"When our eyes see our hands doing the works of out hearts, the circle of creation is completed inside us, the doors of our soul flies open and love steps forth to heal everything in signt"

-- Michael Bridge

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Be Merry Banner {Lawnscaping#20/Wee Memories#72}

Good morning friends! I finally had the opportunity to craft this weekend. It’s been about a week since I’ve done anything crafty. Things around here have been so crazy with my mom’s medical situation. I just haven’t had the mental energy to craft at all.

Anyway, things kind of calmed down finally on Sunday, and I really needed some creative therapy. I was looking around the blog-o-sphere and was honestly SO inspired by both the Lawnscaping #20 {Paper piecing} and Wee Memories’ #72 {Holiday Madness} Challenges, that decided to combine the two {AGAIN}!


So, I decided to make a Paper pieced Holiday Banner for my office :). I don’t know if I mentioned that my mom and I work together and between her health issues lately, and my boss’ death back in June (his nephew who also works there took over & he’s a great boss BTW), well, we’ve been a bit gloomy at times. I think after Halloween, I’m going to decorate for Christmas. Get us all into the spirit extra early. I’m going to do it at home too. No time to waste. I need the good cheer. Anywho, here is a look at my banner:

{I'm SO sorry the picture is teensy - it’s been terribly rainy here for 3 days straight, and I just couldn't get a full picture that was good :(. Boooo. Scroll down to for a better view of each individual piece of the banner}

To make it I did some fancy recycling by taking cereal boxes and cutting them up and covering them with October Afternoon (Very Merry - from last year) patterned paper. I like to do that, it’s actually makes recycling really fun! I also used the alpha stickers from this collection to make the sentiment “Be Merry”. I knew I’d have to get the awesome Lawn Fawn Snowman on there too, so, I paper pieced “her” and added some accessories (the gloves, hat, and sweet birdie) for fun. I added a bit of Doodlebug (red) flock for the hat/gloves. I think it adds a bit of fun.

When it was all said and done, I decided I really wanted to add the Christmas lights from Lawn Fawn’s Cozy Christmas to the banner too. I love them 0- they’re just so fun! So I stamped them onto white cardstock and did some Copic coloring. To finish them off, I added Glossy Accents over each one and after they dried I paper pieced them onto my banner. Yep - each and every light is paper pieced onto the banner (I stamped it onto the actual banner too - so that the wires would show). In the end, I decided to use embroidery floss as the wires for the light. Just glued it right on. I set large eyelets to make the banner nice and sturdy, and tied each “link” together with 3 layers of Marachino Bakers Twine from the Twinery.

I know you get the idea - but just in case you’re interested, here are pictures of the individual banner pieces ;)

Thanks so much for peeking in on me today! If you can please keep my mom and our family in your prayers - I would really, really appreciate it so much! I hope you have a great one!

10 comments:

  1. very cute! I want to make a halloween banner, but haven't found the time yet, maybe I will make a christmas one instead! I totally love the sentiment you picked!

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  2. Heather, this is amazing! Recycled Cereal boxes? Brilliant!!!! This is fabulous. I love it and I want it, lol! I would love to see a closer picture of the entire banner if you are ever able to photograph it too! I love this. Fantastic Heather! Wowzers! Thanks for playing along with us! :)

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  3. WOW... what an impressive job you did with this banner, Heather. You really deserve so much credit for all that wonderful details. I love the bows of twine, and that fun text background too. The distressing on the edges was also a great touch. I'm so glad you joined the Lawnscaping Challenge! Fabulous work!

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  4. This is a fantastic project Heather. I think it would make anybody get in the mood for the holidays! Who could NOT smile when they look at this fun banner?!

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  5. Wow.....fantastic banner, very creative idea...love the design, the snowmen, the paper background and twinery. Adorable design,thank u for playing at Lawnscaping :)

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  6. How cute is this banner?! Can it be Christmas already??

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  7. This is just fabulous, so much detail into each piece. Just love it!

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  8. Such a cute banner!! Thanks for joining us at Wee Memories Challenge.

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  9. This is such an adorable project! You did such a fabulous job on it. Love that music print on the letters and the sweet Lawn Fawn light strings. Thank you so much for playing along with us at Lawnscaping!

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  10. Cute!!! This project is amazing...you definitely have a winner here! The Lawn Fawn stamps and the paper piecing is amazing (you are the most fab paper piecer!). Hope you're doing well and things are okay with your mom.

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