A Bit of Love

As mentioned in my last post,
here is the instructions of how I made my Valentine's Day banner for my mantel.

If you don't want to know,
but would like a chance to win a banner,
skim down to the bottom of this post.

If you don't care, I will cry profusely for two days.

No, I'm just kidding.



I found this great idea at The Graphics Fairy:

graphicsfairy.blogspot.com

I purchased some old music books at a yard sale this past summer,
so I tore out some pages that were in pretty bad shape anyway,
and glued them to some cardstock to be used for my background triangle flag pieces.



 I got on Pinterest and looked for a "Love"
that I liked
and found this one:

 Pinterest:
from the great website that sells these and other embroidered pieces by Jan Constantine.
(Thanks to a reader for letting me know where this pillow was from!)
.


I printed it four times,
thinking I might only be able to salvage one letter from each printing,

 but I was able to actually save 2 letters from each printing,
so that is how I ended up with two banners.


After I cut the letters out,
I cut a heart shape out,



It was much bigger than I needed,

so I just kept trimming until I got the right size.

I traced the heart pattern onto white cardstock,
one for each letter,
and then glued the letters on.

They all fit nicely,
 except for the "L",
which was acting like my two-year-old Lillie:
not wanting to easily comply according to the rules.
 

I fixed it by cutting out a portion of the bottom line
where the size seemed most consistent
and then glueing it on the heart with that part over lapping
so it looked smaller.

At this point, I applied matte Mod Podge carefully to the hearts with letters.
I have found this seals printed images.
I have had one too many printed things get wet
and the whole project get ruined by smeared printed ink.
The trick is to modge podge with one swipe across the image.
Too many swipes, and the colors on the image will bleed.
 While these were drying, I set them aside.


I laid the heart pattern onto a scrap of paper

and used a ruler to etch a slightly larger banner size I wanted behind each letter.
I folded my rough flag in half lengthwise and trimmed it,
making it exact on both sides.


This pattern was traced onto the music covered cardstock,
making a flag piece for each heart.

I Mod Podged these music-covered flags because the music paper was very fragile
(one had the date 1918 on it).
 
After the hearts with letters were dry,
 I then applied German glass glitter to the edges of the hearts
using a paint brush and Elmers glue,
and sprinkled on the glitter into a plastic container to catch the stray glitter.

 These hearts were then adhered to the music paper flags
using glue.


When everything was dry,
I found some ribbon I liked,
 
 and sewed the flags to it across their tops.
(I had to touch up a few spots where the glitter was too close and got crunched off
but otherwise, they survived the antiquated sewing machine.)


 I have always wanted to try making these banners;
it was a fun project.
My husband wasn't too sure about the whole idea of the paper banner,
but my daughter had such an enthusiastic response,
she made me feel like it was worth it.

Maybe it's just a girl thing.





This banner looked like a fun idea as well,
but I liked the hearts to stand alone.
 
Pinterest: Cottonandcurls.blogspot.com: Heart-garland


I found some background paper that I liked

graphicsfairy: Wallpaper

and, cutting some scrap-booking paper down to 8 1/2" so it would fit through my printer,

I printed the Graphics Fairy background paper on the back side.


I flipped it, shrunk the print image size
and printed it in the other direction as well,
to better fill the paper up
and for my two sizes of hearts that I wanted to make.

I then painted Mod Podge on the printed background paper.


I also ripped out a few more pagers of the old sheet music
and glued that to the back of another piece of the same red scrap-booking paper.

I cut hearts from all of the two-sided paper,
and then lined them up in groups of three,
some facing all the same direction,
others so that like sides were facing each other.


After painfully trying to find the eye of the needle
(my eyes are not cooperating lately)

I sewed through the middle of the hearts.

I'm a mender of hearts.


The back of the heart looked like this.

Edges were trimmed so they all lined up better.


Separating the heart layers was the last step.

These can be set around just as they are.

 I made this extra grouping below:

they're easy enough to slip into the mail.

If you leave a comment letting me know you would like them,
I will enter your name into a drawing.
I'll pick a name on Wednesday.

This is just a simple giveaway,
so I'm not going to leave it open long.

I'm hoping somebody will prove my husband wrong
and want them in their home.

But he'll say I cheated by saying that.

Now I think I doubled the cheat by adding that part.

I'm going to get myself confused if I keep this up.
I hope these directions weren't as confusing.
You can always ask if you have any questions.

Have a great Monday!

Linking up to:

Graphicsfairy.blogspot.com: Brag-monday
Wearethatfamily: works-for-me Wednesday
Savvysouthernstyle: Wow-us-Wednesdays
Time-warp-wife
Abowlfulloflemons
Aboverubies.net: Domestically-divine-tuesday
Notjustahousewife: Show-me-what-ya-got
Homestoriesatoz.com: Tutorials-tips-link-partyBetweennapsontheporch: Met Monday
House in Roses
Homemaker on a Dime.com
Craftskeepmesane
Bystephanielynn Under the Table and Dreaming: Sunday-showcase-party
Craftskeepmesane: Motivate-me-Monday