Teach. Craft. Rock. Repeat.: The Autumn Banner That Started it All...

This is pretty much where it all started...

A few years ago, I became interested in scrapbooking through a family friend. I had always enjoyed crafting, but hadn't created much due to the rigor of AP art curricula, college life, graduate school and my first few years of teaching. I had a feeling the scrapbooking would appeal to my sense of designing and memory-keeping as well as my deep and undying love for paper, pens and stickers.

As I became more of a serious scrapbooker, I started subscriptions to Creating Keepsakes magazine and the now defunct Scrapbooks, Etc magazine, the former being sadly inferior in my opinion. In perusing these magazines, I saw not only great ideas for pages and layouts, but party themes and handicrafts from scrapbooking supplies. To say that this revelation opened up a can of worms is an understatement.

This was right around the time that my friends were buzzing about a new site called Pinterest on which they were pinning and sharing all sorts of DIY and craft ideas. I was also getting more and more into blogging while simultaneously building a level of comfort in my teaching position and thus, more free time.

Then, as they say, the rest is history and a crafter was born.

I set up a crafting area in our then new home and never looked back. My first creation was this banner for our autumn decor. I have included pictures and directions for the banner, as well as some images of other non-homemade decor schemes just so you can see how we pieced it all together. Happy crafting!

Autumn Bunting Banner

To create the bunting triangles, I took 12" x 12" brown kraft paper and cut it in half into six-inch strips. On one long side of the strips, I measured and marked four-inch intervals. On the opposite side, I measure and marked four-inch intervals again, but this time beginning at a two-inch indent (exactly in the middle of the interval on the other side). I connected the marks with pencil lines using a ruler.

Each six-inch strip will make five triangles, so for this banner, I only needed one sheet of kraft paper. Carefully cut out each of the triangles.

Each triangle in the banner was also covered with seasonal paper. I chose a few designs and repeated the triangle-making process to create an equal number of paper coverings. In order to show a small border of kraft like I did in the final product, glue the paper onto the kraft after sliding the paper just slightly upward leaving a margin of kraft. If you like the effect, you can ink the edges of the bunting and the paper.

Though each triangle varied in the pattern of paper applied over the kraft, I wanted a unified look under the letters, so I used a circle punch to cut discs for under each letter in matching brown paper.

Again, I chose to use the same muted green color for all of the letters, so I loaded one sheet into my Cricut and cut out the letters a, u, t, u, m, and n in the Lyrical Letters font. I then ran the letters through my mini-Xyron and adhered them to another sheet of kraft. You can use glue or roller adhesive, but for complex shapes with lots of little parts and openings like letters, I prefer the Xyron.

Once the letters were attached to the kraft, I carefully cut around them to make the brown border around each letter using microtip scissors. Finally, I ran the brown discs through a paper crimper for texture, stuck the letters on with Zots, then stuck the discs onto the bunting triangles.

At this point, you have a perfectly usable and respectable banner than you can tie together with hemp string like in the image. If you are crazy like me, however, and like to push your patience to the absolute brink, you can also make some paper leaves...

To create the paper leaves, I used Close to My Heart's Nature's Vein acrylic stamps rolled in two colors of ink. I stamped the color silhouette stamps onto brown kraft paper, then overlayed the vein stamp in brown. Again with the microtip scissors, carefully cut around the outline of the leaf shape leaving a tiny border of kraft around the edge. I used one large or two small leaves per bunting triangle.

On each end, I created a pumpkin and an apple just by cutting out shapes, layering the paper and inking the edges for dimension. I also had a few paper acorns laying around, so I stuck them onto a few of the triangles, as well.

When I adhered the leaves, I covered the stems and rough edge with two buttons, tied together with a strand of hemp, then stuck on with a Zot. Finally, punch holes in the corners of each triangle, pop in a color-coordinated eyelet to protect the hole from ripping and tie them together with hemp or raffia. Voila!