Traditional Digital Hybrid Holiday Buntings!!!

Buntings... LOVE 'EM.  Love to make them out of paper or crochet, love to see them hanging in droopy loops around the house, across the windows and above the doorways - finding them hard to photograph but still loving them anyway!

I've made THREE for the holidays.

#1 - Totally Digital.  It is hanging above the fireplace and will remain so until Christmas Eve when it's replaced by the stockings.  To make the digital bunting I used Storybook Creator software.  Here's what I did.

Created a custom project 4X6 portrait size.  Added pages (which you can now do in multiple quantities YAY YAY YAY thanks to a recent update to the software) enough to spell out the words Merry Christmas with one letter per page.

Chose a background paper and added it to each page.

Inserted a custom shape (oval) with a grey exterior color.

Inserted a custom alphabet shape with one capital letter.

Changed to the next page, repeated the same process but with a different letter.  The custom alphabet shape will save the exact settings I used to create the previous letter so I can make the next letter identical. 

Alphabet letters can also be added with fancy text and/or a text box with single flattened and resized letters.

Save pages as jpg files.  Upload to print at photo processor (mine are glossy but I typically prefer matte) or simply print from you sbc4.0 project to your local printer.

I punched two holes at the top of each photo on the outside corners.  String the letters onto twine, cord, yarn, etc... I used some cheap white plastic cord from teh dollar store and it worked just fine.

#2 - Totally Traditional:  This one is all about family and although I made it with the Nordic paper pack, I feel that it can last far beyond the holiday season.

To create the traditional bunting, I first found a photo of each of my kids.  I had them printed in black and white.  I will show a sample of how I made each bunting card using a photo of me.

First, punch each person in the shape of an upside down tag - obviously using the tag maker.

 



Attach the punched tag to a piece of solid colored cardstock sized 2.5" X 3.5"

Attach the solid cardstock to a piece of patterned paper sized 3.25 X 4"

Punch holes in the bunting card.  Repeat for each family member.

Spell out a word using one Monogram ABC sticker letter per one bunting card.  The monogram is adhered to the solid cardstock which is then attached to the decorative paper and hole punched.

 

 

String all the cards in an order that you find pleasing.  I did Child #1, #2, F-A-M-I-L-Y, #3, #4.  I strung this bunting on yarn because I liked the way it coordinated witht  the yarny decor of the nordic paper.

 

 

At my OPEN HOUSE I had it taped to the hallway wall with painters tape, but I have now incorporated it into a new holiday decorative display in my den. 

 

 

 

What? you say... are those bordermaker candle lights? Why yes, I'll get around to that in another post.


#3 - Hybrid Border. This one is a mix of both digital and traditional scrapbooking.

 

Here's where it hung at open house with a bit of a hint of my borders and Be Merry decor below it (yes, that post is coming tonight!).  BUT, our tree now stands where the right side of the border is, so it's been moved.  I'll show you where.

 

To make the hybrid border, open a custom project.  Mine was 8.5X11 because that's the size my printer can do.  I inserted a shape - is it a parallelogram?  Anyway, I fit a bunch of the same shape on a few pages.  Each shape had the same Nordic designs on them save for ONE capital alphabet letter in which case each letter had to be part of the HAPPY HOLIDAYS greeting.  I added a few emblellished bunting cards at the beginning, end and between the two words.

 

Then, print your pages of bunting cards and cut them out by hand or using rotary trimmer and/or personal trimmer.  I adhered each of mine to a piece of white cardstock that I had cut to a similar shape.  My printer doesn't like thicker paper so I had to make two layers to give it the stability it would need to hang without curling.

 

 

 

String your greeting onto a cord, or string (make sure to order the letters correctly...oops, I did it wrong the first time and had to take them all off and start again) and hang in a happy place.

 

 

 

 

Well - that's it!  THREE holiday borders which you STILL have time to make.  By the way - these bunting borders work great for many occasions.  Here are a few shots of similar buntings I made for my son's graduation this past spring.