spring banner-licious (or how to actually make stuff instead of just thinking about it)

I had so much fun this weekend making something I have been thinking about and wanting to make for months.  As I was making it and praying about what kept me from it for so long the Lord really spoke some things to my heart. 

I hope that I will act on these things on a regular basis because they are essential in being the mama that I want to be.  They don't apply only to craft projects either, they apply to homeschooling, learning new recipes, getting organized around the house and lots more of my favorite parts of being a SAHM.

So here's what I made this weekend.  It's a spring banner (spring garland?) for my kitchen made from  spring-ish, pink & red papers.

{Bunny Trail: My kitchen is pretty old as you can see, but hubby and I really *love* the look and feel of old houses.  When we move from here we'll probably look for an even older house! 

It's funny how the "non-vintage" people that come over to visit almost always comment that we could "take that old vent-a-hood out and put in a nice new microwave with a built in vent." 

Um, why would I *ever* do that??? *LOL*  That vent-a-hood is one of my favorite parts of the kitchen! /end bunny trail}

I saw the idea of the banner somewhere online months and months and months ago.  The article was about decorating for a child's vintage-style birthday party (I think...actually I mostly looked at the pictures, heh-heh).  As soon as I spotted it I knew I wanted to do something similar in my sweet, old kitchen. 

In the photo they had used little vintage circus animals with party hats and balloons on the flags, but what I immediately thought of was using all my favorite scrapbook papers!

It turned out to be pretty easy to make.  Here's a quick tutorial in case you'd like to try it yourself!

First I made a template for the flags (which you can download here.  You may need to enlarge the template if you want your flags to be the same size as mine. The template came out about 1/2 inch smaller when I created & saved online):

Next I just traced it on to the back of the papers I had chosen and then cut out all the flags. (You could trace half the template on a folded piece of paper for less cutting and tracing, but I found I could fit more flags on one sheet of paper by tracing it this way.)

{Tip: If you trace on the back of your paper you won't have to erase pencil lines later.}

Finally I folded them around some bakery twine (so in love with that stuff) and used a glue dot to hold the flag together.

   

I thought about sewing across the tops of the flags, but the glue dot seemed to work fine and I liked that I could slide the flags around to the position I wanted them in or take them off completely if needed.

Then I hung up my banners and smiled.  a lot.

Every time I walk in the kitchen now I smile.  It feels like a little party is about to start any moment.  I love it.

So why did it take me so long to do such an easy project??

What were the three things that the Lord showed me as I was praying about this?

Well, I think I'm going to have to share that with you on Wednesday because this post is already pretty long and I have a bunch of stuff I want to make today! (sorry to "ryan seacrest" you like that.)

Updated: here's the link to part 2

See you tomorrow for Ten on Tuesday!

♥ M~
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"That's why I urge you to pray for absolutely everything, ranging from small to large. Include everything as you embrace this God-life, and you'll get God's everything."
-Mark 11:24 (the message)