Monday, December 28, 2009

DIY: Easy Jute Banner Tutorial

I thought that since some of you are still on vacay, I'd share a quick tutorial with you. My girls watched entirely too many Christmas movies while I crafted, but I ended up with some cuteness! Here's a quick project that you can work on if you have some free time. 


I made two of these banners as Christmas gifts this year, but they could easily be edited to fit other seasons or holidays.



I was inspired by Miss Mustard Seed, and I wish I had remembered to bookmark her link before I worked on the project, because hers is way cuter!!! I kept the idea in my head, and I needed some Christmas gifts, so the banner was born, so to speak.



Susie over at Susie Harris introduced us to the joys of jute upholstery webbing over the last few months. 


I finally remembered to scout some out a few weeks ago at Wal-Mart's fabric department, and was surprised to learn that it was only about $0.67 a yard! Naturally, I bought about 5 yards of the stuff, and I know I'll be back for more!


I couldn't find chipboard letters in the 'Burg to save my life, so I had to make letters from scratch!


I started with my Cricut machine, cutting some letters about 4 1/2 inches in size onto scrap paper. If you don't have a Cricut, try a stencil, freehand, or print something out from MS Word.


I traced my letters onto cardboard, cut them out with a box cutter, and gave them a coat or two of acrylic craft paint. I went for "JOY," but you could try "SNOW" and use white/silver glitter.



After that, I used some Martha Stewart glitter glue and Martha Stewart red tinsel glitter to hide the messy edges fancy the edges up. 



While the glitter dried, I got to work on the jute upholstery webbing.


I measured out about how long I wanted my banner to be, and cut the bottom so it wouldn't be a plain old straight edge.



I folded the top half over and pressed it for a clean edge, then sewed a straight seam to keep it together.



Then I hand-stitched a D-ring (available in the sewing notions aisle at any craft store) to line up with the seam. This turns into the hanger.



The green wire you see is the florist's wire I used to keep my ribbon together. I forced it through the jute and wrapped it around the D-ring to stabilize it. 


If you prefer a plain banner, there's no need for a ribbon, but I used wired ribbon that I had on hand (yay!) to dress it up a little bit.



I lined my letters up to the side of where I wanted them to stay on the banner, then I hot glued them down.



Voila!



Like I said, this would be easy to make for winter decor, after your Christmas is put away and the house is feeling bare.


I saw some jute webbing online with black threading. That could be fun too!


This was a very affordable craft. The webbing was less than a dollar a yard, I already had the ribbon, and I used a coupon for the Martha Stewart stuff. You can't beat that!


Check out Kimba at A Soft Place to Land for her weekly DIY party. You're sure to find some inspiration here!


Hope everyone is enjoying their post-Christmas family time. I'll share some more about our Christmas this week.
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29 comments:

  1. This is so cute...a great idea!
    I'm bj...just over from SITS..
    Come see me when you can! :O)

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  2. Awww. That is cute! I love that jute ribbon....you can do so much with that stuff. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. I love the banner and the bow - maybe try to fill in the whole letter with glitter? I think it would be really cute with mini picture frames on it too! PS You never answered my question about the apron!

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  4. Well now, isn't that cute? I love it.
    I am so sad because I do not have a single fabric store closer than 30 minutes away. I'm ready to do some after Christmas crafting:)

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  5. That is just too cute. This would be a great project for a child to do. If I could find some letters that are already cut out, I know my niece would love doing it. You could do a cute one for Valentine's Day, too. Our Walmart cut out the fabric department. I'm going to have to look for some of this webbing.

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  6. I saw that project too and loved it! Love the glitter of course :)

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  7. Oh, that looks nice. Have you seen Lady Lydia's recent crafts for the Christmas tree? http://homeliving.blogspot.com

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  8. That's really cute Amanda! I'll file that away for next year.
    Around here, all the Walmarts have switched over to super centers in the last year or two and in the process got rid of the fabric dept! That stinks.
    I did see that webbing at JoAnns, though.

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  9. Fab idea Amanda. I love it! So simple, and super affordable.

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  10. I love quick and easy projects. I keep thinking I should make myself a bookmark. I know that's an under an hour project.

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  11. Love this! So cute! I'd love to do this w/ our last name on it & hang it in the living room or something.

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  12. Shut UP! That is the cutest craft idea I've ever seen! I can't believe it's so affordable and I haven't ever bought any yet!! How stinkin adorable and I must get on that asap!

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  13. I love that jute webbing. I just got myself some today! And yea...about flipped at the 67 cent per yard price! Woot! Your project turned out really cute!


    Nancy

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  14. Very cute! I made one almost exactly like that. Great minds think alike. Anyway, I should've let you know I received the books, but I got caught up in the Christmas festivities and didn't do much blogging. I really enjoyed looking through them and have tucked them away for inspiration next year. Thanks!

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  15. How cute! Cricut should be sponsoring us for all these great plugs we keep giving them!

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  16. Hey Amanda! I think I found the link, but then I see that Miss Mustard Seed just commented! The one I bookmarked was over at Mustard Seed Creations:

    http://missmustardseed.blogspot.com/2009/12/joy-banner-tutorial.html

    Dunno if that's the same one you were inspired by, but it was mine! I saw this stuff today too at Joann's and it made me want to make this banner ASAP! I could totally see doing it for the 4th of July!

    -Amy

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  17. Thanks for the compliment you left on my blog Amanda! I love how your Joy Banner came out, the mix of glitter and the jute webbing is lovely.

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  18. Hi Amanda! I love yuor banner...so cute! I scrolled down and took a peek at your sweet girls all dolled up in their Christmas dresses...precious! It looks like your family had a wonderful Christmas! Have a great week and Happy New Year!...Debbie

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  19. How cute! This could be used for so many holidays! Happy New Year!

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  20. That turned out so totally cute! I love DIY decor...it fits my budget perfectly!

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  21. That is great and so easy to make. Thanks for stopping by Simply Modern Mom.

    Tiffany {Simply Modern Mom}

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  22. Add an "e" and it's my name : ) Love it! And you have such a friendly blog here, I would love to follow!

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  23. So cute! Hey, Amanda, what # do you have the pressure on your Cricut when you cut just paper. Mine seems to rip. What am I doing wrong?

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  24. It looks so cute! I wish our Wal-Mart still carried fabric. =(

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  25. I love this! Joy is my middle name so I'm always so partial to anything that says joy in it. Too bad our local Walmart got rid of their fabric department!! Boo!! I love that jute!

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  26. I love seeing new ways to do things! Thanks for the inspiration!

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