Oct 15, 2012

Super Easy Paper Bunting DIY


You have probably noticed by now that buntings/pennant banners are popular.  Weddings, stationary, home decor, they are everywhere!  Its pretty different from their original side of the highway used car dealership habitat.   They have evolved from their humble beginnings and can be found made of all sorts of materials in all sorts of designs.  This tutorial is for a super simple straightforward paper bunting.  You can customize the colors to match whatever look you are going for (mine was for a baby shower).  Here is what you will need: 

Materials: 
- 12"x12" scrapbook paper cut into 2" wide strips (each strip will make about 2 ft of banner, so cut as many as you will need for your finished project)
- embroidery floss - I prefer pearl cotton floss

Tools: 
-embroidery needle
-pencil
-ruler
-scissors
-stack of fabric/or a couple of folded up t-shirts    



Instructions: 

1. Mark your strips and cut your triangles
-On the back side of your 2" paper strip make a small tic mark every 2 inches on the right hand side of the strip.
-Going up the left hand side of the strip, make a tic mark 1" from the bottom.  Make another tic 2" from the first and continue to the end with each consecutive tic spaced 2" apart. 
-Now you have a zigzag pattern between the tics on the left and the right.
-If you are confident in your scissor skills place your scissors at a tic on the left and cut to the closest tic on the right side of the strip.  If you are a messy cutter or a perfectionist use your pencil and ruler to connect the tics left to right and then cut along the lines.
-Now you have a big mess of triangles!    

2. Poke holes at the two angles at the base of each triangle
-put your folded fabric, or t-shirts, or whatever soft thing you can think of on your work surface.
-Place a triangle face up on the soft surface and poke a hole at each of the 2 angles at the base of the triangle.  Make sure you don't poke your hole too close to the tip of the angle, this will tear the paper when you try to thread your triangles onto the floss.   

3. Thread your triangles onto the floss
-thread your needle with the embroidery floss.  I don't cut my floss, but leave it whole and cut it at the end. 
-you want to thread your triangles so the large stitch is on the wrong side of the paper.  Do this by pulling the thread through the hole on the patterned side of the triangle first and then through the back side. 
-work the triangles down the floss as you need more room
-thread each triangle on until you have reached your desired length.  
-cut the floss leaving long tails on both sides of the banner. 

4.  Hang up your pretty new decoration!  



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