With graduations comes graduation parties. Family and friends come together to celebrate the completion of education, whether it be from high school, or college.
You may want to throw the perfect party for the graduation. It’s your child’s day to shine, and you want them to do it in style. You will have to make many preparations, such as acquiring chairs for all of the guests, offering food and beverages, but those are actually the easy parts. What some may find tough is the decorations.
I recently visited the Kinko’s website, and one professionally made banner can cost your about $100 up. That price is just for an indoor banner alone. After purchasing all of the food and beverages, renting chairs, and possibly an outdoor tent or pavilion, you will not be quick to drop another $100+ dollars simply for a sign.
You can just as easily make your own. Below are some ideas and steps to make the perfect Graduation Banner, for your child’s party this year.
Places like Michael’s, Jo-Anne Fabrics and Hobby Lobby offer many solutions for your homemade banner. Several of the stores have online craft projects and step-by-step instructions on how to make your sign or banner, listing all of the supplies you will need in the process.
If you don’t want to go online, you can just as easily hit the store. You may be taken back by all of the supplies you will find, and feeling a bit overwhelmed at all of the tools and ideas that can be accomplished.
Your choices for your sign can range from poster board of all shapes, colors, and sizes. Too make this easier to decide, try to think of where you would likely hang your sign or banner. Try to choose a good size and color that would coordinate with this designated spot. When choosing the color, also have in mind a good idea of what color theme you would like to use, perhaps incorporating your child’s favorite colors, as this is for their day.
Now the lettering for your sign also provides many options. You can use colored construction paper, and trace out the letters with an exacto-knife. Another option is to purchase a die-cutting machine, ranging in price of $50 to over a $100, and you enter in your words and letters, and the machine will cut them out to your specifications, whether on construction paper or even fabric. The most easy and cost-effect option may be to simply purchase a letter-tracing kit, and you can etch out the letters yourself by hand.
Once you have your poster board or banner selected, and your letter’s all sized and cut out to your liking, you are now onto the next step, which is assembly. Feel free to use either a glue gun to attach the letters, or purchase a strong bonding glue. Glue at most craft shops is very inexpensive, and you can get a good quality glue for around $1 to $2.
Now it’s time for the decorations. You can either use either your glue gun or bonding glue and draw shapes around the border of the banner, such as stars, hearts, and any other figure your child may enjoy, and shake out glitter over the glue. If you want a more professional look, you can visit the scrap-booking section of the craft store, and purchase pre-made objects to attach. They do offer several various sets of graduation-themed objects.
Now you are finished with your Graduation Banner, and the next step is to simply allow your banner time to dry, hang it up, and have a great graduation party.
Remember the steps:
1 – Decide what size, shape, and color of poster board you would like to use for your sign. Try to visualize where you will hang it… that should help determine your choice.
2 – Choose how you would like to make the lettering. The options are tracing the letters on fabric or construction paper with a tracing kit and an exacto-knife, or purchasing a die-cutting machine that will do the work for you. Try to choose the construction paper or fabric based on a central color theme.
3 – Use glitter to spruce-up the sign, or purchase pre-made objects in a graduation theme, in which you should be able to find in the scrap-booking section of your local craft shop.
4 – Apply lettering and decorations to the banner, allow time to dry, and then hang up and enjoy!
Bonus project!
You can take your leftover construction paper, glitter, decorations, and glue, and make graduation-themed party place-cards to set up at your banquet tables. Offer them to your friends and family, as a memento of the occasion. Just use the similar steps from above, fold, and place at your outdoor dining table on their designated spots.
