Haunted Farm Sign

$15 - $20 (based on 2016 prices)

Makes one sign

For this project, I employed the years of experience my brother and I gained crafting tombstones out of insulation foam and created a wooden sign to greet visitors and set the haunt's tone. In fact, it’s the first time in Haunted Hill’s history that I incorporated a sign into the display which both catered to the theme and incorporated the company’s name: Haunted Pumpkin Hill Farm. It’s a concept I would like to continue each Halloween.

• One 2’ x 2’ board of foam insulation
• One 8 oz. can of interior/exterior, fast-drying latex paint in flat yellow*
• One 8 oz. can of interior/exterior, fast-drying latex paint in flat orange*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in forest green*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in cherry cobbler*
• One bag of plastic cockroaches (roughly two dozen bugs per bag)
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat black*

1. Draw the outline of your sign onto the insulation board. If you feel comfortable free-handing the design, use a pencil or pen to lightly sketch the form. If not, create a pattern with paper and trace it onto the foam.

2. With the rounded end of a pen, gently press into the foam and fashion planks, knots, and wood grains. Try not to make these indentations too pronounced. You want them deep enough to remain present after several coats of paint, but not so deep that they appear fake and unnatural.

3. Trim the boarder of your sign with a sharp knife. If your design has intricate patterns, I recommend using an electric hot knife. For something simple, a standard steak knife works well.

4. On a newspaper-lined surface in a well-ventilated area, give both sides of the sign two even coats of paint. Although you can apply more than this, keep in mind that multiple coats will fill the wood designs you created and make them invisible.

5. Once the paint has dried, you can begin sketching your lettering onto the sign. As before, you can free-hand your design or create a pattern using paper. Since I wanted to experiment with the text’s layout, I created a pattern that allowed me to do this and transferred it onto the sign.

6. With a fine-tipped brush, paint over your markings. If you want the sign to have a clean appearance, stop at this point. If you want to give your sign a grimy appearance, water down brown acrylic paint and brush it across the surface, ensuring the liquid settles in all of the cracks and fissures (you can also use a spray bottle for the application). Allow the mixture to sit for a few minutes and then wipe it clean. You may want to experiment with the consistency prior to doing this: the more water you add, the fainter/lighter the wash; the less water you add, the deeper/darker the wash.

7. Since I wanted a bloodier appearance, I skipped the brown wash and used scissors to make deep scratches in the foam. Following this, I filled the markings with cherry cobbler paint.

8. Splatter the sign with cherry cobbler paint to create blood smatters and glue cockroaches to the surface. Try not to over think your application of both (a random pattern produces the best results). NOTE: The particular cockroaches I used were made with a slick plastic which did not adhere with standard glue. As a result, I used superglue to affix them to the prop.

9. With scissors, carve “haunted” above the lettering of the sign and fill the markings with black paint. To make this appear burned into the wood, smudge the edges.

10. Create more blood splatters with cherry cobbler paint. Again, try not to over think your application (a random pattern produces the best results).

 

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.