Thankful & Start of A Banner Year

It's been a rough week for BabyM (and us!). Her doctor warned us that her peak fussy time would be 6-8 weeks. BabyM is usually pretty mellow and sleepy, but in the past several days has had a really hard time falling asleep and won't, unless she's sleeping ON someone. Which is a little difficult at say, 1am, when I just really want to go back to bed after feeding her.  But TJ has often "taken one for the team" and let her sleep on him while they watch movies late into the night.

Despite all this, I'm so excited to have completed a whole crafty project from start to finish this week.  I made a new banner for our mantel.  I have a bit of an obsession with making banners.  I've made them for T's 1st 2 birthdays, one for the board where we display her artwork, and one for our mantel about a year ago with some of her baby pictures.  

Last Saturday, BabyM and I went to the CKC scrapbooking convention and wandered around the hall doing a little shopping.  One of the booths had tons of cute banners decorating it, and that inspired me to make a fall banner of my own.  Click for a larger view.

This came together pretty easily, thanks to my trusty Silhouette SD die cutting machine.  I'm currently taking a class online on how to get more out of it, and it's been great.  I'm really glad I bought it, though it's taken me a few years to use it regularly.

Lessons learned and quick tips:

• Measure the total space before cutting out the banner shapes (duh).  I randomly picked a size, and realized that I'd need to put more nails in our mantel, and even then it just barely fits.
• Wood veneer shapes look great when colored with Copic markers, or slathered in Stickles glitter glue. (I love sparkle!)
• Use the "Offset" feature in the Silhouette software to make the "shadows" for the letters and to make the inner/outer shapes for the pennants themselves.
• Use the 'Double Cut' setting in the Silhouette software to get nice clean cuts that peel off the mat like buttah.
• Cut a similar piece of paper you don't love to "test" the blade and speed settings, before cutting into that special paper.  I had only one sheet of the metallic gold vellum, so I used another vellum sheet first to cut out the hearts as a test.
• Don't adhere anything with permanent adhesive until you've figured out where *everything* goes.  (this is a problem for me!)
• It's easier to use the Silhouette to put pre-cut holes in each pennant than try to punch them manually (and evenly!) later.  (This I learned the hard way.)
• Tapestry needles work great for handsewing with thick thread like embroidery floss - they're easy to thread and handle.

I had a LOT of fun with this.  And then I thought, why stop there? It's part of a new bigger project I'm starting called "A Banner Year".  I will make a new decorative banner for our mantel each month through Oct 2013.  If I pack them carefully, I should be able to reuse them for many years to come, until I get sick of them and want to replace them.

I love the idea of decorating our house with things I've made.  Now I just need more time!

Kids' Artwork Display Banner - Experiment 6

I just completed this project today but I was so excited about it that I had to write it up. 

Long before I had a baby, I remember seeing photos of homes with kids' artwork framed beautifully and hung up. I loved the idea - I'm not a fan of buying artwork that just matches a room, but for hanging up things that really speak to me or tell a story about the people who live here. 

T's daycare regularly does messy art projects with all the kids, even the infants. We do art projects at home, but they're not as organized and cute as the ones they plan at daycare. Every couple of months her teachers send home the last several projects.

I'm not a pack rat (despite my huge collection of shiny new supplies) so I can easily let go of some of the pieces she brings home. We also have two adoring sets of grandparents who appreciate T's art, so I give them some. But I want to keep and display some of them. Until now I hadn't done much except stick a few  up on the magnet boards in my craft room.

A few months ago, while reading a craft book, I saw a photo of a bulletin board with a cute handmade sign to showcase the kids' art projects.  I knew I wanted to make something like that for our house, so I put it on the list of "someday maybe" projects.

Yesterday, I got motivated to FINALLY pick up all the stuff sitting on the floor of the craft room and DO something with it.  I threw away some things, found better storage places for others, and unearthed a bulletin board that was just the perfect size for the hallway outside T's room. 

I put up the board and tacked on three of her recent art projects.  And today, while my fabulous husband was at the football game, and my fabulous daughter went to her fabulous grandparents' place for an afternoon of fun, I got crafty.

I wanted to make a sign that announced Trillian's art. I love making banners.  Since I didn't have much time and really wanted to finish it in one sitting, I decided to use my largest circle punch and glittery letter stickers from my stash. 

Rather than a typical banner where the letters are attached to each other, I used my jewelry making brainspace and decided to "string" the letters onto ribbon, using brightly colored jump rings.  I figured this would give the sign more motion, and I also wanted to see if I could make what I pictured in my head.  Since the "beads" were made of paper, I thought I should reinforce the holes with metal eyelets.

Stuff
Fiskars Squeeze Punch X-Large, Round 'n Round
BasicGrey patterned cardstock
Pink Paislee glitter chipboard alphabet stickers
Crop-A-Dile Hole Punch and Eyelet Setter
Satin ribbon, 5/8" wide
Large 3/16" silver eyelets
Large anodized aluminum jump rings (1/4")
Packaging tape or nails/tacks for hanging

How

1. I cut out enough circles from the cardstock with the circle cutter to spell out "trillian's art".  12, to be precise, plus a couple extra for mistakes.
2. I arranged the cardstock circles with the patterns in the order I wanted them, and then stuck on the letter stickers, which I chose in a color and size so they'd be easy to read from a few feet. 
3. I marked where I wanted the eyelets with a pencil. 
4. Using the Crop-A-Dile, I punched 1/8" holes at the top of each letter of her name, and then the top and bottom of the ones spelling 'art' since they'd hang vertically.
5. Using the wondrous Crop-A-Dile, I put in the eyelets. 
6. Then, using pliers, I opened the jump rings, slipped them in the eyelets, and then closed them.  For the word 'art' I chained the letters together so they'd hang vertically.
7. I cut a length of ribbon (about 3 feet) and strung the name letters on them, tying a knot at each end to keep the letters on. 
8. At the beginning, before the knot, I added the string of letters spelling "art" and then tied another knot to keep that in place.
9. I used clear packaging tape to secure the ends of the ribbon to the bulletin board.  Since the banner is small and light, this should be enough to hold it in place.

Tips & Tricks

• Doing projects with repetitive elements goes a lot faster if you do it assembly line style - cut all pieces, then punch holes, then add eyelets, etc.
• Count on making some mistakes, and make sure you have extra paper, eyelets, and stickers as needed.  Sometimes elements can be salvaged from the mistakes (I'm thrifty like that.)
• When adding eyelets to punched holes,  make sure you've got enough space from the edge of the paper to the rim of the eyelet.  Also make sure the hole you're punching is big enough for the base of the eyelet - I like them to fit a little snugly, so I was using 1/8" holes for a 3/16" eyelet, but with delicate papers, this won't work well.
• Don't cut ribbon until you're sure you have enough for your project.  You can always cut something shorter, but it's hard to make it longer. I always have to remind myself of this.
• Look for materials in other departments of the craft store.  The jump rings I used were in the jewelry-making area. You never know what you might find!  In the same vein, when solving an "engineering" problem of how to attach things, or support things, think outside of your own craft, to another craft, or another application entirely!  I've gotten some interesting ideas from my husband, who is not a crafter, but is very mechanically inclined and handy.

BabyT liked the sign, which is appreciation enough for me. And I can assure you that I'll do everything in my power to keep that adorable jellyfish she made. I envision it hanging on the wall in my nursing home far in the future.  But for now, its rightful home is on her new art board, just outside her room.

What do you do with your kids' art projects?

Experiment 2 - Baby Birthday Party Banner

As part of BabyT's first birthday papercraft festivities, I wanted to create one of those cool birthday pennant banners.  But all the ones I've seen online were made from fabric, and I didn't have enough time to learn how to sew.  I thought there must be a way to make one from all of the cool scrapbook paper I had.

So I turned to my trusty friend, The Google, and did a little searching. Just entering 'birthday banner' yielded a bunch of shops with very cheapy-looking vinyl banners and some not very helpful websites with duplicated content. Then I got creative and searched on 'birthday banner tutorial paper' and found Katydid and Kid's most excellent tutorial.  Since she already has lovely pictures and step by step instructions, I'm keeping mine short.

MATERIALS

• Solid colored cardstock


• Patterned scrapbook paper  (coordinating with each other and the cardstock, but different patterns)


• White 8.5" x 11 printer paper


• Curling ribbon

TOOLS

• Martha Stewart Crafts Circle Cutter


• Glue stick


• Crayola Crayons 96 Count - yippee


• Martha Stewart Crafts Circle Cutter

METHOD

1. I searched on dafont.com to find a cute outline font that had upper and lowercase letters.  That site is truly addictive so set a timer, or you'll find yourself still looking at fonts three hours later.  


2. I entered the text into Microsoft Word and increased the size so it would print two letters per page.  I cut out each letter. (Tedious!)


3. Using the circle cutter, I cut 6" circles from the cardstock - one per letter plus a couple of extras,  and then cut slightly smaller circles from the patterned paper (5 inches-ish).  (Very tedious!)


4. I glued the letters onto the patterned paper, then used double-sided tape to tape the patterned paper to the cardstock circles.


5. I, and my friend Kim who volunteered to help, colored in the letters with the 96-pack of Crayola crayons I've been moving from house to house since college.  I was glad to finally use them for something!  I suppose BabyT will eventually inherit them, so it's all good.


6. I punched two small holes in each circle, and used curling ribbon to tie them together.  I finally learned how to use a butter knife to make the ribbons curl, and was mildly successful in getting cute ribbon curls between each letter.


7. I drafted the help of my fabulous husband to hang the banner in our living room, using thumbtacks and embroidery floss.  Everytime T saw it she would point and giggle.

Top and right photos by Kristi Lloyd Photography

SUMMARY and LESSONS LEARNED
This was another project that wasn't technically complex, but took me several days to complete it. Being a mama really cuts down on my uninterrupted crafting time!

• This time I did use the 'assembly line' system and cut all letters, then all circles, then glued, etc. That made the process go a lot faster. I'd definitely spend less time browsing for fonts - I think I ended up back at one of the first ones I chose anyway.


• I would have done a better job at coordinating the papers and the crayon colors with each other - I got too much of an eclectic mix of colors and patterns.  I was trying to avoid being too "matchy matchy", but as a result, it didn't come out very cohesive.  Maybe limiting it to a few colors would have been a good start.


• Next time I might think about printing the letters in color, or using my fancypants Silhouette SD machine to cut the letters out of colored cardstock.  The coloring was fun, but unnecessary.

I've repurposed the banner so that the 'happy' part is hanging in my craft room, and I plan to hang up the 'Trillian' part in her room.  Is this something you might try making?