Flower Garland and Updated Birthday Banner

I updated the "Hoppy Birthday" banner for my sister in law's birthday.I changed the "o" to an "a" and switched the bunnies for some pink and red die cut flowers. Cute, and it matched the fireplace quite nicely. 

You can find the original instructions to make the banner here 

Here's a close up of the paper flowers. I bought a large package of them at the dollarstore. Very handy, I've used them for greeting cards, embellishments for gift bags, to decorate easter baskets, the garland below and I still have more!

Flower Garland
Materials:

• paper flowers in your choice of colours
• needle and thread
• tape

This is super easy, I whipped it up in only a few minutes.

 

 Line up your flowers so that you have a relatively straight line, see how the side petals line up? Then simply string the flowers onto your needle and thread from the back side, so the thread runs along the back. Tie off and tape the end to the back of the end flowers. I used a random pattern of all the colours, but feel free to cutomize as you see fit. The only small thing that bugged me-the flowers tended to twist around. A very tiny detail no one would notice except me. I might attach them all individually, like I did with the sweet pea banner when I have some spare time. Sweet pea banner instructions are here
Everyone commented on it, it's a cute way to add a pop of colour to a party.
  And very cheap, it cost only pennies.

Re-post: No Sew Felt Bunting

I mentioned recently that I was thinking about making felt bunting banners that could be re-used again and again.  This morning I came across a great tutorial from Style at Home, you can find it here

The instructions look really easy- I am thinking about upgrading the twine to some thin satin ribbon and maybe adding some decorative stitching.

Hoppy Birthday Banner

Materials:

• card stock in your choice of colours (2-4 colours)
• letters (stickers, scrapbooking or cut your own)
• ribbon
• glue stick
• pencil and ruler
• scissors

I used pre-cut card stock for this project, which makes it easier and faster than a circular garland. I bought a package of pre-cut cardstock in four colours at the dollarstore. Each piece is 61/2 inches by 41/2 inches.
First decide on what you want the banner to say, as well as any additional decorative pieces. Lay out your pieces so you can see how it looks before you start. Once you are happy with the colours combinations, cut our all your letters I used a combination of white, off-white and two shades of  brown. I drew the letters freehand, but feel free to use a template or pre-cut scrapbooking letters or stickers. Lots of options available at dollar and craftstores. Once you like what you see, glue on your letters and embellishments-lining them up all the bottom edge will help it look even.

 

I added a silhouette of a bunny wearing a party hat to each end of the "hoppy" banner. I cut out the bunny, the triangle and the pom pom from paper and drew the details with a pencil.

Next I made a "pocket" for the ribbon by measuring out an one inch fold and gluing it to the back side. I applied just a thin strip of glue-don't glue the pocket shut. Think of a curtain panel, the ribbon will be like the rod. I used the side of the glue stick to get a very thin line.

Once all the glue is dry, slide your ribbon through each letter, making sure the letters spell out the word correctly and knot the ribbon on each side. I did the banner this way because I wanted to be able to re-use parts of it. I can keep the "birthday" as is, and take out the bunnies and the "o" from "hoppy" to change it to a standard birthday banner instead. Just un-tie the knot and slip off the letters.

It's actually really easy to make a custom banner, they look great and can be customized. Much better than the tin foil ones at party stores. For the instructions on how to make a circular banner, check out the "sweet pea" banner here

 

I am thinking about making some felt garlands and pennant banners, they'll be longer lasting and can be used in various ways for lots of different kinds of events.

Sweet Pea Banner and Garland

This project is super adaptable and actually really easy. The same method can be used for any garland in any colour, for any season or holiday.

Materials:

• card stock (2-3 colours)
• string of some kind ( I used embroidery floss)
• letters-can be stickers, scrapbooking or cut out your own
• gluestick
• sewing needle
• circle cutter-not necessary but highly recommended
  

To make the banner-first figure out how many letters you need to spell your word. I used 8, and added 3 extra as spacers. I decided on 2 3/4 inch circles-big enough to see clearly but not so big to use up too much card stock.

I used the teal green colour for the background colour, and the kelly green for the letters and the accents. As you can see from the picture, I cut out 8 circles from the teal cardstock, and 3 circles from the kelly cardstock.

I drew the letters freehand-they are about 2 inches high on the kelly and cut them out with scissors. Feel free to use a template, stickers or die cuts if you are not comfortable drawing freehand.

Glue the letters to the circles. I find a glue stick is best. Liquid glue tends to wrinkle the paper when it dries.

To attach the circles together, I punched a hole with a sewing needle on each of the circle, making sure the holes lined up in a row, then I strung the circles onto the embroidery floss.

For the garland, I used 1 1/4 inch circles in three colours: the same teal and kelly green, and added a third colour-a sage green. I also punched a hole in each side of the circle and strung with embroidery floss. The hardest part of both these items is cutting out the circles. If you have a circle cutter, it is much faster and easier. The nice part of these garland is that they fold up nicely into a stack which is easy to transport and store and doesn't tangle.