Banner Card

Written and Created by PaperCraftCentral Susan

Banner cards literally make a statement, don't they? When I had a reason to make a special graduation card for someone, I decided to make it fit the occasion, because I can That's the beauty of having your own papercraft supplies. You can always customise your handmade greeting cards to fit the preferences of the ones you make for, and for the occasions that keep happening in your life.

I decided to use an accordion fold so the bunting sentiment could be draped across the entire length of the card.

Then I put the whole card in a custom-made box so the recipient could have the fun of pulling out the surprise.

You don't usually get a banner as a birthday or bon voyage card, do you.

Here's How I Made my Banner Card:

You will need to gather your supplies. I used the following from Stampin' Up! (some colours may now be retired but you can always substitute your own colours, right?):

• Always Artichoke (retired - try Mossy Meadow), Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla and Old Olive cardstock
• Always Artichoke (retired - try Mossy Meadow), Crumb Cake, Basic Beige  and Old Olive ink
• Tag punches or cut some from rectangles of cardstock
• Linen thread or twine
• Eyelets (non Stampin' Up!) and Crop-A-Dile
• 1/4" Circle Punch (your Crop-O-Dile might have one big enough? Otherwise you may have a metal die you could use with your Stampin' Cut and Emboss Machine)
• Calendar Alphabet and Numbers Stamp set - choose from what you have or search SusanSalutations to find new supplies if you like
• Petite Pennants Builder Punch and Pennant Parade stamp set (both retired. Choose something from your stash that looks like pennants or cut them to size with your paper trimmer)
• A length of natural coloured seam binding or soft ribbon or twine that you like 

Here's how I made the card:

Having the right supplies makes everything so easy, doesn't it? I love how Stampin' Up! products coordinate so well and are so wonderfully proportioned for making cards and scrapbook pages. If you don't have any of the supplies I listed above, do follow the links to see the actual colours I chose and then search your stash for something similar.

Here's my process for making the card:

I started with cutting an A4 sheet of Old Olive cardstock in half lengthwise. Then I cut a piece of Always Artichoke (or Mossy Meadow) to fit across the bottom and allow me to make a pocket at the top for my tags.

Next I made my accordion folds. I divided the length of my cardstock by 5 and made a crease at each of those intervals. See if you like the size of your intervals. Ask yourself if the pennants and tags will fit the way you want them to.

To add interest, I sponged or blended ink onto the edges of my card base with ink. You can do this step, or not.

Then I worked out how long my sentiment was going to be and punched out enough pennant pieces to fit the words/letters on them. In this case, I wanted to write 'congratulations' so I needed 15 pennant pieces, one for each of the word's letters. I then stamped out my word and punched out each letter with the 1/4" circle punch, then adhered the letters to the pennants.

I used some linen thread to make the banner and eased the pennant pieces into the accordion folds where it seemed they should fit, then adhered them down on the card front with Stampin' Dimensionals.

I wanted to make some private messages for the recipient so I made little tags with messages on them to pop inside the pockets as shown. I added eyelets and more linen thread to act as pullers for the tags.

The banner card easily stands up on its own for display and it fits perfectly into the footlocker box I made instead of using an envelope. You could still use an envelope but make sure your folded banner card will fit inside it, or handmake an envelope to suit the size of your project.

The card is tied together with a length of natural coloured seam binding as shown below so it would fit neatly in the box and not force it to pop open unexpectedly.

Make the box to fit your card, not the other way around, is my advice. It's too hard to figure out how big the box should be till you have the actual dimensions of your finished card. That's the way I see it, anyway. If you can be sure of the dimensions of your card before making it, then by all means make the box first! But you may change your mind about how much you embellish your card as you make it, which could alter the thickness of it?

Now you know how to make your own banner card for your next special occasion. You may want to make one for a special birthday, or for a bon voyage, or to congratulate someone on their achievement. These cards are meant to be on display!

There are so many ways to use this idea.  I hope you have fun with it and make your card your own by your choice of colours, decorative elements and words. 

For inspioration, try searching for Banner Greeting Cards in your Pintrest account.

Now you may like to see how to make something else with your papercraft supplies:

• Your own decorative wreaths
• Make a handmade box for a special occasion
• Make an explosion box album
• Make a candy bar card