Spooky Halloween Banner Tutorial

Kayela e-mailed me recently and asked me how I made my "Welcome to Sixth Grade" banner, and it reminded me that I've been meaning to make a "Spooky" Halloween banner.

Yes, I realize that Halloween is just a week away, but I've always been an eleventh hour person anyway, so here goes.

I've been thinking about this banner for a long time, over a year, and all this time I've known that the letters had to be cut out of black glitter paper. I found this awesome stuff at Target in their scrapbooking isle. You get two pieces in a package for a ridiculously cheap price. 

Fine. I really can't remember exactly what I paid, but I know it was cheap.

I used this Halloween paper pack and I think I got it at Wal Mart. Or Michael's.

Okay, somewhere. It's made by K & Company, does that help?

You should be proud of me because I took notes on everything I did on my Cricut, just so I could report back to you exactly what I did. For starters, I used the Old West Cricut Cartridge for my font. Of course I bought that cartridge because my girls are so horsey. I cut my letters out at 4 inches and my pressure was set to HIGH because the glitter was a little tougher to cut through than regular cardstock.

For my black cardstock background, I used the Creative Memories Reminisce Accents Cricut cartridge. The shape I used is the Doily with the Frame Shadow button activated. Pressed, whatever. I don't speak Cricut. The size I used is 4-3/4 inches.

I used the same shape for my background paper, and all my settings were the same except for the size. My size was set to 4-1/2 inches so that I'd have a very skinny black border of cardstock showing. The cardstock not only accents the banner pieces, but it makes it a little more sturdy.

I used tape runner to adhere my letters and backing paper. I found that I needed a lot more tape runner on the glitter pieces because the glitter shed a bit and made the sticky less sticky.

I think my favorite part of making this banner was picking out and placing all the cute Halloween stickers I bought for it. I found most of my Halloween stickers at Wal Mart for $1.50 per pack. They're super cute too.

In order to hang the banner, I used my Crop-a-Dile to punch two holes in each letter background shape to run my string through. It was kind of hard deciding where to put the holes, but I talked myself through it.

Once I punched my holes, I used my Crop-a-Dile to set eyelets in each of the holes. The eyelets will  help to keep the string that will hang the banner, from ripping through the paper.

I love my Crop-a-Dile.

It does a nice job setting eyelets and I don't have to use a hammer. That was back in the Olden Days that people used hammers to set their eyelets. I remember going to crops and getting a headache from all the pounding.

Don't tell me you're still using a hammer either. If you are, don't admit it, just sneak it into the tool box where it belongs, and go and get yourself a Crop-a-Dile. I'm pretty sure that Wal Mart even sells Crop-a-Diles. You can rationalize the purchase by reminding yourself how much money you're saving not having to buy so much Advil.

Once my eyelets were set, it was time to string my letters together. Since this is a spooky banner, it had to be black, so I went in search of this stuff. It's hemp cord which is used for jewelry making. No jewelry makers need to know that I'm using it for evil. I mean spooky.

I like to start at the end of the word so I don't have to waste time measuring and guessing how long I need my string to be. When I get the whole word on the string and get it all adjusted, then I just cut it and I don't have to waste any of it.

I also feed my string in through the front of the first hole, then back up through the second hole. I just think it looks better that way.

Halfway there, and I'm liking the way it's looking.

Isn't this dude CUH-reepy? He gives me the super creeps.

So many fun stickers, so little time.

Once the letters are strung together, I tied two pieces of ribbon to the string between each letter, and a few pieces at each end. The ribbon serves two purposes. First, and possibly most important, it provides cute. Second, it keeps the letters from sliding into each other, thereby keeping a uniform spacing of the letters.

This is the sort of thing that gives an OCD freak like myself hives.

There. No hives.

I apologize for the pictures. The natural light has left Idaho until May. We've had our fun, now it's time for winter.

I know I'm way late to be doing this, and you probably won't even be able to use it until next year, but who wants one of these creepy little things? I made an extra one for one of my lucky readers. Leave me a comment and tell me what your favorite thing about Halloween is. I'm only leaving this open for 24 hours. At 10:00 Monday night, mountain time, I'm picking a winner. Maybe, just maybe, you might get it in time to hang it up for one day.