Crafting a Football Banner

Football season is here! Use a dowel and a few other supplies to inexpensively craft a decorative football banner to show support for your favorite college or professional team.

Start with the basic materials for this project, which simply include a tarp (the size of your choosing), a dowel (sized to correspond to the overall dimensions of the tarp), paint (s), including your favorite football team's colors and any complementary colors you desire to add, paintbrush (es), and any extra decorative materials you may desire to use. These may include puff paint, stencils, buttons, ribbons or rhinestones.

Start by sizing both the tarp and the dowels. Be certain the size of the tarp allows for the desired lettering, picture or logo, as well as any additional weight that may result from accessories that are used. Also, be certain that the dowel is halved appropriately so that the banner stands level on both sides. If the banner is meant to decorate the lawn, you will also need to make careful consideration for the portion of the dowel that will need to be driven into the ground and the amount that will need to be used to hold up the banner itself.

Once these determinations are made for both the tarp and the dowel, carefully make the appropriate cuts. Certainly if you'd like to paint the dowel sections, you can, and now would be a great time to do so, as it would allow the paint sufficient time to dry as you begin to work on subsequent steps.

On the size Based of the wood Dowel That is of used for the project, or glue a Sew a pocket on Either side of the tarp, turning it backward – upon – Itself to hide the seam. If you choose to use glue instead of sewing, be certain to not glue the pocket upon itself. In other words, you will need to ensure that there is sufficient space for the dowel, as it will need to slide through the pocket easily enough to fit, but tightly enough to prevent slippage. This is nothing that careful calculations beforehand can not accomplish, but will certainly vary from project to project based on dimensions.

Once the pockets are created (and the glue dried, if glue was used), proceed with decorating your football banner. Certainly, you will want to apply the base color to the tarp first if it is different from the color of the tarp you're working with. How convenient for you if the base color and the color of the tarp are one and the same!

To complete the banner, it is merely a matter of applying paint or logos and allowing sufficient drying time before other accessories are applied.

Once the banner is made, insert the dowel into either of the side pockets you created. If you so desire, you could even use wooden balls at the tops of each dowel to round off the look. Or, in keeping with the football theme, look at local craft supplies shops or online for football shaped wooden cutouts to apply instead. Paint, decorate or use in its natural form. It's completely up to you. Then, apply to the tops of the hardwood dowel sections with hot or wood glue.

For the avid sports fan, this same concept can be applied to other seasonal sports, too, including basketball, baseball, hockey and golf.

Finally, pick the perfect spot in your lawn and adorn it with both your creativity and your team spirit!