Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Do It Yourself - Birthday Banners



Over the past few weeks, I've spent way too much time searching for party decorating ideas for Nolan's first birthday. I scoured Pinterest for inspiration and then turned to Etsy after feeling short on time and low on crafting skill.

I was THIS close (thumb and pointer finger super close together) to giving in and buying a printable birthday banner from an Etsy shop. The idea is actually great. Shops offer coordinated party decorations - banners, cupcake toppers, invites, food labels - you name it. Many allow you to purchase a PDF file, which you can then print from home. No waiting for delivery.

If I had been more open to giving up the color scheme that's been living in my brain for a while, I could have picked up some really cute decoration files for about $5. Alas, I was not open. I DID find a shop that offered personalized decor, where I could specify backgrounds, colors, fonts, etc. But...with personalization comes price. A banner would set me back about $15. Additional decorations were about the same.

I have been a bit spend happy lately, but apparently, my money saving conscience hasn't gone away. I just couldn't bring myself to pay that much money without first taking a crack at making my own decorations.

Which brings me to today and my attempt at making a birthday banner.

I'll start by saying that this project ended up an unexpected success. That being said, it would have been a whole lot easier if I had some scrapbook/graphic design software, which I've got to believe would have saved me some tedious steps.

After a few hours of playing around with Word, Photobucket, and screen capture, I ended up with two banners, using chevron backgrounds in my original color scheme, which I'm actually really happy with! AND - they will end up costing me just $2.50 - the price of the pack of card stock on which the letters were printed.


Highchair Banner

My banners still need to be assembled. I plan hole punch and run a ribbon through the cards - something like this, minus the polka dots...

Photo from Oopsey Daisy

To help you avoid the cost of buying a banner, or the stress of making your own, I'm happy to offer the PDFs for the banners I created! Simply open the file, and print each letter one page at a time, on white card stock. Printing page by page will help you avoid a jam from the thicker paper. Keep in mind, the banners aren't perfect, but hey, they're FREE!

Birthday Banner PDF
I AM 1 High Chair Banner PDF

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