Halloween...Banner!

several lovely stores are selling these paper banners. maybe you've seen 'em? they are an old idea that has been in many cute magazines and i just saw a pre-made kit at a local craftstore, and although it was only about $5, it was a little cheesy for me. sooo...since i don't want to spend the money for the very excellent upper end banners, i thought i could certainly make one myself! don't be fooled by the sub-par picture up top, this is crazy cute! and if you are even sorta crafty you (and your kiddos) can whip one out in no time, AND you probably have nearly everything in the crafty cupboard to do it!

i used 4 different types of orange papers: a metallic-ish variety, one that looks handmade, a lighter marbled orange, and regular pumpkin colored! you could definitely go with your own color scheme to suit your fancy and current paper stock. i then used one of my trusty circle cutters, and cut several 4" circles of each color. then my hubby hole-punched 2 holes near the top, and my kids took turns affixing sticker letters. then we strung them on, like you can see in the above shot, and placed 2 black circles to help seperate the letters into words. it took about 30 minutes, everyone helped and we had some great family time doing it. i cheated a little by using stickers (i avoid cutting with scissors if i can possibly help it) but you could use your sizzix machine (people still have those, right?) or stencil and cut out letters. a word here...i love these banners for ALL sorts of occasions. i first fell in love with a happy birthday one from the pottery barn, several years ago. and then re-fell in love with a material option from the land of nod. there are limitless possibilities to do this idea and i am sure i will feel the need to remind you of them when it comes time for another fancy holiday celebration!