Spring Banner Tutorial - Show and Tell Friday

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Welcome to Show and Tell Friday! 

Someone left a comment a couple weeks ago and asked how I made my banners so I thought I would put together a quick tutorial on how I do it.

It's fairly easy.  The hardest part is finding letters that aren't too thick and heavy.  Sometimes I have to go to a couple craft stores to find the right ones.  They can be wood or cardboard, either will work.

You'll have to drill some holes to thread the ribbon through if you plan to hang them.  You could also just stand them on a mantel or shelf and then it wouldn't matter if they are thick and heavy and you wouldn't need to drill holes!  I painted the back of mine because I planned to hang them on my mantel mirror and I didn't want the bare wood reflecting into the mirror.

The fun part is finding coordinating scrapbook paper in the color scheme you choose.  You could also use wrapping paper if it's not too thin.



You'll also need some coordinating ribbon.  I like to use wide, wired ribbon but any ribbon will do.  

You will also need a spray adhesive...any brand will do. These are the two I had on hand.  You will also need sand paper or an emery board.  I prefer to use an emery board.

Okay, lets get started! After you drill the holes in the letters and paint the backside if you decide to do that, you want to roughly cut the scrapbook paper around the letters which are face up.

After the paper is cut you will spray the adhesive on the top of the wooden letters following the directions on the can.  They usually have you wait a minute for it to set up a bit before you put your paper on.  I didn't get a photo of this step but it's pretty simple....just push the paper on top of the letter and rub it down until it's set.

For the next step you will need an Xacto knife and a cutting board. Place the piece with the paper side down and run the knife along the wooden piece and cut of the excess paper. 

The edges will be a little rough but that's where the emery board comes in.  Just sand the edges of the paper in downward movements like below.  Do this all the way around the piece.

This really gives a clean finished look.  For the holes, just cut a few slits in the paper where the holes are and then take a toothpick and swirl it around the hole from the top to push the paper into the hole.  It doesn't have to be perfect because the ribbon will cover the holes.



You can see in the photo below how the sanding really makes a difference. The section to the left of the emery board hasn't been sanded yet and the section on the right has.

That's all there is to it! Now you just need to string the ribbon through the holes and hang it!

Below is the Valentine banner I made. For this one I used a foam core board and actually cut the letters out. It was very time consuming!

...and a heart using the same technique. This one was thin wood...

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Thanks to all of you that join in on Show and Tell Friday every week and thanks to all of you who leave such nice comments! 

 If you are joining in on Show and Tell Friday, please remember that your Show and Tell needs to be something from your home or garden. If you would like to join in, please enter your name and leave your exact Show and Tell blog post link, not just your blog link and as a common courtesy link back to my blog.