It’s finally spooky season! As the leaves start to change colors and a chill enters the air, people everywhere start to think about their Halloween plans. About a quarter of Americans plan to throw or attend a party, 66% will hand out candy to trick-or-treaters, and 41 million people will visit 123 million houses asking for treats — and 79% of parents will steal some candy from their kids’ baskets…
With so much going on this Halloween season, it never hurts to let passersby know what you’re up to. Whether you want to decorate your home, invite trick-or-treaters, or kindly explain why you shouldn’t be tricked, here’s how to create a Happy Halloween yard sign to post on your property.
Pick a template
Sure, you could design your Halloween yard sign from scratch, but you’re busy planning your holiday festivities! For quick and easy Halloween yard sign ideas, it’s always easiest to use a template to get started.
There are thousands of free Halloween flyer and yard sign templates available online. Simply visit the PosterMyWall website, hover over the Templates tab at the top of the screen and choose Flyers. Then, type “Halloween” into the search bar to bring up all the 7,000+ Halloween-related templates.
Once you find the template you like the best, click on it to open it in the editor. From there, you can customize the design to make it perfect for your holiday celebration.
Select the size
Before you make any changes to your template, make sure it’s the right size. There’s nothing worse than getting your Happy Halloween yard sign just right only to have to resize it and mess up all your great formatting!
In the editor, find the Resize tab on the top toolbar. Naturally, the Yard Sign size is typically the most common size for yard signs; imagine that! They default to 24 by 18 inches. However, you’re welcome to choose whichever size best fits your design ideas (or what fits comfortably in your yard).
Swap the background
With your template sized correctly, the next step to designing the perfect Halloween outdoor sign is to choose a background. You’ll want to pick a background that makes it easy to see the text and images but also fits the “spirit” of the holiday.
You’re welcome to use the background that comes with the template, but if you feel like a change, press the Background button on the bottom left of the editing toolbar. From there, you’ll see a few background editing options:
- Solid color
- Gradient
- Transparent
- My Backgrounds (upload from computer)
- Stock Photo
If you have an image on your computer you’d like to use, select the My Backgrounds option to upload a file. If you prefer a more basic background, you can select a solid color or gradient.
Pro Tip: Basic backgrounds are best if you want to include graphics or text with fancy fonts and effects. Gradients and solid fill backgrounds go well with complex foregrounds.
Update the text blocks
Now that you have the perfect background, it’s time to think about your messaging. The Halloween yard sign templates on PosterMyWall come preloaded with text, but that doesn’t mean you’re stuck with what we want to say.
To update the text in the template, simply double-click on the text block you want to edit and start typing! With the text block highlighted, you’ll also see a toolbar appear on the right side of the screen with all other editing options like font style, text size, and alignment to get your text exactly how you want it.
It’s always nice to add a dash of fun to your Halloween decorations. Here are some examples of what your yard sign can say:
- Trick-or-treaters welcome!
- Trick or treat, stay six feet, take something sweet to eat
- Spooky good treats here
- Eat, drink, and be scary at our Halloween party
Of course, you’re not stuck with just the text blocks the template suggests. Click on the Text option on the left side of the screen to add text blocks (even Fancy Text!), edit the font, color and make minor tweaks. You can use the editing toolbar to add shadows, filters and various styles (such as bold or italic) to your text.
Choose some fun images (or stickers)
What’s a Halloween outdoor yard sign without a few images? Whether you want to sprinkle a few scary ghosts and bats or include a fun pumpkin or two, it’s easy to add images to your yard sign template.
If you want to replace an image with a file from your computer or drive, click on the Replace option below the image and choose the image you want. When you get the right image in your yard sign, just like with the text block, simply click on the image you want to edit to pull up the toolbar on the right side of your screen to edit things like edge effects, shadow, and glow to get it just right.
On the left toolbar, you can also add additional images to your template design by clicking on the Photo or Elements options. Elements are things like shapes, clipart, QR codes, and stickers. Stickers can contain moving elements, which are great if you’re posting your sign online but not great if you plan on printing your sign and posting it in your yard. Obviously, they won’t move very well once printed — but they look great on the computer!
Download, print, and post
With the background, text, and image elements just right, it’s time to finalize your project. Give your Happy Halloween yard sign one last lookover and click the Download button at the top right corner of the editor.
From there, you can choose the details of the download like quality and size. Since this project is designed to be printed on a large yard sign, make sure it’s high quality!
Once you have the project downloaded to your computer, you can send it to a print shop or print it out on your own. Then, stick it out in your yard to let all the trick-or-treaters and passersby know that your house is the place to be this Halloween season!
If you want to spread Halloween cheer in more places than just your front yard, you can also click the Publish option to send your Halloween yard sign design straight to social media, email campaigns, web pages, or any other online format you like.
With PosterMyWall, it’s easy to create a happy Halloween yard sign DIY design that’ll spread creepy and fun holiday cheer all October long!
Bookmark our Halloween marketing guide and resource pack below.
Senior editor at PosterMyWall.
