Halloween Closet Sign/Decoration

Remember all those times as a kid when you were afraid of something hiding underneath the bed, or inside your closet?  (Maybe you read Dr. Seuss'  book, There's a Wocket in My Pocket and, like me, felt a little better about it after being able to put a name to the "woset" in your closet.) Well, that is what inspired my idea for this simple, but fun Halloween closet decoration.  

Hang this sign on the closet door in your child's bedroom... ;)  Or on the door of any other closet in the house.

I had this sign in mind and went to a few craft stores to find just the right "base" for my sign.  Unfortunately, they didn't have anything I was looking for for under thirty dollars, so I decided to try the thrift store.  That's where I found my sign.

This old serving platter, found at the thrift store for $3, proved to be a lovely board for my sign.

All I needed now was to paint over the sweet floral center of the platter, antique around the edges with some black paint, and then choose my fonts.

I found what I was looking for in the Lyrical Letters cartridge, where I used the Jack Sprat and regular main fonts.  I also used one font from Plantin SchoolBook for my "HIDE" because I wanted something a little wider.

Now, a word to the wise.  Hint: It is smart to always try and test your fonts and images on regular paper first to be sure that you get them the size that you want.  The "Real Size" dial makes every letter the exact same size as you have set on your sizing dial, but that isn't always what you want.  So doing a test run of your actual lettering and images on a plain sheet of computer paper is a much safer (and cheaper!) way to go.  It will save you from making the mistake I made...

I cut out the lettering on my vinyl before checking first on scrap paper to see if it would actually fit at that size....turns out that it didn't.  It is always safer to check on scrap paper first to be sure you are getting just what you want at a size that fits.

I used the gray vinyl, though that is hard to see in the final picture due to my camera and the lighting.  Once I had the lettering cut, I peeled the remaining vinyl off and then used transfer tape to apply the letters to the board.

Pulling away extra vinyl to reveal the cut letters so that I can apply the transfer tape.

When pulling away vinyl from many letters, such as in this project, I like to cut the excess vinyl away as I go, so as to avoid its sticky back grabbing onto any of the lettering if I get sloppy and let some of it fall back down. 

I wanted a colorful arrow to be pointing down, so I just used scrapbook paper I had on hand, and some Mod Podge to attach it.  (Again, the lighting kills the color.)  Finally, I just attached a nice black ribbon to the back to hold it in place. 

And then, presto!  Cute new Halloween decoration, good for any closet door.  If you leave the door open a crack, it might even make it a little more spooky. :)  Now, all I need are a few fake monster hands to have coming out from behind the door... 

Happy haunting!