Banners, Buntings, Garlands, & Pennants!

Way back in 2014, I was busy behind the scenes making lots of things from felt, card and other crafty supplies. Now here we are in 2016 and I can show you what I was making... yay!

The projects I was working on are part of a new book called Banners, Buntings, Garlands & Pennants. It's published by Lark Crafts and comes from the same team who brought you 'Tis the Season to Be Felt-y, Felt-o-ween and lots of other titles.

It's lovely to finally see the finished book, and to see all the awesome projects in it. They're all so fun and colourful!

As you might have guessed from the title, the book includes lots of different designs for making banners, bunting, garlands and pennants. There are 40 beginner-friendly projects to choose from: some made with paper & card some with fabric & felt and others with crafty supplies ranging from yarn to shrink plastic to seashells.

Each project has step-by-step instructions, and there's a short guide at the front of the book that covers all the techniques you'll need to know.

Wanna see my projects? :)

I made Mini Gumdrops...

... Yarn Tassels...

 

... Rainbow Bobbins (perfect for a craft room!)...

 

... a Paper Clothesline Garland...

 

... an Autumn Garland of felt leaves and pinecones...

 

 

... and some Cross-Stitch Hearts.

Banners, Buntings, Garlands & Pennants is out now! It's available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, the Book Depository, and many other bookshops. Please note: The Amazon and Book Depository links in this post are affiliate links.

When I went to put my copy of the book on the shelf, I realised it's the tenth book I've worked on with the folks at Lark Crafts. It's kind of awesome seeing them all together! Maybe you have some of these on your bookshelf too?

Fa La La La Felt 

Heart-Felt Holidays

Felt-o-ween

Doodle Stitching: The Holiday Motif Collection

'Tis the Season to Be Felt-y

Stash Happy Felt

Sewn Together

Craft Camp

Sew Sweet Creatures

and, of course Banners, Buntings, Garlands & Pennants

How To: Retro Photo Christmas Cards

It's almost time for the Crafty Christmas Tutorial Link-Up! Yay!

Today's the day when all the bloggers taking part will be sharing their festive projects... then tomorrow I'll be posting all the links to their tutorials. I'm so excited to share them all with you, everyone has made such great stuff.

I'd hoped to share a stitchy something as my link-up project, but sadly my looming deadlines has meant that this is still a work in progress... so instead today I'm sharing a quick and easy idea for making fun Christmas cards using family photos.

Is there anything cuter than kids enjoying the magic of Christmas? After flicking through some old family albums I thought it would be fun to make cards featuring some old photos... making them look like old instant photos for a fun retro feel.

You could make your cards with photos of yourself as a kid, or use recent photos of your own kids - maybe running the photos through a vintage-style filter in a photo editing program before printing them to add to the retro look? My old pics didn't need a filter to look a bit grainy!

You will need:

Blank cards - square cards are perfect for this. Use a dark or bright colour so the white stands out
Photos
White card
A piece of scrap card, a ruler and a pencil
Scissors
A glue stick and some scrap paper
Bakers twine or some narrow ribbon / yarn / embroidery thread / etc
A pen
Some washi tape

To make the cards:

1. Print your photos and cut them out. I scanned in some old photos of me from our family albums, cropped them to be square and printed them onto glossy photo paper so each photo was 9 cm (three and a half inches) square.

2. Use a ruler, a pencil and a piece of scrap card to make a template for your photo's frame. The frame should create a narrow border along the top and sides of the photo and a wider border along the bottom. For my 9cm square photos I made a template measuring 9.8 x 11 cm.

Use the template to cut out one piece of white card for each of your photos.

3. Stick each photo to its backing piece of card using a glue stick. I use pieces of scrap paper when glueing, so I can run the glue stick right up to the edges of what I'm glueing without worrying about making a mess of my workspace. Carefully position the photo on the white card, then press and smooth it down hard to stick it in place.

 

4. Wait for the glue to dry, then punch a hole near the top of each photo. Cut a length of baker's twine or other thin string, one per card. Then tie one piece of twine to each photo.

 5. Use a pen to write a message like "Happy Christmas!" in the space under each photo. You could also add a note on the back with some info about who is in the photo and when it was taken - e.g. "James, enjoying his first Christmas!" or "Me! Christmas, 1982".

6. Now it's time to attach each photo to a card blank (the ones I used were 12.5 cm / 5 inches square) Position the photo on the front of the card and tuck the twine inside.

Then hold the twine in position, secure it with a small piece of washi tape and trim the twine if needed so it won't stick out the bottom of the card.

Your finished card will look something like this:
 

Attaching the photos with twine and washi tape like this means that the photos can be kept as a keepsake if desired after the card has been thrown away and you've got the space to write details about the photo on the back .... but if you want, you could skip punching the holes and adding the twine and just stick your faux instant photos straight onto the front of the cards, and write any info you'd like to include about the photo inside the card itself.

You could personalise these cards by sending different photos to different people - e.g. send your brother or sister a snap of you both at Christmas years ago, or send your mum a card showing your kids opening a gift she gave them. If you're an organised person you could also make personalised thank you cards for your kids to send after Christmas, using photos you've taken that Christmas, e.g. of the kids unwrapping or enjoying their gifts.

Or... print lots of different pictures and use them to make a Christmas garland! Punch holes and tie the photos in place at intervals along a length of twine, or use mini wooden pegs to clip the photos to a string.

 

Making a garland filled with old photos from your family of Christmases of yesteryear would be a really fun way to decorate as a surprise if your relatives are visiting for Christmas :)

P.S. Make sure you pop back tomorrow to see all the other projects people have shared in the Crafty Christmas Tutorial Link-Up!

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DIY Christmas Cards & Advent Garland

Today I'm sharing an idea for making some easy Christmas cards using some of my free felt ornament patterns.

You can make sparkly Christmas cards...

... or an advent garland made from 24 mini envelopes:

For both projects, you'll need the templates from the following felt ornament tutorials:

Candy Cane Ornaments
Snowmen Ornaments
& Christmas Tree Ornaments

To make the Christmas cards...

1) Cut out all the templates you want to use, turn them over and trace the shapes onto the appropriate colours of paper or card with a pencil. Cut out the coloured shapes and turn them over - any pencil marks will now be hidden at the back. I used plain paper/card for most of the pieces but used some shiny gold wrapping paper for the stars on the Christmas trees.

2) Arrange the pieces and take a note of which pieces are underneath or overlapped by the others and will need to be glued on first. Use a glue stick to glue each piece in position on a blank card, leaving space at the bottom of the card for a message if you want one.

3) Use a black pen to draw eyes and buttons on your snowmen and to write your choice of message along the bottom of the card (it's a good idea to write this in pencil first, or you may end up with an off-centre message like I did! Oops).

4) You could leave the cards as they are if you want (I think the snowman and candy cane cards look rather nice left un-decorated) but it's good to have some sparkle at Christmas, right? So now's the time to add it. You can decorate the shapes with glitter glue, or brush on PVA glue and sprinkle it with glitter in the colour you want...

You could cover the whole tree shape with green glitter, or add glitter to dots or lines of PVA glue / draw on lines or dots with glitter glue, or use PVA glue to stick on some sparkly sequins.

If you're using two colours of glitter (e.g. for the candy cane) make sure one section is totally dry before glueing-and-glittering the next.

Glitter is a bit tricky to photograph (especially the white stuff!) but trust me, the finished cards are SUPER sparkly :)

For extra Christmas loveliness, why not make a felt ornament to match the card and slip it inside when you send it?

To make the advent garland... follow steps 1 & 2 as above but stick your shapes onto mini envelopes.

Then use a black pen to draw on the eyes and buttons for the snowmen, and to number each envelope. You will need 24 envelopes to make up your advent garland but you don't have to make all the envelopes as detailed as these - you could add some with simple stars and hearts as well.

Then fill the envelopes with happy messages / wrapped sweets / etc and use mini pegs and a length of ribbon or twine to hang up the garland.

This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it for as many cards / garlands as you like to give to friends and family but please don't make any for sale. Please feel free to borrow a couple of photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial on your site. Thanks!

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DIY Snowflake Scallop Bunting

Time for another easy snowflake-themed craft project today - making scallop bunting decorated with paper snowflakes!

You could make some of this bunting for a Christmas party, or hang it as part of your seasonal decor.

You will need:
- the scallop bunting flag template at the bottom of this post
- white paper
- a compass or something circular to use as a template
- a pencil
- a glue stick
- black card
- baker's twine or other string, ribbon, or yarn for hanging the bunting
- a large, sharp sewing needle or a holepunch

First, use the template provided to cut out lots of scallop shapes from black card.

Then make lots of paper snowflakes using the method in yesterday's post. If you're using my scallop bunting template at actual size, your paper circles will need to be approx 9.5 cms in diameter. Use larger or smaller circles to fit larger or smaller bunting flags.You will need one snowflake per scallop.

 

Stick the snowflakes onto the scallops. Use a gluestick to stick one snowflake onto each card, making sure any pencil marks at the edges (from drawing the circle) are on the side you cover in glue! Place the snowflake face down on a piece of scrap paper and carefully cover it with glue. Then slowly peel it away from the paper (any excess glue will be left on the scrap paper), turn it over and lightly position it on the scallop as pictured. Then smooth the snowflake down so it's stuck firmly in place.

Next, cut a length of bakers twine / yarn / ribbon etc long enough for all the scallops plus extra at each end. Depending on the thickness of the twine etc you're using, either punch a hole in each of the top corners of the scallops... or use a large needle to poke holes through the black card.

Then thread the twine / ribbon through the holes, so it passes across the top of each scallop at the back of the bunting. The scallops should be evenly spaced and there should be a length of twiner / ribbon left each end for tying the bunting in place.

And you're done! Now you just need to hang the bunting wherever you fancy :) 

To print the template - right click on the image and select to view it in another window or tab, then click again (if necessary) to view full size and print at 100%. I've added a scale so you can check if your template has printed out correctly, but you can make it larger or smaller than mine if you prefer.

This tutorial is for non commercial use only. You may borrow one or two photos if you want to blog about my projects but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce entire tutorials on your site. Thanks!
 
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DIY Valentine Love Notes Garland

Today's tutorial is a Valentine's garland, made with mini envelopes.

It's a variation on the advent garland I made a couple of years ago...

... but instead of having an envelope for each day leading up until Christmas, there's an envelope for the first 14 days of February, each one with a little love note or other special something tucked inside.

To make the garland, you will need:

- 14 mini envelopes
- washi tape (Japanese masking tape) & pretty doilies, or patterned paper, cute stickers, etc, basically anything you fancy using to decorate the envelopes
- red felt and the heart template from this tutorial
- glue and double-sided tape for securing all your decorative details in place
- scissors and a pen (I used one with red ink)
- mini pegs and a length of twine, ribbon or cord for displaying the envelopes as a garland

1) Cut out 14 hearts from red felt 

2) Decorate the front of each envelope with washi tape, doilies or other pretty things. 

I cut strips of tape that were slightly longer than the envelope, then turned the envelope over and trimmed the excess tape with scissors.

To stick the doilies, I placed the doily face down on a piece of scrap paper and carefully dabbed it with a glue stick, covering only the area I'd need with glue. I then carefully peeled the doily from the paper, lightly positioned it on the envelope and pressed down to secure it in place.

3) Then use double-sided tape to stick a felt heart in the centre of each envelope, and write the dates Feb 1st to Feb 14th (or just the numbers 1 - 14) on the envelopes. 

4) Write a little love note or choose other special bits and pieces to tuck in each envelope - a copy of a special photo, maybe, or little gifts... or you could write a longer love letter and cut it into 14 pieces, so it can be assembled piece by piece over the 14 days ... or, if you're planning a special evening or trip for Valentine's Day you could put in 13 clues to what you're doing / where you're going, and then on Valentine's Day itself write a note revealing your plans


5) Finally, use the mini pegs and twine / cord to display the garland. 

Please note: this tutorial is for non-commercial use only. You may borrow one or two photos if you want to blog about my projects but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce entire tutorials on your site. Thanks!


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