Glitter Letter Banner how-to

I was inspired by Suzi Blu’s admonition to “Live a Big Life” and wanted to keep the idea in front of me, literally, by creating a banner to hang on the wall behind my iMac. I changed the wording to Live a Rich Life, and I liked the results so much I thought I’d share. I made this with stuff I already had around the house—I didn’t buy anything, not even glue—so feel free to change and adapt however you want to use the supplies you have on hand.

Materials:

letters
fabric scraps
cord or ribbons, several feet (as long as your banner), thumbtacks
tacky glue (I love Alene’s Thick Designer Tacky Glue, but use what you have)
toothpicks or craft sticks for spreading glue (or just use your fingers)
sewing machine, thread, pins
scissors
ironing board, iron
optional: extra glitter, fabric marker

Instructions:

1.If you don’t have glitter letters lying around, you can use stencils and card stock to make some. If you have some but don’t have the right letters, you can alter them. I needed an “E” or two and an “L.”

2. Cut apart the Frankenletters.

3. Glue on the new appendages.

4. Add glitter to hide the sutures.

5. Use scrap paper to figure out how big your fabric shapes need to be.

6. Iron fabric flat and cut enough trIangles for the letters and any punctuation.

7. I wanted two layers of fabric. If you do, too, cut the second, slightly-larger layer.

8. Stitch layers together. If you hate sewing, use glue or fusible webbing. I like the look of stitching, but you could just draw that on with a marker.