Jan's Library

Birthday Banner Craft

By: Jan K., The Proofer

This article will give you all the instructions, plus illustrations, for making a birthday banner that is personalized with your child's name. The free printables are provided by Mom's Break at: http://birthdays.momsbreak.com/birthday-by-age-printable-projects.html. Use the instructions given on that site for downloading the free printables to your computer.

You'll need:

• Birthday Kid free printable
• A print out of the Birthday Boy or Girl's name
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Curl ribbon
• Heavy string or cord

Print the illustrated instructions at:

http://readingroom.janktheproofer.com/BdayBanner.doc. These instructions contain several pictures, so it might take several (long) seconds for the page to open. Once the page does open, then allow a few extra second for all the pictures to appear.

You now need to print the Birthday Kid free printable (from the free printables that you downloaded from Mom's Break). In order to print the pages that you will use for the Birthday Banner, you will need to use Word to print the JPG file. For illustrated instructions on how to insert JPG files into Word, go to:

http://readingroom.janktheproofer.com/InsertJPGWord.doc.

These instructions contain quite a few pictures, so it might take several (long) seconds or even a few minutes for the page to open. Once the page does open, then allow a few extra second for all the pictures to appear. The illustrations are pictures of computer screens, with helpful arrows, to show you exactly what to do.

To create the names that you will use to make the Banner pages, you will need to open a Word Document, and type in your child's name. In the example shown in the illustrated instructions, I used the font JamieHmkBold, at 72pt (font size). Print as many names as you will need for the number of banner pages that you want (the illustrations show 6 pages).

Cut out the names. Trim as closely as you can to the top and bottom of the letters. Using a glue stick (or white glue), glue the names in place as shown in the illustrated instructions.

If you have a printer that will also print color copies, you can just make one page, and then make as many copies as you wish. If you have a scanner, you can scan in the page with the name glued on it, and then print as many pages as you desire for your banner.

For those of you who use Microsoft Paint, you can personalize the pages (by adding your child's name to the graphic). If you have never used Microsoft Paint and you would like to try to personalize the banner pages, then here are some helpful instructions:

http://readingroom.janktheproofer.com/PersonlizePaint.doc. These instructions contain quite a few pictures, so it might take several (long) seconds or even a few minutes for the page to open. Once the page does open, then allow a few extra second for all the pictures to appear. The illustrations are pictures of computer screens, with helpful arrows, to show you exactly what to do.

Once you have all the banner pages you want for your banner, you are ready to put the banner together.

Before you cut the banner line, be sure to allow for about 3 inches between each banner page. Cut the heavy string or cord so that it is long enough for each banner page, plus 3 inches between each banner page, and then about 6 inches at each end (so that you have enough line to use to hang the banner).

Fold over about 3/4 to 1 inch of the top of the banner pages, as shown in the illustrations. Run the glue stick over the folder edge, lay the banner string on the banner page, right at the fold, and then glue down the flap. Measure about 3 inches, and put on another banner page. Continue until all your banner pages have been connected to the banner line.

Cut two pieces of curl ribbon, 2 feet in length. Tie to the banner line, near the banner page, on each end of the banner. Hang the banner (I used push pins).

For other ideas for using the Birthday Free Printables offered by Mom's Break, see:

http://readingroom.janktheproofer.com/BdaySign.htm

http://readingroom.janktheproofer.com/BdayBag.htm

Jan K., The Proofer is a freelance copyeditor and proofreader. Visit http://www.jansportal.com for more information about Jan's free crafts, recipes, tutorials, other resource sites, and free content articles, as well as Jan’s business services. Be sure to visit Mom's Break (http://www.momsbreak.com/) for free printable crafts and projects. © Copyright 2005 to present. All rights reserved.