BEAT THE JANUARY BLUES: THE CREATIVE EDIT

January is nearly over, pay day is nearly here for many of you and Valentine's Day, with all its nonsense, is just around the corner. Hopefully the socialising tips, make-up looks and book recommendations will have helped you so far with your fight against the January Blues, but we still have 4 more days to deal with, so why not spend it making something to liven up your walls a bit. After all, February is just as depressing even if there is (usually) a bit more money around to spend on pick-me-ups. 

I wanted to make myself a pennant banner for a while and decided that a motivational message would be ideal. Originally I wanted to make one saying 'cheer up' or 'it could be worse', but after receiving some bad news, they became wildly inappropriate. I wanted to use a mix of crochet and fabric for mine, but it is just as easy to use card and coloured paper.

Difficulty: easy

Time needed: 4-5 hours 

To make my version, you will need: leftover wool; a crochet hook; a big sheet of felt; a needle and thread; a small length of dowling or a ruler and access to YouTube!

I used Happy Berry Crochet's alphabet tutorials to crochet the letters; sewed them to a piece of felt, cut out the pennant shape, folded over the top, laid some ribbon between the layers and hand-sewed across the top. If I had access to a sewing machine, I would have completed the last bit by machine. The last step is to thread a bit of wood, or a ruler (or in my case a random piece of metal I found around the house) in front of the ribbon so that it doesn't fold together when you hang it on the wall.

If you want to make this in card, but can't draw letters well, you can use Word, with a font of your choice. Just make the text large enough and change the setting so it prints only the outline (highlight the font/right click/select 'font'/select font effects/change font fill to 'no fill'/change font outline to 0.25 thickness). Print on coloured paper, cut out and stick on to some card. You just need to make sure you use heavy enough card that it hangs flat against the wall.

Here's a file you can download and use if you really don't fancy doing it yourself. 

I would love to see your versions if you choose to make one, especially what you write on it to cheer yourself up, so don't forget to leave your links in the comments, or via Twitter. 

With the end of January (and hopefully your general post Xmas grumpiness), we will be moving on to a slightly more 'romantic' series in February, which I have yet to name, but is vaguely inspired by Paris (Am I selling it to you yet?). There will be some recipes, an outfit/wardrobe post, some more book recommendations and hopefully a couple of quick crafts to try out. So don't forget to come back every Wednesday and every second Saturday to read some new content.  I have really enjoyed writing in January and hope that this has come across in my projects and writing. 

If you fancy a chat in between, you will usually find me nattering away on Twitter every Tuesday evening with the lovely gals who take past in the #craftblogclub chat.These friendly bunch have been putting a smile on my face for a while now. So if any of you happen to be reading - thank you!