I love decorating for Halloween; it’s one of my favorite holidays to decorate for! Today I’m going to share with you a simple Halloween window decor idea using black vinyl and orange string lights!
I absolutely love it! And it’s pretty easy to recreate this look for yourself!
Halloween Vinyl Window Decals
You only need a few things:
- self-adhesive craft vinyl
- scissors or an exacto knife (or a fun cutting machine if you’re lucky enough to have one!)
- printed out design, or some serious freehand art skills!
- a couple strands of orange lights (I found mine at Walgreens)
The great thing about self-adhesive craft vinyl is that it sticks to the windows well (or any surface really), but the bond is temporary so it will pull off easily and won’t leave tons of gummy residue.
I printed out a few clipart images of a cat, a bat, and a spooky tree. Did you know that if you print an image using MS Paint you can tell it to print the image across multiple pieces of paper? And it will just blow up the image for you? Automatically?! It’s amazing!
I taped the printed image together, then cut it out to use as a stencil of sorts for the vinyl.
I traced the cat shape onto the back of a roll of vinyl. Obviously this cat is bigger than a normal roll of vinyl (12″) so I cut it out in a couple of pieces. Since the point of this whole thing was to see the silhouette from outside the window, it doesn’t matter if your vinyl is in a couple of pieces that overlap.
Once I had all the pieces cut out for the cat, the bat, and the spooky tree, I started cleaning the windows. You want to make sure your windows are clean before you attach the vinyl so that it sticks well.
Next you need to stick your vinyl pieces to the window. If you have more than one piece like I did, make sure there aren’t any gaps between your pieces and that the edges of the design line up properly. If you have someone to help you, it will make this part go much faster!
You can see the overlaps in this picture if you look closely at the branch. But you’d only ever see them (and those dang tiny air bubbles!) if you look closely from the inside.
Once all the vinyl was on the window, I hung up some orange-colored string lights around the outside edges of the window.
It looks great from outside, even when the string of orange lights isn’t plugged in!
And when you plug the lights in it looks fabulous and I’m thrilled with how it turned out!
Have you decorated for fall or Halloween yet? Do you have favorite decorations you put up each year, or do you change it around every time? If you’re looking for some other great fall crafts, recipes, and decor ideas, you can check out the rest of my fall posts here!
I link up at these awesome parties!
Jo says
I am getting the stuff to do this tomorrow. Can’t wait. Thanks
Paula@SweetPea says
I love this idea for Halloween decor! Thanks so much for sharing it with Throwback Thursday!
Aimee - It's Overflowing says
I love this so much…featuring you today! XO, Aimee
Evelyn says
I am so jealous. Can you come to my house and do my windows? This is just too cute. Pinning it!
ARod says
love your window looks fabulous
Betsy @ Romance on a Dime says
That window looks AMAZING!!! I love it with the string of orange lights. 🙂 Thanks for linking up at Romance on a dime!! Pinning this.
Kelley says
This is so awesome! I need to do this before Halloween! Love it!
Im featuring this on a Halloween roundup Wednesday 🙂
Jessi says
Cool! Thanks Kelley!
Lottie says
This is so cool! Thank you for sharing!
Elise says
What a great DIY Halloween decor project!! I’d love for you to link up on my blog hop! http://www.w-t-fab.com/search/label/bloghop
Cat Davis - Food Family Finds says
That is really a cool idea. If we didn’t have cats that would chew the light cords I would totally try this.
Karla says
LOVE THIS!!! Wish a had a nice big window to do this myself. :/
Mandy says
Wow! That looks amazing!! I will definitely be giving this a try. Thanks for the post 🙂
Melissa @ Love Bug Living says
This is such a fun idea. It turned out great and I love how it looks at night.
Party Fun Box says
Cute Idea!
One tip (one taking photos at a slow shutter speed sans tripod)
Brace yourself and hold the camera tight and as steady as possible then …
squeeze the shutter and shoot a half dozen or so frames … and usually one will be in focus!
As you move about (no one can stay still for that kind of time – there will be that one moment when you are steady enough for a clear shot)
hope that helps 🙂
Jessi says
That’s exactly what I did! I leaned against a tree, turned on multi-shot, and took a bunch of photos. Thanks so much for the tip!
Party Fun Box says
Glad to be of help … I have 2 more slow shutter tips for you 🙂
Another way to steady your camera is to hang something a bit heavy from it (maybe a handful of metal washers on a string) this will weigh down the camera and make it more steady
Another thing you can do for a fun effect (it’s when you “drag your shutter”) is this:
Use a slow shutter speed on (say a second or so) AND use your flash AND shoot something that has a bit of motion. What you will get is sharpness in the main part of the image (the flash freezes the subject)…. but you will get a (often quite beautiful) blurry fringe around the object that gives the image a sense of vitality and motion.
(There is also front/rear curtain syncs also that you can play with – you can have the flash fire at the BEGINNING of the exposure or at the END of the exposure – read your manual for this one)
Jill @ Create.Craft.Love. says
So cute! Love how these turned out!
Camille says
Adorable! And man, are you good with an Exacto knife! (ha ha) 🙂
Jessi says
Haha, thanks! Lots of practice because, without a cutting machine, everything is cut by hand! It’s a pain, but my skills are improving, so that’s the up-side. 🙂
Maris King says
Vinyl Windows are perfect for the house. Love it so much. The cat is very cute. 🙂
Debbie says
Wow, it looks amazing!! What a perfect idea for your Halloween window, I love it and will be pinning this for my Christmas inspiration. Thank you!
Saw you partying at Whimsy Wednesdays.
Debbie 🙂
Emily says
Spooky! I love this idea – especially the cat.
Mary@Back to the Basics! says
I decorate my office and skip the house. Too much going on! Your windows look great!
Kelly at Smart! School {House} says
Thank you for linking up to Whimsy Wednesday with The Melrose Family and Smart! School {House}. I had to share this on G+ It’s so cool!
Kelly at Smart! School {House}
Jessi says
Glad you like it! And thanks for sharing it!
Andrea @ This Pug Life says
I love this, I might have to give it a try this year. How would you go about storing them to use next year?
Jessi says
If you keep the backing paper when you put up the decals, you can just stick the decals back onto the backing to store them. Or you can stick them to the shiny side of some wax paper to keep them safe in storage. Good question!
Leah says
That window looks great, Jessi!
Meredith Hazel says
So cute!!
Thank you so much for joining the CHQ Blog Hop today! We hope you “meet” some other fabulous bloggers…don’t forget to tell a friend to join too, the more, the merrier!!
xo, Meredith @ http://www.waittilyourfathergetshome.com
Feral Turtle says
I really love your window. Looks amazing!!! Found you at CHQ Blog Hop and am your newest linky follower. Hope you come by….www.feralturtle.com Cheers
Jeanette says
LOVE This! I’m going to make some for our front windows. I especially love the orange lights that you put inside the windows. I never thought of doing that! Pinning this one!
Leslie says
I love your decals! Where did you get your vinyl because I have been thinking of doing some handout decals like this. I am not lucky enough to have a machine either. Stopping by from Craft & Tell, following you now!
Jessi says
I bought the vinyl online because I wanted a roll of it rather than just a few printer paper sized sheets. I bought mine at Expressions Vinyl (http://www.expressionsvinyl.com/) because they had good prices, selection, and availability, but there are a ton of online shops out there that I’m sure you can find with a quick Google search for “craft vinyl”. 🙂 Shipping wasn’t too expensive and it showed up about four days later, so it worked well for me!
Audrey says
Wow….that looks great! I’m almost tempted………. 🙂
Jessi says
Haha, you should do it Mom! It’s easy and cute and totally removable once Halloween is over!
Katie says
I was wondering what people used craft vinyl for. NOW I KNOW. That window looks ah-mazing!
Jessi says
There’s tons of other things you can use craft vinyl for too, but I think the funnest (yes, funnest!) is making window decals! But I have some ceramic canisters in my kitchen that I plan to make little labels for, now that I have this vinyl. It’s basically like a giant, fun, cut-able sticker!
Katherines Corner says
Jessi this is terrific! Hugs