Rebecca and I have been enjoying the creative possibilities of decorating our own banners.  We’ve been buying them at Paper Source and decorating our hearts out.  You often see these banners, made of heavy cardstock, decorated with other scrapbook paper, which looks very cool.  I am partial to Sharpies, however, because the cardstock easily soaks up their nice deep colors.  The Sharpie people have expanded the range of colors enormously, too, so it just gets more and more fun.  I’ve actually been thinking about this blog post for AGES, but one of the banner recipients–my Mom, Joyce–hadn’t yet received her birthday banner.  Umm, yes, her birthday was back in August and yes, the box with presents and the banner has been sitting in the trunk of the car since, well, Labor Day.  But the box is finally off, and so the grand reveal can be made.  Happy Birthday, Mom.

Super important here to recognize the joint nature of this work–Rebecca went for intricate patchworks, I went for tiny details

We are also big fans of lavender, so had to put that in!

And of course, you need birthday candles.  You can and I have make the pennants yourself–cut a bunch of long pointy triangles out of heavy craft paper (a nice sketch pad with thick paper, scrapbook papers, heavy stationary paper) , use a hole punch to give yourself some clean slots for the ribbon and thread ribbon or string through for you own banner.  This is a great, kid friendly project and Rebecca and I were both proud of the results.

Here we are, staring happily at the banner we made for my father-in-law’s 85th birthday party!  Now get to coloring!!!!