DIY Banner Tutorial for Parties and Events

I am in love with this DIY banner. Really. The colors are amazing, the materials cheap and chic, and no one can not like the Times New Roman font. This is a new breed of DIY banner — one that you won’t want to stop looking at because it’s so pretty. Furthermore, it can be used for anything: wedding showers, weddings, baby showers, graduation parties, birthday parties … whatever your event, this DIY banner is up to the challenge.

{I love how gender neutral it is.}

Chances are, you probably have the materials to make your own DIY banner without any fuss. Here’s what you need:

• Paper Grocery Sack(s)
• Vintage Book
• Glue Stick (or Regular Glue)
• Pen
• Twine/Ribbon/Lace/Yarn
• This Triangle Template

If you don’t have a vintage book, that’s perfectly fine. Take a relatively new book and paint strong coffee over it for that yellowed, vintage look. It won’t be the same, but it’s a good substitute. Also, I suggest a glue stick because it doesn’t curl the paper nearly as much as regular Elmer’s glue.

You’ll want to start by cutting your paper grocery sack into flat pieces of paper. Once you have done that, take the large triangle template and start tracing. Make sure you are tracing onto the side of the sack that has a logo.

Trace and subsequently cut out however many triangles you need. For my example (GABRIELLE), I needed nine.

After you cut out your paper, choose some pretty vintage book pages…

… and use the small triangle template to cut them out.

Now, use a ruler to measure 1 inch (2.5 cm) from the largest part of the triangle, and draw a line. We are making guidelines for our letters — so if you have stencils, skip this step:

Now measure 3 inches (7.6 cm) from the tip of the triangle to make another line.

This is where you need to have a bit of an artistic hand (or a stencil). Draw a letter on the vintage book page in any font you wish. I am incredibly fond of Times New Roman for this banner, but I’ll cheer you on regardless of what font you choose. I generally open up a Word document and type out the letters in the font I want, and then I eyeball the letters and draw them on the page. I recommend drawing them in pencil first, then going over it with black ink.

Once you’ve got the outline, you’ll want to fill the letter in. You could use black paint, a permanent marker, or a simple gel pen (as I used here).

Now you’re done with the tough part! Go back to your brown paper sack triangle and measure 1/2 inch (1.3 cm) from the top. Draw a line there because that’s where you want the top of your smaller triangle to hit when you glue it on.

Now use a glue stick to smear glue all over the back of the smaller triangle. Really you can use any kind of glue, but I find that glue sticks work a bit better to keep paper from curling. Once you’ve put the glue on the back of the triangle, carefully place the smaller book page triangle over the larger paper sack triangle. Be sure you line up the trop of the smaller triangle with the guideline you drew, and try to center the triangle as best you can.

At this point, it is a wise decision to let your glued triangles sit overnight sandwiched between two hard and heavy surfaces (i.e. a table and books). This will ensure that your DIY banner triangles are beautifully flat and fun to look at as opposed to being a curled mess of badly-glued paper.

After your triangles have dried flat, take a hole punch and punch above the corners of the smaller triangle.

Flip the triangle over, and thread your material (I have chosen jute twine) in the front to out the back. Once you have done this, tie a knot to ensure that the banner letters stay in place.

After you’ve tied your first knot, put the material out the back and in the front and tie another knot:

Repeat for each letter, trying to keep a 2.5 inch (6 cm) distance between them.

And now you are done! Your gorgeous DIY banner is sure to impress guests at any event. I absolutely adore this style and am planning on making one of these for my little brother’s graduation. The “gabrielle” you see is for the upcoming baby shower of one of my clients. I absolutely love the way it turned out, and I cannot wait to make more.

I’d love to see your DIY banner! If you make one, please let me know how it goes! If you have any questions or would like to have something explained more clearly, please comment. I’m here to help.