Twilight Boo Banner

I love making banners. I always have one hanging on my fireplace, regardless of the season. I have banners that say "HOME" and "SPRING" and "SNOW"... so I thought it would be fun to make a banner for Halloween using the wonderful Twilight paper pack - and this one would say "BOO". I began with the paper. I pulled one of each of the ten prints out and laid them out in a pattern I liked. When I make a banner, I like to have one pennant for each letter and then a blank one on either end to balance it out - so for the "BOO" banner, I needed a total of five pennants. Perfect - because the 6 x 6 paper packs come with ten different prints and I needed two prints for each pennant!

(click on any photo to make it larger)

To create the classic pennant shape, I took each of the five top papers and cut a one inch strip off one end. Then, from the remaining piece, I measured and marked the center (2.5") of one of the five inch sides. Then I drew lines from that mark to the corners on the other five inch side. This diagram probably explains it better than I can with words...

 

I cut all five of the 'top' pieces this way...

 

and set aside the 1" strips for later.

Next, I wanted to mat each triangle with some vintage dictionary paper. I get my old dictionaries at garage sales - but I've seen them often at thrift stores too. If you don't have one, pick one up! Their pages are SO fun to add to projects.

 

To create the mat, I adhered each pennant to it's own page,

 

then trimmed around it, leaving an even mat on both diagonal edges. I left about an inch of dictionary page at the top of each triangle - this will give me something to adhere the top border pieces to later.

 

Next,I wanted to work with my 1" strips set aside from before. These will serve as the border pieces at the top of each pennant.

I began by adhering each strip to a dictionary page, leaving space between them to trim. I got out my trusty scalloped scissors and cut a scalloped edge along the bottom of each strip.

 

After trimming the scalloped side, I got my straight edged scissors and trimmed the other three sides even with the straight edges of the 1" strips.

 

Ahh, that's better!

Now it's time to put all the elements together.

First, I adhered each matted pennant to it's coordinating print. Making sure to adhere the sides and point well (I run a solid line of tape runner here - skimping on adhesive will make your banner less 'solid' and you may have edges coming up) I adhered each pennant so it's tip was centered on the bottom edge of the 6 x 6 square. 

Then, I adhered the 1" strip of my choice to the top of the pennant piece, making sure the scallops overlap the top edge of the 6" square I just added. (Again, be sure you're generous with your adhesive here. I run a solid line along both long edges just to be sure the strip is well adhered.)

 

I used straight edge scissors to trim off the excess dictionary page from the top edge and my scalloped edged scissors to trim the diagonal sides...

 

ending up with pennant pieces that looked like this!

 Come back in a couple of days to see how I embellished and finished the banner!

Comments

[Linda Cushing]

I love your banner and the detailed instructions. Can't wait to try this!