I’ve had this blog for 5 years and haven’t once shared ideas for New Year’s decor. I guess by the time Christmas is over, I’m ready to just take it easy. But when an editor for a big magazine asked me if I had anything they could feature, and I had to say no, I realized that I should probably try my hand at some decor for the holiday. So I present you- how to make a New Years banner.
how to make a new years banner
For the New Year, we’ll be having a little party at home. I thought it’d be fun to make a banner to make it more festive. My criteria for this banner is that it had to be re-usable (so I couldn’t make a sign that was about being glad 2020 was gone- though I think that’s fun), it had to be able to store easily, and it had to be affordable to make.
Then I remembered that I had an extra tea towel from when I made personalized hand towels! So I grabbed that and decided it’d made an adorable banner! At first I considered having it say “Happy New Year!” But I wanted something more my style, so I landed on choosing lyrics from the song “What are you doing New Year’s Eve?” Here’s how it came together-
SUPPLIES
Everyday Iron-on in Parchment]
step 1
Start by opening up Cricut Design Space and get to designing! Here’s some tips- use a cute font for the words (I used Pen and Ink). Make it as big as possible. I used the 24″ matte so I could print it nice and long. If you want to just use my pattern and want to skip this step, you can access it here for free.
With cursive words, they’re spaced out when typed on Design space. I don’t understand why, but you can see above how weird it looks. To fix that, select the text, click on “ungroup.” This makes each letter it’s own individual piece. Then drag each letter together so it touches and connects the next one. Once they’re lined up, draw a box with the curser around the word, and click “group.”
Last, click “weld” which connects all of the letters when printing. If you don’t weld, all the letters will get jumbled when it’s time to cut the letters.
step 2
Next, have the Cricut cut out the iron on vinyl. Make sure the mirror setting is on and that the shiny material goes face down on the mat. On my Explore Air 2, I select the material “iron-on” so it’s cut at the right depth. Since this is a big file, it takes about 5 mixtures to cut out.
step 3
And now, the material is cut. What will come out is a piece of vinyl cut with the design and excess vinyl outside it. Use the weeding tool to pull out the excess vinyl. What will be left behind is the cute words for the banner! This took me about 45 minutes to do.
step 4
Finally, it’s time to iron on the vinyl words. I like to work from the left of the towel to the right. First, set the mini press to medium heat. Next, iron the hand towel where the first piece will go to heat up the material for 5 seconds. Then, place the weeded out vinyl iron-on material onto the hand towel. Note, if you’re using a different Easy Press, you can find the heat guide here.
Put another hand towel over it and with light pressure and constant movement, iron over the vinyl. Flip and press the back for 25 seconds. When it has cooled down, pull off the plastic backing. Repeat for the whole piece of vinyl.
Since I only have a tiny iron for this, it took probably 30 minutes to iron it on. It was slowwwwww! But I like to give time estimates so that if you make this, you have an accurate estimate of how long it’ll take to do.
snowflakes from paper bags
To go with the banner, I decided to make a bunch of paper snowflakes. To make these, you just need paper bags. Brown lunch bags would work perfectly! I bought 3 packs of the large bags and 2 bags of the small bags in white to make 11 snowflakes. You can see that Micheals has a ton of color options.
Supplies
If you’d like to do bigger snowflakes and save money on materials, this pack of 100 white lunch bags is a great deal!
Side note, before I got to Michaels to grab my supplies, I like to search for what I need online. I then can see what aisle they are on in my store so I can quickly get in and out of there. You can also buy online for store pickup.
how to make the snowflakes
Step one-
Put the paper bag flap side down on the table. Put the closed end at the top. Draw a line of glue at the base of the top. Then, put a line down the middle. You’re drawing a T with glue. Repeat by putting the second paper bag on top. Make sure that the flap side down on the table. Use 6 bags to make each snowflake. You can use more to make it more fluffy.
step 2-
Use scissors to cut out designs in the bag. Go to town! Have fun! You might need heavy duty scissors to get through all the layers of paper bag. I tried to make each of my snowflakes different by cutting out different shapes.
To connect the front and the back of the paper bags to make a snow flake, I used two small pieces of Velcro. You could also glue it, but by using Velcro, it makes is so you can unfold them, store them flat, and re-use them for other parties.
I’ve got to tell you, this is such a fun craft! It feels like magic! You open them and ta da! What you have is a big fun snowflake! You can see how big they are- all 11 almost took over my bed.
step 3-
To hang the snowflakes, just tie some yarn to a paperclip. Then attach the paperclip to the back of the snowflake.
Then, use painter’s tape to attach them to the wall. I keep the string short so that the snowflake covered up the tape and you don’t see really see it.
To be honest, I wish I’d planned ahead and bought white Gaffer’s tape. I learned about this product when I did photo shoot styling for a furniture company. It comes in different colors and stays on better than painter’s tape. Plus it’s water proof and it doesn’t leave any residue behind when you take it off. I used to have a roll I used when hanging random things and was missing it today!
bench re-do
Ok, I know that this is the longest post ever. But I wanted my New Year’s decor to go over a cute bench on our patio. I knew they’d look adorable on my rainbow mural. So I finally re did my bench I’d been putting off working on forever.
PREP
- Clean the furniture. Mix 2 Tablespoons of White Lightning or TSP in 1 gallon of hot water. Use a rag dipped in the solution to clean the entire surface of the furniture you’ll be painting. Wipe the piece clean with a damp rag to remove any White Lightning residue. Let dry prior to painting.
- Lay a drop cloth on the floor. Put a towel or drop cloth on the floor underneath the furniture you’re about paint. This will protect your flooring from paint drips.
PAINT
- Spritz your brush. With chalk paint, you always want to start with a damp brush. Continue to spray the brush and furniture piece with water while painting.
- Start painting. Dip the paintbrush in the chalk paint and apply it thinly on the furniture. Brush in the direction on the wood grain until you’ve covered the entire piece. Note, you WON’T get full coverage with the first coat. If it’s streaky, don’t panic! I used Dixie Belle’s Cotton White for this project.
- Let the paint dry. Usually you only need to wait 20 minutes between coats. While it’s drying, wrap your paint brush in a wet rag or plastic bag so the brush won’t dry out between coats. If you’re painting a big piece, you might be able to begin the second coat immediately without waiting since it’s probably been 20 minutes since you first started painting.
- Fix damage. If there’s any imperfections in the wood, fill them with wood filler. Let it dry and then sand until smooth.
- Paint a second coat. Repeat the instructions for the first coat of paint. This time though, you should get full coverage. If you don’t (which can happen if you’re covering dark wood with a light cover) continue with a 3rd coat of chalk paint.
- Wash out the paint brush. Usually tap water will remove all wet paint. If needed, also use mild soap. Rinse the brush until the water runs clear.
- Seal the furniture. If you’re using a clear coat, apply it with a paint brush thinly to all surfaces. I used Gator Hide to help it repeal water since this is outdoor furniture.
after
And, after all that! Here’s how that wall turned out with everything up!
OMG- isn’t it cute?! We’re planning dinner outside. The weather looks good until then, but it has been windy which made it tricky to get these all up! My husband even brought out our pink rug that we’ve been storing.
To hang the banner, I just used painter’s tape. One side of the hand towel had a loop sewed on. So I hot glued a string of yarn on the other side. Then I taped that on the wall. You can kind of see it in the next picture. Dang wind made this super tricky! So hang these inside 😉
So although this was a lot for one blog post and a few days, I do love how it came together! What’s your favorite part- the bench, the snowflakes or the banner? I looooove how they all came together!
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