Hello friends! Well Autumn has arrived and with it, all of it’s spendor. We live in the Midwest, so we are surrounded by the changing leaves and their gorgeous hues of orange, red, yellow. Pumpkin filled and flavored everything is in the markets and shops and warm fuzzy clothing has been unpacked and keeping us warm. Fall is the gentle reminder that nothing lasts forever and also the calm before winter, a gentle transition to the cold. So, let’s appreciate the time we have and enjoy our days connecting and crafting with our children, with our friends, or with yourself. I have some simple Halloween DIYs to share, let’s begin with a little something I like to call “The Boo Banner”

Spooky isn’t it? I always begin by asking Penelope “What would you like to make?” She will design it and I help make it happen. Child led play or creativity is the best kind! Let’s get started:

Tools for the trade:

1. Felt- we used 1 sheet of Orange 1 sheet of White 2 sheets of black.
2. Tacky glue or glue gun
3. Dowel or stick from outdoors
4. Yarn- we used black and white
5. Needle and thread
6. Your sketch or Online printout of image and letters of choice
7. Googly eyes
8. Glitter

The How To:

We wrote out our letters onto paper and held both paper and felt together for cutting. You may pin them together, or draw directly onto your felt if you wish.

Tacky glue those babies onto the felt!

Penelope drew the ghost directly onto the white felt, you can see her lines. The notebook shows her preliminary  sketches, aren’t they so cute! Cut the ghost parts out and glue, glue, glue!

We cut strips of Orange felt to add some color to the banner and also as a blank space to anchor the pieces onto. Glue top and bottom pieces to the Orange felt and add a strip of Orange to the top to match.

Glue googly eyes all over and slather glue for glitter onto letters if you wish. We happened to have white glitter which Penelope dusted all over and that gave the banner some nice texture and shimmer.

Let the whole thing dry completely. Fold over your top edge and sew across the bottom so you can put your dowel through the piece. You may also want to stitch your pieces on at this point. I just stitched the connecting seams with a simple straight stich, nothing fancy.

For hanging we braided yarn we had on hand.

I slathered glue along the edges of the dowel and wrapped the yarn around it leaving tassels at the ends. I lost my hot glue gun lol! So I was inventive and used a mini hair clip to hold the yarn down while it dried. If you have a hot glue gun that is not lost somewhere in your house, then you can just hot glue it all together and call it a day lol!

And there it is, all pretty and spooooky decorating our front door!

Hope you are inspired to cut and glue some felt together and doll up your windows and doors! Enjoy!

All images are copyright protected.