Thursday, March 17, 2011

"Lacy" Spring Banner

Hello There!

I hope this lucky day finds you well and happy. I was going to make corned beef for supper, but realized I would be out of the house too much to safely bake it in the oven, so it will have to wait until tomorrow or Saturday. My sweet neighbor from across the street brought it over for us last week. Otherwise, I don't think I'd be making it at all.

Those of you who read my blog regularly will no doubt be surprised to hear that I haven't really pulled out any Spring decor as of yet. {gasp!} I just haven't felt like climbing the ladder to our attic and bringing the boxes down. I'm hoping to feel some motivation to do it soon, though, since Spring officially begins this weekend. Today though, I finished a little project I've had rolling around in my head since I made the owl in her house. What I didn't mention in that post is that I actually made two of them! LOL I thought it might look neat to hang them beside a spring banner. You can see if it works or not.
 I think the project is pretty self explanatory, but I'll share a few details in case you are interested. The idea and some measurements to create the triangle banner part was found on the Scrapbooks, Etc magazine website here. In case it doesn't work do a search for Craft It Forward Banner Ideas. The one mine is based on is on page 5. There are instructions you can download that include measurements. I cut the letters using my Cricut and Storybook cartridge at 2 inches. I used the Martha Stewart border punch and some other punches from my stash. I decided to add the doilies at the last minute and asked the girls if they liked the look. They did, so I kept it. All the paper is from DCWV's Green Tea stack.

I took some close ups so you can see the details.
 To hang the owl houses I used some embroidery floss. First I tied (and knotted) one end of it to a straight pin. I threaded the other end on a needle and through the hole where the owl is, I poked the needle through the center of the roof. I pulled it all the way through and, because the end was knotted on a straight pin, I have no worries that it will come loose. I tied the other end to the loop of ribbon I'm using to hang the banner. They had a tendency to want to turn around too much, so I took a glue dot and put it on the back of the roof where it met up with the doily and stuck them together. Otherwise, one might only see the backside of the house.



Thanks so much for looking. I hope you like it.

Now, I want to mention, I use a program called Make The Cut and my Cricut to cut out the pieces for the owl house. Unfortunately, Provocraft (the makers of the Cricut) sued the creator of Make The Cut regarding one particular feature that was offered on MTC for a very brief period and promptly taken off the program (waaaaay before I even knew about the program). Well, the lawsuit was settled out of court last week. The result of the settlement is that Make The Cut can no longer  provide a product to be used in conjunction with the Cricut machine(s). There are other cutters out there that do support Make The Cut.

For me, I can still use the program as I have it installed on my computer, but I can't install any future updates to MTC, (unless I get a different type of cutter-which isn't going to be happening). I only mention this because you all know I use a Cricut and this software and I would hate for you to want the program to use with your Cricut, and now you can't. As I said there are other cutters (Silhouette SD for example) that DO support MTC. If you've heard of SCAL (Sure Cuts a Lot), Provocraft has just started litigation against the creator of that software as well, although any outcome is most likely a year or so down the road. Just wanted to give you a heads up.

Thank you for all the lovely comments on my Lace Happy Birthday card. I'm so glad you liked it!
Have a great day,
Photobucket

9 comments:

Jena said...

So adorable, and just what I needed to get me motivated as I realized earlier today that I should start decorating for Spring - so far I've only taken down the valentine decorations ;-) We are doing corned beef today but I'm trying a new way in the crock pot, so not a lot of fuss on my part! Now I'm going to go attempt some soda bread. Have a great day!

Kathi Carlson said...

I LOVE this, Jeanne, and if I had more time, I would tell you how much!! As it is, I am on my way out the door to go to work.

Maybe I can stop back tomorrow and drool some more. LOL. Thanks for the heads up on the software. It's kind of a bummer.

Laurel said...

What a great idea!

Sparkplug17 said...

This is just darling!

Kim Burmeister said...

Wow, wow, wow! This is AMAZING! I just love, love, love those owl houses.

Alanna said...

What a great banner and it looks great with the owl houses.

I LOVE all the detail you've put into it and the additions of the doilies was great.

I had heard some chatter about the problems with Cricut and some of those programs. I'm glad you can still use it some.

Enjoy the gorgeous weather we're having and have a great Friday.

Sunghee said...

Oh my!!! I want to live at your house! This is so pretty! What an awesome decoration!

Jackie said...

is it really spring or will the groundhog go down deeper for another couple of weeks of winter? Nice banner....so creative ;)

Carolyn said...

These are so cute! Love how you spring it up! :)