Happy Halloween Banner Tutorial!!

Halloween has never been a really big holiday to me, until about 10 yrs ago when we moved to this neighborhood. Each year, people drag out grills, tables and chairs and turn the street into one big party. It’s a great way to get to know neighbors and it has made our street quite popular. One gal a few houses away used to set up a haunted yard with lights, smoke, creepy music and all. A couple of my grandaughters wouldn’t even go near the place when they were smaller! Notice I said “used to set up a haunted yard” ? Well, as is not uncommon, poor Mom worked and slaved setting the thing up and then worked and slaved to put it all away with little help from kids or husband. They all wanted it set up but didn’t want to do any work. When I asked her about it last year, she said “I’ve had it. I don’t get help and it’s too hard on my back.” Alert for kids and hubbys out there…..if you want the special holiday stuff….maybe you need to offer some help. Is that a big “YES” I hear from the Moms? 
So, once we moved here I felt compelled to decorate a bit and have a porch party. I made this garland…..now let me preface it by saying it’s getting a little worn and I need to spruce it up a bit…

I’m going to tell you how I did it but you won’t have any pics of work in progress because this was WAY before blogging….
I was inspired by a Mary Englebreit issue (remember that mag…LOVED IT) where the porch was filled with vintage paper lanterns and lights interspersed with lengths of black netting. I didn’t have vintage lanterns but I knew I could duplicate the feeling much more cheaply.
I used an orange nylon rope from Home Depot, plastic pumpkins designed to carry candy, orange lights and lots of black netting and tulle.
Lay out the length of the garland. Mine attaches on either side of my front door and goes out to a center point across the porch, forming a “V”. One good idea is to not make it longer than your light string as it get’s a bit difficult to handle. Begin by winding the light string around the rope….lay it out on the floor or in the yard to make it easier. Once you have the lights in place, space out the pumpkins and attach then to the rope/light string by tying them on with 2 ft lengths of black net. Add more black net between the pumpkins. Done! Very easy and it really looks good at night. I have gotten many compliments on it and it is very unique. You’ll see in the picture the smaller “Boo” lanterns? I found those a few years ago after Halloween for a really cheap price. I added them in to bulk up the look. You can do the same with anything else you want….raffia, skeletons, orange tulle, purple tulle….there is no limit. it looks better and better with more stuff. here it is again…

Here is another decoration I made soon after. Again, no working pics but it’s easy to see how it’s done I think.

I love Bethany Lowe Halloween stuff so this is similar to her vintage look. The banner is paper and although I hung it outside for the picture, I usually have it indoors. Mine hangs over my kitchen island so it is two sided. if you don’t care about the back, just do one set of the following. So, to be clear…if you want to see both sides, double the following instructions (10 of each triangle and 10 pictures).
Here are your supplies:
Black seam binding, (one package of seam binding is 3 yds so if you want a longer banner, you’ll need to attach two pieces or buy ribbon in the length you want. Seam binding is cheap and easily available, so that’s what I used) orange and black cardstock, copied (or actual) encyclopedia pages, black crepe paper streamer, rubber cement or paper glue, deckle edge scissors, antiquing mediums (ink pads, colored pencils, etc), vintage Halloween pictures (easily found on the internet).

This banner is 5 large triangles interspersed with 4 crepe poufs. Cut 5 triangles measuring 8 in wide at the top x 10 in long. Cut 5 printed triangles 7 in wide at the top x 9 in long. Trim the edges with the deckle scissors (or style of your choice). Glue the printed paper onto the orange cardstock leaving a nice even border. Glue your image right in the center and when it is all dry, distress it up as you like. Cut sawtooth borders from the black cardstok. You will need to experiment a bit with the size to fit along your triangle. If you look at the picture, you will see that I ended the sawtooth evenly and then took one single ‘tooth’ and turned it upside down at the point to finish it off. NOTE: if you are making a double sided banner, you will sandwich the sawtooth between the two triangles.

Next we’ll make some poufs. Cut 4 3 1/2 in round circles from orange cardstock. Take a length of the black crepe paper streamer and gather one edge with your fingers, begin attaching it to the back of the circle using hot glue or paper glue. Another method (if you sew) is to stitch with a gathering stitch along one edge (about 3/8 in. inside the edge) and then pull up thread to gather. The crepe paper is pretty strong so you can gather it nicely. After you have applied either the hand gathered or machine gathered ruffle, trim it shorter if you want to in order to get the look you like. Now we’re ready to assemble:

Lay out the seam binding and find the center. You have 5 triangles, so one will be right in the center. Glue the seam binding ON TOP of the triangle so it has a neater look. NOTE: if you are making a double sided banner the seam binding will be on top on one side and behind the triangle on the other side…it looks just fine. Decide how much space you want between the triangles and poufs and start placing and gluing. NOTE: if you are doing a double sided banner, you will glue a second pouf on the reverse side of each pouf as well.

Here is another look…

You can, once again, do much more to this to personalize it…glitter, more crepe ruffles, anything you like!
Finally, I wanted to share a link to a cute Halloween sign from Chatty Cathy
http://chattycathy-clipyourstring.blogspot.com/2011/10/vintage-halloween-sign.html

It’s nice and chilly here….I think I’ll drag the firepit around the front and we’ll have a nice fire while we sit and watch all the cute kids Trick or Treat….have a wonderful night!