I added a rectangle to my canvas which would represent the size of the sign.  Make sure your proportions lock is unlocked.  I did not and did not realize until I went to put the final product in a frame that it was the wrong size.   More on this later.  The file attached is 8x11.  If you want to put it in a standard frame, you'll want to resize before you continue on to the next steps

Normally I would download a font I like and add it to my computer and then it would show up in XCS.  But I knew the halloween fonts I wanted to use would not be used for everyday.  My work around was to screenshot them in the website I got them from, Dafont, and bring them in a as an image and then trace.  To do this I went to Dafont and clicked on Horror themed fonts until I found the one I liked.  I then typed in “OUR BOO CREW” and hit large preview and got an image of how it would look.  I then used the snipping tool in windows to screenshot the image.  Once saved on my computer, I brought it into XCS.  I then used the trace function in the edit image menu to get a good trace.  I played with the  Fuzzieness threshold, denoising, smoothness functions until I got the trace as close as possible to the original.  Do note, it will not be exact, and if you want that you'll want to download the font from the website and add it to your computer as I stated above.  But I got it close enough to my liking.

Once I had the words on the canvas, I decided I would engrave the OUR and CREW but would make BOO a cut out added on top of my board and larger than the other two words.  To do this, I needed to separate the words.  There is no easy way to ungroup vectors in XCS, but it is doable.

I made 2 copies of the words.  Then I added a rectangle to my canvas and on the first set of words I put it around Boo and crew and clicked on combine subtract.  This removed the BOO and CREW and left the word OUR.  I then repeated the process with the other two copies until I was left with OUR BOO CREW as individual vectors.  I resized the boo to my liking and put it on its own layer. 

I was pleasantly surprised at all the great images XCS has built in for Halloween.  I clicked on Shape and then Festival and chose three different shapes for each family member: myself, my husband and my son.  Next I added our names using the XCS font Grandstander and chose the thin style.  I added each name individually and place them under each shape.  To make sure they were aligned I used the line grid in XCS.  For the Our and Crew I selected them both and clicked on Align, Vertical, Align Center.  The Boo I just eyed it in the middle.

I repeated the process I did with OUR BOO CREW with our Name.  I found a font I liked and screenshot it and brought it into XCS as an image and did a trace.  Since I was not separating our name, I simply placed it under our Names.

First step was to add the sub board to the P2.  I added some slats and placed the material on them.  I chose laser slats and had the machine do auto measure.  I went back to XCS and hit ignore on the BOO, and the 3 shapes.  I hit process and then start.  The P2 engraved everything and then cut the sign out.

I had some left over wood already painted black and orange and placed each into the P2 and had the machine cut our the shapes and the word BOO. The camera on the P2 is excellent for helping place images on scraps of wood.

The great thing about smoke sub is the char from the engraving wipes right off with a magic eraser.  I wiped off the char, and then I used crazy glue to add the three shares and the letters BOO.  I went to put the picture in a black frame and that is when I found out that I had made the board the wrong size.  I had made it 8x11 instead of 8 1/2x11.  This is a lesson to always check that your proportion lock is off when entering width and length.  I had not and that is how I ended up with the wrong size.  

The only thing left to do was to display it without a frame.  As was, I felt it needed something more, so I went back into XCS and cut out 3 bats that I added to the top and bottom of the sign.