# countdown sign



## Dr. Evil (Oct 14, 2004)

Hahaha nice! I would love to live across the street from you. Everytime I would look out the window Id be so excited lol


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## Wolfman (Apr 15, 2004)

Bat, that is really nice, what are those letters, 8" high? The kids will...just a sec, what's that? ONLY 36 DAYS LEFT? Gotta get out to the Workshop!


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## Dark Gardener (Mar 10, 2005)

That is awesome! And can I just tell you that your front door and that big old tree are high on the spook meter! The shape is great...I'd be painting that door black...the whole house would look great black as well...

...course, I tend to paint everything black. I'm sure the next time I show up to buy another gallon of flat black at the hardware store, they're going to lock the doors and pull the shades after I leave...


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## jkcoop (Oct 11, 2004)

I like the velcro idea. Much better than my method last year. I might have to use that. It looks great!


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## SouthernBelle (Aug 30, 2004)

Looks awesome!

Just one question. What happens to it if it gets wet?


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## Hacknslash (Aug 23, 2005)

Looks fantastic!!! Love it!!!!


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## BATFLY (Oct 2, 2004)

oh forgot to mention, i was off by 2 days. it was 38 days till halloween. i changed it shortly after the pics were taken. now it's 37 days. i sprayed the letters and numbers with clear coat spray paint stuff to seal them. worked great! about ot get some night pics soon as soon as the people a few houses down's party dies. i always feel like a dork photografing my stuff at night. =P


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## Greencapt (Sep 13, 2005)

I swear your house looks almost exactly like the one I used to live in in Tampa!


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## Haunted Plainfield (Mar 18, 2005)

Cool sign man. Love to see the night shots.

Know what you mean, I was taking pictures of props in the yard to post on my site and the neighbors were kinda peaking out. 

Makes it worse when you just moved into the neighborhood and don't know everyone.


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## BATFLY (Oct 2, 2004)

so i fell asleep before the party a few houses down did last night =P but i bring you night time pics no less =D i made them into animated gifs to show with and without the flash. the camera made it look a lil funny without the flash, but black light stuff and cameras never really get along. all the cars are slowing down to read it as they pass. you can see this sucker from FAR away! and yes those are 8 inch tall letter }=D i've already had one kid ask "37 days till what?" and then a reply of "SWEET!" after i say 'halloween.' i can hear other kids as they pass saying "cooooool it glows" and "can't wait, what it will be like this year?" 

oh joy!



















i'm very pleased!!!


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## SouthernBelle (Aug 30, 2004)

I totally want one of those. What do they cost to make?


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## Guest (Sep 24, 2006)

I'm so excited!

Dad, are we there yet? ! 

It looks really good!


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## BATFLY (Oct 2, 2004)

not much to make at all, the wood is left over from the coffin. had some spare 2x4'. the blacklight was $10 at walmart. would have paid the extra for a 4 foot one instead of 2 foot one in hindsight. some screws and wood glue. was pretty simple. orange posterboard was about a buck or two. 2 cans of black spray paint another 2 bucks. and the clear coat wat liek 2 i think also.


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## SouthernBelle (Aug 30, 2004)

BATFLY said:


> not much to make at all, the wood is left over from the coffin. had some spare 2x4'. the blacklight was $10 at walmart. would have paid the extra for a 4 foot one instead of 2 foot one in hindsight. some screws and wood glue. was pretty simple. orange posterboard was about a buck or two. 2 cans of black spray paint another 2 bucks. and the clear coat wat liek 2 i think also.


Okay then, it's settled ... you're hired! When should I expect it? Who do I make the check out to?

What? You thought I meant that I wanted to build it???? No way, I just wanna buy it. LOLOL!


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## NecroBones (Oct 1, 2005)

Awesome sign! I need to make one of those


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## icemanfred (Aug 18, 2005)

Love the sign,
what font did you use?
if those letters are 8" high and thats a 2' BLACKLIGHT.
What is the total length?


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## Haunted Plainfield (Mar 18, 2005)

If you scale that image up so that the letters are 8" tall, it would appear this prop is just about 36" of printed space. (The math is saying 34")


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## BATFLY (Oct 2, 2004)

the words are spaced more than the font is supposed to be for clearer reading from a distance. i also looked at the *.psd file and the font is actually 10 inches tall! some numbers and letters are wider than others also, such as the d and 7. you can imagine how thin a 1 is. there's also some inches on the edges past the words and numbers. the sign is 4 feet long. 

i can't remember what font it was, but here is the very printer friendly photoshop file i used. (click link, then select save to disk when promted) just show only one layer at a time and print. don't print the red lines layer or the baground, they are just guides. if you dn't have photo shop, PM me and i'll email them to you as jpg's. =)


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## haunted house noob (Sep 14, 2004)

thats really cool. cant wait to see the night shot. i think i might do something like that!

1 questions though.....do you not mow your lawn when you close to halloween...haha


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## Haunted Plainfield (Mar 18, 2005)

Save to disk??? Now that's old.



FYI, Layer F has both A and F on it.

I was reading the layers without looking at them saying "there is no A!"


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## BATFLY (Oct 2, 2004)

ooops hehe, sorry, f is a and f =P

haunted house noob: the night shots are on the top pf the second page, and i let my grass grow from mid sept to halloween in the front yard only.


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## haunted house noob (Sep 14, 2004)

BATFLY said:


> ooops hehe, sorry, f is a and f =P
> 
> haunted house noob: the night shots are on the top pf the second page, and i let my grass grow from mid sept to halloween in the front yard only.


haha. i was only looking on the first page, and i didnt see the next page button...haha oops.

the grass will give it the haunted house feel to your yard!


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## Guest (Sep 24, 2006)

I've just been looking at this again. I really like it!!!!!!

I've shown your picture to my husband:

Is the hood a regular fish tank hood? I see you got the black light from Walmart and recommend the larger one. From your picture, it looks lit up pretty well. Do you just want it seen from a further distance? Or is it not holding up as well as you hoped. A lot of the black lights in store Halloween displays are pretty low wattage and don't have much effect.


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## BATFLY (Oct 2, 2004)

i made the hood myself. it's basically three pieces of ply wood and 3 sections of 2"x4" cut and 45 degree angles. the middle 2"x4" section is cut on the front point to make room for the blacklight anchor wich is just about 2 feet of 1"x2". the top is 4"x4'. the sides are 8"x4'. i would have used a 4' blacklight if i were to redo the sign. oh, and the light is one of the flourecent blacklight tubes, not the bulbs. walmart has good prices for 2 and 4 footers in the lightbulb section.

here's a quick 3d thing of the hood. gray is the top side ply wood pieces. brown is the 2"x4"s. purple is the blacklight anchor.


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## pyxl (Sep 25, 2006)

The font looks like Ghastly Panic. It's a free font from a cool guy named Chad Savage. I've been loving his work for a couple years. You can download it here: http://www.sinisterfonts.com/
The only thing I note, is that the original font has really different letter scales, so you'll have to adjust the letter sizes to get it like you see it on the countdown sign....
I might email Chad and see if he'd "modify" his font to standardize the sizing....BTW, this is my first post. Hey everyone.


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## INGUTSwetrust (Aug 15, 2006)

Hey PYXL, welcome.

I love that sign, i want it. Very vibrant glow paint you got there. I have one question though? How do you change the number of days that are left. Do you bring that sign down everyday and repaint it?


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## haunted house noob (Sep 14, 2004)

INGUTSwetrust said:


> Hey PYXL, welcome.
> 
> I love that sign, i want it. Very vibrant glow paint you got there. I have one question though? How do you change the number of days that are left. Do you bring that sign down everyday and repaint it?


he siad that the numbers are velcro. so he just has to paint the numbers, then cut them out....that would be horrible to repaint it everyday....


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## icemanfred (Aug 18, 2005)

I was thinking of useing a section of plastic gutter I saw at home depot


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## BATFLY (Oct 2, 2004)

the letters and numbers are bright orange posterboard. the kind kids use for school projects. and you are correct, the font is ghastly panic. also forgot to say earlier, while cutting, i cut up to a quarter inch wider outside the font lines for better visability at a distance. the font is real thin. sorry for not mentioning it before, i blocked most of the letter cutting out process from memory i think. i used crappy sissors and my hands were so sore. in the file i posted, i had elongated some of the numbers and letters so they were uniform. they are different sizes in the regular font. 

so, using my printout guide, seperate the letters and numbers and tape them to some flourecent poster board. cut them out going a lil wider than the lines in the thin places. some areas i didn't cut out extra at all. it makes sense while you do it.

i also, once again, sprayed the letters and numbers front and back with a clear coat sealer so they are weather proofed.

i used the velcro very sparringly. the fuzzier (female) velcro is used on the numbers. the hook (male) velcro is the two wide strips used on the sign. the sign gets it's velcro pulled every day where as the numbers are only used once every 10 days. even less for the left hand numbers. this was my reasoning on using the weaker velcro side on the numbers and the stronger on the sign.

here's a pic of how sparringly i used the velcro. i used a 1" wide by 3' long strip. i cut the 1" into thirds at first, then fourths since i though i was going to run out. i ended up with almost a foot left. you can see the two sizes of strips.










last note for now, after painting the ply wood black, the words were just glued on using regular elmers glue.


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## iowagirl (Oct 26, 2008)

I wanted to bump this up because DH and I made this tonight and it's freakin AWESOME! Thanks for posting it!


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## iowagirl (Oct 26, 2008)

Our pics:


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## iowagirl (Oct 26, 2008)




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## BATFLY (Oct 2, 2004)

that looks great! it's cool how far away you can see it isn't it! especially at night. wow only 60 days already? i better get crankin!


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## iowagirl (Oct 26, 2008)

Thanks again for posting it. The kidlets in our neighborhood were waiting as it went up oohing and ahhing! lol 

I'm really shocked at how well the fluorescent poster board looks under the black light. Pretty awesome!!


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## alucard (Dec 1, 2008)

I love countdown signs! I hope to get one made by next year.


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## jgilmour (Aug 22, 2021)

holy crap this is so spooky - i LOVE it


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