunch of money to have vinyl cut so I used a technique I have used before.   I used my computer and Microsoft word and printed out  the words that I wanted.  No special fonts here either, just basic ones that were on word.  

Next I cut out each word strip and placed them on the board where I wanted them to be.  (My printer is almost completely out of ink and I did not want to run to the store at 11pm, so my words were barely visible.)  Use what you have right?!!!  Anyway, after  I got the words placed where I thought they should go, I took a pen and traced each letter.  When you do this, you need to remember to push down a little bit, as this will leave an indent in the wood, which you want.

After I traced the words, I removed my paper.  You can just barely see the indent that it leaves, but it's exactly what you want.

Next I took my paint marker and colored in the letters left when I traced the words.  It's not perfect, but that's ok.  This process takes a little bit of time but it looks so nice afterward.

When I had all the words written on the board I put a layer of clear coat over it and let it dry.  That's it.  Easy, cute, Halloween Subway Art Sign for about $4.