My fall banner is my first project entry on my new crafty blog and I’m super excited to share it because I really love how the banner turned out. My inspiration was this lovely banner at svgcuts.com.
Svgcuts.com has some fantastic svg files but for this particular banner I did not use their Thanksgiving kit, just copied the basic layout. The acorn and apple svg files are freebies from BeaOriginal, the pumpkin and the oak leaf are a freebies from SVGShop.com, both also excellent svg resources for those who cut things. The other leaves came from one of my Cricut cartridges.
The only thing I had to buy for this project were the rings I used to attach the banner to my fireplace mantle. All the other elements came from my craft cabinet, including raffia that has moved around with me through 4 states and a foreign country. I used scrapbooking papers, foam spacers, the well-traveled raffia, and a length of brown bias tape I bought on clearance for mere pennies a few weeks ago.
First, I cut the letters and shapes out on my Cricut and used a white ink pad to lightly distress the edges. I layered the shapes and letters with the foam spacers and tied raffia tassels through the tag holes. I saved the best for last. I ran the completed cards through my sewing machine {shiver of ecstasy} to attach them to the bias tape. Sewing on paper was so much fun, I decided to run another stitch line. I might have done a third stitch if there had been room for one…ya know, just for extra reinforcement. One can never have too many stitches. Unless their on one’s body. And need to come out. Ew.
During the making of this banner, I learned a couple of things. I learned that I desperately need to do more research on distressing paper with ink pads. My hands were an inky mess and I smeared the ink on the paper quite a bit. You can see smears on my apple.
I {re}learned that raffia makes a big mess, too. I suppose that’s why I had a package of unused raffia for so long. Time helps one forget those little details.
I also learned that a fern is a handy tool to help separate and hold strands of raffia…
I hung up the banner this morning and I was really pleased with how it looks against the bricks. Surprisingly, my one year old Princess has left it alone. She has ruffled the raffia tassels a few times and she points at the banner a lot but she hasn’t tried to pull it down. Yet.
Blog project No. 1? Done.
Now if I could only figure out what to do with the rest of the living-in-a-rent-house-is-frustrating mantle!
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