Halloween Humor – Lighten Up People!

This is MY TIME OF YEAR – I love Fall, all the colors, the cooler temps and HALLOWEEN.

It’s also the start of the ‘Holiday Season’ which has many folks groaning as they check the available balance on their credit cards (Christmas) uggh.  I say forget Christmas – Halloween is the best holiday of the year.

I consider myself an official spokesman for Halloween.  I mean really – what’s not to love?  Everyone and their dog (literally) can dress up in their secret hearts desire of a costume ranging from the ridiculous to the incredibly creative and then they can party and eat candy till they drop.  You don’t have to break the bank buying presents for everyone on your list, naughty or nice, all you have to buy is a couple of bags of candy and sit back and enjoy the show.

One of my greatest pleasures of Halloween is “what can I make for it this year?”.  Enter the ‘Witches Parking Sign’.

As you know, I’m all about recycling, upcycling and repurposing ‘found objects’.  This piece started life as a ditch gate.  It’s probably from the 40s or 50s and I came across it one day as I was out walking my dog on some old range land that was being developed for a new subdivision (because we can’t have enough of those).  It weighs 20 lbs, and even though I have it listed in my Etsy shop I doubt anyone’s going to pay the shipping on this baby.  But, maybe someone local will purchase it as a “pick up, only”.

But look at that wood – that’s patina!  I HAD to make something out this.

An old piece of wood from my stash and a hinge turned this into a free standing sign.  I also drilled a hole on an angle at the base of the prop wood and a truly gigantic nail goes right through the wood and into the lawn to deter ten-finger discounts.

Somewhere back in time I saw this funny saying and knew that’s what I wanted on my sign.  The day I decided to make this sign, I found that broom laying on the road, a bit beat up from being lost off another vehicle I assume, but that just added to the broom’s character as far as I was concerned.  But wow, don’t you think that was a Karmic find?

Anyways, I knew I wasn’t up to painting the words free-hand (not a talent I possess) so I went through my Word fonts and found some I liked and then I printed them out and just kept enlarging them until I had the size I needed.  ‘Witches Parking’ took three sheets.  Then I just cut the words out leaving the letters attached to each other in little spots (some tape may be required), and laid it out on the board and simply traced around them with pencil.  I used three different fonts and the same process for each.  Once I had the words traced onto the boards I painted them in with acrylic black paint highlighting some with white or green to make them stand out and have some depth.  This is not difficult to do, just pick a side and imagine your letter with a light shining on that side – and highlight.  Make a mistake?  Cover it with the black paint and try again, but don’t be to hard on yourself as this is ‘art as we make it’ for ourselves.

The frog is from Michael’s, pretty cheap after a 50% off coupon.  I used a coated white wire, drilled some tiny holes on either side of a back leg and his right front leg and then ran the wires through the holes front to back and twisted them off on the back side.  I also colored them a bit with some green Sharpie marker so they were less noticeable.

I did the same with the broom.  Those pieces won’t be coming off the sign without some effort.

I did free-hand the witches sign.  After a bit of web searching I discovered this is the authentic Pagan symbol for witch.

Here’s a picture that gives you a sense of size – it’s really pretty big (that’s my hubby standing next to it).  This is the guy who has supported my crafting habit for over 40 years – must be love.

I’ve made quite a few other ‘Witches Parking’ signs.  One done in black and white like a Vintage label only it’s 3½ feet wide and almost two feet tall and this sign hangs over my front porch for the Halloween season. I’ll try to remember to get a picture posted here when I put it up this year, so you can all see an alternate version to making this project.

But here’s some other, smaller signs I made and sold or am selling for hanging on doors, office cubicle, etc.

The base is 1/4″ MDF and painted with acrylics to resemble old board.  I used the same Word font technique for the letters.  The broom is from a craft store and this time of year you should be able to find plenty of decorative brooms to choose from.

This is the smallest sign I made.  It’s about 12″ x 12″.  It’s made from the wood top that was on an empty wood Gift Box I found at the thrift store.  Waste not want not, right?  A little paint and imagination and voila – another sign.  The woman who bought this said she hung it on her cubicle wall at work and was the office Halloween hit.  I felt my mission had been completed.  Here’s a few closeups.

Regardless of what size or shape your sign ends up being – I guarantee plenty of laughs.

So – craft on!