"We Three Kings" Banner

This is Grade 5's Christmas project.  A now retired teacher at my school, Mrs. D, would do this every year with her class. 

We have brought it back and will continue the tradition.  Incidentally  Mrs. D is where I got my trade name from.  When I first started working at the school she couldn't remember my name so I was always  "that artist woman"!


This one is for you Mrs. D.















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- burlap
- coloured felt
- bamboo stakes
- glue gun or a sewing machine
- scissors
- tacky glue
- wax paper
- ribbon, rick rack
- googly eyes
- little gems, sequins, any other embellishments you have on hand
- glitter glue

PROCEDURE:

Cut out a nice rectangle from the burlap.  For the Grade 5's I have assorted colours. 

Fray the edges.  Burlap has an uneven weave, that is part of it's rustic charm. But that means it's difficult to get a nice fringe just by pulling threads.  One end will always be longer, you can fix this by just giving them a trim with your scissors so the fringe is even.

You now need to make a pocket at the top to hold the stick/dowel we will use for hanging.

If you have access to a sewing machine you can whip that off straight away.

If not just run a little tacky glue or hot glue from the glue gun to secure in place.

Taking 3 different colours of felt cut 3 long triangles of 3 different heights.





Take a round object, trace around it with a sharpie on 3 different flesh toned pieces of felt.

If you don't have 3 different colours it's no big deal it will still look fantastic.

Cut out clipping away that sharpie line.

Before we start gluing the banner you need 2 important things.

Tacky glue works so well on this project.  I find regular white glue just gets sucked up by the felt and then doesn't stick.

The second important thing is a piece of wax paper to go under your burlap banner.  The loose weave of the burlap causes the glue to seep thru.

Lay out your triangles and heads on the banner.  You could go tallest to smallest but I like to mix it up a bit so I put the smallest in the center.

Glue into place.

Cut a nice large star out of felt.  You can also cut out a crown or two.

Add some trim to the front of the triangles.  You can use ribbon or rick rack.

You can add some hair with yarn.




A snowflake cut in half makes a good crown.





You can add curly hair and a beard.

Glue on some eyes.  I just happened to have 3 sizes.



Add little pompoms for a nose, you could also use a small piece of felt , a button, or bead.

Add some felt strips for arms.

Using little trims or buttons add the gifts for each King.



Continue embellishing with sequins, gems, whatever you have on hand.



Add some glitter glue to the large felt star,  use it to make other small stars in the sky.

Finally add a bamboo stick or dowel for hanging with some string or ribbon attached.


I buy these natural bamboo garden stakes and then just cut them down to size.  They only cost about $2.00 a pkg.

That's it. 

Make it as elaborate as you want.

I can't wait to see how Grade 5 does with these next week.  I'll try to post a photo.






See you next week.