Birthday Bunting

For my mother’s 80th Birthday, we had a big birthday party/family reunion in our back yard.  We had lot’s of family from all over the place attend! Her only wish was to have every one of her children and grandchildren present! As part of the decorating, I made this cute Happy Birthday Bunting Banner! I used a heavy cardstock scrapbook paper with colorful polka dots on burlap pennants, but this could easily be made with any colors to match your party’s theme.

For shade, we set up tents in the backyard. Here is the Happy Birthday Bunting hanging inside the tent.  I wanted it to be colorful, so I started with a multi-colored polka dot paper.  (I used the heavier card stock so it would hold up well.) For the pennant flags, I chose solid colors to match the polka dots! Polka dots was my theme.

I used a couple of fun tools to use that helped it turn out nice.  The Martha Stewart Scoring Board was the perfect tool for making the crisp accordian folds.  The scalloped circles with the were made by using the a  Scallop Circle Punch tool.

I threaded them all onto a jute twine for hanging.  Isn’t it cute?

I scored the paper every inch, then turned it over and scored every inch so that it would create an accordion fold.

I cut the accordion folded sheet across into 1 1/2″ strips. (This paper was 12 x 12″.) I used 2 strips and glued them together end to end to create this circle.

Since the circle did not want to cooperate while I was trying to make it lay flat, I used a sour cream container to “contain” it!

Then, when I glued on the yellow flower cut-out, it held it flat.

I cut out some burlap triangles (just about 1/4 – 1/2″ smaller on all sides) and glued it to the colored pennant. (It doesn’t have to be perfect!)

Punch a hole in the top corners and string them all together on a piece of jute twine and you are ready to hang it up!

You can play around with the design and make this whatever size you like. Here are the dimensions of mine:

– My colored triangle pennants are 7 1/2″ wide at the top and 9″ long.

– The accordion circle measures 3 1/2″ finished (it is made using 2 strips that are 12″ by 1 1/2″ inches, plus, there is a 1/2″ “hole” or “gap” in the middle. (See the photo above.)