Make It Easy: Happy Birthday Bunting

For the fourth installment in the 'Make It Easy: Etsy Educationals' series, my tutorial will demonstrate how to create a 'Happy Birthday' banner using scrapbook paper and ribbon.

After making several fabric banners recently, I thought I'd give a paper one a try. Although not a creator, I am a fan of scrapbooking and always love the 'shabby chic' banners I come across on various websites and stores, so I thought I'd give one a go myself. With the help of this tutorial from Katydid & Kid, I created my Happy Birthday banner over a couple of days. I am quite pleased with the finished result and it wasn't too difficult to make. I hope you enjoy making your banner as much as I enjoyed creating my own!

You will need:

Various scrapbook papers
Ribbon
Ink pad
Printer
Circle cutter or item to use as template
Hole Punch
Scissors
Pencil
Glue

Instructions:

Drawing and cutting out the circles

1. Either using a circle cutter, or going for the traditional method of drawing round a suitable sized cup or bowl, cut out 13 circles in your scrapbook paper. I used four different papers in similar colours, but you can use as few or as many as you think would work.

Inking circle edges - before & after

2. Using a ink pad, drag the edges of the paper circles at a 45 degree angle across the pad to ink the edges all the way around.

My chosen font 'Candy Inc'

3. Using one of the many free font downloads on the Internet, I chose a suitable font from DaFont.com, downloaded it to my computer. Using Word, I typed the letters for 'Happy Birthday' onto a new document. I resized them to the size I wanted (about 400, which fit 3 on a landscape page) and printed them out in black and white, although you can use colour if you choose.

Inked circle with letter

4. Cut out the letters, then glue them to the centre of your scrapbook circles.

Hole punching

5. Using your hole punch, punch two holes at the top of each circle.

All ribboned up!

 6. Thread the ribbon through the  holes of each circle, making sure to thread the letters in the right order. My ribbon was quite wide so I had to be careful that as it folded over when I threaded it through it didn't twist up. Space out the circles evenly along your ribbon.

7.  Your banner is ready to be hung proudly to celebrate your special occasion!

For more on the 'Make It Easy' series, check out these links: