DIY Fourth of July Paper Banner

Create a DIY Fourth of July banner using decorative scrapbook paper and ribbon! A great party decoration and a fun paper craft!

Hello! Today I have a fun paper craft to share with you – a DIY Fourth of July paper banner. I created this banner after coming across the Echo Park Paper Co. collection of patriotic papers called Celebrate America. The paper is so pretty! This is not a sponsored post; I just really love the paper :) The collection includes pages with illustration cards for journaling. I loved the illustrations so I purchased those pages along with some coordinating solids and decided to make a banner!

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I love banners…a lot. They are easy to hang up and instantly decorate your house for a holiday or celebration. We have a mantle I usually hang our banners on, but they are also great for hanging on food tables or as backdrops for parties.

After finding the Celebrate America paper, I found some fun ribbons and star embellishments at Joann Fabrics and got to work creating the banner.

Since creating this banner last year, Echo Park Paper has come out with a new patriotic paper collection called America The Beautiful . The Celebrate America paper is still available on Amazon and also as digital files on the company’s website. You could, of course, use any paper for this banner – I liked that the Echo Park Paper pages feature picture cards that are all the same height – so it was very easy to put this banner together :)

Supplies Needed for DIY Fourth of July Paper Banner

Patriotic Paper – I used Echo Park Paper Company Celebrate America
Paper Trimmer
Tape runner, glue stick or Scor-Tape
Clear Gel Tacky Glue
3/8″ star ribbon in navy and red
5/8″ navy/red ribbon
Needle
Silver star embellishments – I found mine at Joann Fabrics
Red and White Bakers Twine
Sewing clips

First, use a paper trimmer to cut apart all of the different picture cards. Decide on which ones you want to use. My banner has 11 pennants total. It uses 4 small width cards (about 3″ wide), 6 medium width cards (about 4″ wide) and one large width card in the center (about 6″ wide).

As I mentioned above, all these picture cards were the same height (4 inches tall), just different widths. I cut background pieces of paper from my solid paper that measured the same width as each picture card I planned to use and 5.25″ in tall. I glued the picture cards to the solid card stock, leaving 1/2″ at the top and 3/4″ at the bottom.

I cut a piece of star ribbon the width of each pennant and glued it to the bottom of the pennant. On the red paper, I used navy star ribbon; and on the blue paper, I used red star ribbon.

To create the ribbon loops, I cut strips of ribbon that were 3″ long. For the my small width pennants, I just used a single layer of navy 3/8″ star ribbon. For the pennants that were wider, I layered my ribbons with a piece of red 3/8″ star ribbon over a 5/8″ piece of navy ribbon.

I marked a line in light pencil on the back of each pennant that was 1/2″ down from the top. I used this pencil mark to line up my ribbon loops. Using tacky glue, I glued the ribbon into loops going from the back of each pennant to the front. I taped over the ribbon on the back of each pennant and also used little red clips to hold the ribbon while it dried since it didn’t want to stay on its own!

After the ribbon loops were glued into place, I added the star embellishments to the front of each ribbon loop using the tacky glue. The set of stars I found had both small and big sized stars, so I alternated between the two. I love the way they look!

Time to string the pennants! I chose to use red and white baker’s twine I had on hand. To attach the pennants, I used a needle and strung the baker’s twine through the ribbon loops. This worked really well to keep the pennants from shifting and sliding around, yet I could still move them if I needed to.

The banner is finished!! I love the way it turned out and how the pretty paper is really the star of the banner. Creating the ribbon loops took a little time – but I think they add a lot to the banner without taking away from the neat pictures on the paper.

I love the idea of using these type of scrapbook pages that come with such fun pictures that are all coordinating to create a banner. This would work for just about any holiday or themed birthday if you find the right paper!