Boo-ti-ful Halloween Projects

This witch's hat, crafted in black with accents of bright orange and purple, is a jaunty holiday signal to passersby. Use ribbons to tie it to your front gate or to hang it from your door.

• Graph paper (optional)
• 20-x-30-inch piece of black foam-core board
• 12-x-12-inch sheets of card stock: 2 orange and 1 black
• Craft knife
• Sandpaper block
• Permanent black marker
• Spray adhesive
• 12-x-12-inch sheets of scrapbook paper: 2 each of stripes and dots
• Ribbon: 1/3 yard of 3/4-inch-wide orange and 2 yards each of 1-inch-wide black grosgrain, 1-inch-wide black picot-edge, and 1-inch-wide orange satin
• Glue gun and hotmelt adhesive
• 1/4-inch hole punch
• Pop dots

Witch hat pattern

1. Enlarge the hat pattern onto graph paper or use a photocopier; cut out the pattern. Draw around the hat pattern on foam-core board and cut out with a craft knife. Type the words "Enter If You Dare" in the font of your choice on a computer, adjusting the font size so the words are no more than 3 1/2 inches tall. Print out the letters on orange card stock; cut out.
2. Sand the cut edges of the foam-core hat smooth with the sandpaper block. Color the cut edges with the permanent black marker.
3. Spray the front side of the hat with adhesive. Smooth sheets of dotted paper onto the brim and striped paper onto the upper hat. Turn the hat over and trim away the paper along the edges of the hat. Center the 3/4-inch-wide orange ribbon over the line where the striped and dotted papers meet; hot-glue in place, securing the ends on the back of the hat.
4. Spray the back of the letters for the word "Enter" with adhesive and mount onto the sheet of black card stock, leaving about 1/2 inch between each of the letters as you adhere the orange letters to the black card stock. Create a shadow behind these letters, cutting the black card stock even with the edges of the orange letters in some areas and varying the width of the shadow from 1/16 inch to 1/4 inch in other areas. Arrange the letters for "Enter" on the top portion of the hat as shown.
5. Use striped paper scraps to decorate the remaining letters for the words "If You Dare," cutting stripes for the letters of "You Dare" and using the hole punch to make dots for the letters of "If."
6. Mount the stripes and dots on the letters with spray adhesive. Arrange the letters on the front of the sign and adhere with pop dots.
7. Cut the remaining ribbons into 1-yard lengths. You will have six lengths of ribbon (two each of orange, black picot-edge, and black grosgrain). Hot-glue one of each ribbon to the back side of the hat, in line with the top edge of the brim. Tie a knot 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches from the opposite end of each ribbon length. Use the ribbons to tie the sign in place.
8. NOTE: If wet weather is a concern, laminate the paper and foam core before assembling the project.