La Befana Banner

My second project of the New Year was born out of a need for something that I would never find in a store. My family is Italian-American, so each year we celebrate "La Epifania," or the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6.) The tradition in Italy is for "La Befana," best described as a Christmas witch, to deliver presents to children on the eve of January 5. Legend has it that she is searching for the Christ Child, and so she gives every child a present, hoping that one will be the Christ Child. My family has continued this tradition, as I have with my own children, even though my children are the 4th generation born in America. I love how traditions such as these can keep our cultures alive for our own children.

So, this year my son asked if we had any "Befana" decorations. Besides the special stockings I had custom made from a woman I found online, there are really no other decorations available here in the U.S. So I ordered a Befana papercraft witch on etsy, and then I used it to embellish my own banner that I made with my Cricut machine. I really did not put much planning into this, I didn't even go out and buy ribbon or paper. I just used what I had and pumped out the whole thing in an hour and a half, tops. That was record time for using my Cricut for a banner! One thing I discovered was to keep track of my projects in a notebook so I know what size to use on my machine and other details like that. This way I don't have to go through the trial and error of using the Cricut each time I want to make a banner. By the way, "Buona Epifania" means "Happy Epiphany."