Spring Banner

I'm loving all the cute banners on pinterest lately and all the fun spring crafts!  I decided to update my mantle with a fresh look for spring, so I made this banner.

The first thing I did was cut out the circles and letters on my Silhouette.  I cut out 5.5 inch circles in a bunch of different shades of orange and blue.  I also cut out a scalloped circle in white from the stock library and letters to spell the word "spring." 

By the way, I love how you can see my bright pink old lady slipper socks in this picture.  I'm sure I was also wearing sweat pants and some old t-shirt that used to belong to my brothers while doing this.  Classy.  Anyway, what I did next was cut strips of brown butcher paper to make the backing.  The strips were 8 inches wide and 24 inches tall.  I folded the paper back and forth in one inch folds to make a little accordion strip.

Then I smushed the accordion together and wrapped a little twisty tie around the center.  It ended up looking like a bow tie.

I spread out the folds and taped the edges together with some clear tape so that it made one big circle.

I kind of had to fuss with it to make a nice, even circle.  There were some parts where my folding got a little wonky and so I also trimmed up the edges so that they would be nice and even.

Finally, I took a glue gun and glued the colored circle onto the butcher paper backing.  I only had to use a little glue to secure it.

And then I threaded some twine through the butcher paper and strung up the letters to make my banner.

I spray painted a few things that were already on my mantle a pretty robin's egg blue and covered a few ugly looking books with some spring-y paper to brighten things up a little.  I also took a branch of fake flowers and wove it into my fireplace grate, then tied a ribbon at the bottom to hold it all in place.  It still needs some work, but we are definitely on the way to a crafty little springtime cottage.