I made this banner for my daughter’s 1st birthday party. I had entirely too much fun planning her party.
Sometimes I wonder if I had a kid just so I could throw her birthday parties.
I love planning little parties and showers, but planning one to celebrate my own daughter’s first birthday took the cake.
Literally.
We had a “Winter ONEderland” at our house for her party (and it was about 70 degrees outside that day, so sure, for Texas, that sounds about right for winter). I painted snowflakes on this banner to fit the winter theme, but you can do anything! Stripes, polka dots, hearts, stars – the options are endless!
You can obviously change this design with the colors of paint you use and the ribbons that you use. I’m all for having templates for decor that can can be tailored to any season and occasion!
Here’s what you need:
- Burlap (enough to make as many pennants as you’d like to use for the banner)
- Iron (not pictured in the photo below – sorry!)
- Thick and dark marker for tracing the pennant shapes onto the burlap
- Pennant stencil (I made one out of thick cardstock)
- Scissors
- Acrylic paint of desired colors
- Paint brushes
- Disposable plate
- Glitter
- Hot glue gun
- Hot glue sticks
- String (long enough to span the area you want to hang the banner)
- Various types of ribbon (really wide ribbon won’t work too well for this – stick with 1/2″ wide and smaller)
Note: You’ll want to have the iron on a pretty hot setting in order for it to actually get the creases and wrinkles out of the burlap
Note: You will want to cut the burlap outside or on top of an old sheet or towel. Burlap fibers go everywhere when you cut it!
This is where you can get really creative! Do any kind of colors, shapes, or letters.
One thing I love about painting burlap is that you do not have to be a talented artist to make some cute designs on it! Burlap is very forgiving.
Finish painting/sprinkling glitter on all of the pennants you’re going to use and then set them aside to dry. Give them about 30 minutes (depending on how thick the paint layers are) to dry before you move on to the next step.
Once the burlap pieces are all dry, grab your string and plug in your hot glue gun to let it warm up.
Once the hot glue gun warms up…
Note: It’d be easier to cut the strips of ribbon a little longer than you think you’ll need. You can always trim the ends after you fasten them to the string if they’re too long.
I hope these instructions make sense for fastening the ribbon onto the string. I had a hard time explaining this part!
Note: The wider, glittery ribbon I used was so cute, but it didn’t fasten as well as the other ribbon. For one, it was a little wider, but I think the main thing was that the ribbon wasn’t quite as flexible as the more fabric-feeling ribbon (the polka dot ribbon). If you’re having problems getting the ribbon to fasten to your string, you may just want to try a different material of ribbon and see if that helps. The glittery ribbon served its purpose, but it wasn’t as secure as I would have liked it to be!
Just like the fringe tissue paper banner I made (if you haven’t checked that out, go do so!), this banner is pretty easy to make and doesn’t cost too much! You really don’t need to buy much burlap for this project, the paint is super cheap (typically less than $1 a bottle at Hobby Lobby), and I bought the ribbon on sale at Hobby Lobby (it’s usually 50% off every other week). I think the most expensive thing I bought for this project was the glitter at about $3, and I’m pretty certain I would have used my 40% off Hobby Lobby coupon for that.
I am all for making cute and pretty things without spending an arm and a leg to do so!
But I’ll go out on a limb and say that I don’t think Hobby Lobby would want my arm and my leg, anyway.
I’ll stop right there.
Have fun making this banner to celebrate someone or something with friends and family!
Leave a Reply