Happy Monday! Here in the USA we are getting ready to celebrate our Independence Day on the 4th of July. It's a HUGE "to-do" with fireworks and bbq's and lots of family gatherings. However, not every party you are going to throw is going to be a huge event with fancy clothes, flowers or favors. Some of them are little family parties to celebrate a birthday. Today we are going to cover a theme that can be used for any small party from a a childs birthday to an adult birthday to an Anniversary party...Banners!

These adorable banner invites from My Personal Artist are just so cute. You could easily make your own by printing the blank cardstock on your computer with the party details and then glue colored thread across the card in a swag formation and then glue on little scrapbook paper flags to complete the invitation. If it's a small party and you only need a few invites, this is the way to go!

 Banners are really very easy to make from scrapbook paper. You can also just use a stick on alphabet to spell out whatever sentiment, from your honorees name to Happy Birthday and more, across the whole banner.

 For those of you who sew, and I am not one of those people, you can make them out of cloth as well and use seam binding tape or pretty ribbon to make the flags into a banner. Very cute and great for outdoors!

And speaking of using the outdoors for your party! What a great idea to swag your backyard with banners crisscrossing and at different heights. Just make sure that if this is a walkway to put the banners up higher than your tallest guest. I love to hang them in corners so they don't impede party traffic.

 If  you don't have an open space but still want to include the banners into your decor then use the cake and food tables to hold the banners. Either attach them across the tables, like the photo above (which also shows how this can be used for the guys too by changing it from pastels to Earth tones or primary colors!) or

swag the banner on the wall behind the cake and food tables. If you are having the party outdoors you will still want to have the food in the shade so the side of your house would make for a perfect place to hang your banners.

 Another cute way to incorporate the banner theme into your tables is to use small decorative bottles to hold up mini banners! Just glue your flags onto string or thread and tie to skewers. If they don't want to stand up in the bottles just fill them part way with salt to help give the bottles a little more weight and hold up the skewers.

Whatever your colors are for your party theme, you can continue the decor by using straws that echo your palette. These are the "oh so in trend" paper straws but the regular grocery store straws might fit your scheme as well...take a look and save a bit whenever you can.

Another cute way to continue your decor is in the dessert! If you are serving cupcakes for dessert, or cupcakes for the kids and cake for the adults, you can make these cute little flags, glued onto toothpicks, to stick into the top of your cupcakes. 

You can also frost your cupcakes and decorate using sprinkles and colored cupcake liners to coordinate with your theme! You can even buy whole kits so you don't have to DIY as much if you'd rather buy it than do it yourself.

 If you are making an entire cake to serve this is a cute way to add the banner to your cake. Made exactly the same way as the ones for the tables, this can add a wonderful touch to your simply frosted cake.

 If you want to raise the difficulty up a notch, what about a double banner for that cake? Triple? It is easier than you think!

Lastly, you can put the banner on the sides of the cake tiers. You can use paper or fabric to make this gorgeous display like the Caker at The Cake Parlour did. Even just one tier sporting this treatment would wow your guests and help make the guest of honor feel that much more special!


Next week we'll bring to you a simply adorable Baby Shower theme!


Have a great 4th of July!

Cat