Wednesday, November 24, 2010

elmo birthday party tutorial 1: birthday banner

i don't have any pictures of my progress while doing this, but i'll do my best to explain! and if you have any questions after, comment or email me and i'll help. it really is easy though!

what you'll need:
scrapbook paper (i got mine from joann's. it was on sale 5 for $.99. i got about 3-4 letters per page, and needed a page for each letter for the flag/triangle part)
letters (more on that later)
pencil
scissors
a ruler
elmer's glue
hole puncher
tulle, string, or ribbon


what you'll do first is print the letters. i used american typewriter font. i made the letters in photoshop so i could make them thicker, but you could just make them in word and bold them (or leave them the way they are. either works). you could use approx. 550 pt. font if you use the american typewriter font. i wouldn't do any bigger because i don't think bigger would fit on the triangle for the banner.

print all of your letters out and cut them out. after you have your letters for the template cut out, you trace it onto the scrapbook paper (tip: flip it over so you trace it backwards so no pencil marks will be on the front). i alternated the colors of the letters (i used blue, red, and polka dot), but you could do them all in the same color or have each word in a different color. whatever you want. it all works!

once all of your letters are cut out, you can cut the triangles. i used a ruler and measure the middle of the paper on the bottom, then just drew a line down to it from the top 2 corners. it ended up being the perfect size. i cut an equal number of each color of the triangles (i used blue, red, and pink). somehow i messed up the letter pattern, but i didn't really care. it still looked cute!

i laid out everything to see what looked good, and ended up with this. (sorry about the quality. i took the picture with my phone).


then i took a picture of that to make sure i wouldn't forget. because i knew i would end up forgetting and mess it up otherwise. i sat down in front of the tv with the picture in front of me and glued! it didn't take too long. i looked at the letter i had previously glued to make sure they were in about the same place.

after that, i punched holes in the corners to string the tulle (or ribbon or string or whatever you decide to use) through. i cut a little piece and used it as a guide so i could know exactly where to punch the holes in the corners. once i was done with that, i strung tulle through it. my mom had a spool of it, so it made it super easy. you could even tie bows or knots at each hole, but i didn't really feel like doing that.

i left a lot of extra tulle on both ends just in case i needed to have it spaced a little differently. i had planned on having "happy birthday" on one line and "addison" on another, but my mom told me to do them all separately and i could tie "happy" and "birthday" together if i wanted to. i'm glad i did them separate because there wasn't enough room for "happy birthday" to be across, so i put each word on top of the other.


have fun! i'd love to see any pictures if you make it!

come back for more tutorials this weekend and next week!

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