Be Inspired :: Happy Crafting!

Hi lovelies, hope you have had a glorious week! We've been super busy over the last few weeks with a couple of weddings around the corner, so I decided to spend part of last weekend (which now is a distant memory!) getting my craft on to create this paper bunting - it was quite therapeutic!

I like bunting of all kinds, especially of the paper kind, so I thought I'd show you how to create your very own.

You will need:

- A sheet of patterned or plain card. For the purpose of this example, we used an A3 sheet - this particular card we had printed for use in our collection shoot for our invitation suite, 'We Do' - we love to recycle!

- A pencil (or if using a darker piece of card, a pen might work better)

- Scissors

- A long ruler (our ruler is 40cm)

- A paper guillotine. If you don't have one, I recommend purchasing one - you will find yourself using it all the time! I got mine from Officeworks for around $50.00. Alternatively you can use a very sharp stanley knife on a cutting mat, and a steady hand, or scissors if you're pretty accurate!

- Wooden letters - I picked mine up from Spotlight for a tiny 99c each

- Ribbon or twine (roughly 3mm wide), closely matching the colour of your card - the idea is to use a sympathetic colour, so not to take away from the sweet message on your bunting

- Hole punch

- Fast drying craft glue

- About 1hr of your time!

Our triangles are 85mm at the widest point and are 100mm from base to tip. You can choose to make them any size you wish but for the purposes of this exercise these are our measurements.



Step 1 ::
Measure your widths (85mm) across the top of your piece of card, marking each width with a small dot.



Step 2 ::
Measure the length (100mm) down either side of the card.



Step 3 ::
Draw a line across your sheet of paper to connect the 100mm lengths.

Step 4 ::
On this line, measure in half the width of your first triangle (42.5mm) and mark with a dot.



Step 5 ::
Mark dots 85mm apart again until you reach the end of the sheet.



Step 6 ::
Connect the dots from the top of your card to the dots marked across the line. Depending on how many triangles you need, repeat steps 1-6 down the card.

Step 7 ::
Use the guillotine to cut along along the lines. If using a stanley knife, use the lines on your cutting mat as a guide to cut the lines nice and straight.

Step 8 ::
Punch your holes in the top corner of the widest points close to the edge. I didn't measure these, but you can if you want to, it's completely up to you.



Step 9 ::
Glue each letter on to each triangle (ensuring your pencil or pen marks are at the back if you haven't cut your lines 100% accurately) and let dry according to the instructions on your glue. I'm a little impatient with crafts so I bought the fastest drying glue I could get my hands on... haha! We left our letters in their natural state to give a kraft paper look, but you can paint yours if you wish.

Step 10 ::
Cut a length of ribbon or twine (as a guide, we used approximately 80cm for 5 triangles) and feed it from the back of your first triangle, remembering to pull enough through to be able to tie to whatever your decide to hang it on. You will then need to tie a knot so it doesn't slip back through the hole. We tied a double knot on ours so the ribbon would stay in place. Take the other end of the ribbon and pull across the back of the triangle and feed it through the next hole.



Step 11 ::
Get your second triangle and feed the ribbon through the hole at the front and across the back again and repeat the process. Don't be too worried about the spacing between each triangle for the moment, we will adjust this in the next step.Your bunting should look something like this.



Step 12 ::
Space your triangles evenly along the bunting, leaving about half a cm between each one. Tie a knot at the end of your last triangle, as per the other end and cut the ribbon so it's the same length as the ribbon on the opposite side. Voila - you're done!



Use this as a decoration at your ceremony or reception or as a prop in some of your wedding photographs. Make any size that you like, use any words you like - be creative! We think they would be a super sweet idea for your chairs at the reception - 'bride' and 'groom'!

If you decide to make one of these, we'd love to hear from you. Happy crafting!

With love to you and yours



[Photos courtesy of my super sweet husband, who sat and watched patiently to photograph each step :-)]