Autumnal Banner DIY

Fall is upon us! The colors of the trees are changing quickly, so much so that every day they look more colorful, more beautiful. This is my favorite time of the year. To celebrate the wonderful season of fall, I chose this glittery F A L L banner as our project for the October Maker Magic. And I would like to share it now with you.

Maker Magic is the monthly craft program I’ve had the pleasure of facilitating for several years now at the library. We normally gather together at the library, once a month, to craft, and we have lots of fun doing so. For the time being, I’m now offering the program as an “at-home” activity. For October, I put together 25 take-home kits of the fall banner for patrons. Registration was required and they went fast! FYI, if you’re interested in crafting at home with us next time, registration for the November program begins October 6 at 8 a.m. What we'll be crafting is a secret for now. LOLs.

Below are the instructions I wrote for creating this fall banner. It’s very easy to do and with some basic supplies – mostly cardstock – you can easily make one of these yourself. I bought some extra cardstock when I purchased my supplies for Maker Magic, so I am able to offer it to you, my readers, on a first come, first served basis; but I do have enough cardstock for six readers. Email me at graib@cidlibrary.org if you’d like me to put together a to-go kit for you. I can include all the cardstock, buffalo check plaid paper, glitter paper, twine, and templates. I want to give this paper away ! Don’t let me down. 😊

OK, let’s get started!

What You’ll Need 2 sheets of brown 12 x 12 cardstock

2 sheets of 12 x 12 patterned paper (I used a buffalo check plaid paper. If you are using your own supplies, I believe any patterned paper would work as long as it will contrast with the FALL lettering)

1 sheet 12 x 12 glitter paper (or any solid paper that will stand out against the printed paper)

2 different shades of orange cardstock (no more than ½ a sheet each of 8.5 x 11 cardstock)

1 small piece of green cardstock

72 inches of twine

Boxboard for templates (optional)

Pencil, Scissors, Glue Stick, Hole Punch

(When you're working from home and your dog feels the need to sniff out your supplies. 😊)

If you are interested, I ordered all my paper from Scrapbook.com. The buffalo check plaid paper is Carta Bella Paper: Buffalo Plaid #1; the glitter paper is Best Creation brand: dark copper; and the solid color cardstocks are all Bazzill Basics Paper brand.

Below are links to the templates for the pennants, FALL, an oval and the stem. Open the template files and print them out. If you find tracing computer paper too hard to do, you could trace each paper template once onto boxboard to make a stronger template that would then hold up better for using several times. A really good idea in case you decide to make more than one.

IMG_20201002_0001.pdf

Download PDF • 521KB

IMG_20201002_0002.pdf

Download PDF • 89KB

What You’ll Do

1.) First cut out all of the templates.

2.) Then, trace and cut out your pennants. There are two different size pennant templates. The smaller template is for the buffalo check plaid paper. My plaid paper is two-sided; I chose to use the smaller checked plaid. Trace and cut six of each size pennant.

a. Trace on what will be the backside of each pennant.

b. When tracing on the plaid paper, try to line the template up with the lines of the plaid so the pennants don’t look crooked.

3.) Trace and cut F A L L out of the glitter paper. As you’ll be tracing on the back side of the glitter paper, place the letter backwards onto the paper. That way, when it’s flipped over, the letter will face the correct way.

4.) Trace and cut out the ovals for the two pumpkins. Each pumpkin has three ovals of one color and two of the other.

5.) Glue one plaid pennant onto each brown pennant. The flat side at the top of each pennants will line up together, allowing for the brown paper to show beneath on the other three sides. Center the plaid pennant over the brown pennant so that the points at the bottom of the pennants match up.

6.) The pumpkin is created by placing the ovals in three layers. It’s a 2-2-1 pattern by color. The first layer on the bottom, and the oval on top, will be the same color; the middle layer is the contrasting shade of orange. I suggest practicing placing the ovals down before you begin to glue them down.

a. The first layer of two is placed like the picture on the left. Glue this layer down.

b. The second layer of two is placed like the picture in the middle. Glue this layer down on top of the first layer.

c. Glue down the last oval on top. Glue the green leaf and stem on the top of the pumpkin, centering the stem on the middle oval.

7.) Make a second pumpkin pennant following the same instructions.

8.) Glue the F A L L letters, one each, onto the remaining pennants. Don’t place them too close to the top, or they’ll interfere with the twine holes. I tried to line up the bottom of each letter with the points on the side where the pennant begins to narrow.

9.) Time to punch the twine holes, two in the top of each pennant. I marked the spot on the back where I wanted to punch each hole, measuring about ¾ of an inch from the top and about 1-1/2 inches from each side.

10.) Lace the twine through the holes, lacing down and then up, as in the photos. Center the letters evenly on the twine.

Your fall banner is now finished and ready to hang. 😊 If you crafted along with me, please take a picture and send it to me. I'd love to see how yours turned out and might even include the picture in a future blog post or on our Instagram account. Remember, you can reach me at graib@cidlibrary.org. Feel free to send me any questions you might have about the project itself. I'll certainly help anyway that I can.

Happy Autumn. Stay safe. Take care.

Welcoming autumn in my neck of the woods!