I Sewed a Newspaper Banner with my Elna

Hi Folks,

A few weekends back I went to my favorite book store, Hasting's. While there I purchased the GreenCraft magazine from the publishers of Somerset Studio. I had read about the magazine in other Somerset Studio publications and on the net. I love this magazine and have already attempted making a craft from one of the pages. On pages 62-64 Maya Donenfield talks about making banners from newspaper. (After reading my blog post click on Maya's name to visit her blog.) On page 64 of her article is a lovely valentine banner that I fell in love with. So many people make such wonderful things with paper and their sewing machines. I received a new Elna for a gift from hubby several years ago and have been afraid of the idea of sewing on paper. What if I mess up my machines settings? I didn't dare. And the needles, I knew from reading on other's blogs, that sewing on paper dulls needles quickly. But I loved this valentine heart banner and wanted to make one for my boss. You see she's been on vacation in Alabama and while their she got married. I wanted to make a banner to decorate her office for her return. I decided to go for it.

I loved painting on the newspaper, made me feel like a child again. I started with a paint brush but ended up using my fingers mostly. Also I did not have enough red paint so I made my own by adding black and pink to what I already had. I decided to cut out the hearts by free hand instead of using a template so they would not all be uniform. I changed up a bit from what Maya had shown in her article. I decided to make my hearts a bit puffy so I cut two hearts the same and sewed them together leaving a bit of an opening and stuffed with just a touch of pillow batting. It looked great and my machine handled the paper just fine. After that first heart was completed I was hooked and off and running. In my spare time (not much of) over a week I made enough little hearts to create my banner. I let the paper dry overnight before even attempting to handle it. I wanted to spell out "diane & daryl". I sewed them all together leaving space in between each and then used letter stickers to spell out their names. Next I finger painted clear glitter paint over each letter and heart front to add a bit of sparkle. It turned out great and Diane loved it.

Above is the entire banner placed on my scanner.

Somewhere in all of this is their wedding date as I used our local newspaper from that day.

Congratulations Diane and Daryl, May you have many happy years together. :)

I am definitely going to make more of these. I am thinking of finger painting a few pages with fall colors and cutting out leaves. Or how about shades of green and cutting out Christmas Trees? They would look so pretty strung along the dining room wall. I could use buttons and glitter and puffy paint to decorate them. Oh and how about spelling out my granddaughters name to place above her bedroom door. She loves pink and hearts. Pink hearts! Oh but not just yet as grandma is making her Halloween costume this year. She will be a fancy black cat. We bought the ears, tail and a half mask at Wal Mart. She has black gloves, leggings and black faux fur slippers too. But best of all, I am making her a black tutu. And fur cuffs too. Oh but this story is for another blog. I plan to have a photo session with her before Halloween.

Happy Sunday Everyone and Have a Great Week Ahead,

Tess