diy holiday banner [instant gratification]

Anyone else suffer from instant gratification-itis? I get an idea in my head and want to do it right now. But I don’t want it to take a long time. I need results quickly! (Maybe that’s why there is a stack of unfinished scrapbooks from years ago in a box in the basement, never to be finished?)

Onto quicker projects… awhile ago I saw something that inspired me to create a holiday banner to hang on our fireplace mantle. It would require only a few things and I knew I could get it done in a pretty short amount of time. Longest task: a trip to JoAnn Fabric for supplies (because it’s kind of like Target… you end up wandering around aimlessly looking at pretty home decor fabrics, envisioning a million things you could maybe do with them, and before you know it, you’ve been there for an hour).

Supply List:

Burlap fabric (I got a yard, however did not use it all)

1-2 Sheets White Felt (that has a sticky side)

Ribbon

Other [on hand] Supplies Needed:

Scissors

Ruler (if you want to be precise, unlike me.)

supplies.

Process:

I must make it known that I didn’t measure anything, I just started cutting. First, I cut out a triangle shape from the burlap and continued to do so by using the first one as sort of a template for the rest. (As you will notice, they are not perfect by any means.) After that, I cut out letters from the white felt. Again, I eyeballed and did this freehand so if you want to be more precise, you may need to print letter templates to do your letters. Since the felt had a sticky side, it was super easy to attach to the burlap (no glue necessary!).

I then cut two vertical slits in the burlap a little below the top edge of each triangle so I had a way to string them together with the ribbon. In order to keep them in place [so they wouldn’t slide down the ribbon] I put a small piece (1″) of double sided tape on the back side of the ribbon to hold it to each triangle.

Done! One hour = instant gratification!

It drapes a little longer than I’d prefer for our fireplace so I need to figure out what to do about that (perhaps measuring would have been beneficial after all). And pay no attention to the spindles of CDs used as weights to hold it in place (trashy classy, right?). We purchased hooks to tie the ends of the ribbon to, but just haven’t gotten around to doing it yet. Over all, I love how it turned out! On a side note: I googled how flammable burlap is and found out it is extremely flammable (probably didn’t need google to confirm that one) so perhaps hanging it above the fireplace isn’t the best idea…? (To be on the safe side, we did a trial run with the fireplace on and I’m happy to report that nothing engulfed in flames, so we probably won’t worry about it, as long as we are home.) I can’t wait to add more decorations to the mantle for the holiday season!

Notice the painted pinecones in a photo? Blog post on that project coming soon. 🙂

Who else is super pumped to decorate for Christmas!?