Halloween Spooky outdoor sign

The following items are used to create this project:

1. one sheet of 3mm birch wood
2. one sheet of black cast 3mm acrylic
3. wood glue
4. B-7000 Plastic/acrylic glue
5. red and white paint
6. (optional) Alien tape to display on a wall.

Step 2) In this step the project begins with a fresh session of XCS software. First step is to select a font from the text feature, This project uses a rounded font, this particular font is not part of xcs list of fonts but is installed on my computer. Once the work Spooky is spelled out it is outlined with the outline button. This first outline is set to have an offset of 0.279. The next thing is to have a second outline but this time it is a negative offset of -0.16. These 2 outlines makes a border around the word.

Step 3) Now it is time to add some creatures, these are all SVG's format so they can be set to cut. I set them to cut so you only see the outline of each of them. Now they can easily be placed around the border that was first created. 

Step 4) Now for these creatures, these also need to have an outline, however before we go any further they are all copy and pasted to make a copy for later use.

Step 5) Now it is time to combine the creature outline to the border, this is done one by one and by selecting the outside of main border with the outside of each creature. once these are selected together the unite button is used. Then it is on to the inside outlines. This is done the same way but by selecting the inside of the border and the inside of the creature outline. Once these are selected together the same unite button is used. After that is complete you will be left with the main border but now with the 4 creatures outlined together. Now you can place the copy and pasted creatures in place along with the work spooky and highlight the word and the creatures but this time select subtract. This will take away the shape of the creatures that overlap the word.

Step 6) Now comes the time we set up the layers ready for scoring and cutting each material. To do this we need to copy the very outside of the main border , this creates the actual backing of the project. Then the new wording we created with it's bits missing is also copied, one to be cut from the birch and one to be scored on the backing for help lining up. Then the copy of the actual creatures are also set to be cut from the sheet of black acrylic. So all total there are the main backing with the scored letters, the letters to be cut from the birch, the creatures to be cut from the acrylic.  

Once the laser has cut and scored all the parts, there are painted the selected colors with spray paint. Once the paint has dried they are glued together and the assembly comes together to complete the project.