Our little lady has a birthday coming up, and between a heavy office workload, hectic home schedules and packed school calendars, I need to plan early and do some projects ahead of time if I want her day to be special (and if I don’t want to pull an all-nighter trying to prep for the party, which I’ve been known to do).  I made this banner over the weekend, using some of the leftover cardstock from the Lake Life project (posted here) and personalized with some favorite pictures from the last year.

Materials you will need: Plain white paper on which to print letters; card stock paper in colors of your choosing; three 8 x 10 photos (I printed on regular ol’ paper, on a regular ol’ printer – I liked how it gave it a softer look than glossy, bright photo paper); paper punch; glue stick; scissors and twine.

Cut the card stock and the pictures into triangles (I did pretty close to an even cut from the top corners of the 8 x 10 photo, which made for large flags – although, see reality check below). Print letters using a font of your choice (I used Cooper Black, 350 pt.), cut out, and glue one on each flag. Cut the pictures a shade smaller than the card stock triangles, and glue on as well. I used a one of the kids’ craft scissors to finish the bottom edges of the triangles with a scallop design.

Punch two holes at the top of each triangle, and string the twine through the back to make the banner. Don’t forget (like I did!) to leave extra twine at both ends, so you are able to hang the banner.

Reality Check.  Hanging the banner outdoors looks pretty great, huh? Good light, a fun way for guests to spot the location of the party, etc. It is a terrible idea. Unless you make the flags out of, say, lead, or live in a bubble with no wind or other elements of the, uh, outdoors, you will have endless amounts of frustration keeping it untangled and having it hang nicely. I didn’t have much of a choice for location since the banner ended up being quite a bit larger than I anticipated. Stay tuned on if I’m able to find a spot in the house to hang this puppy on the day of the party – I may need to get creative. So before you start the project, think of where you would like to place the banner, and judge accordingly for the size of the flags.