ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Happy Halloween Garland from Cereal Boxes- Tutorial

Updated on October 24, 2012
Happy Halloween garland from cereal boxes
Happy Halloween garland from cereal boxes | Source

While scouring the internet for inspiration and ideas for some DIY Halloween décor, I saw some very cute handmade Halloween garlands and banners. So, I was feeling inspired and made this very nice "Happy Halloween" garland/banner. I still do not know if it's a garland or banner but I'll just say it's a garland for now. It was actually very easy to do and I think it came out really nice so I've decided to share how you can make one of your own. You can have it say Happy Halloween or Trick or Treat or whatever you like. It's a great Halloween craft to get creative with and add your own personal touches. One of the best things about this craft is that the letters were made using cereal boxes I had saved so I already had everything on hand to make it except the gingham material and ribbon which was like 4.00 total at Wal-Mart but you could rip or cut an old shirt up into strips and use that if you wanted and it would still look very cute! So not only is making this Halloween garland easy but it's easy on the pocket book too.

Supplies Needed

  • Cereal boxes or other cardboard packaging (same as chipboard)
  • Jute or other thick string
  • 3 spools of ribbon (orange 5mm, black 3mm and silver 6mm)
  • 2 different halloween colored fabric materials (1/4 yard off the bolt)
  • Black spray paint or black acrylic paint
  • Orange Acrylic Paint
  • Paintbrush
  • Spray or brush-on sealer
  • Scissors
  • Sharpie or similar marker
  • Glue gun and glue sticks
  • Computer and printer


Did you know??

You may have already heard of using chipboard for crafts... so what exactly is it?? Chipboard is basically a thin cardboard that is not corrugated and you can buy it at any craft store. However, did you know that you can save money by using old pizza boxes, cereal boxes, cracker boxes, etc instead? Cardboard food packaging is basically the same thing as chipboard! I keep all of my old cereal boxes etc. Instead of throwing them out, I will take the seam apart which makes it one flat piece, cut it into large sections and save them to use later. Sometimes I keep the side sections. They are the perfect size to make bookmarks, embellishments, gift tags, small shapes, etc.

STEP ONE- Cut Out Your Letters

First off you need to cut your letters out. It's super easy to do.. just open up a paint program, like Photoshop or similar, and pick a font and pick the size you want it to be and print out each letter on regular paper. I used the font Ravie and the size was 400px. You won't be able to fit all of your fonts on piece.. you will probably need to use several sheets of paper**. Once you print each letter on regular paper, you can cut each letter out and use as templates to trace onto the cardboard cereal box OR you can do like I did and skip cutting each letter out of regular paper and just trace each letter a few times with the cereal box underneath using a black sharpie. The sharpie will bleed through and create the lines to cut for you- so then all the cutting you will do, will be cutting the letters out of the cereal box. (Whew....hope that made sense!)

**Don't worry about having to print multiple pieces of paper with the letters on them. Whether you cut them out or trace them onto the cereal box with sharpie... you can save them and use them again and again :)

***I used the font Ravie because I knew it would be easy to cut out. The more intricate the letter, the harder it will be to cut out.

****If you wanted, you could actually skip using letter templates all together and draw your own letters onto the chipboard and cut them out.


printed letter on top of cereal box- ready to trace
printed letter on top of cereal box- ready to trace | Source
letter is traced completely over top of the cereal box
letter is traced completely over top of the cereal box | Source
Cutting out the letters from the transfer of the marker onto the cereal box
Cutting out the letters from the transfer of the marker onto the cereal box | Source
perfect...time to paint!
perfect...time to paint! | Source

STEP TWO- Paint Your Letters

Once you have your letters cut out of the chipboard it's time to paint them. I just use spray paint on mine but you can use acrylic paint like Folk Art brand if you prefer. I just usually use spray paint because it's quicker and seems to cover better. The Wal-Mart brand spray paint is a buck and has always worked great for me. It covers beautifully and dries quickly.

Paint your letters (front and back) with the black paint and let them dry. Take your orange acrylic paint and put polka dots on the letters. I use the end of a paint brush to do this.. it makes perfect little dots. Once you have your dots on let them dry... Then take your spray or brush on sealer and apply this to the letters. Sit letters aside and let dry for at least a day.


Happy Halloween letters painted black
Happy Halloween letters painted black | Source

STEP THREE- Glue Your Letters On

Once your letters are good and dry it's time to glue them onto the jute. Arrange them how you want them to read and lay the jute right above them so that you are sure you have enough jute. Then take the glue gun and glue the letters onto the jute.. making sure to glue them at the top of the backside of letters so they will hang correctly. Also, don't glue the letters too close to together- leave a little bit of space (1/2 inch to an inch) so that you can put your ribbon in between the letters.

I did two different pieces. I put "Happy" across one string and "Halloween" across the other so it's really two separate pieces which you can stack or leave straight across that will make one phrase. It would work fine all together along one string of jute.

You could also glue the letters onto the jute vertically if you wanted.. and just hang the garland vertically. I think that would be cute too!

glued onto the jute
glued onto the jute | Source

STEP FOUR- Cut and Apply Ribbon and Material to Jute

Now you should have your jute with your "Happy Halloween" glued on. It's time to cut the ribbon and fabric strips for it. I used three different colors of ribbon which were orange (5mm), silver (6mm) and black (3mm). You can use whatever size and colors of ribbon.. I just wouldn't go over 6mm in width of the ribbon.

Cut six inches out of each color ribbon for each letter on the garland plus 1 more (out of each color) for the end. Do the same with the fabric strips.

Once you have the ribbon and the fabric strips cut, it's time to tie them on the jute. Start out tying one of each color ribbon and one each of the material strips in front of the H.. Then do the same thing after the H (one of each ribbon and material) and move down making sure you do this before and after each letter. You can group them up and tie them around the jute all together or you can do them one at at time. I did mine one at a time and scrunched them all together.. I think the important thing is getting one of each color (fabric strips and ribbon) between the letters so that it all looks even when you are finished.

Tie some loops on both ends of your jute and you are ready to hang your garland!

tie strips of material and ribbon in between each letter and on the ends
tie strips of material and ribbon in between each letter and on the ends | Source

Finished!

all done and hung up
all done and hung up | Source

Thank you!

Thank you so much for stopping by..... I hope that you have enjoyed this tutorial. Happy Halloween to you and yours :)

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)