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I had so much fun planning the details of my daughter’s western-themed 2nd birthday party. At the time of her birthday, I had recently published my first children’s book, The Adventures of Pootsey the Wonderbug. I knew I wanted the theme of her party to be reminiscent of Pootsey, so I made it western-themed based on one of the little stories in the book. Such a fun theme to plan!
I’m all about getting really creative on a budget, and I absolutely love the small things of organizing parties – you know, the things that most people won’t notice or care about but that just give you a ton of joy and enthusiasm in planning! These easy western bandana banners were definitely part of the details, and because they were so easy and inexpensive to make, and because they added so much in terms of color and festiveness, I made A LOT!
Here’s what you need:
- Colorful bandanas
- Jute rope
- A pair of scissors
Once you get started, this process goes really quickly and is quite mindless. You can’t mess it up, and it’s so easy (and a bit therapeutic??) to do in front of a good movie or while listening to some podcasts. I definitely watched some Hallmark Christmas movies while making some of the decor for Elizabeth’s party. 🙂 Judge me if you want. I’m all about those cheesy, predictable movies. (In my defense, life is full of unpredictabilities and difficulties – isn’t it nice to just dive into a predictable, heartwarming movie every once in a while?!)
Trim the bandana down to the length you want each strip of fabric to tie onto the rope, and then just start making cuts with the scissors and then rip the fabric down that slit.
I feel like that was the most poorly-explained instruction I’ve ever given. Look at my pictures. Hopefully those make more sense than my instructions!
Keep this up until you’ve got the strips of fabric you’re wanting to use.
This is how I tie each strip onto the rope. First, make a loop with the fabric.
Then pull the ends through the loop around the rope and pull down on them so the fabric lays flat and with the ends facing downward.
Keep up this process with the remaining fabric scraps. Each strip is fairly adjustable on the rope, so if you want to space them out a bit, you can easily do that after you’ve already tied them all on the rope.
I wish I had taken better pictures of these at Elizabeth’s party, but here are a few snapshots of how they dressed up the food/drink tables.
They added a fun pop of color! So easy to do! I already had the rope, and I bought the bandana fabric to make the pennant banners (tutorial for those over here!), so making these western fabric bandana banners with scraps of remaining bandanas was essentially free!
I know I’ve said this before, but I just really love the little details of planning and decorating for celebrations. I think they add so much character and festiveness to the celebration; I think they make the guest of honor feel really special, and they make guests feel special too! I’m all about preparing a place of fun and festiveness for people to gather. I hope you can have some fun planning a little western party, too!
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