Nautical Themed Banners

For Jared's 1st Birthday this past June, we decided on a nautical theme. However, I didn't want to do a bunch of blue, white and red. I mean, we are in the military and we are always seeing blue, white and red. Instead I wanted to do something with more color; so we went with navy blue, white and orange. I know, its not far from blue, white, and red, but I liked how much it went with our monthly photo stickers, and the other ideas, and fabric I had.

With all that being said, I needed to start working on the decorations and banners in order to find a real theme to the party and something to give me a better guide lines. I headed out to Micheals one day, spent about 30 minutes going up and down and up and down the scrapbook paper. I was looking for the perfect paper to use for the banners. I found a few and was so excited when they all started to really pull together. Once I purchased the scrapbook paper, I then needed templates to cut out my themed items.

I just did a simple google search for the anchor, sail boat and wheel. I then printed, and enlarged them into the sizes I wanted and was going to use. I also made extra copies, just in case one of the kids got a hold of one, or if I accidentally cut one... you know, back ups; JUST IN CASE!!!

I then took all the paper, a pencil and my trusty busy bee scissors and got to work. I first cut out my template and then spend, however many hours, tracing them onto the paper. Then I spend an extra, however many hours, cutting those out.

First set cut out.

First set of each color cut out.

Different sizes for different banners.

Once I had a few hundred of these, I then began cutting the triangles out for the triangle "Happy Birthday" banner.

Heres all those super cute scrapbooking paper I got.

I have a stencil for the letters, and I just trace them onto white paper, and again cut them out, using my busy bees. Yes, I do all this by hand, no I do NOT have a cricut. Anyone want to get me one for Christmas?

I then purchased twine; the ugly, rough, cheap kind you find at the home depot or lowes kind of store; and used that with a lot of hot glue and ta-da:

The end result looked great. Excuse the painters tape, we were on a small budget.

I also wanted a fun high chair banner for when Jared smashed his cake. Just something simple and nothing crazy.

I used the same blue, orange and white paper to cut out circles (as this banner needed to be small, to fit on the front of a high chair.) I used my stencils to cut out the letters, and just used bowls to make the circles. I then cut, and glued them all together.

I again used the cheap twine and a little hot glue to put the banner together.

Again, ignore the painters tape.

The sign was so perfect.

His feet loved it... see?

Lastly, I used ever inch of scrap paper to cut out circles and smaller anchors, wheels and sail boats. I then hot glued them to the twine and used them as "streamers" around the house. I also used the left over anchors, wheels, and sail boats to make individual dangling banners. I used those to hang from lights and areas outside. They blew in the wind, and looked great.

Notice the strand of circles and the anchor and boats in the background.

These are the circles cut out from the scrap paper, and hot glued on to the twine.

You could do a ton of these and hang them in a door way, or use them to block off a room or stairs. So cute, and it looked great.

This was a great addition to the inside decorations. Made the arch ways fun.

The decorations were a great hit, and everyone kept asking where I got the banners. I always love that feeling of fulfillment when I know I made something extra special on my son's big day.

Thanks for checking out the nautical themed birthday party, be sure to pin this, and share with your friends and family.

Now Sail-Away,
Sarah