DIY Nightmare Before Christmas Welcome Mat

What’s this? What’s this? A new welcome mat for Halloween?!

Okay, I couldn’t resist… and, yes, now that song will likely be stuck in your head all day.

With the start of the fall season, it’s time for an update to my porch decor. I’ve previously shared my DIY painted welcome mats inspired by Star Wars and Jurassic Park (check them all out here!), but this time I wanted to make one that was a bit more festive. And with Halloween right around the corner, I decided to bring a little Pumpkin King to my neighborhood with this Nightmare Before Christmas-inspired welcome mat.

(And, yes, I consider The Nightmare Before Christmas a Halloween movie, although when I recently asked on my Instagram story, most replied that they thought it was both a Halloween AND Christmas movie! Guess that means this rug can stay out for both seasons…)

DIY Jack Skellington Welcome Mat

What You Need:

• Plain coir rug
• Outdoor acrylic paint — black and white
• Foam paint brushes
• Two pieces of 12×12 cardstock paper
• Straight pins
• Cricut Explore Air II and cutting accessories (mat, weeder)
• Jack Skellington Face Stencil — DOWNLOAD 1 (LEFT) and DOWNLOAD 2 (RIGHT)

First thing first, let’s talk rugs. I buy all of my plain rugs from IKEA. They are WAY more affordable than if you buy them off of Amazon or even from craft stores. IKEA sells their plain coir rugs in two sizes. To fit my porch, I chose the smaller size which is roughly 23.5 inches wide by 15.5 inches tall.

To start, download the two files found in the list above and cut them out using your Cricut Explore Air II (or by hand). Since I only have a 12×12 cutting mat, I split Jack’s face into two sides to allow me to cut each piece out on a 12×12 piece of paper and make the total width of his face 15 inches wide. Load both files into Cricut Design Space, then highlight both layers and change the width to 15 inches (this should dynamically resize both files so that in total their width is 15 inches). Note: if this approach does not work, the exact height and width measurements for my first file (the left side) were 7.491 inches wide by 12.695 inches height and for my second file (the right side) were 7.602 inches wide by 12.695 inches height.

Cut each side of Jack’s face out on black card stock paper, then weed out the extra pieces and set aside.

Next, paint the top of your mat with your white acrylic paint and let it dry entirely.

Once your mat is dry, lay out both sides of Jack’s face in the center of your mat and secure them using straight pins to keep them in place.

Using your black acrylic paint, cover your sponge paint brush entirely (you’ll want to have a good coating of paint on your sponge) and dab the sponge on the area you are trying to cover. Be careful to only dab up and down so that you do not accidentally move or paint under the pieces of your stencil. Take your time painting and, if needed, add a second coat of paint to get your desired color on your mat.

After painting over your entire stencil, let your mat dry. Once the paint is no longer wet (or earlier if you’re impatient like I am), slowly and carefully lift off your stencils.

If needed, feel free to go back and clean up any edges or light spots with extra paint.

All in all, I’m really happy with how this DIY Jack Skellington welcome mat turned out — it’s a little bit spooky with a dash of mischief… and a whole lot of fun!

And, naturally, Anzu approves! He is a mischief maker himself, after all.

FIND ADDITIONAL WELCOME MAT TUTORIALS HERE.