How I spent the 4th of July—making this banner!
Fun, easy, and way too time consuming. Well, the first one often is. Here’s what I did.
- Printed the letters on scrap paper. Taped them to the wallpaper and cut them out. Next time, I think I will try printing them (reversed!) on the back side of cut-to-fit pieces of wallpaper.
- Edged the letters with black permanent marker.
- Used MS Word to create the background paper. The text is from the Declaration of Independence. I also used Word to draw circles on top of the text so I knew where to cut.
- Cut out the paper circles with paper edgers and glue on the letters.
- Glue the circles to the CDs.
- Cut the big (6.5″) circles from more wallpaper. Attach the CDs with E6000. I positioned the CD slightly low on the circle to leave room for the hanging cord.
- Punched two holes to thread the cord.
- Finally, I attached the hanging cord. In this case, I used raffia, knotting lengths together to get what I needed. More knots were used to hold the pieces in place. I also used packing tape on the back to re-enforce both the holes and cords.
What took so long
- Making the letters. I started by using a stencil but decided they were both too big and too thin. Next I experimented with getting the right size fonts. I needed different sizes for the 4, th, and of.
- Choosing wallpaper designs for both the letters and the background. I finally settled on these from a book of Victorian style wallpapers.
- Looking for the right material to hang the pieces. I was sure I had some 1 1/2 inch maroon ribbon but it wasn’t in any of my ribbon stashes. I almost decided on using wide bias tape but couldn’t find a color I liked.
- Remembering AFTER THE FACT that wallpaper is fragile—it’s designed to be held up by a wall. That’s why I used the packing tape. Once I take it down, I may attach another, non-visible layer to strengthen the wallpaper. Last time I made a banner with wallpaper, I cut up old Tyvek envelopes and attached them to the last layer. It made for a very strong, yet flexible backing.
I also thought about putting a bead of glitter on the wallpaper around the CD. What do you think?
Should there be a line of glitter around the CD? Click on it for a bigger picture
