Holiday Banner Project

(click on any photo for a larger view)


Surely you've noticed what a fantastic selection of chipboard shapes and albums we carry, but maybe you're intimidated by them in their naked chipboard state. I picked up one of the Maya Road banner albums a couple of weeks ago, without really having a plan in mind for it, and I thought I'd share some of my favorite chipboard techniques while I show you my finished project.

Here's what I started with. This album comes with four scalloped triangles and four plain triangles.



After deciding I wanted to create a Christmas banner, I decided to layer the plain triangles over the scalloped ones. I painted the edges of the scalloped pieces red, and covered the plain ones with patterned papers from Making Memories and Cosmo Cricket. I trace the chipboard onto the back of the patterned paper, trim it out, and glue it onto the chipboard. During one of Donna Downey's classes at Scrapdoodles, she introduced us to gel medium, and that has become my favorite adhesive for covering chipboard. There is not a lot of moisture in gel medium, so it won't cause your paper to buckle as it dries. To get a very nice edge with no paper hanging off, sand edges with an emory board or sanding tool when the adhesive is completely dry. (That's another trick I learned from Donna years ago.)



I started out with naked chipboard alphas as well (older Cosmo Cricket ones). After painting them black, I sprinkled black glitter on them while the paint was still wet.



Using some Martha Stewart baking twine, I strung the finished pieces, alternating with some big jingle bells and knotted ribbon. The whole project took less than an hour, and it coincidentally fit perfectly on this old window I recently bought at an antique store for $18. I added our Christmas card photos from the past several years and I love this piece hanging right in our living room.

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