Halloween already?! Heck yes! We’ve busted out our first spooky project of the season, a DIY Halloween Countdown Board, and seriously love it! We shared the DIY with our fave duo of sisters at Eighteen25 during their month long Spooktacular September series and by popular demand, are now sharing both the printable version AND the VE/JPG file if you want to make your own board with a vinyl cutter. Yay!

This is sure to get you in the spooky mood and also help stop your littles from asking how many more days until it’s time for CANDY! 😀

To get started you’ll need a handful of crafts + household items you may already have lying around!
::SUPPLIES ::

• 3′ x 1′ Board 
• Vinyl stencil, see below. (We used our industrial cutter to design/cut, you can use this.) 
• 5 spooky hues of acrylic paint:
  • Orange, green, black, purple, white
• Paintbrush
• Mouse Traps x2

::Get the FREE files here::

• Files for Vinyl Cutter:
  • VE/JPG or PDF
  • Click the link that will open a new window. Right-click to save then upload into your vinyl program of choice. 😉

>>>PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE FILES ARE FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY AND NOT TO BE SOLD FOR PROFIT. Thanks for being respectful of our time that goes into designing these FREE files for your personal enjoyment! 😉

::INSTRUCTIONS ::

1. First, paint your wood white. Remove the bottom hardware from the mouse trap (the long metal piece) and paint white again over the wood + remaining hardware.

2. Using washi tape, tape off stripes over the mouse traps then paint over the washi tape in black. 

Apply your vinyl over the board and fill in the stencil with Halloween acrylic colors. (We removed the vinyl stencil and sanded the board down a bit to give it the distressed look we love so much.) Hot glue the mouse traps to the board in between the brackets and hang the letters from the mouse trap clips. (We have the numbers 0-9 for FREE from our Chalkboard Calendar post.)

Once done, place on your porch and (optional) pair with foam or real pumpkins.

We have our DIY Witch Broomstick in the mix too and love the coordinating colors!

Isn’t that framed skeleton silhouette we used on our Vintage Halloween Mantel too cute hung from the door so cute? It adds a bit of spook to the whole setup. 🙂

If this is too much work for you, try just printing our FREE Printable Halloween Countdown (which is basically this sign in a print) then let the kiddos cross off the days instead! 🙂

You guys know we have TONS of other cool Halloween tutorials, FREE printables and of course, yummy treat ideas! Check out our DIY Halloween Skeleton Wreath, our Witch’s Broomstick Candy Treat Bag tutorial, Monster Cookies, DIY Halloween Marquee Letters, Halloween Fringe Letters or our Mr. & Mrs. Skull Plaques! 

you might also like:

DIY Halloween “EEK” sign Halloween S’mores + Free Treat Bag Toppers Peeps-O-Lantern Halloween display DIY Marbelized Pumpkins