bspoke

The month of February was one of the busiest on the books for me, but I am quite pleased to announce that I made it through! During the four weeks of this past month, I had the absolute pleasure of hosting a handful of very talented ladies as guest bloggers here on b*spoke. The amount of stress that was eased from my shoulders is hard to even define. Having one or two less days to blog around here was a huge, huge help, and I loved knowing that my readers were still going to be provided with great content from some very amazing (and very crafty!) friends of mine. Here’s a big shout out to Rebecca, Mrs. Limestone, Morgan, Rachel, and Emily! If you haven’t checked out their projects, do so now. You wont’ be disappointed!

Today marks the last of the guests posts for awhile (as far as I know and have planned), and I am completely thrilled to be bringing Cyd to you from The Sweetest Occasion. She is here to share her amazing, non-sewn DIY Paper Bunting project. Take it away, Cyd!

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Hi, everyone! I’m so excited to be guest blogging for Bethany today – I’ve been reading and loving every b*spoke post for a long time and it’s an honor to contribute. Today I’m going to share a quick and easy DIY project, perfect for your next party.

Back in December I planned a surprise 30th birthday party for my husband. Because he’s an avid sports fan and a coach, I decided to coordinate all of the details around his love for baseball and football. I knew I wanted to hang bunting around the room, but all of the DIY tutorials I found around the web were sewing-based. Unfortunately, I’m sadly lacking Bethany’s mad skills in the sewing department so those ideas were all out. Then inspiration struck in the form of paper bunting sewn with red thread and I had a plan.

First up, I measured the perimeter of the room and added 2′ to each wall measurement to allow for a little swag in the bunting. I then divided the number of feet in half to determine the number of bunting flags I needed – I cut out a whole bunch of triangular flags from the pages of an old book that measured roughly 6″ across the top and about 9″ to the tip.

Once the flags were cut I folded the top of each over inexpensive jute twine to form a little pocket of sorts. I used hot glue to hold the “seam” in place and spaced the flags about 6″ apart. (Yes, this is about as simple as it gets. I told you this would be “quick and easy”!)

After the flags were folded over and glued in place, there was a little bit of overlap that skewed the triangular shape. I simply clipped the overlap off with scissors and the flags were a thing of beauty.

To mimic the red thread detail I loved from the inspiration bunting, I cut strips of red ric rac and attached it to the flags with hot glue. I realized early on I wouldn’t have enough ric rac for all of the flags so I skipped every other one.

I then hung the bunting around the room using simple push pins and the room looked instantly more festive. I also hung a smaller string of bunting along the front of the food table using clothespins to clip it to the table linens. It fit in perfectly with all the other sports-themed details and was a perfect homage to my husand’s love for books and literature. (He’s an English teacher!)

All told, this project cost approximately $5. The book was free as it was lying around the house, the ric rac (available in any fabric department) was only a few dollars and I used only a small bit of the inexpensive ball of twine I found at a local hardware store. It took a couple of hours worth of cutting and gluing and was hung up around the room the same day. If you’re looking for a simple way to add a little fun to your decor for your next party, I’d suggest giving your own DIY paper bunting a whirl.

Thanks for having me, Bethany, and if anyone has any other craft ideas where I can sub out sewing for my trusty hot glue gun, let me know!

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I just absolutely love that this project came in under $5, and didn’t even require the use of a sewing machine! I also adore the fact that it repurposed old books, one of my favorite things to do. Thanks again, Cyd, for this great paper bunting tutorial!