"Don't let the muggles get you down" scrapbooking paper quote banner

Hello! Have you ever tried to write a analysis of your own fantasy story? That's what I'm doing for my homework right now, and I've gotta tell you, it's tough. Anyway, I took a break from research and writing today to finally finish and hang my Harry Potter inspired banner.

 

I have a lot of scrapbooking paper, but I don't do a ton of scrapbooking (full disclosure: I used to do heaps of scrapbooking and cardmaking in high school when it was cool ... or at least I thought it was. Was it really ever, or was that just me?). I keep on buying scrapbooking paper though because it's just *so pretty*! I have a real problem with buying pretty stationary products; I also have too many gel pens for any one person to own. Scrapbooking paper is great for backgrounds for small project photos, but that doesn't really use it up! So I decided to actually put some of this stuff to use, and make an oversized quote banner.

The first thing I did was to create some templates using Adobe Illustrator. I used the Bell Gothic font in 800 pt size, which made each letter fill up one A4 page. I wrote out the whole quote on a scrap piece of paper and counted up how many of each letter I would need, and then I cut out all the repeats at the same time.

 
After I had all the letters cut out, I layed them out on my dining table to make sure they looked good in the order I had them. I used a lot of patterns and colours to make a banner that kinda clashes ... in a good way, you know? I used regular sticky-tape to attach the letters onto blue and white baker's twine and then attached them above my big bedroom bookcase using washi tape. I used washi because it doesn't take off paint, but this wasn't the best idea. The banner hung up for a couple of hours ... and then it started to slip. I'm going to buy a couple of removable wall hooks and give them a go instead.

My only other tip for making a banner like this is to make the baker's twine much longer than you think it should be! I thought I would have heaps of string on the ends, but as you can see, the string next to the first letter is a tiny bit too short >___< Nonetheless, I'll take my banner's advice and not let the muggles get me down. Even if the aforementioned muggle is me ~___^

- Lisa xx