DIY Halloween Photo Banner

Create a cute Halloween photo banner for the holiday to showcase your favorite photos! A fun handmade decoration everyone will enjoy!

This site contains affiliate links. I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. [Learn more]

One of my favorite parts of Halloween is helping my kids decide on a costume. It’s so fun to look back over the years on all the cute, and sometimes crazy, costumes they’ve had. I made this Halloween photo banner as a cute way to display photos from past years!

I designed this banner to be a series of adorable paper ghosts holding photos. The ghosts are large enough to hold 4″ x 6″ photos making it easy to fill with your favorite pictures. Each ghost pennant measures 7.25″ wide and 8″ tall.

The banner can feature your favorite photos from last year, a collection of photos from over the years or a photo for each year. I made a couple samples of this banner for this post, one with an assortment of pictures with cute Halloween sayings on it. The other banner I made has photos from specific years with the year labeled.

I made one of these banners with pictures of my kids in costume every years since they were born. I made a few extras paper ghosts with the years printed through 2025 so I can easily add to the banner. It is so cute seeing my kids in their Halloween costumes over the years and they love looking at it.

The banner is quite big in order to accommodate the 4″ x 6″ photos. You could make the banner smaller by resizing the SVG or if using the PDF pattern, printing it at a reduced scale.

The banner only takes a few supplies including cardstock, something to hang it with like yarn, string or Baker’s twine and of course photos! I used classic Halloween colors, orange and black, for my photo frames. I had to trim my 4″ x 6″ photos by just 1/8″ on each side. You can skip trimming your photos and have the ghosts hold the photos without a paper border. You would then just need white and black paper! I added the cute ghost face with adhesive vinyl as this was easier than gluing those tiny pieces, but you can cut them from paper as well.

Below is the tutorial for this cute Halloween Photo Banner. You’ll find the SVG cut file and PDF pattern in my Designing Cheerfully Etsy shop along with the full picture tutorial plus instructions for preparing the cut file in Cricut Design Space.

How to Make the Halloween Photo Banner

Supplies Needed:

SVG cut file or PDF pattern – located in my shop. Thank you for supporting my small business! :)
White cardstock – you will need 1 sheet of 8.5″ x 11″ cardstock for each ghost.
- I used my Neenah 110lb White Cardstock, but you can any white cardstock.
Orange, black and purple paper
Black Adhesive Vinyl and a small piece of Transfer Tape
Baker’s Twine, string, yarn or ribbon
Glue (ZIG Chisel Tip Glue Pen), double-sided tape (1/4″ Scor-Tape) or a tape-runner
If using the SVG cut file:
- Cutting machine
- Cricut Pen – I used a Medium Tip 1.0 in Black.
If using the PDF pattern
- Paper Trimmer and/or scissors
- Hole punch
- Black marker to draw the ghost face

Step by Step Assembly Tutorial

Step One: Cut out all of the pieces! The listing comes with instructions for setting up the cut file in Cricut Design Space. If cutting by hand, use a scissors to cut out all of the shapes.

Step Two: Adhere photos to the paper ghosts. Start by stringing one of the paper ghosts onto a piece of string, passing the longest sections of string behind the ghost. Make sure your string is long enough to fit all of your ghosts, plus enough on either end for hanging.

Attach your 4″ x 6″ photo directly to the ghost using glue or double-sided tape. If you want to include a paper frame/border, attach the paper first and then the photo. Trim your 4″ x 6″ photo by 1/8″ on all sides and then adhere it on top of your paper frame.

The picture below shows what it looks like to not use the paper frame around the photo. The ghost hands are laid on top so you can see how it looks.

Step Three: Add the ghost hands and face. After your photo is in place, attach the two ghost hands over it using glue or double-sided tape. It will now look like the ghost is holding the photo.

Add the ghost’s face. If you used black adhesive vinyl like I did on my ghosts, use a small piece of Transfer Tape to to transfer the vinyl to the ghost’s face. Be careful peeling it up so as to not rip the ghosts’s face.

If you cut the face from paper, use a glue pen to attach. You could also draw the ghost’s face on using a black marker!

Step Four: Add a banner label to the bottom of the photo. The ghost cut file and PDF pattern come with banner pieces so you can add a Halloween saying or the year to the each ghost pennant. There are instructions included with the files for how to add words to the labels in Cricut Design Space. You can also hand-write these or write them on your computer in a program like Microsoft Word and print them. Each white label should measure about 1/2″ x 2″.

Step Five: Repeat for each ghost pennant on your banner. Repeat the steps above for each ghost pennant you want to add to the banner. Space your ghosts about 1″ – 2″ apart. Have fun alternating the paper frame colors, label colors and sayings!

Add as many pennants as you want! I made this banner with just three pictures but made the one with photos of my kids ten pennants long so it will show ten years of Halloween costumes!

I love crafting for Halloween and tend to make “cute” Halloween instead of scary. If you’d like, check out my other DIY Halloween projects including other fun banner like this Black Cat Banner or Pumpkin Medallion Banner.