Summer Party Decorations

I love summer! And throwing summer parties! My project this time is a decoration for an upcoming party. It’s hard to get a good picture of the entire project. It’s a Happy Birthday banner strung together with jute twine. It’s 70 inches in length and a great decoration for an upcoming party. I used the following products for this project that are pictured below. Stardream Metallic Card Stock in Sapphire and Silver, MirriSparkle Red Card Stock, and Tombow Mono Liquid Glue to hold it together along with the jute twine.

The Stardream Metallic Silver looks great with these patriotic colors. I originally purchased the MirriSparkle Red Card Stock for Christmas cards but it’s perfect for a July party too; especially with the blue card stock.

I used dies to create the entire project but you could create a template for the triangles and cut them free-hand. I also think you could create decorative edges with scissors or whatever dies you have around. For the letters, I also used dies. Those might be harder to draw free-hand and cut out but if you kept them simple you should be able to do it. I purchased the letter dies at Kat Scrappiness. They are a little pricey but I’ve created so many different things with them I think they were worth it.

After die-cutting all the pieces, I glued everything together with Tombow Mono Adhesive. I used several acrylic blocks to add weight after gluing. This just ensures that the images adhere really well.

To punch the holes for the jute, I punched the first triangle pennant by eye-balling it. Then used that as a template for the remaining ones. I drew a tiny circle on the back of each triangle pennant. This made it much easier to punch them out and ensure they were all the same.

For additional interest, I added silver stars between each triangle. I used the same hole punch on the stars and was able to punch 4-5 of them at a time. Next, I stacked the triangle pennants in order with a star between each one. Then flipped the stack over so everything was facing upside down. I started pulling the twine through from the last triangle pennant first.

One tip for pulling the jute twine through all those holes is to add some kind of liquid glue to the end of it. I spread the glue on the end of the jute and let it dry for 30 minutes until it was stiff. If I didn’t do this, the jute started to bunch up and come apart as I pulled it through the pennants and stars. By adding the adhesive the twine stayed together.

Here’s part of the banner hanging up. I left extra twine on both ends so I can fiddle it with it when it’s hung up for the party. I want the stars to hang freely between each triangle pennant.