Easy DIY Holiday Banner For Your Mantel

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This DIY holiday banner or bunting is an easy home decor craft that makes your fireplace mantel look so festive! It can be customized to your decor or any holiday!

Learn how to make a holiday banner that you can customize to your decor or the current season. It’s the perfect craft for rainy days or girls craft nights.

This holiday banner or bunting is an easy DIY that makes your fireplace mantel look so festive! It can be customized to your decor or the current holiday! You'll definitely want to pin this one for later!

Hi there, Kenarry readers!  I’m Robin from A Home To Grow Old In.  Can you believe Thanksgiving is this week?  It seems unreal to me that Christmas is just a little over a month away!  To start getting into the season I began pulling out my decorations this weekend, and I’ve already got Christmas music blaring throughout the house.

DIY Mantel Decorating idea

One of my favorite things to decorate in our home is the fireplace.  It’s original to our 90-year-old home, but I gave it a little update earlier this year with some black accents.  

Our fireplace can be a little tricky to decorate because the mantel is very narrow, so I’m always searching for decorations that are not very deep.  

Something I’ve been on the lookout for is a vintage-looking banner or bunting that I can hang from it, but I just haven’t come across what I’m looking for.  I decided to try to make one, and it ended up being an easy project.  The great thing about it is that you can customize it to your decor or the current season.

How to make A DIY Holiday Banner

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Supplies

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • fabric (1/4 to 1/2 yard depending on how wide your fabric is and the number of banner pieces)
  • felt (1/4 to 1/2 yard)
  • foam sheet (most craft stores sell these by the individual sheet)
  • spray adhesive
  • spray paint (optional)
  • card stock
  • craft glue
  • ribbon or twine
  • Fray Check (optional)
  • hole punch

DIY Holiday Banner Instructions

Here’s how to make your own banner. Customize this for any holiday or special events.

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1. Print and cut a template for the banner pieces

To start, print and cut a template for the banner pieces out of a piece of card stock.  Then, cut a piece of fabric and felt that is large enough to fit all of the banner pieces.

2. Apply felt to the back of the fabric

I applied the felt to the back of the fabric to give the banner some structure.  

To do this, lay both the fabric and felt pieces on a flat surface with the fabric piece wrong side up.  Spray the backside of the fabric and either side of the felt with the spray adhesive.  You should use the spray adhesive the same way you would use spray paint.

Make sure any surfaces that you don’t want to get overspray on are covered and that you are in a well-ventilated area.  The spray adhesive does a great job of getting the glue evenly on your material.

Spraying fabric adhesive to the fabric and felt pieces

Press the two sides with adhesive together and smooth out any wrinkles.

This holiday banner or bunting is an easy DIY that makes your fireplace mantel look so festive! It can be customized to your decor or the current holiday! You'll definitely want to pin this one for later!

3. Trace and cut out the banner pieces

Trace the banner pieces onto the fabric using the template you cut out of cardstock.  Make sure to pay attention to the pattern on your fabric when you decide where to place the template.  

Once you have all your pieces traced, cut them out with fabric or sharp scissors.  I used flannel, so I didn’t have to worry about fraying, however, if you use a fabric that frays you will want to use Fray Check on the ends to keep them from unraveling.

Tracing and cutting out banner pieces

4. Make the letters for the banner

Once your banner pieces are cut out it’s time to work on your letters.  Use a word processor to print out your letters onto cardstock to make a template.  

Try to use a bold font that will stand out.  I found it easiest to cut out each letter on cardstock first making a template.  Then, use the letter templates to trace the letters onto the foam sheet and cut them out of the foam.

Another option is to use wooden letters that you find at most craft stores.  I could not find the size I wanted, plus they were $1 or more apiece, so I decided to cut mine out of foam.

Tracing letters onto pieces of foam board for a DIY holiday banner.

If you’d like your letters to be a different color than the foam sheet, now is the time to give them a couple of coats of spray paint about 30 minutes apart.

5. Glue the letters to the banner pieces

This is when I planned to start gluing my letters to the banner pieces, however, as I started placing the letters on the fabric I noticed they were kind of hard to see even though I used a bold font.  I love the plaid pattern on the fabric, but it was a little busy and the letters were not standing out.  

To make them more noticeable, I used the foam letters as a guide and traced a larger version onto the felt and cut them out.  You may not need to do this depending on the fabric you choose, but I wanted to show you what a difference it makes.

Felt letters glued on foam boards and attached to a DIY holiday banner

I glued the foam letters onto the felt, and then I glued the felt/foam pieces onto the banner.

6. String it up with red twine

The last thing I did before stringing it up with some red twine was to put 2 holes into each side of the top of the banner pieces to run my twine through.  I used a single hole punch to make the hole, but a leather hole punch would have been much easier to use.  If you aren’t able to use either, you can easily cut a couple of slits in the top with a pair of scissors.

After playing around with it a bit, I decided to hang the banner pieces on two strings so that it wouldn’t cover up the stockings.  These mini removable hooks worked great so that I had a place to tie the banner onto on the fireplace.

This holiday banner or bunting is an easy DIY that makes your fireplace mantel look so festive! It can be customized to your decor or the current holiday! You'll definitely want to pin this one for later!

I am so happy with how this turned out!  I really love all the plaid holiday decor I’ve been seeing lately, and this is just one more way to add it to my Christmas decorations.  What kind of fabric will you use on your holiday banner?

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What’s Next?

While you’re here, be sure to check out other Christmas ideas on Ideas for the Home by Kenarry® –

Updated November 2019.

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One Comment

  1. Hi Robin, this banner is so darn cute and you had me at ‘plaid’. I am a sucker for all things plaid, especially at Christmas time..they just go together so well.

    And the green on the white for the letters really makes a huge difference. Thanks for the great idea…you’ve got my brain a whirring now.

    Hugs, Lynn

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