How to make party banners

Celebrate in style with an over-sized announcement of greeting or well-wishes for party guests. Party banners are easy to make at home and can provide a focal point for a room or venue decorated especially for a party. Create a personalised banner by including the name of the person the party is being thrown for, or include an age number to announce a milestone for child's banner.

Choose your message

Banners may be strung above a buffet table, above a fireplace in a living room, or over the front door of the house to welcome arriving guests. Popular sentiments on party banners include “Welcome Home”, “Happy Birthday” or “Happy Anniversary".
Message Decide on the message for your party banner. If you have a large space available for a banner, this can be as long as you wish, but if space is restricted, for instance if you are throwing the party at home and want to hang the banner above the fireplace, you'll have less room for long sentiments.

Create the letters

Open the drawing program in your word processing suite and choose the Text option. Click inside the document, then drag the text box to cover the whole page of the document. Type the first letter of the message in the text box, then re-size the letter so that it occupies the entire page. Repeat with new pages for each letter until the banner message is spelled out. If you don't wish to use a computer, the letters can be hand drawn onto the sheets of paper.

Print the letters

Print the letters onto individual sheets, then cut them out and stick them onto cardboard or banner supplies. Trim around the letter shapes with a craft knife so that you have a series of reinforced, cardboard -backed letters.

Decorate the message

At this stage, you can decorate the letters in any style you like. Paint them with acrylic paints, cover them with sequins or glitter them.

Spell out the message

Cut a length of wide ribbon to the size you need for the banner and lie it down on a flat surface. Lay it on the floor if your table isn't big enough. Arrange the letter, equally spaced, along the length of ribbon, remembering to leave longer bare areas at either end so that there is enough ribbon to hang the banner later.

Glue the letters into place

Glue the letters to the ribbon with hot glue from a glue gun. An alternative method is to staple them in place. Place the glue on the back of the letters, towards the top, so that the letters hang down from the ribbon when they're attached. Let the glue dry and harden before lifting or moving the banner.