Christmas Banner

Hello Blogland! It's been ages since I last posted. I've been super, super busy. Between shows and custom work and Etsy shop maintenance it's been non-stop. This weekend is Tiny Canary, so I've been preparing like a mad woman. There are little paper scraps on every surface of my house right now. Seriously. And I've been staying up late to get work done so my lack of sleep is leaving me a little scatter brained. It's going to be a fun weekend though, so it's all worthwhile.

I wanted to share a project I did this week. It's a Christmas pennant banner and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.


First, I decided on a size for the pennants and the font. Since I don't have a fancy schmancy cut-it-out-for-you machine, I cut all of the letters by hand. I did this by typing the phrase in Illustrator and flipping all of the characters so that I had a mirror image of my letters. I printed that out at a 50% grayscale so I could cut around the letters, but the ink wouldn't be visible through the cardstock (it probably wouldn't have been visible anyway, but better safe than sorry). Note: this takes a very long time and a willingness to get cozy with your Xacto. You have been warned.


Then, I die cut circles of Spring Moss and stamped each one with a wreath image from Rustic Branches. I also cut a Spring Moss pennant for the space and stamped it with the vine image from that same set. I added glitter and dimensional glaze to the berries and set those aside to dry.


Next, I cut red pennants and stamped them with a polka dot pattern with Fresh Snow ink. I really like how this ink maintains its brightness even on really saturated colors. I lined up the pennants and chose a white ribbon to string them together. I punched holes using my Crop-A-Dile and threaded the ribbon through the holes. Then I stitched a Ripe Avocado button over each hole to make the whole thing look a little more finished.

Once the wreaths were dry I matted them with white scalloped circles and adhered them to the pennants. Finally, I mounted the letters with foam adhesive and called it complete.

I hope you've enjoyed today's post. I hope to get back into a rhythm starting next week, so I'll see you then. If you're in the Columbus area please stop out at Tiny Canary and say hello (and remember: the first 100 people through the door each day get a goodie bag filled with treats from the vendors)! It's a really amazing event and I'm super excited to be involved.

Bye-bye, now!

Recipe:
Cardstock: Pure Poppy, Spring Moss - Papertrey Ink; Ultimate White - Strathmore
Ink: Pure Poppy, Fresh Snow, Ripe Avocado - Papertrey Ink
Stamps: Rustic Branches, Polka Dot Basics II - Papertrey Ink
Other: Ripe Avocado Buttons - Papertrey Ink; Glitter Pen - Sakura; Dimensional Glaze - Ranger; White Perle Cotton Thread - DMC; White Ribbon - May Arts; Foam tape - Scotch