DIY Banner

Anyone else got a giant stack of paper grocery bags stuffed in a cabinet for no reason? I needed a banner for Christmas card pictures and, as usual, I didn't want to spend any money! I made this adorable banner using things I already had around my house. I hope it gives you a little inspiration this holiday season!

Materials

o   Brown paper grocery bags

o   Scissors

o   Ruler

o   Pencil

o   Paint pen

o   Twine

o   Glue or a hole puncher

Instructions

1. Start by drawing a triangle to use as a template. If you like the size of mine, they are 4 ½” wide and 5” tall.

2. Use your template to cut out a total of 14 triangles (14 if you want yours to say “Merry Christmas” J ).If you leave the bags folded, you can knock two triangles out at once.

3. To hand-letter your banner, pick out a font to base your letters off of. If you like the way my letters look, take a peek at this chart to help you!

4. Draw a faint line down the middle with a pencil and use this as a guide, then lightly sketched a rough draft of the letters. When it looks good enough to be permanent, trace it with a white paint pen. (My letters were 1 ¾“ tall and then however wide they needed to be to look right)

5. Don’t forget to erase your guide lines after your paint has dried!

6. There are three ways you can attach your twine: glue/hot glue, tape, or using a hole puncher and weaving the twine through.

7. Lay your letters out in the OPPOSITE order. This way when you flip them over to attach to attach the twine, they'll be in the right order when your banner is finished. Trust me. I had to find this out the hard way. 

 

I can't get this picture to rotate for the life of me... This is an example of how you need to lay out your letters. When you flip them over and attach them to the twine in this order, I promise your banner will read "Christmas" and not "samtsirhc!"  

If hand-lettering isn’t your area of expertise, snag a pack of stencils and paint your letters on. If you’re not crafty and don’t want any paint or tracing involved, fear not! Shanty-2-Chic has great banner templates already made and ready to print. You can print out your letters/triangles and still use the brown paper bag trick to give them a little something extra!