In case you haven’t already noticed, I love decorating for the holidays! Not only do I enjoy decorating, but I love making my own, handmade, unique decorations. I take pride in how my house looks, whether it’s for Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas, Easter or any other holiday that should come along and one of the things that I am most proud of is the personal touch that my handmade decorations always adds.
I already shared my first decoration themed post of the season, ‘DIY Thanksgiving Wreath Tutorial,’ and now its time for a second one. Now, this specific post is themed around the upcoming Canadian Thanksgiving weekend this weekend, however, that’s not the only holiday I am preparing for right now.
At the end of this post, I am sharing a number of printable templates so that you can make your own banner to hang at home. This will include both a number of Thanksgiving banners as well as Halloween themed banners. So, if you are one of my faithful readers that does not live here within our Canadian borders then there is something here for you too!
You Will Need:
- A ruler or straight edge of some kind (if you have a paper cutter it will make this far easier)
- Scissors
- A craft knife
- Ribbon
- Cardstock
- The template of your choice (see below)
To begin with, you will need to select which banner you are planning on making. I know this is the most difficult part of it all! Now, it may be made easier by considering where you plan on hanging your banner. Some of the templates will make a single banner, others are doubles like the one I have pictured here. There are also some shorter or longer banners depending on how long your message is. Narrowing your choice down based on space constraints is definitely one approach. Or, you could go with my approach, and just choose the one you love!
Print the template of your choice on your cardstock. I used a plain white for mine, however, you can customize your banner by changing the colour. All templates are designed to print in black, so that leaves you with a large selection of colours that will work!
Cut out each of the pieces of our banner, and then it is time to add a spot for the ribbon on each letter. I used a craft knife to cut one small line near the top on each side.
Your ribbon choice is another great opportunity to change the look of your banner. Experiment with different sizes, colours and textures of ribbons to create a different look, or (as I did here) you can double up ribbon for a different look.
Lay out the pieces of your banner to ensure that you put the letters in the correct order. After all, there is nothing worse than getting them all strung up only to realize that you’ve made an error and now have to take it apart to start over.
One at a time, weave the ribbon through the letters of your banner. Do your best to space them evenly on the ribbon so that they will hang properly on the wall, but remember that you can always adjust them later.
You can hang your banner as is, once the ribbon is through, or you can take it a step further to make it look even more ‘finished.’ This is done by putting something up to frame your banner. For my Thanksgiving banner, I decided to use some big bows to do this, matching them in colour/theme to the banner to create one big cohesive piece.
Some other options would include using some sort of fancy hanging hook, or a picture design to place over the ends of the banner. I have even seen some that are strung up inside a frame. Really, the only restrictions are that of your own creativity!
There you have it, your own handmade holiday banner!
Now for the fun part – free printables so that you can make your own at home! As I promised, below you will find a collection of both Thanksgiving and Halloween banners. Don’t see the banner you want? Great news – I have also included a blank template so that you can make your own!
Printable Banner Templates
Thanksgiving
Halloween
If you do make your own banner I’d love to see it! Please share photos of your completed wreath on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #AltSpeaking
WOW!!! This is so amazing! Congrats on this!!
Thank you!
This turned out looking so great!
Thank you!
Oooh this basic idea looks like it could be used for a lot of occasions!
Yes! That’s why I put up the blank template too – people could do anything with them!
Omg these banners are absolutely gorgeous! I live in the U.K. and don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, but I kind of want to make them and just put them up anyway! 🙂
Thank you! Go for one of the Halloween ones instead, then it fits a holiday that you do all have over there!
LOVE this idea and looks so cool. We don’t do thanksgiving in the UK (or not my family anyway – wish we did but we do that sort of stuff on New Year) so trying this for Christmas or Halloween x
Thank you! I will be designing some Christmas ones closer to December, but I made sure to put together some fun Halloween templates!
This looks amazing. So simple yet really effective!
Thank you!
Fab idea! I love it xxx
Thank you!
This is such a cute idea! Great post xx
Thank you!
This is such a cute idea!!
How generous of you to give out free printables.
I just hope that people enjoy them! I’m looking forward to seeing pictures of any that people create!
You’re so creative!!! This looks great
Thank you!
This is so cool, such a great idea!!
Vikki | planetvikkiblog.wordpress.com
Thank you!