Halloween Diy Spider Sign - Arrow Tool Group

START BUILDING

STEP 1: Create Your Pattern

Several years ago I discovered an awesome site called Rasterbator.net to create large custom-sized posters. It’s a simple as uploading a picture to the site, and then decide how many pieces of paper you want to print out from your home printer in order to create a large picture or poster. Here are the steps you need to follow to create your own large spider print out:
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Go to Rasterbator.net.
Click on “Create your poster.”
Select “Choose File” to select the spider file from your computer. (By the way, I’ve created the spider file for you already. Just right-click on the image below and save it to your computer). Once the image is selected, click “Upload.”
Next, in the bottom right corner, change the settings to “inch.” 
You shouldn’t have to change any of the paper settings if it already shows that your large image will be printed on A4 8.27 x 11.69 paper in Portrait. However, choose your Output size to determine how many sheets of paper wide your image will be. For larger prints, increase the number of sheets of paper. For a spider that’s my size, select 4 sheets wide.
 Click “Next” for style and select “No effects.”
Select “Continue.”
For color, select Raster color “Black” and Background color “White.”
Select “Continue.”
Under Options screen, click “Complete page poster!”
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This will create a PDF file of your large spider in a series of sheets of regular printer paper. Feel free to make your own poster.
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I have been using the site to create large wooden signs. But it’s perfect for creating big templates of anything you want to cut out of wood! This spider was about 2 feet x 2 feet in size but if you use a 4’x8′ sheet of plywood, you could make one even larger!.
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I printed out all the sheets in the PDF and laid them in the order in which they would need to be trimmed and taped together.

Once taped together, I used scissors to cut out the image. You’ll want to remove the entire white space, leaving only your image. Keep in mind that you’ll need to cut the margins of the sheets and line up the edges of the spider.

STEP 2: Trace Your Pattern onto the Wood

Once the image is completely cut out and taped, trace the pattern onto the wood, making sure the image doesn’t move. Use something heavy (like your cell phone) to keep it in place while tracing.
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Use either 1/2″ or 3/4″ thickness of wood. If you’re using lights with a long bulb or base, use a thicker wood to accommodate the length of the lights. Thinner wood can be used with smaller or shorter lights.
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Carefully trace out the spider onto the wood. 

If your trace lines are too light, use a pencil to dark then up, or even a black marker so you can see them when cutting out the shape.

STEP 3: Cut Out Your Spider

I absolutely love using a jig saw! It cuts wood, plastic, and even some thin metal sheeting. It’s perfect for making decorate cut-outs like this, too.
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If you’re a complete newbie and don’t know how to use the jigsaw, be sure to watch or read this awesome tutorial I put together on how to use a jigsaw. I guarantee you’ll be comfortable using the jigsaw after checking out that tutorial! (Oh–and if you’re interested in learning how to use power tools, sign up to be alerted when my power tools online course becomes available! to help you become comfortable and secure when using power tools.)
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The most important thing is to clamp your wood to a workbench or a table, while leaving it hanging off the edge securely (without any movement or shifting), with an open space below, to begin cutting out the spider.

Your cut doesn’t have to be soooo precise. I typically like to try to cut to the outside edge of the line. Go slowly so it at least looks neat and resembles the shape you’re cutting out, though.

As more pieces fall away, rotate and clamp the spider, then cut out even more. This spider doesn’t have a lot of really close curved areas so I could use a regular jig saw blade. But if you’re cutting out a spider (or a wooden sign) that has a lot of twists, turns, and decorative areas, you’ll need to use a scroll blade, which is thinner and allows you to freely move the jigsaw in any rotation.

Cut carefully around the rounded edges of the spider feet. Make a series of cuts to cut them out if you don’t have a scroll blade that allows you to easy maneuver the jig saw.

I used the other piece of wood from the 2′ x 4′ plywood and made two spiders. 🙂 I had to order new lights to finish the second spider since I ran out of lighting. 😉

STEP 4: Mark Where You’ll Want the Lights to Be and Drill Holes

Use a marker or pencil to mark where you’ll want the holes for the lights. Be sure to evenly space them out. But even more important is make sure you don’t drill more holes than you have lights available on the strand. This is where a little planning helps. 🙂
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I actually drilled too many holes and ended up with left over holes, with required me to use two sets of lights. That worked okay, but it added to the bulkiness on the back side of the spider, where I had to mount the battery packs to be hidden from the front.
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I would tell you, my fellow woodworker, this tip:
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If your strand of lights has 100 lights, drill about 90 holes. Always create a few less holes than you have lights on the strand, to ensure that you will have enough lights and to account for any lights that will have to be skipped while back-tracking around the spider when securing them.

You’ll need a drill and a brad point drill bit for this part. (The size of the drill bit will depend on that lights you’re using, but for me, it was 1/4″ brad point drill bit).
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I love using a brad point drill bit because it has a spade on it that creates a really clean hole on your wood. That’s what you will want for the front of your spider. 
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You’ll also want to put a scrap piece of wood underneath when drilling. This is called a sacrificial board. Not only will this prevent you from drilling into your table, but it also helps to prevent the ugly “tear out” of splintered wood that happens when drilling through plywood.
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Test-fit your lights to make sure the bulb will fit through the hole before drilling all of your holes. 

STEP 5: Sand the Holes Smooth

Even with the brad point drill bit, the holes still need to be cleaned up a bit. Tape the end of a piece of fine sandpaper (220-grit) on the drill bit, and wrap the sandpaper around a smaller drill bit. Slowly run the small drill bit through each hole, gently sanding the edges smooth.
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Sand the back of the spider, too, to remove any splintered wood that occurred.

STEP 6: Paint the Spider

I recommend using an exterior paint which will protect the wood better if your spider will be outdoors. However, if it will be indoors, you should use a black chalk paint, or even better, get a small sample pot of paint from the home improvement store to use for this project.
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Keep scrap wood underneath when painting to catch the drips of paint coming through the holes.
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Also, use a small craft paint brush to slather paint into each drilled hole, to protect the wood, and to prevent the light-colored plywood from showing through.

STEP 7: Attach the Lights

Since I used 1/2″ plywood, my light bulbs were a bit too long and were poking too far through the front of my spider, which isn’t what I wanted.
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(This is why 3/4″ plywood works so well for these types of projects, but 1/2″ plywood in a 2′ x 4′ size was the only thing I could find at the time).
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To correct for the lights falling through too deeply into my spider, I used the Arrow Fastener hot glue gun to secure the lights into position where I wanted them, preventing them from going through too far. 
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You won’t have to do this step if you use 3/4″ plywood, since it’s thicker. If your lights have shorter bulbs, you can use 1/2″ plywood. It really just depends on the lights you are using. I recommend using these 100 lights strand or the 40 lights strand for smaller projects.