Want to make fun word banners but don’t own a fancy cutting machine? Check this out!
For a long time now, I have loved funny word banners. There was a time I thought about making them with funny phrases to sell because I really love the quirky and unique. You can bet my shop would not have any banners that said “blessed.” There’s nothing wrong with that at all, but I just prefer snarky sarcasm and puns. When we moved I sold my craft cutter because the technology kinda overwhelmed me and I just didn’t use it enough, but now that we’re decorating a new house on a budget and I’ve got a toddler who will soon have fun birthday parties and more, I sort of regret that decision and am dreaming of getting my own fancy Cricut. (I’d like the pale pink one, Santa!) This year a new craft cutting machine was not in the budget, but I had the hankering to make some funny banners, especially after I saw a movie that inspired one of them. I decided that I was going to have my funny crafty banners anyhow, because I could afford glittery card stock, gold embroidery floss, and I already owned some perfectly good scissors. Today I am going to walk you through how I made DIY word banners the old fashioned way.
As you can see above our bed, I’ve added a festive touch with a “Sleighin it” banner. To be honest, I didn’t come up with this idea on my own. I saw one that said “Sleigh All Day” and I just sorta changed the wording a bit. I am going to share with you how I made this one, and then show you one other I made with script writing.
You will need:
- glitter cardstock
- gold embroidery floss
- pencil
- scissors
- sewing needle
My card stock was 12″ square so I made 3 lines dividing my paper into 4″ sections so that my letters would be 4″ high each. After I drew the lines, I started drawing block letters. Now, if you are a perfectionist you could use a ruler and measure. I am NOT a perfectionist… enneagram 4 here so I am all about individualism and imperfection. (Sorry to my perfectionist husband and friends… (Hi, Andi!).
Are you looking at the above photo and thinking I uploaded the photo backwards? NOPE. I did not. With glitter card stock, you can’t write on the glitter side, so you have to draw on the back, thus creating mirror images of your letters. If you draw them the correct way, you’ll end up with a glitter banner that needs to face a mirror.
Once you draw all of your letters, you simply cut them out with scissors. Yes, scissors. Maybe even enlist your kids to help you because they might be better with scissors than you are. Wilder was napping and Emmy was at school, or I totally would have bribed Emmy with christmas cookies.
Once the letters are all cut out, stack them with the last letter in the saying on the bottom facing up, or if you have room, lay them out on a surface. Starting with the first letter in the saying, poke a needle threaded with your embroidery floss into the left side of the top portion of the letter, coming from behind. 
Then exit by poking the needle back through on the top right portion approximately 1/2″ away.
Repeat for each letter and then spread them along your embroidery floss spacing them as you wish, and allow about 18-24″ of embroidery floss on either side so that you have plenty of string to work with to hang your banner. Tie a loop on each end, and voila, you are ready to hang!
The other banner I made I really wanted to do in script. Again, I made my 4″ lines on the back of my paper, but this time I had to write in cursive backwards. I am not going to lie… this was much harder! I wish I had a great tutorial to share with you on how I did this, but it was honestly just trial and error. The good news is that you are writing on the back of the paper and no one will ever see the mess of pencil and lines on the back. Remember if you choose to do script that it has a slight lean to it and you need to lean it in the opposite direction as well
As for my phrase, I was inspired by the movie “Noelle” which we recently watched on Disney plus. To be honest, it’s not a good movie, but I love cheesy silly Christmas movies, and I am a huge fan of Anna Kendrick so it was a win for me. I laughed my booty off and Chris laughed at me laughing at the movie, so I would say we all won. Anyhow, in the movie she says things like, “Thank garland!” and “Oh my garland!” I’ve been repeating “Oh my garland” ever since seeing this movie and needed to have it up on my wall. Here’s what I came up with:
In the photo the m looks like an n but in person it looks much better. As I said, backwards writing bubble cursive is challenging… Even though it is far from perfect, it makes me smile! Oh, and if you are wondering, the tree garland was also made with scissors, pencils, and card stock.
In case you are wondering, you’ll be seeing these full spaces next week in A Stroll Through Life‘s Christmas Tour. This week, I am so excited to be sharing so much of our holiday home with you in Jennifer Rizzo‘s Holiday Hosuewalk which kicks off today (my tour will be here tomorrow!), and I’ll be sharing my decorated kids’ spaces in The Happy Housie‘s Seasonal Simplicity Tour on Wednesday. I can’t wait to share out budget friendly and simple holiday decor with you!
For now, happy cutting and crafting to you! If you make any funny banners, I want to see them! Tag me on instagram @cassie_bustamante or email me at [email protected] Have a wonderful week full of holiday cheer!
