I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned a time or ten how much I love Paper Pumpkin, Stampin’ Up’s subscription monthly crafting kit. If you’d like a creative escape for an hour or so each month, it’s totally worth the $20 cost. Of course, there’s a link on my Stampin’ Up! website if you’re interested…you can try it out for a single month, or choose other lengths of time. Anyhoo…June’s package contained the directions and ingredients for cards and/or a banner with confetti in each little triangle. Super cute.
I hadn’t come up with a good reason to make it yet, and then I read a fabulous blog post by my most favorite niece, who will be a senior in college next year. Entitled “Choose Love,” it’s about her efforts to make a difference by showing love. It’s well worth the time to read it…check it out here, if you’d like (after you finish this post, or be sure to come back!). I was so impressed with her ideas, as well as her expressiveness, I thought she was in need of a care package. Okay, so actually, Princess Thundercloud was baking brownies with mini M&M’s on top for her before I read the post, but the post DID inspire me to make the package a little more special. So I made a banner from my kit and included that.
The first step was to stamp the die cut circles and put letters on each. I used Mint Macaron and Tip Top Taupe, alternating them. The letter stickers were metallic gold. I also punched out a crafty heart from some gold sticker sheets I had on hand, because I like the slightly asymmetric heart rather than the ones that came on the sticker sheet.
Next, the instructions said to put “a pinch” of confetti in each little cellophane triangle. This nearly drove me crazy…next time I’ll use a teaspoon, so they’re evenly divided! After the confetti was in the triangles, I put a letter-circle in each one and used the included washi tape (I know…washi tape and confetti in one project…woohoo!) to seal the open end, taking care to go all the way to, but not cover, the holes already punched.
After laying the banner out in the order I wanted, I cut a piece of gold and white baker’s twine about a foot longer than the banner pieces were. The kit came with plain white twine, but I wanted to use some gold and white that I had. It’s cuter, I think.
I threaded the pieces onto the twine, from front to back so that the twine stretched across the back of each piece, not the front. I put a small (about 1/2″) piece of washi across the twine in the back so the pieces wouldn’t slide around, since I was planning to mail the banner.
It sounds like a lot of steps, but took less than half an hour actually…the same as Thundercloud’s brownies! The boys made something, too…my middle kid made a card with a nice quote in it about love changing the world, and the eldest made a sign that said “If you need happiness, take one” then had tear-off strips along the bottom with “happiness” stamped on each. It was quite cool…I should have taken a photo of that…a good mom would have. We also tucked in a good book, some pretty-smelling lotion, and a few other little fun things.
Oh, I almost forgot…I folded it, accordion style, and slipped it into one of the envelopes that came with the kit. I used the stamps from the kit, along with a quote from Mother Teresa from a retired stamp set, to make a pretty tag. I then used a little more twine to attach the tag to the envelope. All in all, a fun little project!
You are so fun! I love your blog and you give me great ideas! Thanks for sharing Megan!
Sure…thank YOU for reading (and ordering Paper Pumpkin!). We want to make fairy jars, after seeing how cute yours are!
They are soooo easy to make. Do you have a cricut? If you don’t let me know and I can cut some out for you.
I have a Silhouette, which I love! But when confetti comes in a kit, I don’t have to feel guilty when the hubs finds glitter in the house!
OH, wait…I was thinking you were talking about banners…now I realize it’s Fairy Jars! I think we’ll make some when she gets back from camp. I thought about making one for her to take, as a nightlight, but as usual, my plans overloaded my time!
that is SO cute!!
Thanks! It really took very little creativity!
Good Mom, good aunt, talented crafter! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the sweet comment, Dee!