This summer we moved into a new house and one thing that this house has that none of my other places had is a mantel! Oh the possibilities! I haven’t really dressed up my mantel with anything other than flowers and some pretty crystal but I promised my kids I would definitely bring it for Halloween. Today I am sharing our “spooky” holiday mantel using some fun things I made with my Sizzix and a how to so you can make a ghost garland and haunted house jar too.
Optional items:
Embellishments such as glitter glue, crystals, or pearls for the eyes
Black and silver stamp pads
Cloche jar
Moss
Tea lights
Double sided tape (used for sticking fence on the cloche jar)
1. Gather supplies
2. Cut paper to the size needed
3. Set paper on die (I turned mine upside down so the edges would curl towards the back of the ghost instead of the front)
4. Using the Sizzix Sandwich method, place one Standard Cutting Pad on the bottom, then the die and paper, and place the other Cutting Pad on top. Gently push into the machine and start rolling.
5. Keep rolling until the sandwich comes out the other end. It is normal to hear a “crackling” sound.
6. Once you are done rolling pull the sandwich out.
7. You have ghosts!
8. Gather your ghosts and get ready to embellish.
9. I cut small pieces of black scrapbook paper and glued to the back of the ghosts.
10. Embellish with glitter glue, pearls, or crystals for the eyes.
Glue or tape your ghosts onto ribbon, I used black, and hang. That’s it! Pretty simple!
Now I’ll show you quickly how I made the “haunted house” cloche jars.
I used the Jim Holtz Kraft-Core Nostalgic Collection pad for the rickety house. That white paper house you see is the die that came in the box. You can use it to check to make sure your paper will fit. Using the sandwich method above, cut your haunted houses.
Once your houses are done move on to the fences. Since it was a rickety fence I didn’t care that the bottom of my paper wasn’t straight. You will notice that the fence needs to be trimmed so cut at the end as shown above or if you need a smaller fence cut where needed.
To give the fences a distressed look I used a black stamp pad and lightly brushed the fences with the edges. There really is no rhyme or reason to what I did. To give the haunted house a weathered look I used silver but you could also use white.
Here is how they look with the tea light and moss in the cloche jars on my mantel. My kids love them!
