A Forever Heart Banner, Made From Wedding Cards
I have always been a sentimentalist for cards and notes, not knowing what to do with them past the appropriate time of display around the given special occasion. Birthday cards, for instance, can be propped up for about a week or two after the birthday, while Christmas cards can become part of the holiday decor for the duration of the holiday season. When my husband and I received quite a few cards congratulating us on our nuptials, I wanted to find a way to keepsake them in a better way than just storing them in a box or an album.
In order to functionalize these cards and find a way to revisit our well-wishes over the years, I thought of making a banner, as I did many times in my life as a youth librarian, my favorite being the Thanksgiving banner of apple and pumpkin pie slices! My husband, who just so happens to be a junior high librarian, had access to a die cutter, so I sent him in with our card stack and asked him to cut hearts out of the prettiest covers and the sweetest handwritten insides. Then, I punched a hole on either side of the hearts and threaded them together with twine, tying the ends in bows.
Anyone can make a banner like this, out of any event's cards and in any shape. For instance, cutting Christmas trees out of old Christmas cards would make a lovely reusable banner for the holidays, or you could even cut out the letters to spell Happy Birthday from some of your favorite birthday cards.
How to Make a Holiday Banner, Made From Greeting Cards
1. Gather cards and choose a shape or stencil.
Note: If you don't have access to a die cutter, then you can create a stencil, either by hand drawing it or printing one out and then tracing over the cards and cutting out the shapes by hand. Though this may be more time consuming, it can also be therapeutic and prove to make a more original shape.
2. Cut shapes out of your favorite parts of the cards, including pretty covers and thoughtful notes.
3. Punch holes on either side of the shapes.
4. String twine through the holes, sticking to an over-under pattern, so that the twine runs behind the shapes.
5. Tie the ends in bows and hang the banner up for holiday display; reuse, reuse, reuse!
Since we got married in January, I thought I could hang our heart banner every January and leave it up through Valentine's Day. It's as romantic as I imagined it would be, as we love to look over at all of the beautiful covers and notes from our family and friends, wishing us the most happy adventure with one another.
