DIY Paper Bag Banner

Yes, you read that correctly...the pennants on this banner were made from a single brown paper bag!

If you buy groceries, you're bound to have a paper bag lying around somewhere.

Supplies needed:

1 Brown Paper Bag

Marker or pen

Scissors

Ruler

Hole Punch or Crop-O-Dile

Hot Glue Gun/Glue Stick

Chipboard or Sticker Letters

Bakers Twine, String or Yarn

First I cut along one of the edges and around the bottom of the bag to remove the bottom piece. I used the bottom to create my template since it's normally thicker than the sides of the bag itself. Snip off the handles, if you'd like, so they don't get in your way.

Grab your ruler and draw an outline of a pennant. Cut this out and use this as your template so all of your banner pieces are the same size.

Open up your bag on a flat surface and trace your template pennant with your marker. I chose the word Harvest since Thanksgiving is the next holiday and traced two extra pennants to use at each end.

I crumpled up each triangle piece to give it more texture and to hide the bag lines. This step can be skipped if you don't like the worn look.

Stack your pennants on top of each other and either use a Crop A Dile to punch through the entire stack at once or you can use a simple hole punch and punch each piece one by one, in the top two corners.

I had some chipboard letters lying around from a clearance sale at Target, so I picked out the letters needed to spell my word and plugging in my hot glue gun.

To add a little more color to my banner, I strung it with orange/white bakers twine. 

Tip: wrap a small piece of washi tape on the end for easier threading

Some pretty fall leaves, which we've been collecting on our bike rides add a fun fall touch to the ends. A squirt of hot glue for the leaves and letters...banner complete!

The perfect addition to your mantel or hutch for Thanksgiving dinner.

How-To Make a Paper Bag Rosette

I recently made decor for a cowgirl themed birthday party. A request was made for much larger rosettes than what I typically make for my banners, so I decided to try my hand at a paper bag rosette. It really is quite simple and I took photos of the process to help guide you during this fun project. They make a great natural backdrop, hung from different lengths of ribbon or twine and you can add any color in the center to make them match your own party or wedding decor.

1. I only used one side of the paper bag and cut the entire back off (the part without the bottom) then cut the large rectangle in 1/2, straight down the middle, so you have two long rectangles.

2. start folding an elementary fan fold, back and forth, back and forth, just try to keep the folds the same size.

3. Attach a strip of adhesive to the inside fold of the ends. I use double sided strong sticky tape (or what crafters call boloney tape, since you peel off the red backing), you can find this at any craft store and it really is amazing stuff! and then depending on how full you want your rosette, you keep attaching more to the ends, to get your desired length. I used three strips of paper bag per rosette.

4. Peel off the last piece of backing from your tape and now you'll have a full folded circle, which you form into a lamp shade shape and then lightly push down the center to form your rosette.

5. Have a hot glue gun handy and insert glue into the center hole and around the top edges where you will be covering with whatever shape or stamped image/message you'd like. Attach that right away.

6. Punch a hole in one top side and string up for decoration. 

You can also make smaller versions of these for your Christmas trees, a fun project to do with your little kiddos or young cousins! Have fun folding!