My parents were visiting our home in Colorado and we all had an itch to craft. My dad saves a lot of good ideas to his phone so that when we are together we can all make and craft things up. He asked if we wanted to make a DIY Halloween Family project with wood and paint. YES!
He then started to tell us that we are going to be painting our own Ghost, Mummy, Frankenstein, and Pumpkin on these wood boards and decorate them as we want to. We all agreed and our journey began! We were making and creating a Halloween Family out of wood for our home either indoor or outdoor.
I honestly have no idea where the original source came from because my dad erased the picture. We did find the picture on Pinterest I believe.
Materials Needed for the Halloween Family DIY Wood Project Tutorial
You can obviously change what I am telling you if you want to make it a bit different. This is just how we personally made this project. Feel free to use your own creative juices throughout this process!
I am SO looking forward to seeing your beautiful Halloween Family!👻🎃
Wood-2×4 pine
- CUT 2×4 to lengths below (size is really up to you)
- Base- 20in
- Ghost-15in
- Mummy- 12in
- Frankenstein- 10 3/4 in
- Pumpkin- 10in
- A sander to sand the wood
- Jig Saw to shape the ghost head
Paint
- Black
- Green
- Orange
- Red
- White
- Kit of paint colors
- Paint Brush(s)
Other Materials
- Burlap
- Flower of your choice
- Flower Leaves (2-3)
- Gauze
- Ribbon of your choice
- Sharpies
- Cutting machine (optional)
- Hot Glue Gun
- Orange Vinyl for pumpkin face (optional)
- Transfer Tape if working with Vinyl (optional)
Beginning the Halloween Family DIY Wood Project
First we are going to take that 2 x 4 Pine and cut it into 5 different size planks. I listed my lengths above and below but if you want yours different lengths by all means go for it! Just remember the base has to be long enough to fit the four other planks so I highly recommend at least a 20in base!
- Base- 20in
- Ghost-15in
- Mummy- 12in
- Frankenstein- 10 3/4 in
- Pumpkin- 10in
Your longest board is going to be the base. REMEMBER THAT
Once those are cut we are then going to take our jigsaw or band saw and make the ghost head on one of those planks. My ghost was the second-longest board. I just shaped the head the way I wanted it to be. This again is up to you!
Sanding the Wood Boards
Next, we are going to be sanding the boards down to get them nice and smooth. NO one likes splinters! LOL You can do this with a sander or with sandpaper by hand. If you are not sure how to do this please seek instructions! I did a google search and these are the results Google found.
Once all the boards are smooth and well sanded we are going to dust and wipe them off and we will be ready for the next step.
Painting the Wood Boards
We are now going to grab the colors of paint I listed above and below. A big brush to do a few base coats and a small brush for a few of the faces.
- Black
- Green
- Orange
- Red
- White
- Paint Brush(s)
One board at a time you are going to paint them. We grabbed are 15in Board (Ghost) and the 12in board (Mummy) and painted those both white first. Then the 20in board for the base, we painted black. Next 10 3/4in board (Frankenstein) we painted green and Lastly the 10in board (Pumpkin) we painted orange.
We went over them 3 or 4 times to get a good base color on them. Use your judgment here if you think it needs another coat to paint it. If you think it is fine with 2 Perfect! These are your Halloween Family members you are creating! Once you are happy let them dry.
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Painting the Halloween Faces onto the wood board
Here you have so many options and can really create any face you want out of whatever you want. We painted two of the faces with paint, used a sharpie for the eyes on the mummy, and used vinyl for the pumpkin face. Possibilities are truly endless.
I can’t tell you how to paint your Halloween faces but you can type in Halloween faces in google. There are an endless amount of ideas.
DIY Halloween Mummy Wrapping
We all played around with the gauze bunching it in some places and wrapping in others. Once we were happy with the gauze positioning we then took and wrapped burlap around the mummy.
We did secure everything with our hot glue gun once we got it the way we wanted it. We then added a bow to the corner of the wood and placed a beautiful flower over the bow. Make sure your eyes are peaking out before securing everything down.
DIY Halloween Pumpkin Face and leaves
Here are the pumpkin faces I used for this pumpkin if you would like to cut them out of vinyl. You would upload those into cricut design space.
If you need instructions on how to do that check out my article Guide to Cricut Cut Files-JPEG, PNG, AND SVG.
You can also check out my Ultimate Beginners Guide to Cricut Design Space for further help.
You would set your machine up to cut vinyl and follow the prompts. Once it is cut we would then peel it off our mat and weed the pieces you don’t need. In the picture above it would be all the white areas we would weed because we want the face on our board.
If you need a bit more help with this Please feel free to reach out!
We bought four set of leaves that we liked and glued those to the top of our boards. You can also drill a hole in the top and glue the leaves in the hole for a more sturdy hold.
Halloween DIY Wood Base
Lastly we have to finish the base and put whatever saying we wish on it. We used cricut design space to make a stencil. Here is the exact saying I had my cricut cut out and used the outline as a stencil to then DAB paint on the black base board.
The great thing is if you mess up on this you can just repaint the black over the color and retry.
Once everything is dry you can set them as individual pieces around the inside or outside of your home or you could keep them all together like we did. We were going to glue all of them down to the base but I decided against it, but it is an option.
Below are my parents set and our set that we love decorating with every year! I hope this has helped and inspired you to create and show the world your gifts!!!
Share your projects in the comments below! I want to see them!
OH I am so excited! I can’t wait to see all those fun, spooky, cute Halloween Families!
If you enjoyed this tutorial please share it so others can make their Halloween Families!
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