[party planner] DIY cake banner topper

Cake banners are adorable. They are informative. They are quickly removable. What more could you want?

I give you, my daughter's 1st birthday cake:

I wanted a cute banner on top. I searched the web for ideas or printables. And what do you know, I couldn't find one that I liked.

This I knew:
1. I wanted it to say "Harper is One"
2. I wanted it to be pastel or polka dot, or both!
3. I wanted it to be a little banner.

So with those things in mind, I decided to make my own. It took a few supplies and a little work on the computer.

You'll need:

1. Yarn
2. Scissors
3. a sheet of Labels (1" by 2 5/8" is what I used)
4. 2 Pom Poms (guess what these are? Cat toys! Found in the pet section of Dollar Tree! Yes way!)
5. 2 Bamboo skewers for ka-bobs and stuff. Or use some cute straws.

Also, you'll need a computer with Paint or Photoshop, and a word processing program such as Microsoft Word.

We start with the flags.

I searched high and low for little flag pieces. They don't exist. So I knew if I could just find what I wanted, I could modify them.

I found some Polka Dot Pastel banner pieces here! Eureka!!!!! How lucky! They're exactly what I wanted!!!! But they were too big. And I wanted to use my Doctor Soos font. Soooo.......

I improvised.

And you can too!

Want to know how I did it? Follow this easy tutorial...

Save one of the banner pieces on your computer. Open it in Paint or Photoshop. I used Paint. It's the easiest. And free on your PC. Use the eraser tool to erase the existing letter.

Use text tool to add the letter of your choice (I started with "H").

Open Word. Use the instructions on your label packaging to create a blank sheet of labels. Go back to Paint and select the new banner piece. You'll drag your mouse across the banner piece to select it.

Turn your banner piece so that it can be printed properly on the labels. Click "Rotate" and select "left 90 degrees")

It should look like this:

Copy it by pressing the Copy button in Paint or pressing Control + C on your keyboard.

Go to your label document. Before you press paste, go to your paragraph settings and click on the "align text right" button or press Control + R on your keyboard. This will ensure that the banner piece will print on the far right side of the label.

Now paste the picture.

Looks weird huh. So resize it! You can do this by clicking on "Format" button at the top and adjusting the size OR by manually adjusting the picture itself by dragging the little square in the corner of the picture. Whichever you chose, just make sure it doesn't exceed the height of the label (1" if you're using the same labels as me). Width will be constrained so that it doesn't look weird. For me it was 1.3".

Repeat this process until you've got all the letters of the banner complete!

Print those bad boys and get ready to work on this cake topper!

Get out your yarn. I wouldn't trim it yet. Take off one of your letters and fold it over the yarn. Press the sticky sides together. Then trim off the bottom in the shape of your banner piece.

Do this with all labels then cut your yarn.

Tie the yarn to the skewers or straws. Stick your pom poms in the top of the skewers (or glue them on top). Then stick the skewers in the cake!

Done!!

How cute is this simple banner?! You can bet I'll be making this thing again for future celebrations!