Wednesday, May 18, 2011

I {heart} Banners!

I love all the cute banners that are showing up on scrapbook pages and as home decor these days!  I have wanted to make one for the bottom of our chalkboard for a while now and finally got around to it today!  I created mine with the B sides of the Down on the Farm Papers because the colors were perfect for my country style home decor!

Here is a quick tutorial for you!

Step #1 - Cut out various size hearts using your die-cut machine. In addition to cutting the hearts out of paper, cut one set out of chipboard to add some strength to the base heart.  I used my Cricut for the hearts and then hand cut the chipboard the size of the largest heart.  It works best if you use a odd number of hearts for your banner. I went with five.


Step #2 - Glue your largest heart down to the chipboard heart and add distress ink all around the edges.


Step #3 - Add distress ink to the edges of all the hearts and then lay them out the way you want the banner to be.



Step #4 - Set aside the chipboard heart and line up the remaining hearts one set at a time and then stitch down the center- complete all sets.


Step #5 - Bring thread to back side of heart set, trim and tape down.  Then use an adhesive strip to adhere heart set to chipboard heart straight down the center leaving the heart sides free.



Step #6 - Bend heart sides up to add dimension.  Use your hole punch to put a hole in each side of the chipboard base at the widest spot.  Match up the remaining hearts and mark where you want the holes to go.  Punch them all.



Step #7 - Using twine, thread all hearts together running twine down the hole from one side and up the hole on the other side.



Here is my finished product:



Products Used:

Down on the Farm - Sheep
Down on the Farm - Steer
Down on the Farm - 4 H
Down on the Farm - Tractor
Game Day - Marching Band