Tutorial: How to Spell "BOO"!

Inspired by the season, Shelley of Singlestone Studios and I have put together a couple of projects to share with you this week. So swing on over to her blog after this for some more harvest inspirations! Here's my first contribution, a quick little project I created this weekend just for you bloggers! It's a little "Boo" sign that is both simple and cheap to create. I estimate that the entire thing cost less than $5. I did it myself but you could easily involve your kids in this one too!

What you need:
Materials
3 little unpainted wooden plaques (JoAnn)
19 gauge steel wire (hardware store)
4 odd cream buttons
chalkboard paint, black
paper towels
1/4 yd. approx. orange and black fabric (JoAnn)
glue stick

Tools
Craft drill
sandpaper
scissors
wire cutter
needle nose pliers

The HOW-TO Part:
Step One: Glob on some of the chalkboard paint to the top of each plaque and rub it in with a paper towel. We're going for a glazed look so if you get too much in areas- wipe it off. I put just enough on to cover the wood completely, but still see the grain. Let dry.
Step Two: I used my craft drill and put holes in the top corners and bottom corners on 2 of the plaques but on the third only drill 2 at the top corners.
Step Three: Sand your edges to get a nice worn and spooky look.
Step Four: Cut out a "B", and 2 "O's" from the orange fabric. I handcut mine but you can blow up the letters in your word processor and then print them out for insta-templates. Just hold the paper and fabric together and cut around your shape. It's an easy way to get a certain font. I think hand cut works pretty well for this project however. Rough looks nice here.
Step Five: Cut about 12" of the wire and thread one end each through the top two holes of one of the 4 hole plaques. This will be the hanger, so leave a little slack and then wrap the ends around the wire and then trim excess. If desired you can make a little loop in the center where it will hang.
Step Six: Cut 4 lengths of wire approx. 6" in length. Thread through holes from back and connect the plaques one below the other and so on. I spaced the plaques as I wanted and then twisted the wire. Then wrap one end around the other and then clip the excess. The second end gets trimmed to about a 1/2" length and then you insert it through a button. Wrap the wire over into the second button hole and then under for security and then trim any leftover wire. Do this 4 times to finish.

So there you go 6 easy steps and you have a stylish and spooky bit of home decor you created yourself! This same project could be altered so that the plaques are side by side and say trick or treat or use a harvest theme such as Be Thankful. Instead of text you could also get creative and do a trio of bats or pumpkins. If you go harvesty painting the plaques a pumpkin or deep red tone and then accenting with a bit of gold paint would be very pretty. You could also use these to go 3-d. Simply drill through the plaque where you would like to add your skeleton keys or sticks or whatever and then wrap the item with wire and twist behind to secure. I think using old wallpaper on these would be fun too. SO a simple shape but lots and lots of places to go with it. I could see a triptych created from these as well.