Birthday Numero Uno! Part 3!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you! Go get your green on!

Welcome back to 1st birthday celebration time! It was the simplest celebration you can imagine. So, you may wonder why it takes me 3 posts to finish it up. Because that is the way I roll people; that's the way I roll. 

In our first glimpse into Cora's birthday party, I showed you the things that were not at her party (creepy clowns, above-ground swimming pool, chocolate pizza). In part 2, we took a closer look at what actually did happen at her party. Now, in the 3rd edition of Birthday Numero Uno, I am going to show you the decorations aka BANNERS GALORE!


I made a fancy contact-papered Happy Birthday, Cora sign that I will put up every single year forever... even when she is out of the house. That sign will be up and I will spend the whole day looking at The Etc. Lists and all of my favorite photos of her. #creepymomtakeachillpill

Let's get on with the show. 
Here is how I made the contact-paper-infested banner:

• My best friend, scrapbook paper, entered the scene and got cut to pieces. It took me forever to decide what size each piece should be. Finally, I decided to choose what size I wanted the letters to be and then it was easier to choose the paper size. I made a template of the triangle, traced it, and cut it.

• For the letters, I looked at some fonts online and just hand drew them on thick pink paper. I played around with them a bit and realized they looked better with one more layer. So, I cut out a piece of letter-shaped white paper that was a bit bigger than each pink letter. FYI- when I say "I" I mean me and my wonderful mom who gave up her evening to sit on the floor with me and cut out letters.

• The layout was the trickiest part, but also the most fun! I spent at least an hour moving all of the papers around until I found the perfect order.

• Next, I added the contact paper so it would stand the test of time! Then I punched holes in the top corners of each triangle and looped some green ribbon through the whole thing. I added a pretty yellow ribbon to each end and Bam Boom Bam! It was done... about 10 minutes before the party!

Hold your horses, folks, there is more! THERE WAS ANOTHER BANNER! Craziness, I know!

I took a weekly photo of Cora during her first year. I picked about 20 of my favorites and turned them into a banner. I cut scrapbook paper into thirds. Then I glued each photo on a sheet and added a little title box that said what week the photo was from. Contact paper time. Then hole punching and ribbon stringing.

Tada. All done!

Here are a couple close-up shots of the banner.

There was also crepe paper streamers and tissue paper balls! Check it out!

As a favor, we gave out coloring books that we made with a bundle of 5 crayons wrapped in green raffia.
This was the cover:

And that wraps up Cora's very simple numero uno birthday! Less than 6th months left until Cora hits numero dos!