Truly Evil Halloween Decor

Halloween is here, and after picking up a Disney villains coloring book and being inspired by the white-on-black variant from a standard coloring book, I wanted to recreate the look and come up with some truly evil Halloween decor.

Each villain was made using a different method: 3d printing, scroll saw cutting, and coping saw cutting.

Here's how I put them together:

The materials I used:

12x12 3/8" plywood board
10x13 3/8" plywood board
1/4" cedar, cut to 3/4" strips
1/4" plywood
1/4" bloodwood
1/4" purple heart
Spray adhesive
Transfer paper
Wood glue
Black paint
White spraypaint
White filament
Red filament
Super glue
Danish Oil

The tools I used:

Inkscape
Fusion 360
3d printer
Circular sander
Brad nailer
Drill press
Scroll saw
Coping saw
Clamps

I started by choosing 3 of the villains from the coloring book and then scanned them into my computer. I took the scans and brought each of them into Inkscape. Using the 'trace bitmap' effect, I created a vector of each scan, and then used the selection tool to clean up the vectors and remove any of the extra elements that I didn't need.

For the 2 villains that were being cut, I printed out the vector picture and taped both halves together. Using spray adhesive, I glued the printouts to some transfer paper, and then cut each character out.

For Jafar and Maleficent, I took the 10x13 boards and painted each black. For the Evil Queen I did the same on a 12x12 board.

I took the cedar strips and started making the trim to fit the outside of each board. I used a sander to make the 45 degree angles for each corner, but this could easily be done with a miter saw or band saw. After each piece was cut out, I glued up the strips and used a brad nailer to nail each of the strips to the boards.

I repeated this step for each of the boards.

For Maleficent, I decided to scroll saw cut her outline out. I took the template I made earlier and stuck it to the 1/4" plywood board. I took the board to the scroll saw and cut out the outline.

I took the board to the drill press, and drilled starter holes for every section where I needed to feed the scroll saw blade through to cut the section out. I then cut out the rest of the character.

I removed the template, and then spray-painted the pieces white. After it was all dry, I used wood glue and glued the pieces to the frames.

For Jafar, I decided to hand cut his outline out. I took the template and stuck it to the 1/4" board, then used a coping saw to cut out the outline of the character. Like Maleficent, I drilled starter holes in each section for the coping saw blade, then cut out each piece with the coping saw.

It took a long, long time.

I spray-painted the outline white, then glued it to the frame.

For the Evil Queen I decided to 3d print her outline. I took the vector I created in Inkscape into Fusion 360 and extruded the outline up 1/4". I exported it to Cura (or your 3d printer software of choice), inverted the outline, and then sent it to the 3d printer.

Once it was done printing I took it off the print bed, and before taking it off the raft I super-glued it to the frame (hence why I inverted it in Cura before printing it). Once the glue set, I removed the raft from the print. Doing this also ensured that the smaller pieces would be in the same place they printed.

I wanted to add a small piece of color to each, reflecting the inspiration I got from the coloring book.

For the Evil Queen I printed a red apple.
For Jafar I cut a small piece of bloodwood for his jewel.
For Maleficent I used purpleheart for her eyeshadow.

After cutting (or printing) each piece, I glued them into place on each of the frames.

I took some sandpaper and smoothed out the cedar, then took some Danish Oil and oiled the cedar pieces, as well as the bloodwood and purpleheart.

The last thing to do was to hang my new evil creations, and stand back and admire my creations while laughing maniacally to myself.

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