DIY Halloween Marquee Letters

Hey there! We are twin sisters Kelli & Kristi of Lolly Jane and we are just thrilled to be back for this spooktacular series by the cutest trio of sisters we know! Leave it to Jamie, Jen and Jodie to get us in the Halloween spirit… now our houses are decked out, we’re on a roll and can’t stop! (Check our site soon for a kick off of fresh spooky tutorials + treats!)

Today we’re sharing our first spooky craft of the season: DIY marquee letters, Halloween style.

We’ve seen a handful of adorable summer marquee tutes around Blogland and decided to put a black, orange and purple twist on it. It was a snap to make and really makes a statement that Halloween is near!

To get started you’ll need just a few supplies….

• Americana multi-surface paint in black, purple.

• 12″ Cardboard letters from Joann’s, (be sure to use your Joann, Hobby Lobby + Michael’s 40% coupons!) We originally thought of the phrase “BOO!” but our Joann’s were out of O’s, darn it. “EEK!” is just as cute and sure to make the same statement.

• 70 ct. mini lights x2 (found in the Halloween aisle at Walmart)

• Foam brush x2 (fact: Kelli is a foam brush hoarder and has over 200 in her craft stash! LOL)

Alrighty, let’s get started shall we?

As you can see, there are a lot of steps but we promise it’s worth it for how stinkin’ cute these are!

First things first, using an X-acto knife, remove the FACE of each cardboard letter.
Paint the outside black.
Paint the inside purple.
Using a white colored pencil, mark where each bulb will go, appx. 2-ish” apart.
Drill a 29/6″ hole through each white pencil mark, (the same as your light.)
Push each lightbulb into the hole, nice & snug!
Because of how the strands are made, the string won’t match up exactly with the number of holes so using bakers twine (or small zip ties) simply tie the extra lights down to the strand.
To connect the strands to the next letter, simply plug into the outlet and keep on marking, drilling, filling in until your Halloween marquee lights are finished and eerily glowing! (;

Before they were plugged in….

We are huge fans of PicMonkey.com and played around with the letters in different finishes. Here’s one at “dusk”, LOL. In person for real, the lights of the glow is just so pretty!

We debated about what color to paint the inside of the letters so here’s a peek if they had been painted orange:

These letters are such a fun addition to our DIY Halloween decor, like our spider egg wreath, haunted birdhouses and last years project we shared in Spooktacular September, our skull plaques:

To see what other Halloween fun we’re up to, you can catch up with us on Insta, FB, Pinterest or Twitter. And a BIG thanks to the eighteen25 hotties for the invite to be here today! Muah!