Tuesday, September 7, 2010

an awesome project...with un-awesome photos...

(sigh.)

so i'm afraid you're just going to have to trust me when i tell you that this banner, made for nephew matthew's third birthday party next week, is *MUCH* cuter in real life. unfortunately it's like 6 ft. long and my house is not overflowing with bare, well-lit walls on which to get a great photo, so i've snapped it on my totally non-glamorous dining room carpet. and the shots of the individual letters are not as cool as when you see them all together. hopefully, once it's hung up in his room, my sister can snap a nicer photo! but in the meantime, here it is:

using this set of hero arts digi-stamps as templates, i paper-pieced each vehicle using a variety of boy-ish patterned papers. (mostly older basic grey and newer sass...with some ki thrown in here and there!)

the letters are old school basic grey chipboard, painted with glossy black acrylic and mounted on foam tape.

i raided my stash of bigger brads for hub caps, and discovered--to my suprise- that pale blue paper made better windows than either white paper or vellum!

i sandwiched the ribbon between the cardstock-backed paper cars and plackets of index-weight paper, for increased stability...

...but when it's hung on the wall, the cars still need a little lump of blue-tack to keep them from dangling at odd angles. (what can i say? i am better at crafting than engineering!!!)

the traffic symbols between each letter are a dingbat font called "road sign + warning" that i downloaded free at dafont.com.

and there you have it, the perfect gift for a three-year-old on the go...or at least i hope it is!
happy birthday,
little dude!!!
♥♥♥

15 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday little one -- and I do love the banner :-)

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  2. Seriously it has to stop.
    Once again you have left me speechless with the clever and the crafty and the general fabulousness of your ideas and executions of same (although obviously not the engineering bits ;-)
    CK isbeginning to worry I may never speak again (or not. tee hee)

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  3. ohhhhhh myyyyyyyy stars...I don't see how it could possible look any more fabulous!!! WOW!!! I could not LOVE this more!! WOW!!!!
    Happy b-day to your nephew!!

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  4. I think I "need" those digi-stamps ... they are so cute paper pieced ... fabulous design.

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  5. Totally fantastic, I have no english words for it but it's just brilliant..I wish I sometimes could just pop over to your house and have a crop night or invite you to my house...but it sooooo far away....well...I get a lot of inspiration reading your blog, so guess I'll manage....BIG hug, hun!!!!

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  7. I'm not going to show this to Carlos - he will be too jealous (though, I'm pretty sure he doesn't yet know what that word means yet)!!!

    What amazing work and creativity Lauren. You never cease to amaze me. Where do you find the....time/patience/inspiration/craftiness??

    Amazing - I'm absolutely positive that your nephew is going to love, love, love this banner.

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  8. So adorable!! Oh my goodness the pictures of the party are going to be a 100% cuter because this is going to be in the background. Wow! I think this alone would make more people venture into hybrid paper piecing. Its awesome. I didn't even think about how the windows would look better as light blue like that. It totally does though. Greatness!!

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  9. banners...oh how I adore banners....excellent...I love it...

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  10. this is too fun!! just perfect for a boy!! fab project!

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  11. Happy Birthday little dude! Too cute! I am loving this banner!!. It is so hard to take pics of a banner, I agree! Love the close ups!!

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  12. Wow - all those differently-shaped vehicles, the paper-piecing and variety of brads in the wheel details ! He must have loved it.

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  13. This is so stinking clever! But then, well, yeah, it came FROM YOU! Schweet.

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  14. I think I can keep a record of how long I have known you based on your nieces & nephew's ages. I remember when this little guy was born. How can he be 3 already?!

    Brilliant idea for a gift and perfectly excecuted (that engineering stuff gets me every time also)...shall I say "a banner" idea? Bad pun. Sorry :)

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  15. This is darling. I love the colors you used and it's just stinkin' adorable.

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the *BEST* part of blogging is the comments, dontcha think? thanks for taking time to leave one! ~♥~