Hey, crafty friends! Decorating for holidays is one of my favorite things to craft for, and Halloween is no exception! I love to create fun combos of images on my Cricut and turn them into banners. This fun skeleton and bat fireplace decoration set is so spooky and cute and is a perfect way to add a festive touch to your home for Halloween! Let's get started...
Supplies
- Cardstock Warehouse cardstock paper:
- Bearly Art® Liquid Precision Glue
- Cricut Cutting Machine
- Hole punch
- Twine
- Ribbon
- Tulle strips
The first thing you'll need to do is open the Cricut Design Space file linked above and adjust the image sizes to fit your space. (Make sure you select all the pieces before you resize to keep the proportions correct.) Once you have all your pieces cut, section them into piles to make for an easy assembly.
To create the skeleton cameo silhouettes, apply liquid glue to the back of the skeleton section, and then place the gray oval facedown on top of the glue. Doing this from the back makes it easier to line up the two pieces correctly.
Repeat that process for both skeletons, and then add their embellishments. I added a flower to the woman, and a hat stripe and box tie to the man.
Now that those are done, we can start attaching them to the bats with ribbon. I am using a few kinds of decorative ribbon, including strips of tulle, to attach my banner pieces, but you can use whatever combination of ribbon or twine that you like best.
I wanted these to hang pretty close together, so I tied my ribbons tight enough to line them up, but not tight enough to rip the paper. I made this banner with only five "pennants" alternating: 3 bats, and the two cameos. This will by my center focal piece for the fireplace.
Now it's time to make the matching garland with skeletons and smaller bats! Glue together the two layers of the skeletons using liquid glue. For small/thin pieces, I like to place small dots of glue in multiple areas to prevent it from spreading too much.
Once all my skeletons were glued, I used my Crop-A-Dile hole punch to cut small holes in each of the skeletons' shoulders. I threaded the skeletons onto black and white baker's twine, alternating them with the smaller bat cuts. So simple but so cute!!
To complete my setup, I decided to make some 3D folded bats. (These are the bats at the bottom of the Cricut file. Feel free to resize some of them to different sizes to create variance, or choose other bat files in multiple flying positions to create a larger wall of bats.) I folded each bat in multiple locations, starting in the space between the body and wings, to make them look like they're flying. Different fold locations will result in different wing positions.
Now you're ready to decorate your fireplace! I hung the garland on the mantle with some black gauze cloth, then positioned the skeleton cameo banner in the center underneath. I added my bats where I wanted them, added some pumpkins and my life-size skeleton, and now my fireplace is ready for spooky fun!
Don't have a fireplace? No problem! You can hang these decorations on a wall, a shelf, a banister, in a classroom, or even on the walls of a cubicle! So many fun options for Halloween decorating!
If you make your own decorations, we’d love to see! Show us what you're paper crafting on Facebook or Instagram. You can tag your creations with #cardstockwarehouse to be featured in our stories.
Looking for more Halloween inspiration? Find more tutorials HERE!
Happy Crafting,
Melissa
Instagram: @diy_melissa and @sweetbuttercupdesigns
Etsy: Sweet Buttercup Designs