Banner With Duck Deco Glitter Laminate

Banners are something I don't make often but I do like to make them and I am always listening and watching for times I can make a banner project.

I have a little friend who loves her glitter and I promised her I would make her a name banner for her bedroom and all I needed to know was what colors she wanted. And, if you are a little girl that names her pet bird Princess Poppy the only font that would be acceptable is Storybook! Storybook was one of my favorite Cricut cartridges because the wonderful fonts that looked so fancy with the layers available to dress up the letters and it worked wonderfully for the banner.

If you know how expensive glitter paper is you know that you tend to find ways to add a glitter detail without using up the expensive glitter goodness of glitter cardstock and for this project I opted for that absolutely sparkly, glitter, shininess that only the Duck Deco Glitter Laminate can offer. If you haven't seen this stuff in person let me tell you that there isn't a picture available to convey how gorgeous this stuff can make a project!

**Settings** I had to finagle *okie is always amazed that the word finagle is actually a word and it has to be since it never gets that red underline when she types it* with the settings to find the right one for the laminate. If you cut too strong it will cut right through the laminate and the backing sheet. I finally found that for the Explore the Washi Tape setting works quite well. Sometimes I did get a slight cut through the backing paper but for the most part it worked great.

Once I had the letters on the banner pieces they seemed to need a little something else and I thought about my pearls I have in my stash of embellishments and they added that pieces de resistance we often strive for in our projects. My little friend was very pleased with her banner and as far as I know it is still hanging in her bedroom!

4th of July Banner - File Available

I am going off to Branson for a few days to teach my cousin and her friend how to make cards. My sister and my Aunt Betty will be making the trip with me and I am sure we will have a great time on the 5 hour drive as my family always has a fabulous time when we are together. Before I get going and will likely be out of pocket for a few days I wanted to get this project posted. Last month I had posted A Little Laminating Tip now I am going to show you what I was working on when I found out how to do a little fix when laminating. 

It was really hard to get a good picture of the banner at full length since the finished project is probably around 9 feet long. It might look better if you click the picture and make it bigger. I had planned on making this last year for Andrea but a few things got in the way of me getting it done. 

I used cardstock for the pennants and for the letters I used silver colored vinyl. I wasn't sure my laminator could take 4 layers of cardstock and it's probably a good thing I didn't since I did have some problems with the laminating sheets sticking together due to the thickness. I used 5mil laminating sheets and maybe if I had used a thinner sheet it might have worked without having to get out the heat gun.

In order to break up the wording I cut some star and put them between the words. I think they worked out well and I did think of several different things to try but the stars just seemed to work the best. The stars laminated easily since they are only one layer. 

I think in this picture you can see the stitching I did on the pennant and that was done with a white gel pen. I'm not sure how well you can see the way I joined the pennants but it was rather simple. I used my Crop-O-Dile to punch holes and then used some Maya Road cord for tying them together. 

If you would like to make a banner you can download the file below:

Birthday Banner - My Friend Nancy

So yesterday I posted the masculine banner and today I'm posting a more feminine birthday banner, the one I made for my friend Nancy. We had a get together for her birthday at a mutual friends house, who makes like the worlds best fajita's by the way, and I made a banner with her favorite colors of maroon and teal. Well I added a little silver and cream to the mix as well.

First off let me say it is very difficult to get good pictures of a banner because it is so dang long, so please bear with me having the banner in 3 pictures. 

The flags of the banner are cut out of heavy cardstock and the letters are done in vinyl. I also cut some flourish designs to add on the flags that the flowers are on. I had some sheer ribbon that I used for the bows at the ends of the banner. 

I pulled out some of my precious Petaloo flowers to add for decoration and while I hate using those flowers I figured Nancy was worth the sacrifice.  Big brads were used on a few of the flowers and then brads with crystal centers were used for the others.   

I didn't laminate Nancy's banner because I wanted to sew it together with ribbon and wasn't sure how my Janome Sew Mini would do with sewing through the lamination. Not long after it was hung up I was wishing I had laminated it because the air was very humid and the paper started curling. I might try a small piece of paper laminated through the sewing machine just to see if it will work so I will know for future references and if it does then there will likely be no end to my creating banners that can be stored and reused! 

Birthday Banner - For a Guy

While I haven't been posting in the last few months that doesn't mean I haven't been crafting....okay I've been crafting very, very, very little *okie hangs head in shame* but on a positive note my stamps are all organized! So what do y'all think of my stamp set up now?

Oh yes this post is about a birthday banner for a man *okie is quite amazed at how fast squirrels tend to distract her*! I've made two in the last month or so and while they were both banners they were quite different.

Today I want to share the one I made for my friend Eric. A few of us who hang out at happy hour *okie suddenly realizes she probably needs to post about that as well and thinks  there is a lot she hasn't shared and wonders how long it will take to catch everyone up with the going on's in okie's life* decided to surprise our friend Eric for his birthday and my task was to make a banner and a cake. 

I used 8.5 x 11 kraft carstock for the base of the banner and was able to fit two flags per sheet. I wondered what I wanted to use for the lettering since I really didn't want to waste paper on something that might be thrown away and I came up with using vinyl and in colors I have quite a bit of. This also made it easier for me to laminate the flags since I wanted to try out the laminator a friend sent me.

Since happy hour consists of $1 beers I thought it was appropriate to use beer mug images on the banner. Here you can see the images a little better. It was easy to layer the mug images and the letters. 

You can also see where I laminated the pieces which I am glad I did since Eric said he was going to keep the banner and hang it in his man cave. I trimmed around the pieces with my guillotine cutter so that went pretty fast. 

When I was in 8th grade my mom sent me to cake decorating classes at the local Junior college and I completed all the courses they had available and I then earned extra money decorating cakes and since I lived in a rural area I had a pretty steady income of extra money for a 13 year old. My Aunt Betty and her family moved to Oklahoma when I was 15 and she too could decorate cakes and she taught me how to make a bikini cake using heart shaped pans and baking some batter in mugs that have a fairly round bottom. 

For Eric I decided a bikini cake was the way to go! I was a bit disappointed in it because it should have been smoother but I have concluded that my little Hamilton Beach hand mixer is no match for making decent decorator buttercream icing. While I was not pleased with the results I will say the cake was a bit hit anyway! 

So now y'all can see that I'm a jack of all trades, or is that a jackess? Not to be confused with a jackass of course!