Zebra Banner

Look who's finally back! Somewhere in the middle of presenting baby shower week I fell and tore my right hip labrum. I had surgery to correct it. I am now able to sit up (for about one hour) and get this blog thing on the road again. Sorry for the interruption.
Today I am going to give you a very remedial tutorial on how to make a banner. It's for people like me who don't own too cheep to purchase a Cricket machine.
Hobby Lobby (remember I don't monetize so no promoting going on here) was having a 50% off sale on crafting paper and cutters. I was smack in the middle of my niece Maria's baby shower, so I was sucked into the whirlwind world of paper punchers. Before this banner I had made Zero banners!
I purchased zebra and pink scrapbook paper because it was on sale (too cheep to buy the already cut stuff)
and cut them to an arbitrary size that looked good to me. I basically cut each sheet into 4 pieces.

Armed with my IPad, a black sharpie, self-adhesive rhinestones, a corner punch, and straight punch I lunged into a paper crafting frenzy!

Corners where the easy part. Just insert paper and press. I googled fonts and just free handed my letters.

added some bling, cause that's how I roll.

Cut my zebra paper about one inch larger than the pink paper, and punched the corners.

the straight punch has line up holes that took some practice figuring out how to actually line it up.  I practiced on a few scraps before starting the project.

Now, if you buy precut paper (it's really expensive compared to 50% off scrap booking paper) these corner punch and straight punch holes line up perfectly. I cut my own paper so I had gaps. My saving grace is that this banner is going up about 6 ft over a kitchen pass through window and the paper is very busy visually.

I used a singe hole punch and just punched a few holes (this is where the real crafters are laughing at me)

I had small areas like this, but I didn't care because I knew no one would be able to see them.

Do you see them? Now imagine this 6 feet up in the air.

On the sides I lined up these gaps where the ribbon would be placed. An easy way to let an error look like it was planned.

At this point I wasn't sure how I was going to hang this banner, so I punched one hole in each gap for ribbon.

Here are my Martha Stewart hole punches. I use them all the time for other projects like doilies, place cards, tags, etc. I would not have purchased them at the regular price of $28.00 so I'm really glad they were on sale.

I used stick glue to attach the top pink portion to the back zebra paper

And that's it! How cute is this?

I wanted the banner to read "Baby Cook" but it needed something between the lettering. I googled "pregnant silhouettes" and free handed this onto the pink paper, used my black sharpie to fill it in, cut it out, and glued it to the pink paper. To finish it, I added some blingage.

Lined up the project on the table and took a good look at it. My letters need a little something more so I added squiggly loops to the font.

You need to know the length of the intended hang area. I added about 10 to 12 inches of additional ribbon to each side so we could extend it, or tie a ribbon if needed once it was hung. I used a rough guesstimate of where each letter should be.

I decided to go with wide ribbon and hot glued it to the back. I also embellished with pink plastic diaper pins.

Not a great picture, but it was really cute at the shower. This entire banner cost me less than $5.00 because all the items were 50% off. I didn't include the cost of the punches. It was a big hit and the Mama-to-be loved it!

What do you think?

Styling utensils!

Looking for a fun way to display utensils at your next party? Well, look no further! This little project is fun, easy, and makes going through a buffet line a few steps quicker. I made over 60 of them in less than 1 hour!

Keeping with the hot pink & zebra theme for the baby shower I picked up this really cute craft box at Hobby Lobby (I don't monetize, so free plug here) for $2.99 and the stickers were 50% off so I think they were only a buck or two.

Place the napkin on a diagonal and place your fork so that it sticks out about 1 inch.

Fork goes on top of the knife (I don't know if this is etiquette, but it allows the utensils to stack correctly)

Spoon is next

fold the bottom up and hold it over the utensils

I'm right handed so I'll be working left to right. It makes no difference which way it gets rolled.

Fold over the left side of the napkin to the center, and then roll the utensils to the right.

and the little bundle is done.

To hold the napkin in place simply place a sticker on it. These stickers can be personalized any way you want with on-line ETSY stores, etc. If you own a cricket machine....go nuts! I was lucky to find these pre-printed round stickers on sale (can you hear my cheep bird chirping?)

 I also made up bundles using zebra napkins and mixed up the box.

This project was a lot of fun and makes your party look like you really went that extra mile to make it special. So worth the time!

Cute! Cute! Cute!

Fancy Pens fit for a Hot Pink & Zebra affair!

I needed pens for the baby shower games and wanted a fun way to incorporate the hot pink zebra theme.  I wanted it to be cute, but I also wanted it to be cheep thrifty. I decided to recycle a few cans for the project. I think these were from stewed tomatoes.

Step one: cut off the top, wash, dry, cover in duct tape.

I placed the tape inside the can and overlapped the top to protect from any sharp edges.
 It's not cute if it cuts!

Covered the entire can with layer #1.

Then repeated the process using zebra duct tape for layer #2. I used 2 layers of tape because it made it look like a container and not so much like a tapped up can.

starting to look cute!

neat and clean!

even the bottom got a layer.

That step is all done

now just add a bow! How cute is that!

The pens were super easy too. I took black pens and taped 2 to 3 pink feathers on the lid with the same zebra tape.

nothing fancy to make but the look is!

Now I have 3 pen holders full of fun and wacky zebra pens

They looked really cute on the stationary table.

 I think this is a great little project for the home, office, school, whatever! What do you think?