Beware Zombies sign

Braiiinnnsss

Ahem, I mean, hi! ~_^

I'm still making things for Halloween, and here's my latest project - a faux-aged warning sign. You never can be too careful around these dangerous suburbs!

Here's how I made it ...

I started with a pristine piece of wood ... and a not so pristine table. We use this old, mostly broken table for spraypainting, resin-work, and various other messy crafts.

I used my jigsaw to cut the wood roughly in half and then cut the edges so they were jagged and rustic looking. This isn't shown in the photo, but I clamped the wood to saw horses to prevent it moving, wore safety glasses, and followed all the safety instructions - this thing could cut you pretty bad so be careful if you're going to give this a go!

 

 As you can see, I didn't make it too neat! I didn't both sanding as I want this sign to look really old and weathered. I also beat up the wood a bit with my hammer, to make it less smooth and perfect.

 

Then I added a wood stain and then (after it had dried) a black wash made from acyclic paint. The picture above shows pretty much the exact wrong way to apply wood stain/ paint wash. If you do it this way, you'll end up with variations in shade and you'll be able to see the drips and splashes when it's dry. And that's exactly what I wanted ^_^

 

P.S. To make a black paint wash: add a little bit of water to an old jar, dip your paintbrush in black paint, and then mix the paint into the water like you would if you were cleaning your brush. Easy! ^_^

After the wood stain and the wash had dried, it was dark and so I didn't take any more in-progress photos. You can use your imagination for the next part ~_^ 

I loaded up my brush with red paint and painted on the letters, making sure the paint was really globbed on. The look I was going for was "OMG ZOMBIES ARE COMING" so the paint is definitely not even ~_^

 

When the letters were dry, I added another wash of black paint and then added a few splatters of a less diluted mix.

I used my staple gun to add some thin rope to hold the two peices together and also to create a hanging string. And that's it! I can't wait to put this out at Halloween with my next project ... it involves garden ornaments and more zombies ~_^

What do you think? Do you like it? I hope you do!

- Lisa x