Christmas Joy Banner

Hello everybody, Misty here! Can you believe that Christmas is now over and behind us again for another year? It always makes me sad and a little bit melancholy when I wake up the day after Christmas and all the magic seems to have vanished. Well, NOT this year! This super cute Christmas JOY banner that I made is going to keep hanging above my desk for a few more weeks. Hopefully, it will remind me to find the JOY in everything! These next three weeks are the most difficult for me to face every year, and I need all the joy I can find.

Let the FUN Begin!

As usual, I gathered my supplies before I sat down to get crafty. For this banner, I used several items from the CutCardStock store along with a few things from my stash.
From my cardstock cabinet, I pulled out the following cardstock:
DCS Discount Card Stock: Red – ReEntry Card Stock
DCS Discount Card Stock: Canvas Textured Wedding Cake White Card Stock
DCS Discount Card Stock: Canvas Textured Ginger Snap Card Stock
DCS White GLITTER Heavyweight 12×12 Discount Card Stock

Once I had the card stock pulled, I then gathered the rest of my materials. Peep at the photo below of what I thought I would use to assemble my Christmas JOY Banner. Ultimately, I ended up using most of it, along with one or two other items not shown. Crafty creators like us should have the majority of this already on hand, or have something similar!
In addition to my handy dandy Cricut Maker machine, I used a glue gun, hole punch, and ruler. Also, I used an assortment of Christmas ribbon, twine, acrylic Christmas lights, scissors or rotary cutter, and Glossy Accents. What you do not see, is a fine tip white and black pen and google eyes. Oh, and a pom-pom ball for Rudolph’s nose.

Getting CRAFTY!

Now it is time to CREATE! I loaded my Cricut cutting mats with my DCS Discount Card Stock: Red – ReEntry Card Stock and DCS Discount Card Stock: Canvas Textured Wedding Cake White Card Stock. These will serve as the base of my Christmas Joy Banner. Below you will see SIX banner pieces, as I originally intended to do JOLLY. However, that changed as I got all up in my “feels”. It is typical of me to be sad and distant during this time of year, and I always try to divert my thoughts. Therefore, JOY seemed like a more appropriate word to use for this project. Only three of my six banner pieces were used per color. However, that left additional for a second banner or even some fun Christmas cards! YAY!

Load the next batch of mats. One should have DCS Discount Card Stock: Canvas Textured Ginger Snap Card Stock. Then a second one with DCS Discount Card Stock: Canvas Textured Wedding Cake White Card Stock. Next, it was time to cut the word JOY! Using the Cricut Design Space, I found the perfect pre-made word that I could easily place onto the individual banners. Notice that some pre-made words are joined. Avoid using those, as they are not ideal for the banners.

It’s TIIIIIMMMME!

In my head, I hear myself saying that like Mariah Carey does every Christmas! Of course, some of you may not get that reference. Go look Mariah Carey Christmas up on YouTube. She makes Christmas FUN again…you won’t regret it! Anyway…now it is time to assemble all those parts and pieces that have been cut out. This part is super fun and can be done with minimal time. I did end up using a hole punch to make the holes a little larger to fit my ribbon through more easily. For the main banner ribbon, I decided to hot glue it to the TOP of each banner piece, not in the holes. Instead, I used the holes to tie in the ribbon piece that stick out from the top (see photos below).

Don’t forget to use the DCS White GLITTER Heavyweight 12×12 Discount Card Stock to fill in the center of the “O”. Doing this one step helps to create the look of a reindeer. Otherwise, it is just an “O” with antlers! HA HA!

Finishing it Up

Finally, once all the parts and pieces were assembled, I added the embellishments. Obviously, things like the string of bulbs in Rudy’s antlers and the googly eyes made this even cuter! Go BIG and add as much cuteness as you want! There are NO rules in crafting! Once you have satisfied your need for embellishments, this project is finished and ready to hang! Take a look at how cute this little guy turned out! It is easy to forget that he is actually an “O” in the center of the word JOY!

Thank you all so much for stopping by the CutCardStock Blog today! I hope that I have inspired you to get crafty and make something fun! For those of you who find this time of year difficult, I do highly recommend diverting your thoughts. Crafting is my favorite diversion, and CutCardStock is the perfect place to shop! Go grab your favorite colors to make your own banner!