Make a Black Cat Banner

f you're looking for a hands-on project to do with your children this Halloween, here's one you'll be proud to hang as a decoration. Make this black cat banner using the handprints of your children. "I liked the idea of handprints of my kids from this year," said a New York mother of three. "This activity was definitely fun," said the Hannans of Ohio.

Here is what you need:

• 9-by-11-inch rectangle of orange felt
• Black felt (for the head and ears)
• Black paint and a paintbrush
  (I wanted my banner for Halloween so I chose orange and black for my colors. You can, of course, choose any colors you like. )
• Two gold sequins
• Two green sequins a size smaller than the gold ones
• Yarn, orange and green
• Thin ribbon, orange and black
• Cereal-box cardboard
• Scissors
• White glue

Here's what you do:

• Paint your child's hand with black paint. Make a handrpint in the center of the orange felt, with the fingers and thumb spread apaprt. Trim the felt so that the fingers are pointing down for the legs of the cat and the thumb sticks out of the side for the tail.
• Cut a 2-to-3-inch circle from the black felt for the cat's head. Use a size that will look in proportion to the cat's body. A smaller handprint will need a smaller head.
• Cut two triangle-shaped ears from the black felt. Glue the ears to the top of the head.
• Glue a green sequin on top of each gold sequin for the eyes. Glue the eyes on the cat's head.
• Cut two 4-inch pieces of the orange yarn. Knot the pieces of yarn in the middle so that the ends stick out on each side of the knot for whiskers. Glue the whiskers to the cat's head.
• Glue the head on the orange felt at the edge of the palm of the handprint, across from the thumb.
• Tie a piece of orange ribbon in a bow. Glue the bow to the neck of the cat.
• Cut lots of green yarn into 1-to-2-inch pieces. Glue them along the bottom of the banner to look like grass at the cat's feet.
• Cut a strip of cardboard 1 inch wide and 9 inches long. Glue the strip across the back of the top of the banner.
• Cut a 2-foot piece of the black ribbon. Rub glue across the cardboard strip, place the ribbon--centered--on the cardboard, and fold the cardboard down toward the bottom of the banner so that the ribbon comes out on each side of the fold. Tie the two ends together to make a hanger for the banner. Meow!

Note:

Have a supply of soap, water, and paper towels readily available to use immediately following the imprinting part of the project.

The LaClairs didn't have any black paint so they "mixed all the colors we did have until we got black." A good lesson in mixing colors--and I'm all for creative solutions! Ryan LaClair (12) didn't like getting his hands yucky so they talked about tracing his hand on black felt. But after some deliberation, he joined his two younger sisters, "who loved putting their hand in the paint." Jack Hannan (4) "was put off by paint on the whole palm," his mother reported, but "Katie (1 1/2) was a different story. .. . She was sooo cooperative and mesmerized by the whole-hand-in-wet-paint concept. I painted the black on her hand and she loved it! I put her in her high chair in an old t-shirt to avoid a mess."

Have each child make a small banner, or use a larger piece of felt and paint all the cats on one banner. You might want to date this project on the back so you'll always remember the year when the children's hands were just that size. The LaClair children each made their own banner and gave them individual touches ranging from cat collars to sequins in the sky. Instead of cardboard, Mom (Peggy) LaClair bought and cut up a dowel to use to hang the banners. Said Peggy, "I will keep these always. Handprint crafts are very special, and the kids will enjoy hanging these for years."

The Hannans decided to take the idea of the handprint cat and adapt it for the "All-Hannan Halloween Hoo Ha." Lynda explained, "I used the cat idea to make our ten party invitations instead of a banner. Last year we used Katie's baby footprint dipped in white paint and printed it on black paper. If you turn a little footprint upside down and add black eyes, it looks like a ghost."

TAKE IT FROM ME:
"I felt that the orange yarn just didn't look elegant enough for my cats, so we knotted one long piece of shiny black ribbon about every 3/4 inch or so ten times [for the party invitations] and I held it out for Jack to cut each section. Then I cut into each side to make 2 whiskers. I like the black-on-black final effect."
--Lynda Hannan

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