If you have a chalkboard, you can make some really cool Halloween chalkboard art without spending a lot of money. Aternatively, you can make a scary or fun design using re-usable (and inexpensive) Halloween stencils.
Essentially, you will need basic items:
1. Your Design or Stencil
2. Box cutter or X-Acto knife
3. Chalk or Liquid Chalk Markers
Halloween Stencil Designs:
You can buy Halloween stencils for cheap, or you can download image ideas for free on the internet. Of course, designs range from extremely simple to complex.
Keep in mind that the more elaborate the image or design, the more work they will require to cut into a stencil. I’ve listed a few below that are unique and interesting, yet they are not overly complicated.
- Pumpkin Face Templates
- Bats Stencil
- Ghost in Window Stencil
- Claw Hand Stencil
- Spider Stencil
- EEK! Stencil
- Scary Eyes Stencil
Save Money by Making Your Own Stencils:
The low-cost alternative to buying specially-made plastic stencil paper at $3-4 a sheet is to make your own stencil.
You can buy inexpensive plastic report covers or sheet protectors at your office supply store. The heavier they are, the easier they will be to work with. However, they typically will cost more. Therefore, keep this in mind when you are comparing items.
For example, Walmart carries report covers for less then $1 apiece. Sheet protectors are another cost-saving idea.
TIP: Another low-cost option is to use heavy card stock or thin cardboard as your stencil form. The thicker the material, the harder it will be to cut through.
Chalk:
A box of plain white costs a few bucks. However, if you want sharp, crisp edges, you may want to consider wet-erase chalk markers. You can buy them online, and I know that the craft store Michaels also sells them.
You can get away with buying just one marker and just using it for the edges. If you have a large object to draw, like a bat, you can use regular chalk to color the shape and then use the marker to finish the surrounding edges.
TIP: A cheap alternative is to use a wet Q-tip around the edges of your artwork when you’re finished drawing to make the edges more crisp-looking.
A big advantage of using chalk as your art medium is that it is not expected to look perfect, but rather more “sketchy”. Therefore, if you fall into the “non-artist” category like me, you’re fine.
