DIY Jingle All The Way Banner

Okay. It has been quite awhile since I've had time to post in here, let alone work on any craft projects. It's been quite the busy week at work to say the least. Here is the project that I was slowly but surely working on the past week.

The placement may move since it is currently a little low, but it really
adds to the holiday feel!

The best part about this craft project is that I went out to JoAnn's and Michael's on the Sunday of Black Friday week and got everything I needed on sale and plus some. Keep a lookout for coupons on online websites, apps, emails and even in the mail to help you out as some basic items don't always go on sale.

To Make Your Own Jingle All the Way Banner!

Things You'll Need:

- Cardstock (I used three colors: Red, Cream, and Gold Glitter)

- Sting or Ribbon (I used red raffia, but holiday inspired or plain ribbon would work as well)

- Jingle Bells (A medium sized bell works well)

- Glue (To attach the paper pieces)

-Hot Glue or E6000 Adhesive (To attach the bells)

- Small, single hole punch

- Plain Paper 

- Pencil

-Scissors

- Computer (Printer is optional)

Getting Started:

- To get started, look through your computer's available fonts or visit Dafont.com and pick out a font that you like to create your stencil. I used Santa's Sleigh found on Dafont. It's easy and quick to download and add to your font files.

- Once you have a font picked out, type your saying out into a word document and figure out what size you'll need your lettering to be. I used multiple sizes based on the letter size. 

- Now, if you have a printer, you could easily print out your letter stencils and cut them out, but for those of us without such a precious resource, take your paper to your screen and trace the outside of your letters. This will create a simple stencil for you. Don't press too hard while doing so, you don't want to cause any damage to your computer screen.

Tip: If you have a touch screen, such as myself, touch the screen in
more than one location at a time as to prevent the screen from shifting
while you are tracing.

- Once you have your stencils drawn/printed out, cut them out. After doing so, trace them onto the color cardstock that you wish your lettering to be in. For me, it was the glittery gold color. It only took one sheet and added a lot.

- Now cut those letters out as well! I found it easiest to break the page into smaller sections and work on each of those instead of trying to cut with a big, floppy page getting in the way. 

- Once you have all of the lettering cut out, you will want to attach it to a different color as backing. This step is optional, but I really liked having the cream back the gold on the red rather than just having the gold on the red. It really made it pop. You will then cut each of those letters out.

Simply glue the lettering to the cream cardstock leaving a little extra room.
When you cut it out, make sure to leave enough that you can see.

- Next you'll want to work on cutting out the background shape to attach the letters to. I used a "tag" shape myself. I made a stencil by cutting out a large rectangle, folding it in half and cutting off the upper corners. I then traced out 15 of these in red and 5 in cream and cut those out.

- After cutting each of the tags out, I backed them in the opposite color by using the same process of the lettering.

Putting it All Together:

- Start attaching your lettering to their backgrounds! I attached mine to the red.

- Attach your jingle bells (or some of them) to the other set of cardstock! I used two on each. For this, to ensure a good hold, I used the E-6000 Adhesive. 

The E-6000 takes a little bit longer to dry because it is not a normal glue.
Be careful!

- Next, punch two holes into each of the tags. Each on opposite sides. This is where you will weave your ribbon through to hang it up!

Don't fret too much about it being perfect!

- Now the fun part begins! You will start stringing it all together. I started with one of my jingle bell tags. In between each tag, I also strung a jingle bell. This helped with spacing, keeping the letters from falling on each other, and went with my theme. 

- I used another jingle bell tag between each of the words so it was easily readable.

- When everything was done, I used (with the help of one of my roommates) two small command hooks to hang it up.