Wednesday, October 17, 2012

DIY Doormat - Halloween Style

I decided over the weekend that a DIY doormat was a must have in order to spruce up our entry for Halloween.  D was also on board, although I know he had to tap into his 'good sport' side while I pulled him around town running errands to get materials.  I'm pretty sure the only thing sparking his excitement was that I offered to use a Batman symbol on the mat - just enough fun and nerd for our casa.

This project was SUPER easy, inexpensive, and rather quick time wise.

Materials:
Doormat  $7.99 @ Target
Your custom design , enlarge @ Kinkos $2.25
Exacto knife, already had one
Spray paint, already had it in garage


Before you head out for materials, choose your design and print it out using your home computer or save the photo on a flash drive and bring it to your local printers to enlarge.  In our case, I printed out the Batman symbol on 8.5" x 11" paper, then took it to Kinkos to enlarge is 225% (percentage will depend on your mat size) for our mat, I knew I wanted it to be just a little more than double the size of my original print.




We picked up a low cost utility mat at Target, I think it was around $7.99.  We chose one with a bit of black/grey color blend, although they did have all black available as well.  Cost was key here, didn't want to spend much.


Cut out your custom design using an Exacto knife, carefully navigating around curves with a continuous cut to ensure an even line.  For ours, I just wanted the bat symbol and not the border, so it was quite simple and quick.


Then place the design "stencil" on top of the mat, centered, and spray paint over it with an even coat throughout the design.  Sorry no photos of this process, as it was a bit windy and it took both sets of husband/wife hands to hold areas down and spray evenly.



Whaaaa Laaaa.  Done.  And we're digging it everyday.
Yes I'm wearing flip flops, it's still in the 90s here in SD.  A toasty Fall!






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