Blooming Birthday Party~ Flower Sucker Favors and Banner

 A friend of mine recently asked me to make a flower banner & sucker favors for her child's birthday.  After we figured out the shape she wanted and colors, I got to work. 

I did not have pink & purple Designer Series Paper in real life and actually didn't have it digitally from Stampin' Up either.  So using My Digital Studio, I created designs using our various pink and purple hues that would match the solid color cardstock I did have in real life.  This program made it easy by allowing me to "stamp" many of the different flower designs in whatever colors I wanted, along with the "punches" in circles and such.  See the brilliancy of using My Digital Studio is that you have whatever color you want, both in ink and in paper!  That is not always the case in "real life".  I was able to also use some of the included-with-MDS already made Designer Series Digital Paper designs, as well.  To clarify, all of this is often called "scrapbook papers" if the SU term Designer Series Paper is throwing you off. 

I created the letters to punch out, too.  The all-one-color designs come with MDS, the others are what I designed myself.

I am not gonna lie.  Creating background designs is not quick and my computer chose to run slow the night I was working on them.  But in the end, I was satisfied with the finished designs. Also, I now have "scrapbook paper" that is pink & purple should anyone ask me to make another project with those colors.  :)

I then sent the background papers and the letters I created for the banner to my local Staples.  To print them on my printer would have zapped my ink supply and definitely not looked as good!   I had them print on cardstock for the designs and glossy for the letters.  I learned after the designs were printed that the cost difference was about 10 cents.  Next time, I would probably do all glossy. 

I used Scallop Circle #2 to cut out the letters.

Rolling through the Sizzix Big Shot.

Here is a video I took showing my Sizzix Big Shot cutting out the letters.  I figured some people have never seen it in action.  Forgive me.  I am learning.  :) 

Next I cut out the flowers using the Flower Folds die to cut the flowers for the spaces between the words on the banner and for the sucker favors.  

You can lay about 2 sheets of paper at a time with the this die because of the scored folds.  If you do more than that, it will often cut where it should fold.  And you don't want that!  For the dies that don't have a score line, 4 sheets is usually good, depending on the weight of the paper.

I did a variety of cardstock for each flower.

rolling through...

After they are cut out, there are often corners that might go to waste.  I am very frugal with my paper so I punch the center of my flowers from this area when I can.

I think hot glue works great to give a little height and stability.

I let it set a few second before I lay it on the next one so it doesn't sink it but sits up.

top layer

Side view..so you can see the depth.

finished flowers for the Flower Sucker Favors

 Thankfully, the mom took a picture of the finished product with the suckers in the center.  She cut a little X in the center and pulled them through.  I think they turned out great!

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If you are not into DIY, I am now offering Custom Orders for these favors, your choice of colors, in my etsy store.  The banner will be coming on there soon!  Contact me if you need it before it is listed.
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Now back to the banner.  I cut the squares [the mom's chosen shape for the banner] and felt they needed a little something so I ran them through with a variety of my embossing folders. 

Here they are:

And here is a video showing how it {easily} works.  Easy, but what a WOW!

She also wanted them tied together instead of one long string.  So I sat down and did that my the hubby and I watched a movie.  

She took a picture of the full banner and I hope you can see the cuteness.

I wish I had taken a close up of the letters and flowers spacers.  To add depth on the letters, I actually took leftover squares of the fleece I used to make the Flower T-shirts a couple of weeks back. I glued them to the squares and then the letter circles to the fleece squares.  Had I taken a close up, you could have seen the nice height.  I like height and depth.  Can you tell?  ;)

And by request, I kept the name separate so if her little sis ever has a pink & purple party, only her name need be created.  I like that!

Thanks for reading & watching another long entry.  At least it feels long to me.  

Happy Crafting!
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