DIY Party Banner

My friend, Tessa, loves to eat Mexican food. She may love it almost as much as she loves the man she is about to marry. Tessa's upcoming bridal shower will have a Mexican fiesta theme. I was asked to create a banner of some sort. I thought about using take out menus from local Mexican restaurants but realized the font size would be too small to read once the banner is hung. Plus, take out menus are not very colorful. I'll tuck that idea into my back pocket for some future project.

I found some pictures of Papel Picado - hand cut paper banners crafted from tissue paper. Images are created within the cutouts - all by hand.

Using the photos above as my launching point, I decided I had neither the time nor the skill required to actually cut out 15 feet worth of images, from tissue paper, by hand. If I tried, the banner would end up looking like a cluster of snowflakes - at best - if you squinted, and tilted your head, and jumped up and down. Also, living in Oklahoma, I doubted tissue paper on thread would hold up to wind gusts we experience here. As I am typing this, the tornado warning we were under expired. The sirens sounded a while ago, but now the storm has passed over and a beautiful rainbow can be seen out my breakfast nook window. Tissue paper ain't gonna cut it, baby. Yes, I could pay the $20 + shipping and handling for a real strand of Papel Picado, but what fun is that? I'm a do-it-yourself kind of girl and thrive on finding beautiful decorating ideas and making them myself for less money.

So, I perused my local Hobby Lobby and purchased bold, bright 12" x 12" textured card stock paper from the scrapbook supply section.

I cut the pages into 9" x 6" pieces.

Then I hand cut pointed edges on the yellow sheets, curved edges on the pink sheets, and cut the edges of the blue pages with fancy design cutting scrapbook scissors.

Alternating colors, I sewed each piece of paper onto yellow grosgrain ribbon.



Finally, I tied on two handmade tissue paper flower pom-poms.

Viola! I hope she likes it.

This banner took me about an hour to make, with Sophie's "help", and only cost $5. Hobby Lobby didn't have their card stock paper on sale this week, but the ribbon is was only $1 - half off the 18 ft. spool. I recycled the tissue paper from my birthday presents.