Friday, October 16, 2009

Project #2...this week!

This project is inspired by Elsie...you might know her as ElsieCake or from the line of scrapbooking products as Love Elsie or when she wrote that book, or won that big contest, etc. etc. I yoinked the idea from this blog post showing how to make a banner out of instant pictures. Well, I don't have instant film, or an instant camera, but I have lots and lots of pattern paper.

This is a super cute idea that, like most of the projects on here, can be changed to suit your mood, decor, theme or whatever! Just change up the papers and the word or words. It's cheap and eco-friendly because you're using up scraps, and it's super fun and wonderful! I love autumn, so I decided to make my banner to match some of my fall decor that I put up in my home recently.

Enjoy!

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You will need:
- six different pattern papers, or however many you need for your word of choice...you'll need a different colour for each letter...I chose ones that were heavier weight so they would hold together better once I started cutting them.
- pen and scissors or craft knife
- wooden clothespins (small or large)
- wool, ribbon, string
-tape, nails, hooks (something to attach it to your wall)


Step One : Cut all your papers down to the size you want...mine are all 3.5x5. Lay your papers out in the order you want them. This might take some moving papers around until you get it looking good!

Step Two: Draw (and I mean freehand!) your letters on each piece of paper. They don't have to be perfect or anything. If you're really not keen on your drawing abilities, run them through the computer, BUT REMEMBER to use a really simple, block font or else you will have a heck of time cutting the letters out!


Step Three: Cut out the letters using scissors or a craft knife. Your letters don't have to be perfect...mine looked pretty rough once I cut them out, but on the wall you can't even tell!

Keep cutting out your letters...

Step Four: To attach my banner to my wall I am using masking tape and a piece of ivory wool. Masking tape because I don't need any more holes in my walls! And wool because it reminds me more of autumn and I have buckets of this around the house so I can afford to use it on silly projects like this one! You can guess on the length of string you'll need...but better to guess too long and have to cut some off, then guess too short and have to cut another piece!

Step Five: Hang letters with clothespins. Since there's no gluing letters down, you can move them around if you got the spacing wrong the first time. And you can leave the wool up and change the word whenever it pleases you.


My Autumn-Fall-Halloween Inspired Decor. The mantle is the only place in my house I ever really decorate for the holidays, so I go all out! And you can see my little Trick or Treaters there as well.


Hope you had as much fun with this as I did! It would also be great for a baby or wedding shower, or a birthday party with the guest of honor's name. I'm not big on Christmas decorations, but I can see a "joy" or "believe" or "jolly" hanging up there in a couple of month's time.
Thanks for stopping by...

1 comment:

Electra said...

Hi Lisa, do you change the artwork on the wall for the seasons? Or did it just work out that way?
I like your banner!