I love birthday celebrations. I love planning, decorating and throwing parties that bring our friends and family together for an afternoon of fun and food.
I always try to make at least one decoration or gift that is special to the person we are celebrating. It might be a collage of old pictures from the friend’s youth; it might be a book with treasured memories from friends and family.
This year I wanted to come up with a way to let my husband know how much we all love and treasure him. He is a kind and gentle man who puts others before himself and always does what is right. He is not driven by money or ego just his desire to serve others as we have all been called to do.
In lieu of my 2020 goal of using what I have before I buy more, we decided to make all of the decorations for our small celebration. My youngest son made his dad a birthday hat, tie and button out of card stock. He also taped together a birthday banner to create a sash.
We then worked together on a special banner for my husband.
If you would like to make a birthday banner it can be as simple or elaborate as you would like. You can hand cut your banner or use a Circuit or a Silhouette Cameo to cut out your flags and letters. You can use mix matched scrap book paper or construction paper. To stay true to my “use what I have before buying new” goal we chose to use yarn and construction paper we have on hand.
Start by cutting little flags out of your choice of paper. This can be as uniform or mix and match as you like.
Cut out as many flags as needed to write your birthday message letter by letter on each flag. Cut out additional flags totaling the age of the person whose birthday you are celebrating.
After writing your birthday banner message, take the additional flags and write individual messages for the one you are celebrating. The total of flags (messages) should equal the age of the celebrant.
If you have time you can mail little flags out to friends and family to return to you once they have written memories or messages.
Attach the flags with tape in even increments onto a piece of yarn and hang. You can also punch two holes at the top of the banner and weave the yarn through the holes positioning each flag along the yarn.
My sons and I wrote out 50 characteristics that we love about my husband.
Depending upon the number of flags you can split these into two different banners or include all the flags on to one banner.
My husband was very touched by all of the kind words we had to say about him. I think I am going to keep the banners up for a while to remind him how much we love him.
I would love to hear what special things you do to celebrate the ones you love. If you’d like to share please leave a comment below.
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I hope you enjoyed this post. Happy Crafting ~ Bridget Anne
