A nice take on those old-fashioned fringe Merry Christmas banners, this one can be customized to suit your style. Choose Christmas carols, Christmas words or quotes from the bible relating to this special time of year. Use one colour or several, alternating the colour with each word. It looks especially great en masse across the ceiling of a room.

You’ll need:

• Coloured cardboard: A4 is the best size as it’s ready-made to the perfect size once you fold it over. Paper works as well although is slightly lighter so will wave a little more in the breeze!
• Scissors
• A paintbrush if you wish to spread runny glue
• Glue
• Fishing wire

Step one

Fold the paper in half lengthways.

Step two

Using the fold as the top of each letter, cut out individual letters freehand. Make sure you leave the top of the letter connected at the fold so you can open the letter like a card. Keep each word grouped in a pile.

Step three

Open each letter and apply glue to both sides of the fold. With a long length of fishing wire, place one end (leave about a metre to hang) of the wire on the fold.

Step four

Close the letter, pressing the glued area so it sticks.

Step five

Once dry, hang from the ceiling or architraves using white masking tape so it blends with the paint.