Thanksgiving banner for the fireplace (made for FREE!)

 

I don’t know about you, but I decorate for fall very early – usually the first part of September .  So when November rolls around and Thanksgiving is just about here, I find myself wanting to add in a little “Thanksgiving décor.”

I had a fun crafting night with a friend this week.  She has a Cricut machine and is still trying to figure out all the neat things it can do.  I compiled some Thanksgiving craft ideas (from Pinterest, of course) and we both decided we wanted to make a Thanksgiving banner for our mantel.

Here is the Thanksgiving banner she made – isn’t it pretty?!  It fits her living room colors perfectly! 

We cut the brown letters on her Cricut (using Comic font, I think?) and then used Comic shadow to cut another of the same letter out of white paper so the brown letter would stand out.    The other paper is 12×12 scrapbook paper she picked up and cut and glued together.  When it was all glued together, she punched some holes, threaded some raffia twine through it, and hung it.

I wanted to do a burlap version of a banner/flags to mimic the “FALL” banner that is hung on my spray painted mirror over the fireplace.  (See how I did that banner here.) 

When you print out letter on the Cricut, you are left with basically a stencil of those some letters.  Perfect for what I was planning!  

I had some leftover muslin fabric scraps from a tablecloth I made for our church.   I just eyeballed a triangle shape, stacked the fabric and cut out 10 triangle flags. 

All done! 

You could totally sew the edges and get all fancy with it, BUT…

#1 – I was pressed for time and

#2 – I wanted the natural look. (At least that is the excuse reason I am using, and I am sticking to it! )

I just ironed the wrinkles out and I was ready to stencil and paint.

Using some basic black craft paint I already had, I lined up the stencil, and blotted away. 

Then I glued some twine on the top of the back of each letter and strung it up!

I love it!  And the best part is it was a completely FREE project… the stencil was leftover from my friends project, I already had the scraps of material, leftover craft paint, raffia twine I already had… 

At least my mantel is all ready for Thanksgiving . . . now I am off to work on the rest of the house!

Have you done any Thanksgiving crafts in preparation for next week?

Are you ready for Thanksgiving or scrambling like me to get everything done in time – ONE week and counting!

{cj}