DIY Pennant Banner (Paper Triangle Bunting) Tutorial

This simple tutorial will show you how to make a pennant banner out of paper- perfect for parties, seasonal decor, or just adding a touch of charm to any space. When I shared the paper triangle bunting I made for Talia's Teddy Bear Picnic Birthday Party it became a popular post. The tutorial I linked to is no longer available, so I've received a lot of comments from people requesting a tutorial.

Here it is!

Pennant Banner Supplies:

“Hand”made Flowers

Want to know how to make these adorable flowers? :)

Click over to HowDoesShe to see my post about how to make them, and then what you can do with them! :)

DIY Paper Fortune Cookies

I made these paper fortune cookies for party favors at my sister-in-law's bridal shower:


(I forgot to take a picture until they were almost gone ;)

I thought they were so cute!

If you'd like to try making them,
I found a little video on Youtube from ehow that shows you how to make them:

Easy DIY Cardboard Box Car

I recently hosted a Scentsy party for Julia Fraley (you may notice her ad in the sidebar ;) and after distributing the box full of pretty warmers and scents from party orders, I had a fun idea...

One day while Talia was at school, Katrina & I got out a roll of coloured paper (thank you Aunt Rushy- those rolls of coloured paper are the gift that keeps on giving!) and got to work transforming the box into a toy car :)



I cut off the top flaps of the box with an exacto knife and used that cardboard to make wheels (traced a circle onto the cardboard with an upside down bowl).

We wrapped the box in the coloured paper just like a present and taped it down with packing tape. Then applied the wheels & we were good to go!

It was pretty simple to make, we spent some fun time together building it, and then there was lots of fun to be had with it afterward! And then again when Talia got home from school! :)

Isn't it true that sometimes the box that a toy comes in is more fun than the toy? ;)

What's the "funnest" thing you've ever made with a cardboard box?

Tutorial Tuesday (Paper Butterfly Display Frame) WITH TEMPLATE

Ever seen this project idea floating around the web?


Here's how you make it:



Ken created a printable file for me that showed me where to put the butterflies so that they'd be spaced evenly. If you've got an 8x10 opening too, you can save some time with his template.

Valentine Craft for Kids: Easy Heart Garland

We spent some time learning how to cut out hearts (you know the kind- you bend the paper in half & cut out an upside down tear drop & then open?)



Then I spent some time with a needle & string, et voila!


Pin It


We're excitedly cutting more hearts to string up all over the house now- we will have a very love-filled home come Valentine's Day! :)

Celebrating Moon Festival (DIY Paper Lanterns, Good Food & A Giveaway)

Have you ever heard of Moon Festival? It's a chinese celebration also known as Mid-Autumn Festival. It's on September 12th this year, and celebration involves gathering as families with brightly coloured lanterns & great chinese cuisine!

We had our own little celebration for Moon Festival this year, with a recipe we found on VH's website and some paper lanterns that the girls made with me.

I tried these origami paper lanterns and decided while they were cute, they'd be too tricky for the girls, so we put some other lanterns (a mini take on these) together and strung them all up on a piece of ribbon. (We decorated them by folding the paper in half & cutting pieces out like you do with paper snowflakes, before assembling them)



The food turned out good- and let me tell you, I am NOT a good cook. I struggle with cooking! I was happy with VH's website for finding a recipe though- the recipes were simple and you could search for a recipe by type of meat, type of sauce, food allergy, time to prepare, and more. That was really cool & I think I'll use it again!

I made "Mandarin Chicken with Broccoli":



Have you tried introducing culture into your meals?
Leave a comment letting me know how you've done so or how you'd like to, & you'll be entered in a contest to win a $50 grocery card! (you could put it toward your own Moon Festival Celebration!) (One of my readers will win!) This contest will run until Sept. 20th, 2011 and is open to Canadian residents only. Please include your email address if it's not in your profile.

You can get an extra entry for following my feed, facebook, twitter, or pinterest. (Just leave a comment for each one you do)

Oh & while I'm sharing easy dinner tips- if you're like me and you need a really easy, really quick dinner solution a lot of the time (either because you're busy running out or because you tend to realize it's dinner time before you've thought of what to make... you might want to give VH Steamers a try! (They're Asian-inspired meals that are ready in less than 5 minutes) I'm looking forward to giving them a try!

Disclosure – I am participating in the VH Moon Festival program by Mom Central Canada on behalf of VH. I received compensation as a thank you for my participation. The opinions on this blog are my own, as always!

He Said/She Said Bridal Shower Game

I threw my sister a bridal shower last week, so I'll be sharing a few of the things we did with you. First up is the He Said/She Said bridal shower game.

I sent my sister & her fiance a list of questions to answer and then chose one of their answers. I read the questions & the answers to the guests at the shower & they had to guess whether it was Russ or Amber who gave that answer. Instead of having them write it down, I made these with my mother in law's cricut:




So, I'd read the question with an answer, and then each guest held up either the cowboy hat or the tiara (or both) and then I told them the correct answer. I wish I had a picture of the game in action, but I was busy reading questions at the time, and I'm pretty sure everyone else had 2 popsicle sticks in their hands ;)

He Said/She Said Bridal Shower Game

I got the idea here, from Linda, who did mustaches & tiaras. But for Russ, cowboy hats just seemed right ;)

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More Great Shower Games & Ideas:

School Themed Bridal Shower

Mustache Themed Baby Shower

Birthday Placemat

For Ken's birthday this year, the girls helped to make him a birthday placemat.



Here's What We Did:

1. Cut out small pieces of white cardstock, decorate with pictures or messages
2. Glue decorated white paper to colourful scrapbook paper
3. Laminate

You're done! :)

Hope you get some fun out of this idea, too. :)

Oh, & if you haven't entered yet, this is the last day to enter the Gaddy Nipper Crayons Giveaway! There'll be another giveaway starting on Thursday, & the Crayons winner will be announced on Friday, so stay tuned! :)

Paper Flower Service Project

Remember the paper flowers we made last winter?

This winter we made some just like them, but we added little notes to them and delivered them to people to cheer them up!


please excuse the fuzzy photos

In case you're going cross-eyed trying to read what the note says:
"We wanted to share a sweet smelling flower with you on a chilly day, to bring a little sunshine to your heart. Have a warm day!"

It was a fun little service project to do together & Talia got really into picking people to deliver them to :)

Making a Paper Triangle Banner (Bunting)

I'm preparing for Talia's birthday party and I wanted to try making a paper triangle banner (is there a technical word for that? I'm answering this myself- I looked it up. Bunting.) instead of using streamers this time. 

 I pulled out the ol' scrapbooking paper and here's what I came up with:

Paper Triangle Banner

Paper Triangle Banner Tutorial

If you've got 12x12 scrapbook paper, you can use the same method I did

(I've posted a Tutorial Here).

If you don't have 12x12 paper, and if it doesn't matter whether the paper looks nice on both sides, you can use this idea from The Magic Onions blog.

I used 6 different pieces of paper & got enough triangles to make 4 (double sided) triangles per pattern. This makes a pretty long banner.

Corner Bookmark

Talia loves to be read to. We have a lot of books, and some of them are a little long for a story before bed. So, we use a bookmark, but until recently, that has just meant a random piece of paper (or ribbon, or hair elastic, or toy... Talia will get pretty creative with this ;)

I went looking for a fun, but easy bookmark that we could make together. I found a fun fabric bookmark idea, but have yet to try it (I'm new to sewing, and already I have a list of projects that I'm behind on!) So, today I'm sharing one you can do with your child that's really easy, and fun. I found the idea here (check it out for instructions). I remember making something similar (and even easier) when I was younger- just get an envelope, cut a corner off, and decorate ;)

We tried the origami version (also pretty easy) and used:

- construction paper
- pencil crayons

(Easy, eh?)


Talia was finding alternate uses for her bookmarks right away-
here it is as a doll hat ;)

Countdown Chain

When Talia was getting ready to start school, we made a countdown chain for her (like this one we made to decorate the Christmas tree with last year). She got to help with cutting and gluing, and I wrote the date on each link so that I could keep track if we forgot to take one off one day. ;)



We have since done these for a couple of things- you could do it for any occasion!

Ghost Hands

We did this handprint ghost idea that I saw online somewhere, but I did it from memory (it didn't look too complicated)... and it wasn't, but I totally forgot about the mouth- which would have made them look a lot more ghost-ish. ;)

But really, it was all about letting them squish their hands in paint and use them as stamps, right? They had fun adding the eyes later, and I think it's cute seeing the 2 little hand prints- one a little littler than the other. :)

Halloweenie Dress Up Paper Doll (Boy, Girl, & Dog!)

I found this Printable last Hallowe'en but didn't print it until the end of January this year ;) Talia still had a lot of fun dressing them up! I saved this post for October so that it would be more applicable ;)

Check out Babalisme for the downloads! We just printed them, I cut them out, laminated them, then cut them out again. We didn't use the tabs.

www.livingcurto.com also has a "Doggie Dress-Up" printable here!

If you've seen any other cute dress-up dolls for Hallowe'en, please let me know in the comments, we'd love to check them out!

Salt Painting

We got the idea for Salt Painting from "A Bit of This & A Bit of That". It's really easy & fun!



What You Need:

- Food Colouring (we tried the liquid kind and the gel kind, mixed with water- we liked it the best, because it spread better on the salt)
- Salt
- Glue (we used wet white glue)
- Paper

What You Do:

1. Make a design on the paper with glue (Talia could do it herself, but after a while she wanted to direct me because she had trouble squeezing the bottle for long)
2. Sprinkle salt onto the glue (we did this over a cookie tray, to prevent salt mess everywhere)
3. wet your brush & dab it on the salt lines- watch the colour spread.
4. Repeat! ;)

You can do this for any occasion, or just for fun. We did a fall one, and several random ones- the fun went on for quite a while! :)

Fruitloop Rainbow

An oldie but a goodie... Talia LOVED the idea of this activity (once I told her I'd give her some to eat since she couldn't eat the glued ones ;).



What You Need:

- fruitloops
- paper
- glue
- marshmallows (if you want to make clouds like they did on Mommy's Adventures)

What You Do:

-Make rainbow-ish lines of glue
-Stick the fruitloops on
-Let it dry while snacking on some unused fruitloops
-Done!

If you're looking for other rainbow ideas, there are a bunch in my St. Patrick's Day Ideas Roundup!

Mug Flower Pot Gift

For Mother's Day, Ken had the idea to have our girls make personalized mugs for our moms, and fill them with paper flowers with notes on them. They turned out really cute, though I would do some things differently next time!



Tips

- we bought a kit from Michael's that was do-it-yourself, but the photo part peeled off and the markers rubbed off- not cool! Next time, I would get the mug printed somehow so that it would last!
- Ken used regular artificial flower squishy stuff that you stuff stems into (yes, that's the correct terminology) and that worked fine
- green straws are great if you can find them
- you can do paper hand flowers, trace & cut out hands for flowers, hearts as well
- we wrote notes on them from Talia, she drew pictures, and kissed them with lipstick
- spraying the flowers with perfume is a big hit with Talia :)

This post has been shared with others at a link party.

Homemade Happy Birthday Banner

For Ken's birthday this year, Talia & I got out one of her rolls of coloured paper (purple was her choice- she was sure he would like it ;) and a bunch of random craft supplies and went to work creating this Happy Birthday Banner for him.


We surprised him on his birthday by waking up before him, putting the banner up, blowing up balloons, and making him breakfast in bed. Talia also presented him with a present chosen by her (she knew for days that she wanted to give him a paddleball :)

It was so nice for her to feel included in celebrating his birthday, and how much more fun is it to see a banner on your birthday that was made especially for you, than a store bought one?

Happy St. Patrick's Day! (ish)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We'll be wearing green today, how about you?

We'll be starting our day with a green breakfast... or Lucky Charms, depending on how the morning goes ;)

How the morning went:
Talia threw up before I finished getting Katrina dressed, and didn't want any breakfast.

We've also got playgroup today.

Yesterday we made cards with 4 leaf clovers on them, made from green paper hearts. We already gave them out though, & I didn't take pictures :/
All you need are:
- 4 green paper hearts
- some glue
- a green pencil crayon/crayon/marker for the stem

Easy craft!

Good thing we did something St.Patrick's Day-ish yesterday. I think most of the day will be spent relaxing & watching movies... I don't think I'll be trying any green food on her just yet... we're focussing on fluids and maybe something simple later on!