A simple and fun way to add a touch of spooky festivity to any halloween basket or treats for teachers, friends or family.

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I’ve seen a huge craze the last couple of years where people are making fun and creative Boo! Baskets to “boo” their friends, neighbors and more. I’ve seen this done a couple ways:

1. You get Boo!’d almost like a “tag your it” style. You get a basket at your door and your job is to return the favor to another family. Then that family makes a basket and gives it to another and so on and so on.

2. You just make a few fun small basket for some of your closest friends, neighbors or family. Even teachers. No need to return the gift to anyone else, just a simple “you were thought of – have a treat – happy holidays!”

This is the route I went this year, as I just love to give things like this and it’s just a fun way to treat people you care about. For us – the baskets (or bags in my case) were specifically for the closer mom friends I’ve made over the last couple years since moving here and our kids being friends and in school together. You can totally add stuff for the kiddos and dad’s too – but these Boo!’s were mostly for the mom’s.

SIDE NOTE- Our little group does a Halloween scavenger hunt that we started during COVID and we hide special treats around our front porches and the kids have to follow clues to get to our homes and figure out where to find their special treats, so they get a fun extra special treat too.

I don’t know who started this fun tradition, but I’m a fan, especially because Halloween is and will always be one of my favorite holidays. So I wanted to go simple this year but also have a touch of cute DIY added, so I chose to make some DIY banner flags with an adorable mix of cute halloween colored ribbons as my “BOO!” sign for the bags.

You can do this in other fun ways – since I realize not EVERYONE has a Glowforge or other at home laser cutter, including a Cameo or Silhouette paper cutter, or you can even just use scissors and paint pens!

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WHAT YOU’LL NEED

1. Stiff felt (black, orange, or white works best for Halloween colors) for the banner.
2. Regular soft or stiff felt for the “Boo!” words.
3. Wooden dowels (1/16in x 12in works great!)
4. OPTIONAL – decorative paper straws
5. Hot Glue
6. A variety of ribbons in orange, white and black. You’ll want different styles and fun combinations to make it really pop!

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STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS

1. You’ll want to pick out your banner flag color first – this needs to be the firm felt. This is so it stays upright and doesnt flop around. You could also easily use some heavy cardstock and paper for this instead of felt.
2. Set up your device (Paper Cutter device like Silhouette Cameo Or Cricut) in my case the Glowforge Laser Cutter with your Banner SVG file.
3. Cut out as many banner flags as you intend to make. The file attached is setup for 6 flags at once that are roughly about 8″ wide.
4. Next set up the “Boo!” SVG file to cut out. Make sure to not lose your exclamation points as they are seperate from the word and it helps to just keep them aside together until you’re ready to glue them on.
5. If you are using felt like me – get that glue gun warmed up! You can also use crafters glue, or if you are using paper, I recommend double sided tape instead of glue!
6. Attach your “Boo!” to your banner flag. I try to keep it closer to the widest part and eye-ball it to center. There is no need to be perfectly center and if you’re worried you can slant the word a bit. The benefit of this curvy word is it doesn’t have to be “straight” to look right.
7. NOT REQUIRED STEP: If you chose to use a paper straw for added decor to your dowel add this step:
   – Put dowel through straw and leave half inch of dowel at top (this is wear the ribbon gets attached).
   – At the bottom of the straw (where the handle of the dowel is) add the littlest bit of glue, and push the straw down on top of that glue to secure it. It will just help lock the straw in place so it doesnt fall off or slide around.
8. Turn your banner around and lay a strip of hot glue to the back wide side of the banner (opposite of the point) and take your wooden dowel and lay it on top. I line up the top of the straw to the top of the wide part of the banner.
9. For the ribons, I had about 9 different types of ribbon that I found at Hobby Lobby. I got a variety of shapes, sizes and styles. Also find some thick bakers style twine, you’ll use this to bundle the ribbon.
10. Then cut them at all different lengths. Depending on how many flags you are making you can divide that number by how many inches are on each roll, to get the most out of each roll. The longest strand I had was about 16″ long. Then I went down from there in sizes, but you probably don’t want anything shorter than 8″.
11. Bundle each set of cut ribbons (1 of each) and use a twine to tie them together. I used a matching bakers twine or string like ribbon to bundle these bunches together and tie a loose overhand knot.
12. Place the top of the dowel through the center of that knot, and THEN tighten. Then tie another overhand knot to make a full knot and secure knot and pull tightly.
13. ALL DONE! If you like you can add some hot glue at the top where the dowel meets the ribbons to secure it even more.

@oliveandapron

DIY Boo! Banner flags for my Boo! Baskets! Can’t wait to surprise some friends! #boobasketideas #bannerflag #craftersoftiktok #boo

♬ Monster Mash – Bobby “Boris” Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers