Beck

25 Halloween Fonts Perfect for Crafting

25 Halloween Fonts Perfect for Crafting

Halloween is one of my favorite times of year to play around with fonts. There are so many different directions you can take a Halloween project, and the right font can completely change the personality of the finished design.

I’ve got a few (lol) Halloween fonts in my collection, so I picked 25 that are especially fun for crafting. You’ll find spooky, creepy, witchy, playful, gothic, retro, and just plain weird options in the mix.

Whether you’re making Halloween shirts, signs, tumblers, trucker hats, stickers, party decorations, or something completely different, here are 25 Halloween fonts worth adding to your crafting arsenal.

Spooky Babe is a playful ghost-themed font that’s cute without losing its Halloween personality. It’s a fun choice for shirts, stickers, signs, treat bags, and other projects where you want something a little more adorable than terrifying.

Creepy Crawly has a wiggly, wormy look that works especially well with Halloween designs featuring spiders, bugs, or other creepy crawlies. It’s also a nice versatile choice for doormats, trucker hats, signs, and shirts.

Boo Crew is a fun, friendly Halloween font that’s perfect for all those projects that need a little spooky personality without going full horror movie. Try it on shirts, mugs, signs, party decorations, or Halloween gifts.

Bewitching has a more polished, magical feel that works beautifully for witchy Halloween projects. Use it for signs, apparel, invitations, labels, or any design where you want the Halloween theme to feel a little more sophisticated.

Abrakadabra brings a little spellcasting energy to your projects. This one would be right at home on witchy signs, Halloween shirts, potion labels, party decorations, or anything else that needs a bit of magical flair.

Witchy Spellbook has exactly the sort of name you’d expect to see on a very suspicious book sitting on a witch’s shelf. It’s a great choice for potion labels, signs, shirts, Halloween decor, and other projects with a magical or occult-inspired aesthetic.

Broomsticks is another fun choice for witchy projects, particularly when you want the lettering itself to carry some of the Halloween theme. Try it on signs, shirts, mugs, tote bags, or party decorations.

Mystic Starlight leans into the celestial side of Halloween with a witchy, mystical feel. It’s especially fun for projects involving moons, stars, tarot imagery, astrology, or other magical designs.

Stardust Spell adds even more celestial personality to a Halloween project, with decorative stars built right into the lettering. It would be a fun choice for shirts, signs, stickers, invitations, and witchy home decor.

Moonspell has a mysterious, slightly magical look that works well when you want something more atmospheric than outright scary. Use it for moon-themed designs, witchy sayings, Halloween signs, or cozy spooky season decor.

Frankenstina is a playful monster-themed font that’s a great fit for kid-friendly Halloween projects. Try it on shirts, treat bags, party decorations, signs, greeting cards, or anything featuring your favorite monsters.

Abomination has a playful personality and is perfect when your Halloween project needs to look a little creepy but fun. It’s a great option for horror-themed shirts, signs, stickers, and other spooky designs.

Scarecrow Horror has a creepy, sinister quality that makes it especially fun for Halloween designs with a darker country or horror aesthetic. Put it on a shirt, sign, Halloween decoration, or anything else that needs some serious spooky atmosphere.

Witchborne has a distinctly witchy personality that makes it a great choice for Halloween crafting. It’s a fun option for shirts, signs, hats, mugs, decals, and other projects where you want a little magical attitude without a complicated design.

Goblin Groove brings a little retro weirdness to the Halloween lineup. It’s playful enough for fun Halloween crafts but still has plenty of personality for shirts, signs, stickers, party decor, and other seasonal projects.

Enchanted Grimoire has a spooky display style that feels right at home on Halloween signs, labels, greeting cards, shirts, and other crafts. It’s especially good when you want your lettering to look like it came from an old spellbook.

Ghosties is a great option when you want the Halloween theme to be obvious without making the project scary. It works especially well for cute Halloween shirts, stickers, party favors, signs, and projects featuring little ghosts.

Pumpkin Chunk is a playful Halloween sans that works particularly well for projects centered around autumn & spooky season. Use it for shirts, signs, mugs, porch decor, stickers, or anything pumpkin & fall-related.

Witchmark has a strong witchy personality that makes it an easy choice for Halloween signs, apparel, labels, decals, and other projects. Pair it with a few simple Halloween graphics and you’ve got a whole design without needing much else.

Zombie Dust is made for Halloween projects that need a little monster energy. It would be fun on shirts, stickers, treat bags, signs, party decorations, and other projects with a zombie or horror theme.

Nightmarish is a good choice when you’re going for a darker Halloween aesthetic. The name pretty much gives away the assignment here. Use it for horror-inspired shirts, signs, decals, Halloween decor, or spooky graphics.

House of Haunts has a wonderfully creepy haunted-house feel that makes it a natural choice for Halloween signs and home decor. It could also work well for shirts, invitations, labels, and other projects with a haunted-house theme.

Sanderson is a fun choice for witchy Halloween projects, especially if you’re going for a classic spooky aesthetic. Try it on signs, shirts, mugs, hats, invitations, or Halloween party decor.

Lunatic has a darker, slightly unhinged personality that’s perfect for horror-inspired Halloween projects. It can give a short phrase or simple design a much creepier feel without needing a lot of extra decoration.

Zodiak brings a darker, sinister true crime feel to Halloween projects without relying on a ton of tiny details. It’s a great choice for shirts, signs, stickers, hats, and other crafts, especially when you want something with a little more edge than a traditional Halloween font.

Choosing a Halloween Font for Your Next Craft

One of the fun things about Halloween fonts is that you don’t have to stick with one particular style. A cute ghost font can completely change the feel of a shirt compared with a distressed horror font, and a witchy display font can turn a basic sign into something that looks like it belongs in a haunted corn maze.

If you’re using a font with a Cricut, remember that being installable in Cricut Design Space doesn’t automatically mean it’s a great choice for cutting. Smooth edges, sturdy shapes, and enough detail to hold up at your finished size can make a big difference, especially with vinyl. If you’re working with one of the more detailed or textured Halloween fonts, you can always use it for print projects, sublimation, Print Then Cut, digital designs, or other applications where you don’t have to worry about weeding tiny pieces of vinyl.

Halloween is a pretty good excuse to get weird with your fonts. Pick a style you love, find a project that fits it, and see what you can make.

If you like one or more of these featured fonts, drop by to check out my All Access Design Pass.

What’s that?

I knew you’d ask! The AADP gives you full access to all of the resources I offer! For 30 whole days, you get access to everything, and you can download til you can’t see straight! All of these fonts are included, plus 500+ others and over 5,000 SVG files for literally all of your crafting needs.

Click that button below to check it out!

25 Halloween Fonts Perfect for Crafting Read More »

What is a Handlettered Font? Learn More!

What Is a Handlettered Font?

If you’ve ever wondered what makes a handlettered font different from a regular font, the short answer is pretty simple: I actually handletter it. Ya know, write it. Not create it with a mouse doing a little clicky-clicky on my computer. (The clicky part comes later.) It almost feels silly to consider writing a blog like this, but leave no stone unturned, right?

I’m immersed in the hand lettered font world on the daily, so it seems second nature to me to know what a hand lettered font is and why it’s different from other types of fonts. But every expert was once a beginner, and understanding the creation process might help you down the road! I’m talking to you, crafters…graphic designers…anyone with an interest in lettering, letterforms, fonts, calligraphy. You get the point.

A handlettered font starts with actual lettering drawn by hand rather than being designed entirely from shapes, curves, and anchor points. That gives the finished font a more personal, organic feel. I’ve been obsessed with handwriting since I was a kid. I had penpals as a youngster and one of the reasons why getting mail was a favorite thing for me was because I got to see other people’s handwriting, and the variation that happens whenever you’re writing naturally. Letters can have variations in shape, stroke, spacing, and little quirks that make them feel like someone actually wrote them…because, duh, someone DID write it.

But getting from a piece of handlettering to a font you can install and use is where things get a little more involved!

It starts with the lettering...

When I create a handlettered font, I begin by drawing the letters. I almost always, like 99% of the time, do my lettering digitally on my iPad with Procreate. I think that it’s really convenient to do a little tap to erase my mistake instead of wasting paper and ink. It means no clutter, no sheets of paper, and even more writing utensils than I already have. I start with the alphabet, and then move on to numbers, punctuation, symbols, and accented characters. I love creating a robust, feature-rich font, so if it calls for it, I’ll work on alternate characters and ligatures, too. Script fonts can require even more work because the letters need to connect and interact with one another properly.

That alphabet you see in the finished font represents a lot of individual pieces of lettering, layers in Procreate, and going back to draw & draw some more.

Here’s a quick little glimpse of a lettering file that I pulled from Procreate to Photoshop as a .psd file. This lettering is where Cinnamon Season started. Each grouping of letters here gets exported from PS as a .jpg file (so three total) and all three imported into Illustrator, which will take me to my next step.

Then comes the cleanup...

Handlettering is supposed to look handmade, but that doesn’t mean I leave every wobble, stray mark, or accidental blob exactly as it appeared in the original drawing. Taking a raster image from Procreate and transferring to my Mac is the first step, and then I need to convert everything to vector.

In a perfect world, every little bit that is lettered would be useable straight away, and if that was the case, I’d probably have thousands more fonts ready to go because I’d spend less time obsessing over details, jagged points, and unevenness. Every single character gets cleaned up so that it can be used in the font; every single character gets the same level of obsessive scrutiny.

This is one of those parts of font design that isn’t particularly exciting to look at, but it makes a huge difference in the finished product.

Here’s a little peek at that. Once the letters have been vectored, I line them all up using guides – one baseline, one cap height, and then I do a third one right in the middle. It’s not quite x-height for that guide – this is the guide that I place so that I know approximately where my exit stems will line up. 

Every letter has to play nicely with the others, and the devil is in the details.

One of the trickier parts of creating a font is making sure the letters work together.

A lowercase a might look fantastic by itself, but how does it look next to an r? What form of r will be used? What happens when you put an o beside a v? Does a script letter connect naturally to the letters that come before and after it? Would you like a ligature with that??

Spacing matters, too. You want to mess with a font designer?? Simply say, “kerning pairs” and you’re likely to get an eye twitch. And let’s not even discuss how one errant bearing value will wreck your entire programming experience, because when you try to fix that single value that you didn’t realize was mistyped, you’re setting off a chain reaction. I’ve nuked all of my programming before because of this exact thing…started all over at the beginning.

The font has to work in the real world, in real world applications.

Once the characters are drawn, cleaned up, and working together (mostly), there’s still plenty to do before the font is ready for the wild. I test fonts in different words and phrases, check how they behave at different sizes, and make sure the characters work properly across the kinds of design software and projects people actually use them for.

For fonts intended for crafting, there are additional things to consider. A font that looks beautiful on screen isn’t automatically going to make a great Cricut font. Smooth edges, nice-looking shapes, and sensible details can make a big difference when the letters are being cut from vinyl or other materials.

Here’s a little example of testing. I love Cupcake Ipsum for testing, but I do use a variety of ipsums and individual letter pairings in every case combination, in addition to many other text strings to adjust the font and uncover any possible issues.

Why handlettered fonts look a little different

One of the things I love about handlettering is that it doesn’t have to look perfectly uniform. In fact, I love the variance and imperfection that comes with a handlettered font. Oddly enough, sometimes it’s difficult to create that type of detail when you’ve been at it for a while and you’re in autopilot to create a letterset that makes processing and programming easy peasy.

A handlettered font can have slightly uneven strokes, imperfect curves, and variations that make it feel more human. You can see in that image above that there’s a certain amount of “bounce” with the lettering – it doesn’t have an even baseline, not all letters connect with others. It’s a slightly neater version of handwriting, it looks & feels natural.

Sometimes, you might even come across ligatures where the characters run together, connectors are atypical and inconsistent. (The lowercase ng combo is one that stands out to me; the letters run together and loop around when I’m scrawling a note down.) That’s part of the point.

Those little imperfections are often what give a font its personality. Remember that what you’re seeing is more than a collection of letters. There’s a whole alphabet, a lot of drawing, a fair amount of cleanup, and quite a bit of very picky attention to detail hiding behind that little font file. Handlettered font designers need to decide how much irregularity is appropriate for the font they’re working on, all while trying to produce something that our customers will think is perfect for their project. It’s such a weird line to walk, but it is one of the challenges I love most about this job!

The font used in this post is Cinnamon Season.

What is a Handlettered Font? Learn More! Read More »

25 Cute and Easy Halloween Cricut Projects You Can Make

Halloween is a pretty great excuse to put your Cricut to work. There are so many materials you can cut, draw, and personalize that you can keep the machine busy well beyond a few Halloween T-shirts. I’ve rounded up 25 Halloween Cricut projects that cover everything from party decorations and trick-or-treat gear to home decor and gifts.

cricut projects

1. Halloween T-shirts

Create a spooky, funny, cute, or slightly unhinged Halloween shirt with iron-on vinyl. Layer multiple colors for a more detailed design or keep it simple with a single-color cut. Shirts are some of my favorite Cricut projects to make. They’re usually pretty easy and everyone loves them.

Witchy Woman SVG

example of cricut projects

2. Halloween Sweatshirts

A Halloween sweatshirt is perfect for larger designs and more detailed lettering. It’s also a pretty good excuse to wear Halloween clothes for an unreasonable number of weeks.

Spooky Bitch Season SVG

example of cricut projects

3. Trick-or-Treat Totes

Make reusable trick-or-treat bags with canvas totes and heat-transfer vinyl. Add a name or a favorite Halloween design to make each one personal.

Witch Better Have My Candy SVG

example of cricut projects

4. Personalized Candy Buckets

Give each trick-or-treater their own customized bucket with vinyl lettering or Halloween graphics. Names make these especially useful when you’re trying to keep track of several identical buckets.

Sanderson Serif Font

example of cricut projects

5. Halloween Porch Signs

Cut vinyl for a simple sign or create a layered design from cardstock, wood, or other materials. Large Halloween lettering makes a particularly good porch decoration.

Blackmoon Script

Midnight Apothecary Serif

example of cricut projects

6. Halloween Door Hangers

A Cricut can cut the lettering and decorative elements for a layered door hanger, giving you plenty of room to get creative with shapes and textures.

Jackolantern Face SVG

example of cricut projects

7. Halloween Window Decals

Turn your windows into temporary Halloween decorations with removable vinyl. Spiders, ghosts, bats, creepy lettering, and silhouettes all work well for this kind of project.

Cute Ghosts SVG

example of cricut projects

8. Halloween Car Decals

Add a little Halloween spirit to your car all year round with  vinyl decals. Keep the design simple and bold so it reads well from a distance, or go small and subtle.

Hauntings Serif Font

example of cricut projects

9. Halloween Mugs

Permanent vinyl can turn an ordinary mug into a Halloween coffee cup, cocoa mug, or seasonal gift. This is also a great project for small designs that don’t need much material.

Drink Up Sisters SVG

example of cricut projects

10. Halloween Tumblers

Wrap a Halloween design around a tumbler for a project that can be used throughout the entire spooky season. Layered vinyl can create some really fun effects. This example keeps it simple, which is equally as fun for a more understated option.

Light as a Feather Stiff as a Board SVG

example of cricut projects

11. Halloween Glassware

Use vinyl or an appropriate glass-etching technique to create Halloween-themed wine glasses, cocktail glasses, or party cups.

Pick Your Poison SVG

example of cricut projects

12. Halloween Koozies

Add a funny Halloween phrase or spooky graphic to a drink koozie. They’re inexpensive to make and make fun party favors or gifts.

Eat Drink and Be Scary SVG

example of cricut projects

13. Halloween Greeting Cards or Party Invitations

Use your Cricut to cut decorative cardstock elements, cut envelopes, score cards, create intricate borders, or add drawn details for cards celebrating the season. Go as complex or as simple as you like.

Criminal Display Font

example of cricut projects

14. Halloween Trucker Hats

Personalize a trucker hat with a Halloween design using heat transfer vinyl. Pumpkins, ghosts, spooky sayings, and simple graphics all work well on hats.

Creepy Crawly Sans

example of cricut projects

15. Halloween Keychains

Create personalized Halloween keychains from acrylic, faux leather, wood, or other Cricut-friendly materials. Add a name, initial, or small seasonal design for a fun little accessory or party favor.

Fright Club Display Font

example of cricut projects

16. Halloween Indoor Signs

Make a small sign for a shelf, entryway, kitchen, bathroom, or other spot inside your home. Layered designs, painted wood, and vinyl lettering can all turn an SVG into seasonal home decor.

Witchborne Serif Font

example of cricut projects

17. Halloween Doormats

Use a stencil or other Cricut-cut design to create a Halloween doormat. A simple spooky phrase or bold Halloween graphic can make a surprisingly fun front-door project.

Shadowgrace Display Font

example of cricut projects

18. Halloween Party Favor Labels

Create custom labels for small party favors such as candles, treat bags, cups, or other goodies. Add a name or short message to make even a simple favor feel personalized.

Boo Crew Sans

example of cricut projects

19. Halloween Candle Jars

Use vinyl to decorate a candle jar with a Halloween design or spooky saying. These can make cute party favors, seasonal decor, or gifts.

Estes Method Display Font

example of cricut projects

20. Halloween Phone Case

Create a Halloween phone case using a printed or cut design, depending on the method. This is a good small-format project for detailed SVGs.

Happy Halloween SVG

example of cricut projects

21. Halloween Party Invitations

Use your Cricut to cut, draw, or combine both techniques to create handmade Halloween cards. Layered cardstock designs can make even a simple card look much more elaborate.

Supernaturally Script Font

example of cricut projects

22. Halloween Gift Bags

Personalize plain gift bags with vinyl, cardstock embellishments, or other Cricut-cut designs. They’re great for Halloween gifts, party favors, or a little something for the kids.

Trick or Teach SVG

example of cricut projects

23. Custom Ouija Board-Themed Items

Create a custom Ouija board design using your Cricut to cut vinyl, cardstock, or other materials. Make a full-sized board for Halloween decor, or adapt the design for a sign, greeting card, or personalized piece featuring names and dates.

Spirit Box Font Family

example of cricut projects

24. Halloween Glass Canisters or Storage Jars

Add vinyl labels or decorative designs to glass jars and canisters. Candy jars, bathroom storage, and kitchen containers can all get a Halloween makeover.

Ghouls & Black Cats, Witches & Jackolanterns, Skeletons & Bats SVG

example of cricut projects

25. Halloween Laptop or Tablet Decal

Use adhesive vinyl to create a Halloween decal for a laptop, tablet, or case. This is particularly useful for showing off a detailed design or handlettered phrase.

Moon Phases with Stars SVG

example of cricut projects

Bonus: Halloween Pillow Covers

Add a large Halloween SVG or spooky phrase to a pillow cover for seasonal home decor. This would give you a nice, clean lifestyle mockup and a different type of project from the signs.

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year SVG

One thing I love about the SVG files featured here is that they can be treated as a complete piece, or a part of a design. They’re strong enough to stand on their own, but it’s also really fun to get a little extra with the designs, too. A single Halloween SVG can often be resized, layered, separated into pieces, or adapted for several different projects, so don’t be afraid to experiment! The fonts here are incredibly versatile, as well.

I wanted to make sure that there was a good mix of cute Halloween fonts, as well as creepy and scary-looking fonts, too, because you never know what someone’s preference for Halloween will be. Some years, I love going light & airy, magical fall-themed Halloween, and other years, I’m all about the dark, brooding, witchy vibes.

The Easiest Solution for Seemingly Endless Cricut Projects?

I’ve linked the SVGs and fonts used in these designs below each image if you love the project so much you’d like to recreate it yourself! Or, you can click the easy button – well, the All Access Design Pass button – and get all of these resources and so much more for only $30! This AADP is the solution for a ridiculously huge amount of Cricut projects for every season & occasion!

25 Cute and Easy Halloween Cricut Projects You Can Make Read More »

What Makes a Font Good for Cricut?

What Makes a Font Good for Cricut?

If you use a Cricut machine, you’ve probably noticed that some fonts cut beautifully while others make you wonder why you ever decided to choose that font in the first place. I’ll say it straight up: some fonts are not good for cutting projects with your Cricut! Just because you can technically install the font and use it in Design Space doesn’t mean you should. Cricut has fonts available for your use, both paid and free, which is fantastic because Cricut has already vetted those fonts for you. But sometimes, you have a very specific idea and you need an even more specific font for a special project, so maybe it’s time for you to learn what makes a font good for Cricut so that you don’t wind up frustrated with bad cuts or feeling like you’ve wasted money and materials!

What makes a font Cricut-friendly?

A good Cricut font should have clean, smooth edges that translate well when cut from materials like vinyl, cardstock, or HTV. Tiny bumps, awkward curves, overly complicated details, and extremely thin lines can all create problems. Brush fonts? Mostly no. Textured fonts with lots of sharp edges and cut-outs? Nope!! Can you cut vinyl with those fonts? Technically yes. Is it going to be a good cut? Almost always no. You’ll wind up with vinyl that’s torn and lifted up because your blade is gonna be working overtime for a cut like that!

So honestly, the best way to ensure that a font is Cricut-friendly is to make sure that it has a smooth appearance and that it doesn’t have much texture to it. A font may look gorgeous on your screen, but if the letters contain lots of tiny details or fragile connections, those details can become difficult to weed or even disappear completely when cut.

Smooth edges are one of the biggest things I look for when creating fonts specifically suited to crafting. The goal is a font that looks good on your screen and behaves nicely when your Cricut starts doing its thing.

(Oh, and let me just put this disclaimer here – if you’re cutting something large, you might be able to get away with a good-looking cut with a textured font…but small sizes? Skip that, girl. Don’t do it.)

Thin fonts aren't always better, even if they are smooth.

Super thin lettering can be beautiful for invitations, digital designs, and other applications where you’re working with a screen or printer. Cutting those same delicate lines from vinyl is a different story.

The thinner the details become, the more fragile they can be. This doesn’t mean you need to avoid delicate fonts altogether, but it’s worth considering the material you’re cutting and the size of your finished project.

For everyday Cricut projects, fonts with a little more substance tend to be much easier to work with. That said, if you have extra material and the inclination to test it out, go for it! Exploring limitations will only help you make future decisions as far as which fonts work for your crafty needs.

example of a smooth font for cricut design space

Smooth, clean font for Design Space | Autumn Love Script

Textured, ragged font – not good for Design Space | Unearthed Grungy Font

The material matters, too.

Even a very Cricut-friendly font can behave differently depending on what you’re cutting.

A design that works beautifully on permanent vinyl may be more difficult to cut from cardstock, and tiny lettering that works at six inches wide may be frustrating at two inches wide.

Before committing to a large scale project, it’s always a good idea to test your font and design at the size you actually plan to use.

What about fonts that aren't labeled Cricut fonts?

Remember just a few paragraphs back when I said that technically any font can be used in Design Space? Not all fonts carry the “Cricut font” descriptor. In fact, most font designers don’t create their fonts with Cricut users in mind like I do, but the font may be perfectly amazing to use in Design Space because it meets the smooth edge requirement and cuts well at varied sizes.

Labeling a font as a Cricut font is an important distinction, in my opinion, because it makes your crafting decisions a little easier. That’s why I make sure that fonts that are a good fit get that label! It’s been tested and vetted as a good fit, so you don’t need to worry about it. Check the link below to see the fonts I’ve labeled as Cricut-appropriate, so you can get a good idea!

Cricut Fonts

A good font should make your project easier!

And, just so you know: you should treat fonts that you install for Silhouette Studio the same way! Clean, smooth edges for cutting are best for any vinyl cutting you’ve got going on.

What Makes a Font Good for Cricut? Read More »

Handwriting Practice: How to Download on an iPad & Import to Notability

1. If you purchased through my website, your download link will be included in the email I sent you! Click that link to download, and skip over to Step 3.

If you purchased from Etsy, make sure you are logged into your Etsy account via an Internet browser (Safari, Firefox, etc.), NOT the Etsy app.  The Etsy app will NOT allow you to access your instant download.

2. Visit your profile, tap “Purchases and Reviews.” Locate your order, and download your purchase.

3. Locate your download (typically, the Files app unless you choose to save elsewhere), tap the folder to unzip. Long press on the .pdf file and select “Share.” Scroll through the apps shown and select Notability.

4. Notability will open automatically with the .pdf file & ask you to confirm the import. You can swipe up & down to move between the pages of the imported .pdf. You can also select the writing tool you’d like to use, which come preloaded in Notability.

Handwriting Practice: How to Download on an iPad & Import to Notability Read More »

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