Halloween Pennant Banner

It's time for the monthly Designer Crafts Connection blog hop to begin and this month we are focusing on Celebrations!  For our give-a-way prize this month - visit  Julie McGuffee's blog and see how you can win a DVD set of the new TV show Scrapbook Soup, Series 100!  And don't forget to click on the link to the right to visit more creative blogs from talented designers and see their fun celebrations ideas!

And now for my Spooky Celebration decor.... RIT Liquid Dye, Blumenthal Lansing Buttons, and Plaid Extreme Glitter are the key elements in this decorative banner great for a Halloween party or for displaying just for fun during the spooky season.   Don't let these lengthy instructions "scare" you away - It's really easy to create! 

Materials: 

RIT Liquid Dye - Tangerine, Purple, Black  (www.RIT.com) 

Disposable craft gloves, bowl, water, paper towels, microwave, small paint brush 

White cardstock 

Plaid Extreme Glitter - Black and Orange and Folk Art Silver Sterling acrylic paint(www.PlaidOnline.com) 

Blumenthal Lansing Buttons - Spiders from Big Bag Value pack of Bats & Spiders, Violet and Fern Glitter buttons (www.BlumenthalLansing.com) 

Google eyes in various sizes 

Elmer’s Craft Bond Tacky Glue (www.Elmers.com) 

X-Acto scissors, retractable craft knife and decorative edge scissors (www.Xacto.com) 

Clear Contact paper 

Green eyelets

Crop-A-Dile tool (www.WeROnTheNet.com) 

White sheet or white cotton fabric 

Decorative faux spider webbing 

Black felt (www.  

Red Sharpie marker 

Brown chenille stems, scrap burlap, wooden skewer 

Faux gemstones in assorted sizes 

Instructions: 

To create faux handmade/mulberry paper - 

Wearing craft gloves, for Tangerine and Purple, in separate bowls add one tsp of each color RIT Liquid Dye and 1/2 cup water.  Microwave for approximately 1 1/2 minutes.  

Gently crumple sheet of white cardstock.  Unfold and press to flatten.  Place onto scrap paper.  Use paintbrush to brush dye directly onto cardstock.  Flip over and repeat on back side.  Place onto paper towels and microwave approximately 2 minutes.   Repeat until you have at least 3 sheets of each color.

For grey/black “spiderweb” paper, wearing craft gloves, in bowl add 1 tsp Black RIT Liquid Dye and 1 cup water.  Microwave approximately 1 1/2 minutes. 

Measure and cut clear Contact paper for each piece of dyed paper.  Mount clear Contact paper to BACK side of each piece. 

Determine desired size of pennants.   Draw cutting lines on back side and cut out pennants using decorative edge scissors.

For project as shown, you will need 4 orange, 3 grey and 3 purple.

For orange pennants, on back side draw jack-o-lantern face.  On cutting mtat, use retractable craft knife to cut out face.  

On front of each orange piece, use small paintbrush to apply lines of orange Extreme Glitter approximately 1” apart.  Let dry.  

Use Elmer’s Craft Bond Tacky Glue to mount Blumenthal Lansing leaf buttons on two and brown chenille stems twisted to create stems for remaining two. 

For spider pennants, coat several black spider buttons in assorted sizes with black Extreme Glitter.  When dry, use Elmer’s Tacky Glue to mount to grey pennants.        

Use Elmer’s Tacky Glue to add faux gemstone eyes to each spider, adjusting size of eyes to match each spider size. 

For Frankenstein pennants, on two pennants mount green rectangular buttons as shown.  

Cut small piece of black felt and cut edge to create spiked hair.  Glue to top of button as shown.    

Mount two small google eyes on each green button head.

Use red Sharpie marker to draw mouth on each.  

Add small scrap of burlap beneath each head.  

Paint approximately 1” of a bamboo skewer with silver paint.  Let dry.  Cut 4 small pieces (approximately 1/8”).  Mount to either side of button Frankenstein head.  (These are his “bolts”.) 

Mount purple glitter buttons randomly around head.   

For last purple banner, mount purple and green glitter buttons in assorted sizes.  Add google eyes in assorted sizes to green glitter buttons. 

Tear 1/4” strip of white sheet. 

Use Crop-A-Dile tool to mount green eyelet approximately 1/4” down from top of each pennant on right and left sides.   

String sheet through each eyelet and double knot.  Cut to fit.  Repeat until all pieces are strung together as shown. 

Stretch small amount of faux decorative spider web across the top of entire banner over white sheet strips.   

Hang and enjoy the spooky season!