Homemade Christmas Bunting

A Merry Christmas banner is an excellent way to great guests of your home during the Christmas season as well as just add to your holiday decor. Stores carry all kinds of cheap paper Christmas banners, but a homemade banner looks much nicer, and you can customize it to suit any kind of Christmas decor. Make your own banner with scrapbook paper, stamps, twine and miniature clothes pins that is sure to garner you plenty of compliments.

What you need

Scrapbooking paper in festive colors of prints
Craft Glue
2″circle cutter of cut freehand
Adhesive foam dots
twin 5.5 yards

Instructions

First, cut seventeen triangles that are 5″ wide at the base and 6″ tall from decorative scrapbook paper. Cut seventeen more triangles of the same size from solid colored card stock. Glue each decorative triangle to a card stock triangle to give them more stability. Pay special attention to gluing the edges of the paper real well so the edges don’t peel away from the card stock. Put the triangles under heavy books or cookie sheets while they dry to ensure they don’t wrinkle from the moisture of the glue. If you are worried about glue spilling out the edges and sticking to the books or pans, put the triangles between two layers of wax paper first.

Cut seventeen 2″ circles from a coordinating decorative paper and seventeen 1.5″ circles from a light colored card stock. On the 1.5″ circles stamp the letters to spell out Merry Christmas, one letter per circle. On the remaining circles stamp some sort of simple design as these circles will serve as spacers before, after and between the words.

Glue each 2″ circle centered on the decorative side of a triangle. Place the triangles under weight again to dry.

Attach each 1.5″ circle to a 2″ circle using an adhesive foam dot so the letter of the circle is right side up when the point of the triangle points down. Make sure to center the 1.5″ circle on the 2″ circle.

Cut a piece of twine 5.5 yards long. Find the center of the length of twine by folding it in half. Center the “H” triangle on the center of the twine, and use a miniature paper clip in the two top corners of the triangle to attach it to the twine. Add the rest of the letters to the twine spacing them 2″ apart. Place one spacer triangle at the beginning of the Merry Christmas greeting, one at the end, and one between the two words.

Use the left over length of twine at each end of the banner to hang it on the wall or across an open walkway.