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Create a spooky gothic banner for a game night with One Night Werewolf!
Man, oh man, our family has discovered this super fun group game. I admit it, we hang out with a pretty sedate conservative bunch of people usually, but this game unleashes the fun!!
We started out playing it in our little family, then we added another two couples, and it was such a blast that word spread and now we are hosting a One Night Werewolf game night for 28 people! Friends and neighboors are bringing friends, so everyone will get to know new people. Our plan is to have three or four tables of players staggered around the first floor of our house, playing three games at once. We’ll turn down the lights a bit to set a howling good mood and let the fun begin.
We are limiting that game night hillarity to adults, but we have played it many times with the littles on down to age 6 and it works great. Some of our funniest moments were when the youngest surprised us and won! (She’s ‘way smarter than we gave her credit for). And the ten year old caught on super fast. We were snookered into thinking that he was confused (he’s a pretty good actor, as it turns out) but he was really leading us down a merry path of feignt and deception. Ha! We really laughed when the adults were so caught off guard and lost.
The motivation:
I wanted to create a fun party decoration to really set the atmosphere for our next party and it was the perfect time to raid my stash of paper crafting supplies. Be forewarned, I have been collecting the embellishments and papers along this general mood and theme for several years, so most of these products are not currently for sale, but never fear, you can use what you have on hand or download and print very similar (if not better!) clip art and embellishments off of Pinterest and Etsy.
My finished banner was so large that when I hung it on our wall, it was the perfect scale, but our house is situated so that I couldn’t step back far enough to get the entire thing in the camera. (Hello wall, cabinet, immovable furniture etc.). So, here it is in segments with closeups later on down the page.
It’s pretty rare for grownup adults to get together in a ‘dry’ party environment and hear raukus laughter, whoops of hollering and table slapping fun. This game delivers. I do have to say that the kind of people personalities you invite make a difference. If there are a ton of just introverted people at the table, it’s still fun, but you need a few outgoing people for the fun to accelerate. The quiet introspective people do add interest to the fun because you never know what they are thinking!!
Free Download!
Here’s a fun score card we made for our group game night. Download the free pdf here.
Here’s closeups of each panel along with some of my general instructions and a pdf of the base form if you would like to use the same template.
General Instructions:
I only use Scapa Tape to adhere papers nowadays. Number one, it’s very cost effective. Number two it’s acid free, so my creations will last decades. Number three it’s strong!
Here’s a link to my favorite paper glue tape:
I bought the bullet and just ordered a case of the stuff. So far it has lasted me eight years! And I use a lot of glue tape. I love not having to worry about running out of this staple.
And here’s the gun holder that I use to dispense it. I know it looks unwieldy, but it’s really balanced well and easy to use. Loading the tape takes a bit of practice, so once I figured it out, I used a permanent marker and drew on the clear casing so that the pathway around the spools is like a map. I know it’s a bit spendy, but it paid for itself the first few months I used it. Now glue tape is not a major investment when I paper create. I can focus on the fun stuff!
- Lay out your banner base liner papers and arrange them so that they complement each other and one color pathway doesn’t dominate over another.
- Turn each piece over and write a consecutive number on the back of each panel. After a while you’ll forget where you are in the project. This will keep it all straight for you.
- Gather all your embellishments and sort them into piles: clip art, stickers, fabric, ribbons and lace, brads, glitter paper etc. As you design each panel, make sure you are saving some of your favorite pieces for even distribution over the course of your creation. You don’t want to blow all your favs on the first few panels and end up with something barren later on.
- Set out some strong thick glue for your tools so that you don’t have to stop the flow of creation to look for the best way to adhere something odd like lace or metals.
- Don’t be afraid to use staples on this project. It adds to the gothic feel.
- Use black and brown stamp pads to age every edge that looks too ‘fresh’. You want to keep the overall theme unified.
- Punch two holes in the upper corners of each panel before you start adding embellishments. You’ll need access to those holes to thread your hanging yarn.
- Don’t be afraid to ‘go over the edge’ of the panels, but DO preplan it a bit, so that the overhanging decorations don’t smash into each other and can hang free of interference.
- Foam dimensionals really make the difference when adding multiple layers of papers. This isn’t going into a photo album, so you don’t have to worry about creating too much bulk.
- I didn’t get out my sewing machine because my work table was in a small area, but sewing with visible thread would look awesome on some of these cards. If you have room where you create, DO IT!
If you would like some shopping ideas, here are some great things to consider:
Martha Stewart Stickers
I could shop for this stuff online for hours, so I’d better leave that up to you. I hope you enjoyed this gothic creation! If you can print off pdf printables, check out etsy and pinterest, there are a ton of great aged halloween themed files to download and print, but most are not free, unfortunately. Never be reluctant to purchase though! All the artists out there need our support in this digital, steal-intellectual-property- age that we live in. It’s worth the small investment and might just be the thing that keeps that artist creating. Above all, have fun and enjoy playing One Night Werewolf!
P.S. How fun would it be to make this themed banner centered around a birthday party for someone turning 40? Or for Halloween?