Birthday Treasures

So we just celebrated a couple of birthdays at our house. Little August just turned three a couple of weeks ago, and our chickens celebrated their first year. We like to “whoop” it up with some traditions like our sweet little birthday ring, but we also always hang a special banner that I made for my family. I actually made three at the same time, one for each of my sisters. It seemed easier to knock a few out at once. It was a complete labor of love and I probably won’t ever make another as long as I live, but it will be something I get to see often and I’m pleased with the results.
I used a cardboard birthday banner as a pattern (for the letters). My sister had all kinds of scrap fabric so I honed in on that when I was visiting her. I made them all pretty much exactly the same as one another, with little variation obviously. It took a couple of days to make them and since I have kids I took advantage of the time while Simon was with Grandpa and Grandma and my sister could help me with my little Gus. I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning stitching away on my sister’s sewing machine. I gave it a good run for it’s money.

First I stitched each letter to the front of the pendant piece. The pendant pieces are pretty on both sides because I stitched two pieces of fabric inside out and flipped them and stuck a piece of fishing line in the bottom and closed off the end. (I think it has been a couple of years.)

You can see a bit more detail. I used this simple colored ribbon to connect all of them because we had it leftover from our wedding several years ago. I also used that ribbon at the bottom of the pendants (in addition to the fishing line) for a bit of extra decoration. You can also see that I beaded at the bottom of each letter (on that fishing line I keep mentioning). This wasn’t something I did on all three of them myself. I decided it would be fun for us each to bead our own. So after the stitching was finished we went to my parent’s cabin on Lake Holcombe in WI. My sisters, brother, parents and I sat around the table in their camper in the evenings (after dark) beading and chatting and laughing. It was a fun memory that I’ll think about each time I bust out the banner!

And as you can see there were some bells involved. Not that the banner ever moves once it is hung, just seemed like a little bit of extra fun to put a bell at the end of each bead strand.

So there you have it, the magical birthday banner!

Happy Crafting!

PS you can click on the photos to enlarge them! Enjoy!