Hooked on Needles

Beaded Banner -- Finished and Given Away

The Varsity Letter Music Beaded Banner I showed you the other day was finished well ahead of time and given to the band director for his birthday. As it happened, my daughter got the date wrong, so it was an early birthday celebration -- or an UNbirthday celebration! Anyway, he appreciated the thought!

Take a look and see how it turned out...

Varsity Letter Music Beaded Banner Finished

These beaded banners are so fun to make, and you can get the kits for banners of all sizes. I have done little tiny Christmas ornament banners to hang on the tree or in the little sidelight windows next to my front door. They also come in long skinny rectangles and other odd shapes too.

If you like them but don't want to take the time to make them yourself, Bonnie has lots available ready-made. She designs many herself and has loads to choose from.

If you want to get really creative, purchase a make-your-own kit and map out what you want your banner to look like. Then start beading! I'd love to see what you come up with.

Happy Beading!

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Labels: bead work, beaded banner, beading links

Beaded Banners -- A Fun and Easy Beading Craft

Here is another type of project that I looked at in catalogs and on line for the longest time trying to figure out how it's done, and finally I just picked one that I liked and ordered it to satisfy my curiosity. Sort of like when I saw the Mitered Squares Baby Blanket and couldn't seem to "get it" so I bought some yarn and made it. Actually doing something is a pretty good way to see how it's done! That's my revelation of the day!

Anyway, back to this project...Beaded Banners. You've probably seen them around the neighborhood on front doors or hanging in windows, or maybe just in a craft catalog like Mary Maxim or Herrschner's or other similar places. I have made quite a few of them in all different shapes and sizes and for all different occasions, picking them up when they are on sale or when they come out with one I particularly like or that would make a nice gift for someone special.

Well, early this year Mary Maxim announced on their website that they would be holding a Beaded Banner design contest and there would be 10 winners, each one receiving a $100 gift certificate to their catalog. Here was my opportunity to take my liking for this craft one step further and design my own. So I printed out the blank template that they offered on their website for those wishing to enter the contest and I set to work with my freshly sharpened colored pencils and a few ideas in my head. I actually designed four banners, but only submitted one. It takes a Really Long Time to fill in all 3000+ little ovals! In fact, the one design I did submit, I had to re-do three times before I got it just right.

Anyway, long-story-short, several weeks had gone by past when they had said they were going to announce the winners, so I figured I was out of the running. But just the very next day after I had given up, I got a phone call from The Nicest Lady at Mary Maxim informing me that my design was one of the winners and my gift certificate would be coming in the mail shortly! What a thrill! And besides that, they were going to pick several of the designs to offer as kits in an upcoming catalog! Well, hot dawg! I couldn't believe it. I still don't know if mine was picked to be made into a kit, but I check their website frequently and anxiously await their Christmas catalog to see if it's in there since the design I did was most definitely Christmas.

This one in the picture is most definitely NOT Christmas! I made this one as an Easter gift for my oldest sister who is a nun and a teacher. She hung it in her classroom window and it was so pretty on a sunny day. You can see in the picture that all but the black beads are translucent and the design gives the effect of stained glass, in a beaded banner sort of way. Anyway, she liked it and I thought it was a fun design to do because of all the detail in it.

Coming up soon, I will have a picture tutorial on how these banners are made, just in case you are curious too! You will see that there really is no mystery to it and they are very easy and quite fun to make.

If you like Beaded Things, don't forget to sign up for my 100th post give-away which ends Wednesday, Sept 17th!

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Labels: bead work, beaded banner, beading links, beads, Herrschner's, Mary Maxim