Here is a short video to show you what the chaser lights look like... If anyone knows where to get these lights please Email me and tell me where...

{{{NOTE}}} this project involves a hot wire cutter or a hacksaw could possibly be used for long cuts

Start with a piece of pink 1" thick foam board, the size is up to you. you can make this sign as large as you like but the smaller it is the harder the detail is to make. So this is for a small warning sign for the kiddos.

You want to cut 2 pieces of foam the same size with a hot wire cutter or a jig saw, or anything that will cut it.

Once the boards are cut pick one to write on with a marker. Since we want this sign to look kind of eerie I just free handed it. My writing is scary enough so this worked out fine.. You want to make sure you don't get to to close to the edges. Stay about 1" to 11/2" from the sides with your writing.

Now I used a straight soldering iron to burn the letter into the foam. If you are one of the lucky ones to own a hot knife, im sure this would work even better... So since the foam is 1" thick you should be able to put the foam on a flat surface and push the iron all the way down to the table. You WANT the words to burn all the way through the foam. If your iron is too short and the large part burns down a bit that's OK! I go back and push the larger part down into the foam to widen the front of the letters anyway.

Once you burn the front of the letters all the way through, turn the foam over and use the smallest part of the iron to retrace the letters on the back and open them up a little more. If you want to go down to the larger part of the iron on the back this is ok to. Just be careful not to make the letters too large.

Here Im showing that I do go to the larger area of the iron to widen the top of the writing. Like I said, if you do this on the first pass its ok and actually saves some time.....

Ok so once the burning is done, grab the back piece and cut out 2 ends and 2 tops. This pic only shows 3, forgot to put the 4th one in the shot. So cut these pieces the same length as the sides and top.... skip ahead a litte in this tutorial to see what your shooting for if you need...

This is the four outer pieces we just cut. I use cheapo spray adhesive lightly sprayed on the back of the ends and then push them down in place on the inside of the back foam piece so they stay. Now these pieces are not to ever come off again so if you want to make for sure it is not gonna come off you can use foam glue or some other foam safe adhesive if you like, the spray stuff seems to work well for me so that's really all I use.

So now I just spray a little adhesive to the corners of the bottom of the front piece so I can cut all the pieces at once. This top piece will be coming back off after this cut so don't secure it for permanent.

Here is where I use my hot wire foam cutter to cut all 3 layers of foam to match. This is sooooo much easier to do with a hot wire cutter but you might be able to use a hack saw blade to do the same thing. (never tried it) you want the edges to be jagged and uneven so it look's anything but completely square. If you don't have one of these cutters I highly recommend making one!!! Especially if you do a lot of foam work.....

Ok after you cut the outsides of the sign all the way around, take the top piece back off. Use Reynolds Rap and pull off a sheet as big as the inside of the sign. Spray the inside of the sign with adhesive and put the foil down with the shinny side up. smooth it all out and push it into the corners.

If you have excess foil hanging over the top just cut it off with scissors. You don't want any over lapping or when you put the top on it wont stick to the foam. So just cut it off or even fold it back a bit.

Now you want to make a place for the Christmas lights plug to hang out of. I do one of 2 things. Either burn a hole large enough for the plug to go through and push the plug through it like I show here in the pictures. OR just find a spot in the side wall that is thin and burn a small slit out to put the light wires through.

Now you wanna take your Christmas lights and lay them down in a circle.  Make sure they lay down as best as you can. You DON'T want any of the lights sticking up and going through your sign. You may want to use something to hold your lights in place, I used hot glue in places. This way they don't slide down to the bottom after you get the top on.

Now take a BRIGHT paint and paint the letters. What your wanting to do is get the inside of the letters to be bright as possible. Don't worry about the outside of the sign, you will be painting it with gray house paint in the end anyway. Make sure you spray the inside of the letters as well, front and back. Now on the paint, some paints will eat the foam. Most of the time I will use a water based paint in an airbrush. BUT this pink foam seams to hold up very well to cheapo spray paint. I used florescent pink on this one.

Ok so at this point you want to spray the back boarders of the front piece of foam. Put it down on the other piece and hold down for a few seconds. Now all you need to do is paint the outside with gray house paint using a paint roller and flick a bit of black and white paint dots on it all over. If you want it to look like stone. You can also paint black cracks in it if you like.

Using plain ol white house paint mixed to be a medium gray, I used a brush to paint the whole sign. Make sure you lay the brush at about a 45 degree angle or the paint will just cover up the bright paint inside the burn out. Now this is gonna happen no matter what, so you will need to go back in and repaint the parts of the bright paint where you get the gray.

You will need to do at least 2 coats of gray.. once dry you can take a brush and dip it in black paint and flick the brush or swing it over the sign to create black dots and do the same with white paint. when this is dry take a small paint brush and draw lighting looking cracks on the sign if your shooting for the rock look...

This is one I made  for my entry way. The warning sign is using just regular ol orange Christmas lights with no flash, but I HIGHLY recommend using flashing lights. My favorite is the ones I used in the Kammo's Lair sign, they are chaser lights that I cant seem to find anymore. They twinkle, chase, fade and all kinds of things. LOOKS AWESOME!