Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Show and Tell: Birthday Banner

Remember the Glittery Tissue Flowers I showed you on Friday?  Well, they were part of a bigger project I was doing for a surprise birthday party for my mom.


Actually, we all ended up surprised.  The plan was to call her at home once everyone had arrived (some people in my family are notoriously late so we didn't want to set a specific time for her to come in case half the guests hadn't arrived yet).  I was to tell her that I was locked out of my house and needed her to bring her extra key to let me in.  Imagine our shock when she wasn't home!  And her cell phone was turned off so we couldn't track her down!

Eventually someone found her and sent her our way but, we were just as surprised as she was when she came walking in the door.  It was all very funny.

Anyway, back to crafts...I meant to take loads of pictures to show you the decor and the food, but of course, I got all caught up in the party and forgot to use my camera very much.  So, to make up for it I thought I'd do a quick bonus tutorial on how I made the banner...without the use of a Cricut.  ( I do this in the hopes that someone from Cricut will notice and feel sorry for me and send me a Cricut machine to review and demonstrate.  Yes, I continue to live in Cricut dreamland.  Sigh~)

Here are the supplies I used:
Plus access to a computer and printer
I ended up not needing my scalloped scissors because I remembered at the last minute that I had a wave blade for my rotary cutter I could use, which was sooooo much faster.

Steps:
1) Using 12 X 12 scrapbooking paper, mark the 6"mark on one side. (I totally lucked out and found super pretty paper at the dollar store- 1 package of 10 different coordinating papers for $1!!)

2) If you're using scissors, lightly draw a line connecting your dot to each corner above and cut along the line.  If you're using a rotary cutter you can just go ahead and cut to the corners.



3) Once you have enough triangles to spell out whatever it is you want to say, then cut 1/2" strips of white paper with either a wavy blade rotary cutter or a scalloped edge scissor.


4) Glue your white strips of paper to the long sides of your triangles.  Snip along the top edge to make even and gently round the point to create an even wave. 


 When you flip your triangle over, the white paper should look like rick rack.


5) In a word processing program on your computer, type out each letter of your message at size 450.  Cut out the letters, using a sharp blade to cut any inside edges.




6) And here's where I stopped taking pictures because halfway through making this I reminded myself that I wasn't going to do a tutorial on it.  Sometimes I just take photos of my projects as I'm making them as a habit now.

The rest is easy though.  Just center each letter on a triangle and glue down.  Then glue along the long unfinished edge of the triangle and lay down some pretty ribbon.


And there you have it.  A super pretty, and in my case, somewhat shabby chic, Happy Birthday Banner.


Don't tell anyone but it was pretty easy to do, even without a Cricut.

Check out the linky party page for new additions!

9 comments:

C... said...

Oooh now I know how to use those rotary cutters. I am so slow to catch on LOL

Kimmie @ Hello Mess said...

This turned out absolutely beautiful!

Thank you for linking up to What I Whipped Up Wednesday! xo

Unknown said...

Oh, I just love banners, and yours is lovely. Thank you for sharing how to make one of these. I love how those flowers just set it off perfectly.
Karen

Crazy Wonderful said...

Gorgeous banner!!!

Found you on Making it with Allie :D

Shelley
www.westermanfam.blogspot.com

JaninaCakes said...

Happy transformation thursday! <3, new follower

Rebecca @ My Girlish Whims said...

I love it! Coordinates great with the glitter flowers you made :) Thanks for linking up to Your Whims Wednesday!! Hope to see ya again this week :)

nicolette {momnivores dilemma} said...

That looks like you cut those letters with a digital cutter, Tamara!

Thanks for sharing this at Creative Juice. Stop by again this week!

Anonymous said...

can i use regular photopaper (8x10) for this project since i want customize it for a dora and diego theme for my kids party?

Etcetorize said...

Hi Anonymous! I think you can use whatever paper you like. If you use 8.5 X 11 paper you could make long skinnier triangles instead. My letters were just done on a regular old laser printer and then cut out to fit the triangles. You may have to make yours slightly smaller than the 450 I used.

Have fun at your Dora and Diego party!

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