"Merry"

One of the items at the front of the store as an idea is this banner made from pages from the accordion acrylic house album by Maya Road. Maya Road has so many great chipboard, sheer and acrylic pieces. It is fun to pull the albums and sets apart and make them into something new.



Here are instructions to make one of these for yourself!

*Take the metal rings out of the book, leaving the acrylic shapes separate.
*Choose 5 shapes you want to work with.
*Cut out the shape in the desired paper. Cut it out so that the front of the paper is what will be against the acrylic shape. You may decide to use different papers for the house and the roof or for the chimney.
*Peel the protective covering off of the back of the house pieces.
*Glue the paper to the acrylic piece. You want the paper design to show through the acrylic. The paper is glued to the back of the piece. Several adhesives work for this. Diamond dust and glossy accents are two that work well.
*Once the glue & paper is dry, sand the edges lightly. This will blend the paper into the piece.

Take each house piece and decorate it as follows:
*Peel the protective cover off the front of the acrylic piece.
*Use a white paint dabber and dab the edges of the acrylic piece. Slide it a little here and there to give it a rough, random design. You are trying to simulate a snowy look.
*Once dry, take an appliqué pen. This one has the white/off white one. Place this along the roof line and chimney and any other place you want a thicker snow look.
*Use a heat gun and heat the paint used from the appliqué pen. Do not get it too close to the acrylic, but close enough to make the paint puff up.
*Place rub-ons or stamped images where desired on the acrylic pieces. Staz-on ink, Copic pens and any rub-on will be essentially permanent on the acrylic. (unless you scratch it off with your finger nail or use some sort of solvent)

Glue the houses together in a banner. The one here was done by gluing wide ribbon to a strip of wood (wood rulers work). The wood will help secure it in a hanging position. The ribbon shows through. If it was not covered with the ribbon, the wood would show through. Just to keep in mind as you decide how you want to do yours. The ribbon on this one is long enough to cover the ruler & to then be used as the hanger for the piece. (4 ft is a suggested length-it can be trimmed down as needed)

In the example, we used zip dry glue to attach the houses to the ribbon, but most glues will work for this.

Prepare other chipboard elements for decoration. (this can be done while other parts are drying)
*paint swirls with desired color (red in the example), stamp with white ink, or draw on it with white pen.
*paint snowflakes with white paint. While still wet, sprinkle white glitter over them. You can repeat once dry by using a glue such as diamond glaze.
*paint letters red (or desired color)

Use these elements to complete the decoration of the front of the houses. In the example, the swirls were placed to where they overlapped the houses. It actually provides a little bit of stability, but not enough to just use by themselves.

Put rhinestones in the center of the snowflakes and strips of them at the bottom of the houses. Add any other little words or decorations desired. Let the banner dry overnight before hanging it.

We'd love to see yours and how you made it unique. :)