watercolor banner – talk of the town

We’re thrilled to share that we’re back on Nashville’s Talk of the Town this morning! I {Ashley} am doing another little snippet with the fabulously talented Meryll Rose + Lelan Statom in their studio today. And we’re happy to be back again on the news, sharing a little bit about our watercolor banner.

Maybe minus the nerdy photos… but when in the Nashville News Room… Seize the day, and stuff.

We were thrilled to host Talk of The Town at our house in February to film a little segment, with Meryll. It was so much fun to be a part of it all.

Do you remember our watercolor banner? We know we have quite a few newcomers here, so we figured quite a few have probably never seen it. We thought it would be great to revisit it today since I’ll be demonstrating on their fabulous show, if people want to stop by for more details on the how to side of things.

But once upon a time, Emerson turned five.

That was five years ago. Hold me. They grow too fast.

I feel like we go through phases and themes in our lives… a recurring one for me, is how quickly my kiddos are growing, and I’m deep in the trenches of sentimentality right now with all things time-slow-down.

But back to her party, because we knew that she wanted this simple little setup. And while we usually do really easy parties nowadays {aka kids in a pool with cupcakes, or at one of those places that handle it all for you = winning} this is party is probably one of my all-time faves.

The girls had so much fun with all things watercolor themes. Even Emerson, looking at this photos as she hopped to my side just now, talks about what a great birthday it was.

One of the key elements was this easy peasy watercolor banner.

So easy, in fact, that we just had to revisit the entire idea. With all things summer and warm weather and awesome get-togethers… our home is a rotating door all season long. Community is important to us, and we purchased our current home for the yard and school, so we knew it was the perfect opportunity to talk all things easy party planning.

What’s it made from? Coffee filters. TAflippinDA!

I decided to try out coffee filters when I was thinking of something affordable to use for her party. You probably already have these items in your home.

You’ll need:

• coffee filters
• scissors + twine
• tape
• watercolor paints {watered down acrylics work, too} + a brush
• poster board or other protected surface to paint and dry on

Once I cut the filters into a triangle shape (leave the top curved) I painted each one. You can blend your colors, or keep them to one per triangle. It’s fun to try a few different ways as you go!

When they’re dry, {they don’t take long to dry} you can flip the top side over a bit of twine, and secure it in the back with tape. You can tape it directly to the back of the twine, and then fold over the top so that it’s secure in the spot. I laid them out all over my kitchen table, {and when they were dry, did some easy clean up by hitting the surface with a Clorox wipe}. You can also use a poster board underneath to protect the surface you’re working on.

By the end, I was running out of time, so I did a few of them in bulk, by stacking them together and painting on top. Just make sure the paint goes all the way through, and you separate them to dry.

As always, let us know if you have any questions. Easy peasy!

You can check out more of our watercolor party ideas and how-tos with free downloads here} And while we’re at it… here’s some more easy party ideas!