Fall Banner

Seriously, FALL is my most special time of the year!  I love everything about it.......... the regal colours, the earthy smell in the air, cooler days and falling leaves. 

When the season's change it's nice to acknowledge the transition in some way.  I like to decorate my home and my stampin' cave to commemorate the occasion.  So it was with all this in mind that I set about making a "Stampin' Up" FALL banner. 

Making banners is an easy and fun way to acknowledge the season.  In the following pictures I'm going to walk you through the FALL banner I recently made.

Here it is from start to finish:
Stampin' Up makes celebrating and creating home decor very simple with their variety of awesome kits.  You can check these out on pages 202 and 203 of the Inspire, Create and Share catalogue (IB&C 2014-15).  

For my banner I used the supplies from the Build a Banner Simply Created Kit.  This kit has great value for $24.95.  It includes 18 canvas/paper pennant banners measuring 5" x 7".  There are six each of 3 designs.  It also includes 9 feet of jute twine, plus alphabet and image stencils that will last you forever.  The neat part about this kit is that once you've bought it, you can replenish it with a Refill Kit for only $11.95 that includes the pennants and jute.   

Supplies:
Ink:  Old Olive and Pumpkin Pie for the banners, Gumball Green, Staz on Black ink, and Pear Pizzazz ink for the Glimmer Paper
Card stock:  Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
DSP:  I used FALL coloured and decorated Designer Series Papers for the lollies and some of the Autumn Leaf cuts.
Accessories:  2" Alphabet Die cuts (retired), Autumn Accents Big Shot Die Cut, Spider Web, Arrow, Hounds tooth, Large Polka Dot and Decorative Dot Embossing Folders, Stampin' Up! buttons in FALL colours, Red, Silver and Gold Glimmer Papers,1" and 2 1/2" circle punches.

Okay so to start making my banner: 
Whether you choose to make a small or a large worded banner like mine, the process will be the same.  You will need to prep your banners, prep your embellishments and get your layout organized and finally you'll need to assemble it.  

I started my project by making a drawing of what I expected my finished banner to look like.  This helped me determine the number of banners I would need and the configuration of each of the pieces needed to complete the project. 

I needed a working surface that was large enough to lay out all the banner pieces together so I used the top of my pool table.  It worked perfectly.  I chose a striped and a polka dot theme with rounded and banner style canvas pennants and alternated them across the length of the banner.  

Step One- Preparing Banners:

Here's a sample of a banner coloured with the striped plastic stencil.  I worked on top of my grid paper, laying out the canvas banner face up and using the grid paper to make sure it's straight, then covered the banner with the stencil, again making sure the stripes were running straight.  I used the eyelets on the banner to hold the stencil in place.

With a little bit of experimenting, I found that using a sponge dauber to apply the colour worked best for me.  I simply start working the Old Olive ink down the pattern on the stencil and making sure that I apply the colour consistently.You can tamp or drag the colour - whatever works for you.

Okay this process goes really quickly.  Here you can see all the stripes coloured in.

In this photo you can see that I've done the same process but have changed the stencil to a polka dot image and have used Pumpkin Pie ink to colour the dots.

This is what the finished piece looks like and it's ready to start decorating.  I coloured all the pieces one at a time and as each one was finished, I laid them out on my pool table ensuring they were in the order they would appear in the finished banner. 

Step Two - Layout and Preparation:
Once all the banners were coloured the process of really decorating them began. In my design layout I chose to have a pennant, a lolly and then a pennant, and followed this layout all the way through.  I needed to accessorize each pennant and each lolly with leaves, buttons and bling, so preparing all this was my next step.  I'm not going to bore you with step-by-step pictures of this process, but this is essentially how I put the banner together:

1.  I could have stenciled the letters in the circles on each of the banners, however I chose to use my Alphabet Bigz Dies to cut out the 2" letters to spell "Stampin' Up!", from Chocolate Chip card stock.  Once all the letters were cut out I placed them on the banners on the pool table so I could make sure I'd cut out everything I needed. 

2.  I decided to add some more colour by covering the circles on the banners   with a paper square.  I used my Squares Collection Framelits and cut squares which I embossed with various embossing folders (see supply list) from Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie and Soft Suede card stocks.  The pieces of card stock measured 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" and because I centered the framelits over the squares I was left with a 1/4" frame after they were cut out, that I used as part of the design.

3. I cut lots of leaves in designer paper, glimmer paper  and card stock using the Autumn Accents Bigz Die Cut and then set them aside with some Stampin' Up! Buttons of various sizes and colours that went with the FALL theme. 

4.  Using the retired Rosette Bigz Die cut I cut out and accordion folded 1" by 11" strips of Designer Paper in Fall colours to create my small rosettes or lollies.  Only one strip is needed for the smaller size lollies.  For the larger ones I cut the strips 2" x 11 and glued two strips together.  I used a silicone mat as a gluing surface and worked with a glue gun. To hold the lollies together I punched out several 1" circles and used these as a gluing base on the back side of the lollie.  

If you've never made a lollie before they are quite tricky to join together. If you don't glue the pieces together properly the DSP will tear or the folds won't go together properly.   To make sure you get it right, here's a link to a tutorial on how to make lollies.  

Step Three - Assembling:

1.  I laid out a piece of silk cord (non - SU) so that it extended across the pool table and dropped at least 3 feet on either side.  The cord was threaded through the eyelets on the banners and an equal distance was left between each of the banners to add two leaf clusters and the lollie.  

1.  I used self adhesive tape to attach the squares and letters of the Alphabet onto the banners, and made sure I burnished each piece to ensure that it would stay glued to the banner.  

2.  I assembled and decorated the lollies and leaf clusters with a glue gun.  Because the lollies and the leaf clusters didn't have eyelets in them to hang them on the rope, I punched out 2 1/2" circles for each lollie and two 1" circles for the leaf clusters, from scrap card stock to attach these elements to the banner rope.  I used the glue gun to attach all these pieces. 

 

Finished Banners and Lollies: 

Each Alphabet letter has a bit of bling added in the form of basic rhinestones.  Most of them are Stampin" Up! ones coloured with Sharpie Markers, except for the "I" and the "M" which are some dollar store bling.  I also punched out stars from Glimmer Paper and adhered them randomly on the banners with glue dots. 

Each lollie consists of a large lollie on the bottom, a leaf in glimmer paper and a smaller lollie with a button. I coloured some of the glimmer paper with Gumball Green, Pear Pizzazz and Basic Black inks, to bring in more fall colours.  Each leaf cluster consists of a variety of leaf shapes and textures.

This banner was the spacer between Stampin' and Up.  It was fun decorating this piece too.

I really liked the way the banners came together and I had a lot of fun doing each one and figuring out how I would embellish it.  From start to finish the whole project took about 5 hours to complete.  I'm planning on doing a banner for my fireplace for Thanks Giving that either says "Thanks" or "Fall".  I know it will be the perfect decor piece for my Thanks' Giving Day Festivities.  

I know it's difficult to see but here is the entire banner hung on display at our Basics for Babies vendor table area last weekend.  I'll also be hanging it in my stampin' cave for my World Card Making Day event on Sunday October 5th, so I hope to get a better picture of it hanging then.

Fall Challenges: 

And finally, I am entering this banner in two great fall themed challenges this week.  You'll want to click on both of these links and check out all the great projects and cards that are on display. 

1.  SU Autumn Colour Challenge #106

2. The Paper Plunge - Challenge #1 - this is a brand new challenge site folks and my good friend Diane Ison is on the Design Team.  Check out the beautiful fall cards already posted by the design team and send some love their way! 

Thanks again for stopping by and if you have any questions regarding how I assembled the banner just post a comment and I'll get back to you.  
Happy Stampin!
Penny Tokens