Tuesday, May 8, 2007

DIY: Garland Signs

I saw these on Martha Stewart Craft. She sells them on her website for a really reasonable price, but unfortunately her colors and messages are limited. As gorgeous as they are, they are very simple to make. I'll post my creation as soon as possible, photo unavailable right now.

Materials:
- Colored paper
- Ribbon or other string
- Scissors (or crafting circle cuts, paper slicer, etc.)
- Utility Knife (Xacto Knife) - Not needed, but handy
- Markers, Stickers, Computer and Printer, whatever you want to do to make your letters.

Instructions:
Step 1: Print your letters onto your colored paper first if using a computer and printer for your project. This will take some preplanning as far as your color variations. I wrote mine out with colored markers first to get it planned out right.

EXAMPLE: _ J E N _ & _ D A N _ S E P T _ 6 th _ 2 0 0 8 _ (Not my exact color scheme I used, but a good example of what I did.) All underscores in orange are orange blank spacings in my garland.


I then typed 3 pages of my lettering and printed them out on card stock scrap booking paper. I used 3 inch diameter circles, so I could only fit 6 letters per page, but it worked perfectly for what choices I made during my planning process. When I printed them I designed it all in PowerPoint so I could put my circles in a very faintly colored thin line on the presentation. This helped to space them, and also when cutting them all out.

Step 2: Cut out your circles. Or Squares, Hearts, Stars, Triangles, Ghosts, Eggs, Whatever shape you want. I stuck with the circles just for simplicity's sake, so use whatever shape you please.

Step 3: This is where the Xacto Knife comes in handy if you have one. What you do now is make a 2 small slits in the top of your shape to thread the ribbon through.

Bad Diagram: ( I I )

Step 4: Thread your ribbon from the bottom of your shape, up through the first slit, then down through the second. Thread all your letters on (in order mind you, lol - I had to stop and grab a different letter a couple times). If you're really talented you might want to tie a small bow between the slits. I tried it and it looked good, but I thought it was a pain and only did it on the very first and then the very last shapes.

Step 5: Hang and Enjoy.



My Mood: Giggly