Friday, October 21, 2016

Pallet Halloween Decor at Goodwill Headquarters

It's a fun part of my job.... making things out of pallets for inspiration. I find ideas on Pinterest and start pallet hunting. Any time I see a little pallet, little baby pallets I call them, I add them to my stash. So I am ready when the right idea comes along! These are the things I made to decorate for Halloween at the Goodwill main office on Alcott Street in Kalamazoo, MI.

Team Member Pumpkin Patch

This pumpkin patch was cheap and easy! I liked this project, because I didn't have to do much other than make a couple of cuts with a jig saw and paint away! No need to take apart the whole pallet. I also scored a gallon of orange paint at Lowes for $5 because it was a mistint. (Yes, now that I have a whole gallon, I need more orange pallet projects!)

The Boo sign was even easier. I simply grabbed one of my boards from my stash, I didn't do anything to it, no cutting or sanding, rugged was good. I am not an artist, so I cannot free hand letters. I picked a font that I liked, and printed out the word "BOO" and cut out the letters. I then traced them onto the pallet plank with a black sharpie marker and then filled in the letters with .50 cent black craft paint.

Across the hall from the pumpkin patch is the Mummy Family! 

More pallet boards from my stash! I wrapped boards with an old white bed sheet. I snipped the top of the bed sheet with scissors, and then tore the rest of the length because I wanted the threads and frazzle. I hot glued a sheet strip to the top of the pallet, wrapped it around, and glue the end to the bottom.

 The eyes, mustache and eyelashes are from a single sheet of black felt and hot glued in place. A little bow with small piece of red lace for the little sister, and a found window cling heart for the baby. A team member thought they still needed a little something "extra" when I had finished.  I had purchased a package of cheese cloth ($2) to wrap the mummies, but it was only going to be enough to wrap one board, that is why I switched to a bed sheet. So I wrapped a thin strip of the cheese cloth around each one, I had just enough, and glued down the edges.  And just that little bit gave them more dimension.

The Trick or Treat sign is again, just a longer board from my stash painted orange. I was running out of time and black paint to hand paint the letters, so I cheated a bit. The letters are simply printed and I cut them out and glued them on the painted pallet. In order to get the spacing and size correct, I measured the length and width of the board and created a document that size in Microsoft Publisher. I picked a font, typed out my words, printed my document, cut out the letters, and used Modge Podge to apply the letters and seal them. Even up close it is hard to tell that they are paper letters!

Pallet Divider Halloween Characters


These funny little guys were soooo simple to make, and they are pretty cute and not the least bit scary to look at or to make. They are made out of the dividers of large pallets. I save every thing that might be of value when I take apart a pallet - as  you know those things do not come apart easily, so it is worth keeping as much of the pallet as you can!

I didn't do anything to these guys, no sanding, cutting, nothing, just acrylic craft paint! As I said before, I am not an artist, so I took my artistic daughter's advice and she said "don't try to paint the picture, just paint the shapes that you see." And since the shapes are pretty basic shapes like triangles and ovals, I think I did ok :)

Little Black Cat Family
These little kitties are so cute! I used a bandsaw to cut out the ears from a pallet board. I saved the triangle pieces and hot glued them to the back of the cats. This is how they stand up. Painted them black, let them dry and sanded the edges to give them a primitive look. Tied on some raffia and glued on googly eyes and done! They are purrrrfectly sweet!

If you are new to making things out of pallets, try one of these! You will have instant results and that is very satisfying!

No comments:

Post a Comment