hello fall book page banner.

Published on by Quandie

Fall officially arrives today, and I don’t know about you but I love this time of year.  As much as I enjoy summer, I don’t enjoy frizzy hair on humid days, the way my upper arms jiggle in sleeveless shirts or how the weeds take over my garden in what feels like a day!

Ironically it’s going to be 90 and humid today in the Twin Cities, so frizzy hair and jiggly arms it is for at least one more day.  But I’m looking forward to long sleeves, good hair days and not feeling guilty about reading a book on the sofa instead of weeding the garden.  Oh, and a trip to Disney World.  Yep, my sister, niece and I are going to Disney World for Halloween.  Mr. Q will stay home and man the fort.  I think he’d rather poke his eye out with a sharp stick than go to Disney World.  Anyway …

Last year I made some petite book page banners to say hello to fall for my occasional sale.

I thought they were pretty adorable.  At least a couple of other people must have thought so as well because the items I added them to sold really quickly.

So I made some more to sell at Reclaiming Beautiful this year, and while I was at it I thought I would do a tutorial for you guys.  Be sure to read all the way to the end of this post even if you don’t want to know how I made them because I’m giving a couple away.

step 1.  Print your message on vintage book paper.

I use pages from some old atlases for my banners.

The pages are a little bit bigger than 8” x 10”, so I trim them down to size.  Then I use the manual feed option on my printer and print directly onto the book page.  Click this link to open the word document that I used to make my banners:  hello fall

Q-tip:  you can play around with fonts and sizes as much as you want to, but be sure to leave enough spacing to cut your letters into flag shapes.  I recommend practicing on plain paper until you have the spacing just right so you don’t waste any of your book pages.

My doc will fit on an 8” x 10” page, and the end result will be 2” x 3” ‘flags’ for each letter.

step 2.  Cut out your flags.

For a uniform look to your banner, remember that you want your flags to all be the same size and you want the letter centered on each one.  I use my larger paper cutter at first to cut each strip of letters to 3″ tall ….

Then I switch over to my smaller Creative Memories paper cutter to cut them down into 2” wide pieces.

Finally I just free-hand the notch out of the bottom to give them a flag shape.

step 3.  Add string.

Use a hole punch to add holes to the top of each flag, string them on some pretty striped baker’s twine and you’re done!

Now all you have to do is find the perfect spot for your banner.  I have mine draped across an old window screen that is just hanging on the wall .

But it also looked great on my chalkboard door.

So many options.

And speaking of options, you have some options for getting your own ‘hello fall’ book page banner.

Option 1, make your own.

Option 2, if you’re local, go buy one of mine at Reclaiming Beautiful ($12 each, while supplies last).

Option 3, win one!  I have a couple of extras, so I’ll be drawing the names of two winners from comments left on this blog post by Saturday (September 23, 2017) at midnight (central time).  So leave a comment to be in the running to win, best of luck!

77 thoughts on “hello fall book page banner.”

  6. Your banner is really cute. It’s a nice little fall touch. I’m hoping to get some fall decorating done this weekend. It was 94 degrees here in northeastern Indiana yesterday. Not very fall like but I still bought some mums and pumpkins for my porch yesterday.

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  7. Love the fall banner and love having more frequent posts!! I LOVE summer, but love fall decorating! Thanks for the inspiration.

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    1. I’m glad you’re enjoying the more frequent posts. I’ve been wondering if the majority of my followers aren’t just annoyed by getting so many emails in their in-boxes. But I hope each of the posts have been quality posts, not just filler.

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    1. Well, let’s embrace our frizzy hair and jiggly arms one more time. I’m sure we’ll be in long johns and boots soon enough and we’ll be wishing for warm weather again 😉

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  10. Here in Texas it has been in the upper 90’s the last few weeks. Every time I work in my garage I sweat right on my painted projects. Uggg…. I love the banner, I may just have to try that ou, Great tutorial, I just have to spend time on the computer figuring it all out. (Course, winning one works too) And the jiggly arms and frizzy hair, I’m right with you! Long sleeves and dry air can’t come too soon.

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  15. So cute! This would look good on my covered porch. It is hot here too. Was thinking of getting pumpkins today, but at 90+ temperatures, I just can not make myself! Our leaves were turning colors here in Indiana, but now the heat has put a stop to it. My husband feels the same way about Disney. 😉
    Blessings

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    1. Yeah, I suspect our husbands are in good company with plenty of other dudes out there. But my sis, niece and I have a blast when we go. We’re going during the Food & Wine fest, so we’ll be drinking wine, eating unique foods and then going on fast, spinning rides. What can go wrong?

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  18. Being teachers, we have always been to Disney World during sweltering, huuuumid Florida summers, and wondered how we were willing to spend so much money to feel so wilted! The photos are priceless, though. Late October seems perfect! I like how your banners are petite – they add just a touch of festivity to the environment.

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    1. Phew. Yes, Disney in summer would be rather awful. We’ve gone for Halloween before and the weather was just right. Still low 80’s for highs, but cool mornings and evenings. Hopefully all the hurricane activity will be over by then too!

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  19. Very nice,I made one with old sheet music last Christmas. I really enjoy the daily posts-the message to my inbox is a fun start to the day.

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  21. SUper CuTe!!! I would love to win one of your banners. I would even be happy with the template so I would just have to print and cut my own 😉
    Thank you for the opportunity to win!

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    1. Did you see the link to the template in my post? Just click where it says ‘hello fall’ underlined just above the Q-tip photo. It is a word document, not a pdf though. You probably have to have word on your computer to use it.

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  22. Absolutely darling. I loved them last year and again this year! I also am envious that you are going to Disney World over Halloween. I love fall and am looking forward to everything that fall is. I just hope that the rain doesn’t start in too soon. Here in Washington state the pumpkins in the field can get a little soggy.

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    1. You remember them from last year? 🙂 We are really looking forward to Disney. I’m a big fan of the classics, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan. But I also love the roller coasters, especially Expedition Everest in Animal Kingdom. We’re hoping to ride that one a few times!

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  23. I would love to go buy one of your banners but I would have to add the cost of gas from Connecticut to Minnesota to the cost! Although Minnesota is the hubby’s homeland so you never know, lol.

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  29. Well since your blog is my favorite email in my mailbox because: 1) they’re slways fun and 2) they are not work related
    I love having them 5 x’s a week. How can it be hotter there than here? 86 here today which is still hot and muggy enough with our humidity to have your hair become a chia pet with jiggly arms. I’m with Mr. Q on Disneyworld –
    Love the banner perfect on my Welsh cupboard.

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    1. How weird is that? Hotter in Minnesota than in the deep south. Well, it can happen. But it won’t last long. We’ll be back to fall-like temps next week with a high only in the 50’s by Tuesday.

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  34. Hi Mrs.Q…lovely banner, I have just the place for it. That trip to Disney Land sounds super. I, too am looking forward to those crisp fall days, but here in Ontario where I reside it is a 30C week end. Finally we have a summer weekend. Love to Mom….and your sister..Regards Betty

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    1. I used the actual book page. I have several old atlases that I originally bought for the map pages themselves. I had a bunch framed in my bedroom before I changed up the look in there this summer. I also use them in scrapbook pages. So I tend to grab them when I see them at garage sales.

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  37. Hi, I wanted to tell you how glad I am that you don’t paint everything. Wood is beautiful and sooo had to strip when you paint it. My sister painted all the oak school chairs in my mom’s basement antique green in the 70s and they were so cool when she took them to her first apartment. Then she got real furniture and the old items came back home so in the 90s guess who needed furniture? Out came the ugly avocado green chairs to be stripped, which was spaced out over several years, and now they sit in my dining room as beautiful oak chairs around my grandma’s dining room table, timeless and warm. I vowed I’d never ruin as many things as she did! So that’s my hang up with painted furniture.

    So your banner is lovely. I did one that said “spring” and used tiny clothes pins to attach it but I love your paper punch idea. My most favorite though is the one I made from doilies. I printed out the words ‘give thanks” and cut them out of contact paper, stuck it to the fabric, then stenciled them on fabric doilies (not the crocheted kind) with GIVE on one and the T-H-A-N-K-S on individual ones and attached with tiny clothes pins so they hang evenly on my mantle for Thanksgiving. I love them as they were one of the very first tings I did to decorate when I bought my house. Banners are so heartwarming and I love your font choices.

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    1. You bring back fond memories of the green ‘antiqued’ bedroom set I had during my teenage years. I loved that stuff! But I’m glad I never had to strip it! I do agree that certain pieces should be left unpainted. In general most of the stuff I paint is damaged beyond salvation. But not always. Sounds like you have had some great ideas for banners. I love the idea of the tiny clothes pins to hang them!

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  39. Pingback: french pumpkins. – q is for quandie

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