Moon Munkie Make Project #1: Vine Banner

Yay, Spring!

Soooo, I would like to first let you folks know that these projects being posted are drafts. I only let you know that because I am a bit timid on the use of Moon Munkie's goodies on some of these things because I want to make sure I'll have enough to use them for the final draft.

As stated earlier, I want to use the goodies Jemma sent to make some decorations for my sister-in-law's baby shower coming in May. The theme will be Sweet Pea, since this is one of her decorating themes for their expected wee'un come June. It made sense to me to stick with a heavy spring-y, floral theme. Light and green. One of the first things I wanted to do was make something similar to this from Martha Stewart:

Source: Martha Stewart

Instead of "bebe", I thought it'd be nice to do the sweet pea's anticipated name: Grace. My initial thought was to do this with grapevine, as my cousin's yard sports a good bit of it and it is so often used for shaping and wreaths. Unfortunately, after an afternoon of trekking through the woods and gathering some grapevine, I found that it was still too brittle to bend and shape for what I had in mind. At least, it is too brittle in March.

My cousin made an honest effort though, and I have to give her credit for persevering and coming up with some decent letters with the help of lots of floral wire.


























I was a tad bummed until a week later when I realized that my home is surrounded by ivy vines, which are thinner than grapevine and tend to be evergreen and much more pliable. Using floral wire and then the lovely yarn from Jemma, I constructed a preliminary "grace".

 I think that it will read better when each letter is hung from its own string to its own anchor. The use of just the one nail in the side of my house limited my display options, and cramped the "r" and "a" too close for my tastes.

As stated earlier, the end product is not so "end". I will be adding additional accents with the yarn on the letters, so that it will tie the, er, ties, into the piece more cohesively. I also plan on using Jemma's die-cut purple flowers on the name as accents as well, but did not want to attach them to this draft version.  I imagine it would be something like this:

I'm also not quite sure if the letters will be more or less legible with more ivy. My mother suggested adding more, but then I fear it will be just a jumble of leaves and no shape. And, in truth, who says I have to make the final version out of ivy? Perhaps there will be another plant well suited to wire shaping and the "sweet pea" theme? I mean, Martha looks to have used lavender. If only I thought sweet peas would survive the anticipated May heat, I'd grow some for the party to use...

What do you think?