Pennants are just so darn versatile and stylish!
When I was put in charge of decorations at a party some friends and I were giving and needed something cute AND inexpensive, I thought of the pennants I had seen in blogs over the past few months.
I think most folks make the pennants out of fabric but because I wanted to go the cheapest route possible, I decided to just use scrapbook paper.
A mistake I made was to decide on a color scheme before actually going shopping for products.
I got in my mind a light blue and red theme and then couldn't find much in that color combo.
This pack of 12"x12" paper was at Michaels on sale for $2.50 for 24 sheets so I decided to use that
and then add red embellishments to it. A downside to using paper instead of fabric is
that your pennant will not last as long. Also if you have these out of doors at a party
and it rains...ooops! For this party, I was going more for quick and budget-friendly;
not long term re-usable decor.
There may be a perfect pennant shape to strive for but I just found the center of the scrapbook paper on an edge and drew a line from each opposite corner to the center and cut from there.
This is the back side of the paper. Always draw your lines on the back so that if your
cuts are not exactly on the line, the mark will not show on the "good" side.
If you have really cute scrapbook paper, you might not
to even add embellishments, but I needed to in order
to add the red color I had wanted in the beginning.
For red embellishments, I bought a few sheets of red paper to cut stripes and shapes out of. I wanted something else red too but I was balking at buying pre-made red stickers, etc. due to the price.
I looked around a little more at the craft store and came across a button-shaped paper punch in the Martha Stewart craft section.
It was about $10 on sale but I reasoned that I could use scraps of paper I already had to use it to make paper buttons in all of the paper patterns to tie the elements together.
In the end it was very cost effective and I have the punch to make more embellishments in the future.
In the above picture I was attaching the pennants to the ribbon using Tacky Glue. Tacky Glue is great but (as I found out a couple of hours before the party) it did not hold the paper pennants to the ribbon I was using. I think the ribbon was maybe too slick .
I used E-6000 glue after I realized my mistake which
DID hold the pennants but also made the paper wrinkle some.
I used "Zip-Dry" glue (available at Michaels and Jo-Anns) to attach the red embellishments to the pennants. It works great and does not wrinkle paper (but I wasn't sure it was strong enough to use to hold the pennants to the ribbon).
Pennants in action:
( opps...this picture was taken in bright sunlight...it kinda is bleached-out looking)
Here is a wider shot:
which leads us to...
The Paper Pennant Wreath
The wreath is not award winning but just furthers the pennant
decorating theme, and welcomes guests to the party.
The wreath itself was $2.50 on sale, ribbon $2, paper about 50 cents so all together about $5.
(well, not counting a hot glue gun and the Martha Stewart button paper punch)
The letters could have been hand-written but I was doing
some more printed decorations anyway so I included them
on the paper that was going through the printer.
For this pennant I used fabric glue (since the ribbon was more like a fabric)
and the tiny clothespins (from another project) to hold the pennants down while drying.
Flowers made from left over scrapbook paper.
Paper buttons made from the MS paper punch...they are dimensional even.
Hot glue the elements on the grape vine wreath and hang.
For this same party, I made pennant invitations.
This post is already too long so I put them in their own post.
OK, so that's all the pennants that actually got made for
the party. I was having fun using the scrapbook paper and
just kept coming up with more ideas to use it to make more
decorations for the party. If you would like to see those
too just keep scrolling down.
These are little birdhouses that I re-used from a vignette I did a few months ago
but my family thought it was not a good enough connection. The birdhouses ended up
with a last-minute side-ways pennant-on-a-stick glued on top.
Here is an illustration of what I had in mind to do to the little houses...tiny pennants
hanging from the roof line. I had more ideas than I had time.
In addition to re-using the little bird houses, I got a bigger bird house to paint and use by
itself on another table at the party. I ended up painting it similar to the little ones in case
I wanted to use them together in the future.
Here is the larger bird house on a candle holder (to elevate it) on the main food table.
I think food and drink signs at a party are helpful and can add another layer of a party's theme. These are inexpensive and easy to make. They are free-standing so they are easy for guests to see.
Wrap a styrofoam cube from Dollar Tree in a co-ordinating paper.
A 12x12 piece of scrapbook paper as a covering will work on the 4x4 piece of
foam to cover all but one side. Put the "ugly" side face down on the table.
To eliminate seeing tape on this project, I use pins to hold the paper on the foam.
This is a screen shot of the printing of scrapbook paper I ran through
my printer for a food table sign (Sweet Things), an individual drink offering (Margaritas),
and also for the little pennant on the front door wreath. If you can combine things you
are going to print, you end up using less paper for your decorations.
Here is the scrapbook paper after it was run through
the home computer with the (above pictured) fonts.
Cut apart the now-printed on scrapbook paper into
individual signs and letters.
Glue wooden skewers on the back of your food signs.
I like to use Zip Dry glue since it does not wrinkle the paper.
When it is dry, push the skewers into the foam.
I didn't want to worry about what the sticks looked
like so I pushed them all the way into the foam block.
Here is the "Sweet Things" sign with a few red paper buttons
added for embellishment. Individual items on the table can have
smaller tent cards made with the same papers so folks will
know what they are eating....its a nice touch.
Here are a couple more signs:
Another easy element to add was to print text onto scrapbook paper, cut it and glue it around a candle.
Obviously I made two runs of these. The guest of honor's name is "Angela"; not "Anglea".
I only noticed the mis-spelling as I was putting these out at the party...nobody ever
said anything about the boo-boo. I wasn't very precise with cutting the bands
the same size either...you can do better, I know. These were scattered around so really the
size difference was not that noticeable.
I added the paper buttons on back of the candles to make it (kinda, sorta) look like the
bands were buttoned on.
Directional signs to a party are also very helpful for
guests in finding the location. They are also easy to print
on your home computer on a piece of scrapbook paper
(cut down a 12"x12" piece into a 8.5"x11" to get it
to fit in your printer if necessary).
Cutting out an arrow from construction paper and gluing it
onto the paper is cheaper than using that much ink to print it.
Glue your scrapbook sign on to a piece of foam board or other stiffer cardboard. This sign was attached on to a plant
hanger with packing tape. The plant hangers are cheap and
made for being easy to push into the ground.
Place your directional signs at points where guest will need
to know which way to turn to get to your fun party decorated
with fun ideas using (inexpensive but cute) scrapbook paper.