A Crafty Lunch-Thanksgiving Banner

Sorry no pinterest finds today :(. I haven't been pinning much lately. Too busy with other things. But I did get together with one of my friends this week for a crafty lunch. We like to do this every week actually. We have a small group of friends that switch off hosting a lunch and we do a craft during that time. As a stay at home mom, sometimes I crave adult interaction and this is a great way to socialize with a creative outlit. The kids play while the moms create. What more can you ask for right?

This week we made Thanksgiving signs. Using a Cricut we cut out the scalloped square, inner squares, and letters from scrapbook paper.

  

Glue them all together. Then using twine and some baby clothes pins (I love these, so cute for hanging up pictures and scrapbook paper) we clipped the letters to the twine.

This is a simple Thanksgiving banner to add some festive appeal to our homes.

 

PS. I distressed the edges of the patterned paper using a rust/brown ink pad. All you have to do is use the ink pad to brush the edges of the paper. Use quick strokes on the edge for a burned look.

Flashback

I have a confession to make. This project is not new. I actually made this last summer. My excuse. . . I haven't made anything new to put on the blog lately because I have been busy getting ready to move and creating things for the OMTWI contest. Sorry. But this project is still super cute and a great idea for a gift or to add something special to a little girl's room.

Mobiles are not just for babies. I first got the idea for this at Pottery Barn, but it was so overpriced (as are most things there) that I decided to turn it into a project for my daughter's room. I love how it is a center piece for the room and it gave the room a theme that I had not anticipated. The best part is it is so easy to make. A bit time consuming, but easy.

So here is how I made it:

First I bought a wire wreath from Michael's with a 40% off coupon (total $4). Then I spray painted the ring (it was green) white. Next I used thick scrapbook paper to cut out tiny butterflies on my cricut machine. Then I took some clear jewelery wire and made long strings to hang from the wire. I strung beads on the bottom of each piece to give the strings some weight. Then I took a thick needle and poked holes in the middle of each butterfly and strung them onto the jewelery wire tying a knot under each butterfly to hold them in place. I put between 3-4 butterflies on each string and had a total of 15-18 strings. I tied them to the wire ring and tried to space them so they would not get tangled. Then I tied pink and brown ribbon to the top of the wire to hang it from the ceiling.

As I said not hard just time consuming. And one day Elizabeth got a hold of it and knotted all the strings together so I had to untangle all of them. It took about 45 min but I didn't want to trash the whole thing after all that work. Needless to say she got a talking to and it hasn't happened since. I am really happy with the way it turned out. The colors and details make it one of a kind which is really special.