Monday, October 6, 2008

fall bunting with newspaper: a tutorial


How could I go through the Fall without making a seasonal newspaper bunting? This was inevitable! I made it over-sized for a store window, but this leaf and acorn banner feels perfect in our home, as well. It infuses our main room with the spirit of Autumn and simply makes us happy. Zencrafter thought it would make a wonderful banner for a Fall birthday...great idea!


This is an easy project using supplies you have around the house, and it's essentially free. If you follow my newspaper bunting tutorial, but use the "fall templates" provided, you could be hanging it in no time. The only thing you really need is lots of floor space for spreading out and painting. I used a large piece of brown craft paper rolled across my floor, which I can re-use over and over again.
I created templates from my husband's Golden Guide Trees from the 5th grade. It was even a bit old then, being published in 1952.



I love the vintage illustrations. They were perfect inspiration for creating iconic symbols of fall. This is my first time offering a .pdf to download. I discovered that it's virtually impossible directly through Blogger. So below you'll find my "indirect" links to the three fall templates...let me know if you have any trouble and I will do my best to remedy it.



Materials needed:
-tutorial: click here
-newspaper
-acrylic paint
-scissors
-paste
-an iron
-jute twine for stringing
-templates

A couple of notes before you get started:
1. I modified the maple leaf in your template...making it truer to form than the one in the pictures and sized to fit on piece of paper.
2. Print templates on card stock and then cut out shape to trace.
3. Lay the straight edge of each shape along the fold of the newspaper.
4. Lift leaves and acorns periodically while drying. This prevents them from sticking to your work surface, especially if they are painted on top of more newspaper.
5. Ironing is necessary (those oak leaves get so curly!), but goes very quickly.

Additional info: To use the templates you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download for free here. Thanks Pat, for testing it out and passing on the needed tools...what a wonderful friend!

- acorn template
-maple template
-white oak template

Please let me know if you have any questions and happy Fall! Pin It

16 comments:

  1. The acorn is my favorite. Oh I do miss the changing leaf colors over here.

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  2. This is so cute!
    I know I'm not doing something right, but how do you download the templates? I keep a rapidshare screen.

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  3. They look so great. Thanks for stopping by Blogtoberfest HQ. Look forward to seeing you through the month.

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  4. Cindy,
    When you get to the Rapidshare screen, hit "free user" and then hit download. Hope that helps! It seems to work fine on my end, I'd love to hear if this is tricky for anyone else?
    Thanks for being my testers :)

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  5. Love the bunting!
    Somehow the "vintage" book scares me - *I* was published in '53...
    You must be near my hometown if Gimme is your favorite!

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  6. Thanks for the tutorial...the bunting is great and so is your window display!

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  7. How fun. A cute project to do with my grandkids on a simplier scale maybe, they are only four. They can color the leaves and do some of the cutting out too.

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  8. WOW, this is great! And how amazing did that window turn out! I'll be linking to this in my next fall roundup!

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  9. Thanks it worked great now to make the bunting! I put a paper tree up in my hallway and these will work great to put the kids' accomplishments/good things on to decorate the tree too.
    The window you did is amazing...the kids loved the owl.

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  10. Hi there, your leaf bunting is beautiful, we are going to have to try it! - yet another of your projects to go into the jar! My Hood 1 needs more about the owl... he wants details... and is mad about things owlish. Take care. And love the templates - very handy!

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  11. Love it! I bet that's something my daughter wouldl love to help me with. How long did that take you to make?

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  12. I'm so pleased you've all enjoyed this and that you might be trying it out. Cindy asked how long it took...I didn't time it, but it was a three part project. The first part...cutting multiple leaves and acorns is really fast because you layer the newspaper. The second part: painting takes a little time to set up, but then it's an assembly line. The longest part is waiting for the paint to dry. The third part:ironing seems like it will be the longest, but it's faster than painting and really fun...I know that sounds strange...ironing=fun, but in this case, it really is. Be careful with those hot irons, please!

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  13. What a fun project! Are these templates still available? The links provided said they were deleted. If you have them available I'd love to use them.

    Thanks,
    Nicole

    summersfamly09@gmail.com

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  14. We loved making these :) blogged here http://siayla.blogspot.com/2010/11/more-fall-crafts.html thanks so much for all your inspirational ideas!

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  15. I have been looking at your site and I must tell you that work is beautiful! I will be back to visit often.

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  16. Hi I love your article! I cannot however download the templates. Are they still up?
    thanks, christine

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