Whimsy Stamps ~ Halloween Banner

Hey crafty pals, I'm back with a Halloween Banner today. One I've made to put across the fence so Trick or Treaters know we are a Halloween Friendly House. It's kind of how we do Halloween here in New Zealand. If there are no decorations, you don't knock, if there are, you know you're welcome. It's a relatively new celebration in New Zealand, so not all the neighbourhood take part. 

It's really tricky to photograph this banner well, because it's so big! So I've taken some closer shots to show the details and I'll share some on the fence later to show it opened out as it should be. I've designed the banner with several different parts, the Largest central part of the banner I've created a scene with Crissy Armstrong's wonderful Witch Legs again. There's no other stamp on the market I prefer to hers, these witchy shoes and legs are just brilliant and I've used them a number of times now. The first time, similar to this, I created a Trick or Treat bag, which can be seen here. You need to scroll down the page, as I've shared two creations and I recommend popping the picture up full size for a clearer view. I still have this bag and use it each year on Halloween to hold treats. The other notable creation I used these fabulous Witch Legs for, was my cauldron creation last year. Ooh I had such fun creating that! You can check that creation out here.

This year, I decided to make a banner using these fabulous witch legs, in a similar fashion to the candy bag creation. I cut a hexagon, just using my guillotine, as I wanted it larger than I had dies for. You may recall, I used the hourglass die to create a skirt base for a wedding dress card recently, so I did something similar here. But I wanted a 'full' dress, not slimline, so I cut the lower half of the hourglass die three times and layered the pieces up to create this full skirt effect. 

The mesh over this skirt base is of course some recycled avocado wrapping from my kitchen. I love upcycling these mesh wraps. They're brilliant for these sorts of creations. It doesn't show well in the photos, but I've ink blended lightly around the outside of the hexagon to darken the edges up a bit and then added the three bats for some interest around our witchie's skirt. I coloured her stockings with a bit of burgundy as well as orange this time, as I'd ink blended the 'spooky' diecuts with these shades and loved how that looked, so tied in that colour scheme in the stockings. You'll notice in some of my shots, the central panel only has 'Halloween' and no 'Happy', which is because I diecut and then promptly lost my happy! (It happens, I'm alright a few moments later, hehe) It did eventually show up again, so I added it for later shots once I'd found it.

I absolutely love this fabulous 'Spooky' word die from Whimsy Stamps, they have some seriously cool Halloween dies and this word die is one of my favourites! Another thing I've used a few times in different ways, recently here on a card, minus the bat, which I trimmed out. I occasionally cut the bat out to use as a stand alone element, but it's at its finest all together like this! You may note the largest of the bats on the hexagon centrepiece is cut from this die set from black cardstock. It's a pretty fabulous bat. I ink blended and water splattered the background then diecut the Spooky word from it twice, so I had symmetry each side of the hexagon. I've used the wavy nested dies to create the background shape I added them to. I ink blended the shapes with black soot to soften the edges before adding the diecut word art. I also cut the spider from a black inked section and layered that over the lighter one, then added some Black Stickles to give the spider body some dimension and glittery shine.

To complete the banner, I stamped one of the fabulous Fuzzy Spiders, who looked super fuzzy on this textured orange cardstock. I left the eyes orange for a bit of fun and stamped the 'boo' sentiment below from the same set as the kitty on the other side. I added a kitty, because of course a witch needs her familiar, and paired it with the 'trick or treat' sentiment which also comes with that set. I left the kitties eyes orange, but added white to the highlights. I added pom poms between the elements for a fun bit of interest and the twine is a fabulous Halloween bakers twine I used to tie all the pieces together, perfectly toned in black, orange and white from a local store here.

Here it is hung outside on the fence, embellished beautiful by mother nature with the built in cobwebs! I strung it on the inside of the fence for this shot, so it had a nice green backdrop, it will actually hang the other side for Halloween which faces the house. I'd like to use this banner again next year and hopefully for years to come, so I used eyelets to give a stronger finish for the twine weave through. 

Thanks for stopping in today friends, I so appreciate your visits. I hope you've enjoyed seeing this Halloween Banner adventure. I'll be back with another creation soon. Until then, I wish you a wonderful week. Hugs xoxo

(Affiliate links used where possible, to allow the companies I design for to track the effectiveness of my contributions. I receive a small commission, at no additional cost to you. I only design for companies whose products I love and buy myself. My opinions are always my own. Please feel free to use the Whimsy Stamps discount code in my sidebar.)