MAKE SPOOKY HALLOWEEN HANGING DECORATIONS
IN OUR house it is Halloween all year. In fact I pick up most of my home decor in the shops about now (cute spooky of course, I don’t go for gruesome).
I can never have enough Halloween decorations, so we usually end up making a few each year to add to our collection.
Paper balls make great hanging decorations as they are so light and easy to paint. Plus they have a ready-made hole in the top to push ribbon into.
This year I set myself the challenge of thinking of spooky characters I could make with paper balls. I came up with a ghost, a skull, a witch’s cat and a pumpkin. I’m sure you can think of plenty more.
YOU WILL NEED
Paper balls (about 3.5cm across); paint (acrylic works best); coloured card; pipe cleaners; ribbon for hanging (at least 15cm for each); strong glue; fabric scraps; pens; pencil; scissors
METHOD
1. Before you begin, widen all the holes in the tops of the paper balls slightly with the pointy end of a pencil. This will help you attach your hanging ribbons. When painting decorations, always make sure the hole is at the top.
2. For the ghost: Take a small piece of white fabric big enough to completely cover the paper ball and drape down. Put a blob of strong glue into the hole in the paper ball and, using the point of a pencil to help, push your ribbon down into the hole. Leave to set.
Find the centre of your fabric and make a small hole. Push the ribbon through your fabric and drape it over the ball. Trim the fabric to the right length. Carefully add features in pen or paint (pen can bleed on fabric so test it on a scrap of the fabric first).
3. For the skull: Make a small ring of thin card big enough for your paper ball to sit in. With the hole at the top, glue the ring in place and leave until set. Paint the whole thing white. When dry, add details with black paint and then glue in your ribbon.
4. For the black cat: Paint your paper ball black all over. When dry, glue on some triangles of black card for ears (add bits of pipe cleaner for fluffiness if you wish) and paint on your cat’s features. Glue in your hanging ribbon.
5. For the pumpkin: Paint your paper ball all over in pumpkin colours. When dry, paint on its features.
Cut some lengths of green pipe cleaner and bend to make a vine.
Push these into the hole at the top of the pumpkin along with your hanging ribbon and glue in place.