Hello, patriots! No, it's not Elle Woods, it's a much less blonde Jennifer, here, with a starred and spangled banner for your Veterans Day display.
To put this together you'll need:
- Card stock in red, white, and blue
- Paper trimmer
- Scoring board and bone folder
- Helmar Acid Free Glue
- Navy ribbon
- Self-adhesive crystals (or flat back gems and Helmar Gemstone Glue)
- Optional: clothes pins, die cutting machine
Start by trimming a couple of sheets of 12" card stock in red and blue into 6" squares.
You'll need two squares per circle, so cut as many as needed.
Next you want to use your scoring tools of choice and mark each square into 1/2-inch sections.
Start by scoring on the half marks (1/2", 1 1/2", 2 1/2", 3 1/2", 4 1/2", and 5 1/2") then flip the sheet over and score on the opposite side of the sheet at the whole marks (1", 2", 3", 4", and 5"). This makes the fan folds a lot easier to accomplish, especially on very heavy card stock.
Finally, give your square a quarter turn and score it once at the midpoint (3"). This will make it both easy to find the center when it's time to make our fans as well as make it a tiny bit easier to fold.
Following the scored lines, fan-fold your squares using the bone folder to press the edges nice and crisp.
Then, using that midpoint score, fold the fans onto themselves, gluing closed with Helmar Acid Free Glue. Because the natural tendency of the card stock is to unfold itself and you've got better things to do than hold paper together while the glue sets, a clothes pin at the end of the seam will be your lifesaver.
Once you have enough fans ready to go, you can start putting together your banner. Spread each out a bit (pressing the outer edges of the folds slightly flat helps) and glue your ribbon to the bottom edge of one fan. Leave 10 inches or so of ribbon free on one end of your banner to have something to tie it up with.
Once the Helmar Acid Free Glue sets the ribbon on the one fan, line up a fan of the opposite color on the other side of the ribbon, clipping the two long edges together with clothes pins while they set. Once those edges are good and adhered, flatten out your medallion and place a few drops of Helmar Acid Free Glue on either side of the center fold just to help it hold its shape. My card stock was very stubborn, so I weighted down each medallion while the glue set.
Repeat, alternating the placement of the colors on either side of the ribbon, and leaving about 6" between each medallion as well. When the banner is as long as you want it, leave another 10" tail at the end of the banner.
I used my Cricut to draw and cut some patriotic stars and starbursts out of my red, white, and blue card stock. Any die cuts or even hand-cut stars will work, just something nice and layered to go on the center of our medallions.
Once the centerpieces were assembled, I used a bit more of the Helmar Acid Free Glue to attach them to the center front of each medallion. And I thought they needed a little something extra, so I grabbed a sheet of self-adhesive red crystals to add a little sparkle to the medallions.
If you find that your banner wants to forward or back, it may help to glue a bead or button onto the bottom of the medallion to weight it. Or you could decorate both sides of the medallions so that it can flip around freely without worry!
Wishing you creative days,
