How to make an easy Halloween photo garland.

Yesterday I shared photos from our big Halloween party.  Today I wanted to show you how to make this easy photo garland.

 

I thought it would be fun to create a garland using photos from our previous Halloween parties, but you could easily do this for any holiday or special occasion.  (Or you could even do it for a random Tuesday, it's that easy.)

Obviously, the first order of business is to gather your photos.  My personal preference (for Halloween or otherwise) would be to turn them all either black and white or sepia toned.  It creates a cohesive look no matter what the photo or when it was taken.

I turned all of mine into black & white photos and printed them at a 4 x 6 size.  I got some black card-stock and cut it to 5 x 7 pieces.  I simply adhered the photos using double-sided tape.  I totally eyeballed the placement (you know that's may favorite unit of measurement) then I punched a hole in the top and looped a ribbon through it.

 No photos for this part for some reason, but it's simple:  To make the garland, I grabbed a stack of coffee filters, fanned them slightly, then lightly spray painted them black along the edges.  When dry, they peel right apart.  I cut a tiny slit in the middle of them, then I scrunched them slightly.  I slid them onto a length of black grosgrain ribbon and alternated them with white filters.   Once the filters are on, just tie the photos in between them.  I actually put up the ribbon with the coffee filters then I tied on the photos.  It was easier that way.

My friends enjoyed looking at the photos, and at the end of the evening they were able to untie the photos of themselves and take them home.  One thing I did not do, but should have, was to put up a little sign letting people know that they can take their photos.  The first few people that took them were very hesitant to do so, even after I told them that was why the garland was there in the first place.

A great source for photos and photo inspiration is Shutterfly.com.  You can order prints, photo books and all sorts of personalized photo products through their site.  We often have so many digital images stockpiled that we forget how wonderful it is to have the physical photos to share.

One of the fun things that Shutterfly is doing is a Howl-O-Ween Photo Contest that will be running through November 7.

   

You can get a lot of ideas from these short videos:

 

If you go to Shutterfly's Facebook Page and become a fan, you can enter their Howl-O-Ween Photo Contest.  Share your best images and fondest moments and you can win some pretty nice prizes...
Grand Prize: A free 2night stay for a family of 4 at any Great Wolf Lodge, $500 value + $200 Shutterfly Gift Certificate
First Place: (1) Shutterfly Gift Certificate for $250
Second Place: (1) Shutterfly Gift Certificate for $150
Third Place: (1) Shutterfly Gift Certificate for $100

Pretty nice, yes? Those are the fab prizes for entering their contest... but wait!  There's more!

If you like them on Facebook you can get a cool app to Halloween-ify your own Facebook cover photo.   How fun is this?

There are several different versions you can get.  How fun to be able to change your cover photo for a holiday!?

In addition to the Howl-O-Ween contest and the great prizes, and the cool Facebook app, Shutterfly is also giving one of my readers a $75 gift card to use on Shutterfly.com!
a Rafflecopter giveaway  


Good luck!

Disclaimer: I am part of the Mom It Forward blogger network.  
Mom It Forward and Shutterfly partnered in support of this campaign. 
Shutterfly compensated me for participation in this campaign. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.   

about Vivienne Wagner