Birthday Week; Monthly Photo Banner

This is the next project I have been working on for Bunny's party. I saw similar ones on Etsy but felt like it was something I could do myself. It also ended up being a rather easy project so I thought I would share it here!

Monthly Photo Banner

Tools 

construction paper and/or scrapbook paper

thin ribbon

hole punch

pictures

shapes to trace or Cricut machine

pencil

scissors

Instructions

The first thing you will want to do is lay out all your papers in the order you want to use them in the banner. I simply made sure I didn't have two of the same thing next to each other.

The next step is getting your shapes. I printed these straight from google images and traced around them on my construction and scrapbook papers. If you have a Cricut machine and a shape you could use, you can replace this step with the simplicity of pushing buttons.

Next, glue them together. I placed the inner piece just above center to leave room for my numbers. After the pages were dry, I used a star-shaped hole punch to cut holes near the tops for ribbon.

While I did have to cut my rectangles by hand, I was lucky enough to use a Cricut for my numbers. For these, I just used construction paper in a color that didn't match the background pages. 

The next step is to add your pictures. I traced printed rectangles for these, also. After they were all attached, I glued on the corresponding numbers. If you have access to a laminating machine, this is where you would want to laminate your papers.

Lastly, use thin ribbon to the the papers together. Again, for this step, I was careful not to use the same color as either of the outside papers. Tie bows or knots, whichever is more aesthetically pleasing to you.

And there you have it! A simple banner of monthly pictures for your little one's first birthday! 

If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know! Also, if you use this tutorial, I would love to see what you come up with! Share your finished product in the comments.

Happy crafting! 

It's Birthday Week!

 

It's birthday week here at Orange Sippy Cup! That is to say my teeny, tiny baby girl is 7 days away from being a year old. Since OSC is a brand new blog, I will save the fun & prizes for everyone for next year. This year, I will just inundate you with crafty birthday things, pictures of my daughter and tales of the tears I am shedding thinking about this monumental occasion.

Since today began the countdown, we hung up our Birthday Wreath. In the future, I think I will add a brightly-colored wooden letter for whoever's birthday it is. But, for now, it's simply a rainbow assortment of balloons, ribbon and pipe cleaners.

If you want to make your own, here is what I did. These links are not sponsored, they are just to help you see the materials I actually used.

Birthday Celebration Wreath

Tools

styrofoam wreath (any size)
multicolored balloons
floral pins
pipe cleaners, ribbon, ect


Instructions

Place two different colored balloons in opposite directions on one floral pin and slide them to the end.

 

Holding the balloons in place, simply push the floral pins through the styrofoam wreath. Be cautions, though, as the pins can go completely through the styrofoam. It is very easy to stab yourself in the hand.

Continue this all the way around the wreath. This was actually the hardest part for me because I had to remind myself not to be a crazy person about what colors were next to each other. This took me just over 2 small bags of balloons.

Once you've placed your balloons all the way around the wreath, take a step back and make sure you don't have any gaps that need more balloons.

Add any decorative pieces such as pipe cleaners or ribbon using the floral pins.

 

Add a hanger. I used the same ribbon I used in the wreath, in yellow. At first, I only used the floral pins but they weren't strong enough. I tied the ribbon around the wreath, under the balloons, and secured it using floral pins.

And there you have it! A fairly simple birthday craft! This could easily be done with any color balloons to match your party decor. I considered using red, black and yellow because Audie's party theme is Mickey Mouse but since we wanted to use this more than once, I just went with something festive!

If you have any questions or snags along your wreath-making journey, feel free to let me know! I would love to help you!