I was helping out at Sunday school a couple of months ago and we were looking at the beginning of Genesis and my friend asked if we could make some kind of mural/banner to go in the room at the back of the church. This is where there are a selection of toys for younger children to play with during the service and we thought it could do with a bit of brightening up.
I knew instantly what to do as I have been looking at this "make your own wall hanging" from Baker Ross for a while. The pack comes with 32 fabric squares which are ready hemmed and have holes cut in each corner. The pack also includes lots of brightly coloured ribbons to tie the squares together. I assembled lots of fabrics and cut out some squares as backgrounds and then used Bondaweb to trace and cut out some silhouettes of plants/flowers/fish/animals etc. I took the squares along to Sunday school and the kids (aged 4-7) added lots of details to the squares using fabric felt tip pens.
When I got the squares home I used fabric paint and foam stamps for the larger letters and StazOn ink with clear acrylic stamps for the smaller lettering. I based the words on The Message translastion of Genesis. I also used Bondaweb to iron on some thick calico backing onto the squares as the original fabric is quite thin and I wanted the finished banner to be quite robust.
I stitched on buttons and charms to the squares too.
We had fun hanging it up. We aren't allowed to drill holes into the walls without special permission but luckily there were two existing hooks. The hooks are very, very high above a window. A friend and I scaled the ladder to hang two chains from the hooks which came down to below the window and then a curtain pole was hung from the chains. It's nearly straight too!
We've had lots of great comments about how well it's turned out and the kids are very proud of their handiwork.
