I LOVE summer time – the warm weather, the days of freedom, the lush landscape and summer blossoms and the bright colors all around. Ahh! Such an incredible time of year! Since I love it so much, I love having fun with my outdoor decor for celebrating all of the summer events – the last day of school, summer birthdays, Independence Day, BBQs, and just celebrating life and happiness. I have a particular fondness for banners and love to hang them outside. As a DIY kind of person, I make my own. This month’s Special Edition at The Digital Press was absolutely PERFECT for the vision I had for my summer banner. The colors, the elements, the joy of it all was right up my alley and I wasted no time getting to work on creating my summer banner and pinwheels (because what is summer decor without some colorful pinwheels?!). This is the project in progress….oh the goodness that is to come! 🙂
There are so many awesome things to choose from in the June Special Edition, but I limited myself to just a few to make it easy on me. I used Scotty Girl Designs Pocket Essentials flair and patterned papers as well as Kelleigh Ratzlaff Design’s Celebrate Summer kit. Since the Special Edition is a coordinated collection from all of the designers at The Digital Press, everything looks wonderful together!
To create this project, I first printed out the patterned papers and flairs on my printer and then used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the flag shapes for the banner and the letters for my word to go on the banners – CELEBRATE. I also used the cameo to cut out the squares and cut lines for the pinwheels, however all of these things are easy enough to do by hand if you don’t have a cutting machine. A little tape runner for the banner, some hot glue for the pinwheels, and in less than a couple of hours the entire project was complete.
The celebrate banner and pinwheels are all set up and ready for some summer festivities!
A hot glue gun is a great tool for quickly getting the pinwheel corners to adhere to the center of the pinwheel. A craft dowel works well for the pinwheel stick. Fair warning: while fun for a display and kids to drool over, wasps and bees flock to the rock candy sticks!
The ribbon was easily applied with a tape runner and is really sturdy at keeping the banner together. I layered the patterned papers on solid white cardstock to add contrast and weight to the banner so it hangs better and will last.
I love the way it looks outside so I would say this project was a total success! Now it is time to sit back, relax, and celebrate all of the good things in life! 🙂
About the Author: Lori Pereyra is a member of the Creative Team here at The Digital Press. She is a stay at home mom to 4 children and loves capturing life…the good, the not so good, & the perfectly imperfect… and documents it all through photos, paper & pixels. She feels this is modern scrapbooking at it’s best!