Hello Everyone!
Last weekend was the 25th anniversary of one of my family's close friends. My family decided to host the event at our house, and we decorated our whole house. We bought and put up balloons, lanterns, and all sorts of other cool things to make our house look extra special for the event. However, when we went to Party City to get a banner that said "Happy Anniversary", we couldn't find one anywhere. We checked a few more stores, but had no luck. They all had a bunch of "Happy Birthday" ones, but nothing that said "Happy Anniversary". We also couldn't find letter cut-outs anywhere for an alternative. My mom suggested that we should just try to write it out as neat as possible on a piece of fancy paper, and hang it up . I didn't like that idea, because it would be really hard to get your write that perfectly, and the banner would probably turn out looking sloppy. I also didn't like the idea of typing up "Happy Anniversary" and printing it out, because I felt that would look too cheap and wouldn't be suitable for a silver jubilee. So, I decided to put in all the creativity I had to make the banner myself. Below are my steps. There is a picture of the front and back of completed banner at the end of the post if you need any visual help.
1. I found some capital bubble letter templates online that someone had shared for people to print out and use for their personal use (Here is the link in case you want to use them too). My first idea was to print out every single letter I needed on pieces of cardstock and then cut them out. I quickly ruled this out, because that would have meant I had to use 16 pieces of cardstock and would have probably ended up with half as much left as scraps after I cut the letters out. Instead, I decided to print out 1 of every unique letter I would need (no repeats) on regular white pieces of 8 1/2 by 11 paper.
2. Then I got out some long sheets of thin paper (I'm not sure what exactly they're called. They're thicker than crepe paper, but not quite as thick as regular paper) and traced and cut out all the letters and number of the letter(s) I would need for the banner. You can decide the color of the paper you want to use... I just used a cardboard colored one. **One helpful trick for tracing is to put your sheets up against a window during the daytime so you can clearly see the outline you have to trace. If you have blinds at your house, then see if you can pull them up (you can put them back the way they were before when you're done) and use the smooth, clear glass to help with tracing.
3. Next, I cut out squares of pink cardstock (if you decide to do this, make sure you make all of them the same size) to use as a background for the letters. I then glued each letter onto a square of cardstock.
4. Time to decorate! I used a star shaped stencil and drew 16 stars on the back of a piece of glossy silver paper- (I got an 8 1/2 by 11 sized piece of this at Michaels for under $2). I traced it on the back, so my Sharpie outline couldn't be shown on the front (the important part). Then I glued one star each letter. After this, I put all my letters in order to spell out "Happy Anniversary".
5. Next, I used a hole punch to place a hole on the left side and another hole on the right side of each square.
6. Next, I cut up a ribbon into 16 equal pieces and wound it through the holes and taped stray pieces onto the backs of the squares (pictures are shown after step 7). Don't do this for the left hole on the first square and the right hole on the last square.
7. Lastly, I took two pieces of yarn and tied them (one each) through the left hole on the first square and the right hole on the last square. These are the ends that you can use to hang up your banner.
Here are back and front views of the finished product. I hope you liked this tutorial, and remember that you can use these steps or change the steps however you want to make any type of banner! Show your creativity when you do this!
Thanks for reading, and please send me a picture and let me know if you make your own banner!
-Silvia
Last weekend was the 25th anniversary of one of my family's close friends. My family decided to host the event at our house, and we decorated our whole house. We bought and put up balloons, lanterns, and all sorts of other cool things to make our house look extra special for the event. However, when we went to Party City to get a banner that said "Happy Anniversary", we couldn't find one anywhere. We checked a few more stores, but had no luck. They all had a bunch of "Happy Birthday" ones, but nothing that said "Happy Anniversary". We also couldn't find letter cut-outs anywhere for an alternative. My mom suggested that we should just try to write it out as neat as possible on a piece of fancy paper, and hang it up . I didn't like that idea, because it would be really hard to get your write that perfectly, and the banner would probably turn out looking sloppy. I also didn't like the idea of typing up "Happy Anniversary" and printing it out, because I felt that would look too cheap and wouldn't be suitable for a silver jubilee. So, I decided to put in all the creativity I had to make the banner myself. Below are my steps. There is a picture of the front and back of completed banner at the end of the post if you need any visual help.
1. I found some capital bubble letter templates online that someone had shared for people to print out and use for their personal use (Here is the link in case you want to use them too). My first idea was to print out every single letter I needed on pieces of cardstock and then cut them out. I quickly ruled this out, because that would have meant I had to use 16 pieces of cardstock and would have probably ended up with half as much left as scraps after I cut the letters out. Instead, I decided to print out 1 of every unique letter I would need (no repeats) on regular white pieces of 8 1/2 by 11 paper.
2. Then I got out some long sheets of thin paper (I'm not sure what exactly they're called. They're thicker than crepe paper, but not quite as thick as regular paper) and traced and cut out all the letters and number of the letter(s) I would need for the banner. You can decide the color of the paper you want to use... I just used a cardboard colored one. **One helpful trick for tracing is to put your sheets up against a window during the daytime so you can clearly see the outline you have to trace. If you have blinds at your house, then see if you can pull them up (you can put them back the way they were before when you're done) and use the smooth, clear glass to help with tracing.
3. Next, I cut out squares of pink cardstock (if you decide to do this, make sure you make all of them the same size) to use as a background for the letters. I then glued each letter onto a square of cardstock.
4. Time to decorate! I used a star shaped stencil and drew 16 stars on the back of a piece of glossy silver paper- (I got an 8 1/2 by 11 sized piece of this at Michaels for under $2). I traced it on the back, so my Sharpie outline couldn't be shown on the front (the important part). Then I glued one star each letter. After this, I put all my letters in order to spell out "Happy Anniversary".
5. Next, I used a hole punch to place a hole on the left side and another hole on the right side of each square.
6. Next, I cut up a ribbon into 16 equal pieces and wound it through the holes and taped stray pieces onto the backs of the squares (pictures are shown after step 7). Don't do this for the left hole on the first square and the right hole on the last square.
7. Lastly, I took two pieces of yarn and tied them (one each) through the left hole on the first square and the right hole on the last square. These are the ends that you can use to hang up your banner.
Here are back and front views of the finished product. I hope you liked this tutorial, and remember that you can use these steps or change the steps however you want to make any type of banner! Show your creativity when you do this!
Thanks for reading, and please send me a picture and let me know if you make your own banner!
-Silvia
