Thankful Thursday---A Thank-Full Banner for your Fall decoration.....

Whew! Are my fingers tired!

I was going to have this up at 10 am this morning, but you know the saying about the best laid plans of mice and men, right?

Its been a Monday on a Thursday.

I think my glue gun has escaped, 

along with the working parts of my dishwasher.

The Littles are in cohorts with the cat to try to drive me crazy.

Just one of those days, LOL.

But, as I promised, today we are starting a new series every Thursday from now until Thanksgiving, each one filled with an idea that I use or make for my own home for the holidays.

Anything from crafty foo-foo stuff (as the Handy Hubby would call it) to recipes passed down for generations of Thanksgiving dinners 

here at The Welcoming House in real life.

Today, I am sharing with you something that I have had my eye on for a while over on Etsy, various ones, actually, but couldnt bring myself to pay $25 or more for when I knew I could make it myself.

I am sure you have seen those adorable fabric or paper banners that are all over the place,

celebrating birthdays, and holidays, and just fun things, right?

Well, here is the new Welcoming House banner that will return each year for the fall months to remind us why we celebrate Thanksgiving.

NO, that is NOT a mistake.

I MEANT for it to be spelled that way.

And while it is not the greatest picture I could have taken, since it is raining buckets and almost dark outside already, I still really like it.
Here is how you make it:

 You are going to need a couple paper bags, like what you can get at grocery stores if you ask, or a roll of brown craft paper. Masking tape, gold thread or craft paint that comes in a bottle with a narrow tip, 1/4 yard of fabric your choice, 1/4 yard of gold polyester fabric, glue gun, black permanent marker, and preferably, some big helpers who love to color, cut, string, or tie.

Things will go a lot faster that way.

You are going to need to decide what phrase you want to use. Here is what I started out with, and then decided that I wanted something different (and when I realized the glue gun was gone):

I scrapped that in favor of one of my favorite thoughts around Thanksgiving, that I am FULL of THANKS for everything God has given me in abundance. :)

(Plus, that one has one LESS letter.........LOL)

So take your paper bags or brown craft paper and decide what size you want your letters to be. I chose to go all-out crafty and draw mine out by hand. Want a much easier way if you are not very crafty? Take brown card stock, and your printer, and print out letters on your computer that you like the look of. My letters would have fit 4 on a piece of paper, but I like the not-quite-perfect look of doing it myself.

Here is where I am placing the letters up against the fabric I had chosen, to see how they would look. Cutting out the rectangles, drawing letters and coloring in with the marker took about 15 minutes tops. Of course, I had a big kid helper who loves to pitch in and help. :) 

Next, I measured out the fabric for the letters, making sure there was a full 2" of fabric on the sides and bottom of the letters, but then making 5" above on the top so I had a flap for folding over so I could hang it on a string or fabric strip.

 Here is where you can use masking tape, or a glue gun. Either works, and both hold well for what you will be doing. Set the letters aside and flip the fabric over, folding up the sides and bottom so that the rectangle is finished on the edges. I tucked the corners in for a neat look.

Here is how I did the top. Tuck the corners in, fold over, and give the top of the rectangle about 3 inches with a casing so you have someplace you can thread twine, or fabric through.

Next I took Gold thread I had laying around from another projects and sewed the paper letters to the fabric rectangles. If you wanted an easier way with children, you could hot glue the paper onto the fabric for them, and simply use gold craft paint to mimic the stitches. They could be set aside to dry while you were working on the other parts.

 After sewing I made sure the ends were covered well with masking tape so no stitches come out later in storage from year to year. I think you should try for neat and finished on the back of a project as well as the front. Things just keep longer that way. :)

And then, there is the gold pumpkins. I cut two strips, about 18" long, and about 6" wide.

I pleated them with an iron, not perfectly, but enough to make the fabric look handmade when done.

I gathered the ends with thread, looping around and around, much like a piece of hard candy has the cellophane wrapped around it with the ends sticking out, then tucked the ends under, securing them to the middle of the pouf with more masking tape.

 I then secured the gold pumpkin pouf to another piece of brown paper, and drew a stem and a leaf. My kids colored them in for me. :)

\

 This is the part that goes in the middle. It also got attached to a piece of fabric, sewn on with gold thread, and then strung on the piece of fabric.

I wanted twine, but I think that left with the glue gun.

Some of the phrases I thought about doing:

(I) Give Thanks (I)

(I)Blessings (I)

(I)Thankful(I)

and I could keep going and going.....

By the way, those (I) are supposed to be my keyboard representations of pumpkins. 

Once again, this was what it looked like at the end, and since it is supposed to be sunny tomorrow, I will add another picture for those of you who are noticing how yellow everything is. It really is a beautiful fabric and paper garland, and I am happy to add it to my fall decorations for the next ten years or so.

Check back tomorrow if you want to see a couple simple and fun ideas for making gifts for the holidays........they are coming sooner than you think! :)

Thanks and many blessings to you and yours,

Heather

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