We have a planter that hangs on the brick wall in front of our house, and until the flowers are blooming, I wanted something with some color to put on it. This banner was the perfect fit! You can use this banner inside or outside since it is made with Oly Fun fabric by Fairfield.
My inspiration for this project came from the Crafting with Felt book from LeisureArts.com. While this book suggests making the projects with felt, any of them could be made with Oly Fun fabric, since it will not fray when you cut it, just like felt. This book is filled with step by step directions and project photos to inspire you.
Each project has a shopping list. I love this! If you are like me, you want to have all of your supplies together before you start your project. There is nothing worse than making a project and realizing you are missing one of the needed supplies . . . then instead of finishing your project you are heading to the craft store.
I liked the shape of the banner pieces on the Harvest Banner project, so I decided to use that for my project. I was going to trace the shape onto some tracing paper, but since I was able to see the outline through the Oly Fun, I decided that I did not even need to do that.
I lined the edges of the Oly Fun up with the outside edges of the banner shape, and using a pencil I drew the outline right on the fabric. Once I traced all of the shapes I needed, I just cut on the pencil lines.
In the project directions, it says to use pre-cut felt letters. I decided I wanted to cut my own, so I set my Cricut with a deep cut blade at a depth of 5 and a mulit cut of 4, lowest speed and pressure settings (see image below)
Then I placed another sheet of Oly Fun on my Cricut mat and cut out my letters using the Extreme Fonts Cricut cartridge. I took a photo to prove that I really did cut the fabric with my Cricut. I do have to admit, when the Cricut was cutting the first and the last letter, the corner of the fabric did get caught up and start to curl . . . I should have taped down those corners.
When I pulled the Oly Fun fabric off of the mat, some of the letters came out perfectly clean, as you can see in the image below. A couple of the letters needed a little help to separate from the rest of the fabric, but sometimes we have to do this with a thick cardstock so really, it is not any different. Also, I was using an older blade . . . that could make a difference too. I have heard that if you are going to cut fabric you should keep one blade that you use JUST for fabric . . . kind of like how you would never use your fabric scissors on paper.
Once I placed the letters on top of the banner shapes, I did not really like the look. The colors work great together, but the letters don't pop off of the banner.
No problem . . . I will cut the letters again with a darker color of Oly Fun. This time I taped down the corners, and it really helped a lot! These letters cut out even nicer than the first ones!
Now those letters pop! Much better! And I saved the other letters to use for a different project so nothing wasted.
I used Fabric Fusion to glue the letters onto the banner pieces.
Since I knew this banner would be going outside I used a piece of rope to string up the banner. I knew that this would hold up in the outdoor elements. Here in Minnesota we could have rain one day and snow the next.
I ran some hot glue across the top, and then placed the rope into the hot glue. I started with the middle letter so that I could more easily center the whole banner.
Now it was time for the embellishments! I had this package of Fiesta Felt shapes from Buttons Galore, and I thought that the colors of the flowers went nicely with this banner. These shapes have adhesive on the back, so that made them even easier to work with . . . peel off the backing and stick!
I layered the two flowers on top of each other to give more depth to the project.
Here is the finished project. I really like the way that it turned out. I may make another one for the holidays . . . or in a couple of years I could make a graduation banner for my daughter.
Make sure to check out the other books from Leisure Arts! They are the perfect thing to inspire your next crafting project.
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