I finally sat down Sunday night and started on the “oh so crafty” projects I have promised to complete for the dinner party on Saturday. As I noted in one of my last posts, I am enamored with and inspired by Halloween banners I saw on Etsy. So, I made my first project a “Happy Hallowe’en” banner. I bought most of my supplies from Hobby Lobby (exceptions are noted). Here’s what I did:

Supplies:

  • Black and ivory patterned note cards
  • Orange cardboard letters, lower case
  • Fall-themed feathers
  • Multi temperature glue gun (and glue sticks) [from JoAnne Fabrics]
  • Large gold and silver star-shaped sequins
  • Document fastener [from GarretWade]
  • Large gold, fall-theme faux rhinestones
  • Small white faux rhinestones
  • Brown, sparkly ribbon

STEPS:

  1. Arrange the cards in your preferred progression. I wanted each card to be from a different pattern, so that no card was repeated one right after the other.
  2. Hot glue the orange letters to the face of the card. Make sure you spell your words correctly!
  3. Hot glue feathers on the bottom, inside of the card. Close the card right away so the hot glue keeps the tops of the feather stuck inside the card as it is closed.
  4. Use the document fastener (I love this thing!) to “grommet” each corner of the card. You really only need to do the top corners (so you can tie the cards together and spell your word), but I liked the look of a grommet in each corner.
  5. Embellish the face of the card to your taste. I made mine a little sparkly using faux rhinestones and large, gold and silver star-shaped sequins. A note about gluing the sequins: You don’t need much hot glue for these. Use only a tad and be careful not to melt the star too much. It will bubble a little bit because the glue is hot. [Note to self — change setting on hot glue gun to LOW the next time you are gluing sequins!!] [Another note to self — next time, just use a glue stick for gluing sequins!!]
  6. Use pretty ribbon to string the letters together.

Want to see what I did? Our dearest friend k! took some photos and is hosting them here (try the slideshow).

I plan on making at least one more banner similar to this to hang over the second dining table. This second banner will likely read “Trick or Treat.” We’ll see how far I get. I burned herself more than once during this project. And my hand is worn out (and slightly bruised) from the document fastener. But alas! I am crafty! It has been years since I tried my hand at…well…anything to do with my actual hands. Granted, my hand did go through some trials, but it was worth it. No pain, No Princess!