Paper Crafts – Creating A Decorative Pennant Banner

Editor’s Note: Good morning. Vanessa Falle is on sight with an easy paper craft tutorial. Today she has us whipping up a lovely decorative pennant banner for any occasion. Get creative. Here she is:

This month’s project is a decorative project that you can make over and over again. It can be created to suit a celebration or as an inspiration in your creative space. I have one hanging in my studio right by my desk that says “Inspired.” These are perfect for Halloween, Christmas (and all those other wonderful winter celebrations), birthdays or whatever you can think of. They aren’t complicated and are a really great way to use up small embellishments from all over the place.

Let’s round up our creative materials.

Here’s What You Need:

- chipboard (or a bunch of empty cereal boxes will do),

- glue stick,

- glue gun,

- Xacto knife and cutting mat,

- decorative paper to cover the flags,

- alphabet embellishments,

- decorative embellishments,

- a length of ribbon to string your pennant flags together,

- sanding tool (I used an emery board),

- neutral dark ink (I used gray for the edges of my flower shapes), and

- shape punches.

- First things first. Start out by choosing the word you want to spell and lay out the chipboard triangles that you will be covering with decorative paper to make sure you have enough.

- If you need to cut out your flags from the cereal boxes, do that first and be sure to make them large enough to hold all of your embellishments. My flags measure roughly 6″ along the top edge and 6″ down to the point of the flag from the top, center.

- Thoroughly cover the surface of each flag with glue stick (watch out for lumps) and adhere to the wrong side of your decorative paper. Rub it well to ensure a good bond. Repeat for each of the remaining flags.

- Once they are all stuck down to the paper, carefully cut them out using your Xacto knife on a craft mat so you don’t destroy your table top.

- If you have made your flag shapes yourself, you will need to punch holes in the top corners to allow stringing them together. You can use a hole punch, but it may take some Oomph! I also sanded the edges of my flags so that any rough spots from cutting them out weren’t visible.

- If you do this, be sure to drag your sanding tool from the right side of the flag, downward. If you sand upward, the paper will tear and you will see that spot on the top of the flag.

- The next part is the most fun.

- Lay out each of the flags side by side and set about arranging the embellishments. Make sure you can see the letters that spell your word and go to town decorating each flag in your banner.

- In my banner, I used vintage alphabet cards to spell my word, as well as other great vintage paper elements. I also used a strip of scallop punched paper along the top edge of each flag to give it more presence.

- You could do this with yours or try using pieces of decorative lace. I layered a piece of scallop-punched paper in a circle shape under a few of my alphabet cards.

- They are lightly inked on the edges with charcoal colored ink so that the edges are defined from the paper they are stuck on top of… another optional decorative choice.

- Once you’re finished arranging your embellishments, go ahead and adhere them securely. You can use a glue stick or a tape runner for the flat, paper items, but you’ll probably find that the glue gun works best for bulky embellishments.

- When you are done with all the decorative stuff, you can thread through your ribbon. Be sure to tie loops into the ends of it so you can hang it up.

And this, my friends, is how you make a pennant banner.

So easy. So fun. Betcha wanna go make one now?!? Have fun and if you have any questions, you can email me at [email protected]

Tags: banner, Comox Valley, craft tutorial, crafts, decoration, flags, holiday decorations, Our Big Earth Media Co., Paper, paper crafts, pennant, tutorial, Vancouver Island, Vanessa Falle

Category: ARTS & LITERACY, Crafts