A Banner Day

Not long ago, I got an e-mail from somebody who had a great tailgate idea for me. Now, I don’t generally tailgate before Red Sox games. Since I almost always take the T in, they tend to look at me funny when I set up the barbecue in the parking garage. But, I checked out the e-mail anyway. The e-mail was from Banners-on-the-Cheap. They wanted to provide me with a banner to talk about here. It sounded like it would be fun, so I gladly accepted.

What a great process. I went on the website to custom-design my banner. This was the only problem that I had. Since I didn’t have a specific purpose in mind for the banner, it was hard to narrow down all the choices available. What a problem to have! I’m sure that if I knew I wanted a banner for a baby shower, or that it had to be the length of my living room couch, I could have narrowed things down a lot faster. Thankfully, the site had some standard categories, so I was able to just pick something to get started. For the size, they suggested a 3’x8’ banner. What a big one! But, if you’re going to do it, might as well do it big. I’m glad I did.

Once I had the size narrowed down, I had to decide what to put on it. Again, if I had a purpose in mind, this would have been easier. I would have known I wanted it to say “Welcome Home Andrew!” or “Showers of Happiness Holly!” So, the message took me some time. But, the site made it easy to try different sayings out. I could type in my words, and move and stretch them until they looked the best. I could also do previews along the way to make sure I knew what I was doing.

The last choice was to add the hem and grommets to help in hanging. I’m really glad I decided to go for that, since I’m not sure how I would hang it otherwise.

I really couldn’t be more pleased with the results. When I first opened the box, I was a bit concerned about durability. I was worried that the vinyl material would be susceptible to showing creases and bends. But, after spending the weekend moving it around, trying it in different locations, carrying it from here to there, it has held up wonderfully. Obviously, once it’s hung up, it’ll just stay there for a while anyway. It’s just great.

If you want a banner of your own, I’ve added a link to the site on my sidebar. In addition to the banner website, there are links to three other websites in the “on-the-cheap” family. I haven’t tried those yet, but can only imagine they’d be as much fun as the banner was.( Car Magnets Cheap Signs Photo to Canvas Vinyl Banners)

For now, the banner looks great hanging in my Red Sox room. I’ll have to come up with some ideas on how best to use it.

Anyone have any fun suggestions for it?