Show and Tell: Birthday Banner

Remember the Glittery Tissue Flowers I showed you on Friday?  Well, they were part of a bigger project I was doing for a surprise birthday party for my mom.

Actually, we all ended up surprised.  The plan was to call her at home once everyone had arrived (some people in my family are notoriously late so we didn't want to set a specific time for her to come in case half the guests hadn't arrived yet).  I was to tell her that I was locked out of my house and needed her to bring her extra key to let me in.  Imagine our shock when she wasn't home!  And her cell phone was turned off so we couldn't track her down!

Eventually someone found her and sent her our way but, we were just as surprised as she was when she came walking in the door.  It was all very funny.

Anyway, back to crafts...I meant to take loads of pictures to show you the decor and the food, but of course, I got all caught up in the party and forgot to use my camera very much.  So, to make up for it I thought I'd do a quick bonus tutorial on how I made the banner...without the use of a Cricut.  ( I do this in the hopes that someone from Cricut will notice and feel sorry for me and send me a Cricut machine to review and demonstrate.  Yes, I continue to live in Cricut dreamland.  Sigh~)

Here are the supplies I used:

Plus access to a computer and printer

I ended up not needing my scalloped scissors because I remembered at the last minute that I had a wave blade for my rotary cutter I could use, which was sooooo much faster.

Steps:
1) Using 12 X 12 scrapbooking paper, mark the 6"mark on one side. (I totally lucked out and found super pretty paper at the dollar store- 1 package of 10 different coordinating papers for $1!!)

2) If you're using scissors, lightly draw a line connecting your dot to each corner above and cut along the line.  If you're using a rotary cutter you can just go ahead and cut to the corners.

3) Once you have enough triangles to spell out whatever it is you want to say, then cut 1/2" strips of white paper with either a wavy blade rotary cutter or a scalloped edge scissor.

4) Glue your white strips of paper to the long sides of your triangles.  Snip along the top edge to make even and gently round the point to create an even wave. 

 When you flip your triangle over, the white paper should look like rick rack.

5) In a word processing program on your computer, type out each letter of your message at size 450.  Cut out the letters, using a sharp blade to cut any inside edges.

6) And here's where I stopped taking pictures because halfway through making this I reminded myself that I wasn't going to do a tutorial on it.  Sometimes I just take photos of my projects as I'm making them as a habit now.

The rest is easy though.  Just center each letter on a triangle and glue down.  Then glue along the long unfinished edge of the triangle and lay down some pretty ribbon.

And there you have it.  A super pretty, and in my case, somewhat shabby chic, Happy Birthday Banner.

Don't tell anyone but it was pretty easy to do, even without a Cricut.

Check out the linky party page for new additions!

Paper Coasters

I didn't have very much time this week to do any crafting or sewing so, today's tutorial is just a fun and super quick way to add a bit of pizazz to your holiday tables.

I got the idea from a Kirigami book I bought awhile ago.  Kirigami is sort of an adult version of making the snowflakes that we used to do in elementary school.  Kirigami can get really complicated and can result in some incredibly intricate silhouettes that you can use for all sorts of things from stencils, to art, to....paper coasters.

Today we'll start with an easy fold and an easy pattern.  For this project I used a fairly heavy handmade paper but this works much better with something not so thick.  (Origami paper works well too!)

Here are the supplies that you'll need:

Steps:
1)Cut paper into 6" X 6" squares (15 cm X 15cm)

2)Using one square at a time, fold the paper into a triangle

3)Bring the bottom corner up to the top corner and fold again, to create a smaller triangle

4)Fold the top corner down to the bottom one to create an even smaller triangle

5)Now fold back the top layer of the triangle to meet the back

6)With a pencil, lightly draw a pattern onto the paper similar to the below, making sure that the squiggle touches the edges and folds in spots. 

7)Cut along your lines with sharp scissors, making sure to not to cut the curves that touch the edges

8) Open out to see what you made!

Add a wine glass and you're ready to rock...or dine elegantly, whatever your style is.  It doesn't hurt to give it a little press with an iron first.

Have fun crafting this week!  Special thanks to Susan over at Between Naps on the Porch

who once again sent me the most people through her very popular linky party. 
Check out her site for more fun stuff throughout the week.

Don't forget that Tuesday, November 30th is your last chance to get your name
in on the giveaway.  All you have to do is sign up as a follower and leave a comment
on the Desk Set post to let me know which prize you'd like if you win.

As always, I'll be posting this project, along with this week's Show and Tell,

on the linky parties throughout the week.  Check out the
linky party tab at the top of the page for more fun projects! 

Happy Crafting~