Fourth of July Banner

While at an antique store, I spied cute garlands made out of scrapbook paper, glitter and alphabet stamps.  They were made for birthday and graduation parties.  Why not holidays?

Talk about a fun project!  I went to my scrapbook paper stash.  For those of you who scrapbook, I always have enough paper for projects for this life and the next one.  I pulled out every red, white and blue paper along with all black patterned papers.  I knew that I wanted to stamp my letters in black, so that was the choice for the black papers.

I needed to find two types of alphabet letter stamp packages.  The circles that contained just one letter needed to be large.  The 'of ' had to be smaller to fit on one circle.  I found The 2 sets at Hobby Lobby.  Using my 40% coupon, they were $7.80 without tax for each set.  I purchased a 2 inch set for the individual circles and the 3/4 inch set for the 'of '.   The sets were made by CRAFTS ETC! It seems a shame that I only used the o and f, but since then, I have personalized many cards with the stamps.

The next step was to pair up two papers for each circled letter.  This was a trial and error.  They also were put in a row so I wouldn't have repeating patterns next to each other. 

Also, I bought a paper punch that punched small rectangles rather than circular holes to run the ribbon through.  This was a huge blessing to have this particular punch. 

I went to my plastic cup cabinet and pulled two different sizes out to use as tracers for my circles. I used a specialty scrapbook scissors to give the outside circles a decorative edge.

Once I cut out the twin set of circles, I practiced stamping on scrap paper.  It took me a while to get the right amount of ink.  I stress, always practice or you will end up wasting a lot of good scrapbook paper.  Plus the fact, you become much more confident in your ability after numerous tries.

Once I liked the stamping technique, I stamped all my circles.  Let them dry and them glue the smaller one onto the larger one.

I love German glass glitter, but hesitated using the more expensive glitter on this project.  Actually, the bigger, cheaper type of glitter made the circles pop so much more than the glass glitter.  I only glued on the inner circle using Elmer's.  Even today I find the sparkle of the glitter still catches the light at many angles. 

                                                           

When all the circles are complete, lay them out on the floor and lay a double layer grosgrain ribbon from side to side with extra for the ending knots. Cut the lengths and weave in and out of the letters. Knot your two strands together and hang. 

                              You can also hang these banners in a doorway or across a mirror.

I'll show you later how to make a personalized birthday banner. All you will need is a choice of 3 or 4 colors and you can go to town.(later blog)