Behind the Scene’s – A Teacher Banner

First and foremost, congratulations to Krissy!!!  She was the winner of the Queen of the First Grade Jungle Giveaway!  I was so excited to have been given the opportunity to be a part of such a cool thing, I can't wait to start her banner! 

With that said, it sparked an idea, a “Behind the Scene’s Glimpse” of what goes into making a banner.   Some banners can be made fairly quickly and some take a little more time.  I think there are 3 main things that go into making a banner….

1. Planning

2. Patience

3. Some good ole’ fashion TLC. 

It starts with the order.  Once I get the name for the banner I plan out how many squares I will need, solid colors with coordinating patterns, what letters I need and finally what embellishments will be used.   It kind of looks a little something like this

(Well…this is the clean-cut version, my workshop gets a little crazy sometimes!)

 I like the way layered letters look (with an outline) so on most of my banners you will see layering.   Not only is each square layered, but each letter and embellishment as well.  I lay everything out to make sure it all flows and then get to work on getting everything adhered and put together.   Once everything is adhered and while it is “setting”, I place all the letters at the bottom of each square, it is pretty time consuming but it adds a super cute touch to the bottom of the Teacher Banner.  I used to break out the ruler and measure everything out but I finally got smart enough to make a mock banner that I use as a guide for spacing out the letters.  ;)  Once everything has set and is ready to go I use a punch for the holes for the ribbon.  After the ribbon is strung I hang it up and tie additional ribbon between each square.   It does take some time to get everything together and planned out, but well worth the outcome!

Do you agree???  Suggestions welcome!  J

Some of my Favorite Adhesives

Being a scrapbooker (is that even a word) I have had my fair share of being an "adhesive tester"!  And I think I have finally found my main go to adhesive!  Zip Dry Paper Glue by Beacon.  It is a little expensive, as I think most scrapbook supplies are, but it is well worth it. 

I love this adhesive for several reasons -

1. It dries FAST!  5-10 minute dry time!!
2. It won't wrinkle your papers. 
3. It is easy to remove any of the glue that may seep out from the sides of your work.
4. It dries clear.
5. It's Acid and Lignin free.

I really only use it for layering paper, especially layering letters, but according to the package it will bond, beads, glitter, wire and metal to paper.  I have another adhesive that I use for those things and when that runs out I am gonna give this adhesive a try and see how it works on those things too.  I'll report back when that time comes.  :)  I do recommend following the instructions on the package and using only a thin line to the edges.  Sometimes if you go over board and you adhere thin paper to a darker paper the darker color can bleed thru your top layer, so just go easy on your application.

My Thermo-Web Adhesive Pick-up goes hand in hand with my Zip Dry.  Even when the Zip Dry has passed the 5-10 minute dry time I can use my Pick-up square to remove anything that may have seeped thru.  I actually prefer to wait until the glue has dried before I use it, then I don't have try and remove wet glue and create an even bigger mess.  I wouldn't recommend waiting any longer than 10 - 15 minutes because the one down fall of the Zip Dry is that if you do wait to long it may leave a stain on your paper that almost looks like a grease spot. 



My Second go to adhesive is my Scotch ATG Gun.  It is great for bigger projects.  Since my biggest thing is banners, this works great for layering banner panels / pennants.  It's easy to use and the adhesive is no joke!  If you try to remove what you bonded, you are definitely going to rip something!  To me, that's one awesome adhesive!

Happy Scrapbooking!!!!



Trash to Treasure

So I guess that's enough about how Meadow's Brook started.  Lets move on to a crafty storage idea!  Last year my mother-in-law was going to yard sale a cute little wooden cabinet with shelves.  I saw it and had to have it.  At the time I wanted to hang it somewhere in my home.  Well, at least that was the intention.  Instead it ended up stored in my basement with all the other "future" home decor items that I eventually wanted to display.  So here I am with all of this scrapbook stuff and limited space to store it.  Banners are my biggest thing and I use ribbon on a daily basis.  Normally I would keep my ribbon in little containers all separated by color and would have to dig thru to find the perfect ribbon to match the banner I was working on.  So I went on another mission to find a ribbon shelf so that I could have my ribbon right in front of me and know exactly what I had.  What I found was a shelf with 2 dowel rods for holding all the ribbon spools.  Only problem was most of the ones I came across were well over $30.00.  I couldn't see spending $30.00 on a little shelf with dowel rods.  So feeling defeated I made my way back home and sat and tried to think of an easier way to display my ribbon.  Then I remembered that cute little wooden cabinet with the shelves!  There it was all along, the perfect thing to keep all this ribbon in.  All I needed was a dowel rod that was long enough to run in thru the sides of the shelf and I found it at a local hardware store for less than $1.00!!!  I put my wonderful husband to work and after a few minutes of measuring and drilling I now had the perfect display for my ribbon.  I not only saved myself $29.00, but I got a much larger and cuter display!  :)

What do you think???

It Just Got Better

So my 6th sale was one of my most memorable and maybe the most rewarding.  I got a message from a 1st Grade Teacher in KY that wanted a custom banner for her classroom.  She had a jungle theme in her room and wanted her banner to be a part of and reflect that theme.  My first instinct was jungle colors of greens, yellows, browns etc...  Not the case with this request, she was looking for animal prints with teal, purple, black and white.  So I went to my stash and had nothing of the sort.  As a new shop I was more than eager to come up with the perfect banner her.  I didn't want to disappoint her or have to tell her I couldn't do it.  So I set out on a mission to find exactly what she was looking for.  I hit my suppliers and found some really cool animal print paper, coordinating solids and embellishments to match.  I once again had that vision of how I wanted it to look.  I got home laid it all out and for some reason something just seemed off, but I went ahead and assembled everything thinking it just needed to be together and maybe it would POP!  I hung it up and....that's not what happened, not at all.  I kept looking at it and something was just not sitting right with me.  How could I ship this banner to someone when I don't have that "this is it" feeling.  Once again I don't want to disappoint.  This is what I came up with.  I think it was just to "busy" and a little hard to read.

So I had to do what I could imagine is the worst feeling for any Etsy seller and contact her to say: 

"something is just not sitting right with me on this banner. I feel like the letters don't stand out enough. I want to re-do it with black or white letters. I know I told you it would go out by today, but are you ok with it going out on Monday? I really liked working with you and don't want you to be disappointed. What do yo think?"

In my eyes the worst thing I could do as a new seller.  Great, so much for customer service, there goes this order out the window.  Telling someone their order was not going out as planned had me worried.  I really liked working with this lady and what a great impression that was going to make!  So I went to her class blog and sat down and just looked at the pictures she had of her classroom.  Then it was as if the clouds had lifted and I had a clear vision of how I wanted this to look.  So back at it I went again!  I was not going to let her down, that's not my style!  So I get it all laid out and snap a photo and send it to her.



What came next was "LOVE this! Perfect for my room. Thank you so much for sticking with it :-)"  Whewww, now that was a great feeling!  Eureka, I had done it!  This order was finally complete!  But even better was the response that I got next.  Never in a million years would I have guessed what was going to come next, an incredible opportunity to be a part of her blog and even better a giveaway!!!!  Not only does she have an awesome blog full of creativity but she offers information to other teachers that may be helpful to them in their classrooms, it doesn't get much better than that!  An order gone wrong has turned out to be one of the most important sales my shop has had!  What an fantastic opportunity!  Check it out, how cool is this:

Queen of the First Grade Jungle      

  

Thank you Queen of the First Grade Jungle!  You have definitely opened new doors for me!