Three Simple Halloween Projects

Below are three simple Halloween projects you can make with scrap wood. Each project should take less than an hour and is perfect for kids/tweens/teens. So go ahead! Get the fam-sters involved! Note that I'm not the orginator of any of these projects. Ideas were taken from various online pictures.

Tools:

• Table or Miter Saw
• Sander
• Pen/Pencil
• Paint brush

Materials:

• 4x4 by 24 inches
• 2x6 by 28 inches
• Pallet wood
• Glue
• Paint

Oh noooo! Ghost posts!

Cut 4x4 lumber to 5.5", 7.5" and 9.5" long. Sand to round the edges and remove any major blemishes. Paint each post white. Once the paint has dried, use a pencil to sketch the eyes, nose and mouth to one side of the post. If you are really good at painting, you can skip the sketch part. Using glossy black paint, fill in the sketched features for each ghost post face. Another option is the also paint a ghost face to the opposite side.

As you can see, we painted two opposide sides of each post. Some faces are friendly and some are sort of scary.

Add some pumpkin lights to jazz up the ghosts.

These are really cute additions to the mantle decor. First step is to paint the white tops and yellow bottoms. Once this dries, paint the orange middle. Boom! you're done! Add these to the front porch pumpkins and mums or use them inside.

Cut 2x6 as shown. I used a miter saw set to 15 degrees for the angles.

Remove upper tips from each piece. Use a sander to round the edges.

Very graphic!

These look great with the pumpkin lights and ghost posts on the mantle. This decor will transition from fall to Thanksgiving right into Christmas.

For the teens/tweens in your house, they can create these graphic art displays from pallet wood. I had my kids paint the pictures. Yes, it was torture to be away from the computer! But hey, it's for halloween. Besides, they can still go trick or treating. You, on the other hand, can only LOOK at candy.

Cut 3 of the long piece and 2 of the shorter piece. Note that the size is arbitrary. I wanted something in the rough order of paper size (8.5" x 11")

Use the 2 shorter pieces to attach the sheet together. I used glue and wood clamps for this attachment. For a more detailed description, see video of my previous project.

Depending on your age, you might not understand this picture. This might help refresh your memory. For my wife, this is not a good memory.

This painting was done with the aid of a sugar skull template purchased from Michaels for about $2.00. Our daughter could not stop talking about this project. Then, we had her do it. Now, that wasn't so bad, was it?

See my other instructables for slightly more advanced Halloween woodworking projects.