I know many of you are planning to celebrate the Royal Wedding on the 29th April 2011 in some way, big or small. I’m sure there will be street parties, BBQ’s and lunches, and I hope for our children it will be reminiscent of the Silver Jubilee celebrations I remember in 1977 (am I showing my age? I was only 5!) I loved the preparations for that party, the street party, and I remember decorating and making things, although I’m not sure how much help I was.
So, with that in mind, and with it being half-term too, I thought I’d show you how to make a very easy paper bunting that you’ll be able to display on the day. Not only that, it’s one that you can make with the children, and doesn’t involve any sewing at all, so no one can tell me they can’t do it! Better still, you will be able to recycle it, so good news all around.
I’ll do the post in two parts, as you’ll need to wait for your paint to dry.
You will need:
A potato
A sharp knife
A chopping board
A paintbrush
Blue poster paint
Red poster paint
White paper
Part one:
Start by cutting your potato in half, making sure you create the largest surface area possible for the printing process
Cut your potato into a heart shape
Using your sharp knife, cut out the spaces between the lines of a Union Jack shape, leaving a border around the heart, see the photo above
Begin by painting the blue lines of the Union Jack (the diagonal lines)
Then paint the horizontal and vertical lines of the St Georges cross, and the border around the heart
This is what it should look like when it’s ready for printing.
Turn your potato over and print it onto a blank sheet of paper (you can fit two prints onto each A4 piece, but leave plenty of space around each shape)
You will end up with something that looks like this… don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfect, it doesn’t need to
Here are some of mine waiting to dry! I’ve made plenty, so that I can make a good length of bunting, I would suggest around 20 minimum!
Part two:
You can start this bit as soon as your prints are bone dry.
The first thing you need to do is cut out a triangular shape around one of your union jack hearts. It needs to be quite elongated, with extra at the top to ensure there is enough to fold over.
Once you’ve cut one out, you can use this as a template for the others.
Lay your template over others, trying to keep the hearts in a similar place so they look consistent when hung up.
You should end up with a pile of flags, like here.
This is the easy bit…. fold the top cm or so over.
Next you need to lay your string in the fold, I used cotton twine. Then drizzle a thin line of PVA glue (or Pritt stick at a push) and fold the string inside.
It should look like this. Try to ensure the string is towards the fold, then you’ll be able to move the string.
Repeat this process until you have secured all of your flags in the same way.
Et voila! this is how it will look when you’ve finished. Unfortunately it was very wet outside today, so I couldn’t show you what it would look like pinned up against my summerhouse, but hopefully, on April 29th the sun will be shining and allow us to celebrate al fresco!
Have fun, and please do get in touch if you need any further information.