posts in diy

DIY Harry Potter "Happy Christmas" Banner

December 11, 2020

Ever since Pottery Barn released their Harry Potter Christmas collection last year, I've been obsessed with slowly adding more and more HP themed items into my holiday decor. I decided to tackle a hanging banner, using felt and recycled cardboard I had sitting around my apartment.

Often when I get a half-thought creative idea, my projects usually turn out just that -- half-thoughts -- but I'm actually quite chuffed with this one!

For this project, all I used was one large stiff white felt sheet, four soft red felt sheets, scrap cardboard from recent deliveries, fabric glue, and hot glue. To start, I used the cardboard to trace out my letter patterns. I find felt difficult to fuss with, so for me starting with something a bit more sturdy allowed me to make sure I got the detail I wanted in my letters. I did my letters by hand, but printing and using them as a template could also work for this step! Below is a picture of my finished templates, complete with my irl messy kitchen island because I couldn't be bothered to clean before I started and the Grinch, because what else would I be watching in December?

To draft my banners themselves, I did the same process; I took my widest letter, the "m," and made my banner to juuuust fit that width. I chose for that one to look a bit tight rather than have the other letters swim in the matting, but this is really up to the creator on your aesthetic standards. Once all my cardboard templates were complete, I cut my banners and stars from the soft red felt, my letters from stiffer white felt, and laid them out.

After I finished all my cutting, here's the final product before stringing:

In true half-thought fashion, I didn't leave myself enough height on my banners to fold over the top to allow room to string them from the top. I pivoted and used the leftover felt I had to create loops on the back. If you go with this approach, I'd keep your loops as close to the top of the banner as possible -- my "Happy" is closer up than my "Christmas" and it makes for a bit of a flatter hang when you actually get it up on the wall.

And here's the final product! Like I said, for no real plan going into this, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Here's to being one step closer to my ideal Harry Potter Christmas aesthetic!