I love making holiday plans each year that center around creativity with my kids. I truly believe that everyone should have spaces to be creative and that creating art worthy of display is for everyone. This year for Halloween I went into our paper stash and decided to make a Halloween scene out of simple shapes. It's a great project because it is easy to adjust shapes and plan things out before you glue them on. All it takes is some paper, scissors and glue. It's a quick craft that you can do while watching a Halloween movie or listening to some spooky music or an audiobook like The Witches. After you are finished you can display your spooky scenes on the wall as Halloween decorations. 

For my project I ended up choosing 7 colors I wanted to use so that it felt cohesive. I really love this card stock paper because it has so many colors in it and it's really nice quality. After choosing my background paper I took the other paper and decided what colors I wanted to be the main haunted house colors. I started cutting out large squares and rectangles, leaving them a bit oversized knowing I could overlap papers a bit or cut them smaller. After making the main house I started cutting out the details, using the scrap paper for the smallest details. After I had a good idea of what I wanted for the final scene I started glueing everything on that background paper from the back pieces forward. Then I added some fun details like the moon, bats, ghost, cat, and pumpkins. And it was as easy as that.

I hope this can inspire you to be creative this spooky season on your own or with your kids!

I love making these super cute award ribbons. They are so easy and quick to make and they are such a nice hand-made touch to add to a celebration. Today I'm going to give you a tutorial of how to make these award ribbons yourself for any Halloween gathering you might be hosting or to hand out on Halloween night to trick-or-treaters. Let's get into it!

Felt - You can get individual colors of felt at any local craft store but I really like these variety color pack because they give you lots of good colors that go well together.

Letter Beads - I like to have black and white and colored letter beads. These packs are super nice because they separate out the letters so they are easy to find.

Sequins and Small Beads for Decorating - I like to get a big variety pack of sequins and I have a collection of seed beads that I sometimes use for decorating as well.

Embroidery Thread & Needle - Needed to sew some details on these ribbons. I like to just get a big variety pack of embroidery thread so I can get a lot of good colors that are inexpensive but give me an ample supply of colors so I can color match easily to any project. These needles are good for hand sewing.

Ribbons - I love having a bit ribbon collection to make these ribbons. A variety of colors, textures and patterns are perfect for this project. I like to collect different ribbon packs along the way but here are a few good starter packs to get a good base. 

Classic Pastel Pack | Sheer Ribbons | Polka Dots | Gingham | Glitter Ribbon

Sewing Clips & Fabric Scissors- These sewing clips help to hold your fabric and pattern together while you are cutting it out. I love this pack because it is cheap and comes with a lot of extras so I have have a few handy in all of my crafting areas and you can use them for a variety of sewing and craft projects. Having a good pair of scissors you use only for fabric is also really helpful so the cuts on the felt are nice and sharp.

A good phrase is important for the middle of your award ribbon, here are a few ideas to get your creativity going.

Spooktacular

Cutest Costume

Most Bewitching

Spookiest Costume

Best Group Costume | Best Couples Costume

Spookiest Spirit

Master of Mischief

Fang-tastic

Boo-tiful

Eerie-sistable

Killing It!

Howl of Fame

Gourd Job!

Skelly's Choice

Chili Champion

Chili CookOff Champion

Best Spooky Snack

Most Bewitching Dish

1 | The first thing you need to do is cut out four pieces of felt, two circles and two ribbon pieces. I like to trace the shapes on card stock first. For the circles I simply used a ramekin and small candle to trace two circles because they were the size I wanted. The ribbons are long rectangles with just a sharp diagonal cut on one end. Once I cut out the card stock paper I use a sewing clip to clip each piece onto the felt and just cut along the edge. This helps keep all of my pieces consistent.

2 | Take the smaller circle and some embroidery thread and sew a consistent dashed line around the edge. Then you are going to sew on the letter beads with your chosen phrase onto the middle of the small circle. I like to lay out the letters before I sew them on to make sure they are centered. I also like to sew the full word on and then go back through two or three letters at a time to really secure the letter beads on.

3 | Now it's time to decorate with sequins and/or seed beads. At this point I split the embroidery thread to 2 strings so it is not as noticeable. I like to sew sequins on all around to add more color and a bit of sparkle to the award.

4 | Now take the larger circle and do a blanket stitch around the edge. The start and finish can be little messy so I always glue the ribbon part over that section.