Make your own banners

I've been getting almost-daily emails from Vistaprint since getting some business cards printed, and one of the items that they've tried to give me at "100% off" over the last couple of months is a printed banner.  It got me thinking, and I was nearly going to sign up and buy one to cheer on the Man during his bike ride over Australia Day weekend, but I thought about the fact that it was going to be manufactured in Europe then shipped across, would cost me however much in postage, etc. and I had a better idea - enlist the Schoolboy to help me make one while the Man was out training.  Here's the finished product:

I had a strip of calico lying around, onto which I traced letters with a laundry marker.  I then got him to paint it with poster paint and wa-la a banner we're all proud of and that impressed dad a heap more on the day than a bought one would have.  I'm thinking that this's a project which will be repeated for a 'happy birthday' banner / 'happy fathers' day' banner etc. down the track some time, or maybe to put letters onto some bunting.

Oh, and how did we distract the Kinderboy during the painting (his efforts being unlikely to make the sign readable from a distance?) - I got him to paint his own masterpiece onto a scrap of the calico using the light colours that I wanted the Schoolboy to avoid on the banner.  Smiles all round (including from this control freak of a mum)