Morning Musica  . . .  I’ve been busy … making things!

Hello my dear patient friends!♥ I thought I’d show you what I’ve been doing this morning!  I’ve been playing! Remember I mentioned I wanted to have lots of banners, swags, festooning and bunting to decorate my house this year?

Well, as you know, I went hunting for them and found lots of fun ideas, but couldn’t find the word banner I wanted for the kitchen . . . I’m sure they must be out there somewhere, but I decided I should just make one. How hard can it be, was my question.

Not hard at all as it turns out; really easy! And not even messy! So I thought I would show you what I did, in case you want to drape a mirror, a window, the footboard of your bed, the fireplace mantle, anywhere really.

I am sure there’s more than one way to do this!  But here’s what I did.  You need some card stock … a pair of scissors that makes curvy patterns when you cut with them, (pinking shears would work), and a hole punch that makes tiny holes. Also some narrow ribbon, yarn, or festive string. Baker’s string would look cute too. You can get all this in any craft store.  Or, knowing you, you probably have most of it in your closet already!

You need to decide what you want it to say, so you can know how many little cards to cut out, one for each letter — I just wanted a simple “Merry Christmas,” but other ideas would be “Home for Christmas,” “Let it Snow,” “BELIEVE,” “Joy to the World,” “Peace and Good Cheer,” “Blessings” — I bet you can think of lots more; “The Grinch Lives Here,” might even work, for certain occasions!  Or, “Welcome Home!” Or your child’s name! 

I didn’t measure anything, because it doesn’t need to be perfect … I just cut out little squares to the size I thought they should be, and punched holes in the top corners of each. (Cut one square until you get it the size you like, then just eyeball that as you cut the others. Trust me, you can do this!)

If you wanted, you could put a little glue on the edges and dip each edge into glitter.  I thought of this, but since I didn’t get glitter, and since it was 5 am at the time, I thought, OK, maybe next time!  I threaded narrow grosgrain ribbon through the holes, keeping the ribbon flat so that, in the end, when you hang them, the cards will all lay correctly — and I spaced them a bit apart.

They had tons of letter stickers at Michael’s … I bought these puffy letters, and considered using them, but changed my mind, wished I’d bought simpler ones … I was afraid these would make it too fancy for what I wanted.  I thought it would look more homemade if . . .

I just printed letters on the cards with a fat black marking pen.

So that’s what I did, and then, with watercolors, I put a little gray shadow behind each letter to make them “pop” a bit.

And so there it is!  Not Picasso.  But that’s OK, it does exactly what I hoped … a little something homemade in my kitchen. And you could go wild with this, you could mark the letters in glue and make them totally glitter!  I’ve already hung a few little colored pom poms on this banner … if you need a little gift of the heart, this would be perfect, tucked inside a stocking, or in a holiday card.

And then, the sun came up!  I love my banner/swag department!  It has a bit of magic in it, don’t you think?

I also thought you might like a photo of sundown last night, on the street where I live ….

The Frost Moon was so beautiful!

Back to my decorating now!  I finished my new WILLARD yesterday! (Click there, just in case you don’t know why we call my Newsletter “Willard.”)  It will start going out next Tuesday — it takes a couple of days … will be all sent late Wednesday.  If you want to sign up your mom, sister, aunt, grandma, sugar daddy, daughter, or best friend, you can do it anytime over the weekend and still be in time for Christmas Willard to arrive in their boxes sometime Tuesday or Wednesday.♥ Very inexpensive little gift.  Cookie Jar is included!  Also, I have a little surprise giveaway in honor of the giving season, from me to you with LOVE; check the blog next Tuesday for the surprise!

Peep Peep girlfriends, Have a wonderful day!! xoxo You are adorable! ♥  Thank you for everything!