Advent Banner

 

Just a quick post to show you my Advent banner that I promised someone I would post. I was inspired by some lovely banners I've seen on etsy such as this one and this one. I do have the purple wooden 'WAIT' letters on the mantel in the living room but I wanted something for the kitchen/sunroom as they are our main living areas for most of the day. The stars and lights are leftover decorations from the birthday party my children staged for me last month - we left them up as my dear husband declared them so very cheery to come home to on these dark and dreary gray days.

The squares are cut from stiff cardboard. I discovered scrapbookers call this stuff 'chipboard' but I just used some I had saved from the backs of sketch pads and such. I covered the squares with patterned cardstock - it is a subtle vintage floral that I printed from a free digital scrapbook paper site. Then I inked the edges with a brown stamp pad for added interest.

The flourishes are stamped with gold paint using a stamper we cut out of foam. I did purchase a set of large alphabet stamps from Joann's as I thought they were a good investment with lots of potential uses -I can see a lovely blue Ave Maria banner for May, and I am almost (but not quite) tempted to picture a Christus Natus Hodie in red and green. It is just lower case letters but I made do for the capital E . (Can you tell I'm from New England? We save and reuse and make do.) I stamped the letters with acrylic paint, which gives an interesting effect when the paint dries. Mary Rose asked how I got the cool viney pattern in the purple paint letters - that's just how the paint dries when you stamp with paint. You could always cut the letters from purple cardstock if you didn't have the alphabet stamps.

Joann's also had inexpensive packages of purple cardstock from which I cut the scalloped squares. I punched holes to string a purple ribbon through, and I did use gold eyelets in the holes - not necessary but a nice touch. I also added bows of sheer gold ribbon between the words using up bits of ribbon saved from something or other.

 

I think it turned out rather nice and I really like having such a big and bold declaration on display.

Comments

[Kristi]

You are amazing

[Martha in SD]

Quite lovely, Kimberlee. Thank you for sharing.
Blessings this Advent, and Christmas to come.

[Theresa in Alberta]

Very cheery indeed!! But the photo's of your littles with their St Nick treats in the previous post are just so darling!!!!!

[Kristen Laurence]

Oh, so pretty Kimberlee! I love that it is so large in scale. Beautiful!

[Elisa]

It's beautiful. Good job!

[Genevieve]

Lovely! The eyelet is a very nice touch! I'm going to add them to my banner!

[Molly]

really pretty, I am inspired:)