Thomas & Friends birthday party bunting (paper)

I hadn't planned on making two sets of bunting for the young mister's birthday party, but when I saw this book for just a buck at the thrift store, I thought it should come home with us.

It's one of those books that makes sounds... but this book was pretty old and beat up, so the sounds were less children's book and more creepy horror movie-- all scratchy and hard to hear.

I thought I could rescue it by giving it new life-- Thomas the Train Book Bunting! I used thrifted bias tape for the project as well.

I actually made this one before the Thomas the Train Fabric Bunting, which is now hanging in his room. I decided that hanging this one too might be overkill, so... I'm actually going to disassemble this one and use it in a different project! This Thomas the Train book is getting more lives than a cat.

I used a fancy paper punch around the edges, which kinda gave it a Papel Picado feel.

Thomas & Friends Book Bunting

Materials: Thomas the Train Book ($1 - thrifted), bias tape (.50 cents - thrift store), thread

Total cost: ~$1.50

Thomas & Friends birthday party bunting (fabric)

Here's some bunting I made for the LO's first birthday party! As I mentioned before, his party theme is Thomas  & Friends.

Not going to write out a tutorial, but here's the method I used:

• I did some light math and determined how many triangles I wanted, how far apart, and how large they should be.
• Based on those measurements, drew and cut out my Isosceles Triangle pattern.
• Cut out twice as many triangles as I wanted to end up with, so that each would have a front and back.
• Sewed down each of the longer two sides, right-sides together.
• Turned them right-side out and pressed.
• Pinned and sewed them into thrifted double-fold bias tape, one seam at the top and one at the bottom of the tape.

I used a red paisley fabric from Gramma's stash. I was hoping it would  give off a train engineer's bandanna vibe, but truthfully, it was the only red in the stash. I bought a yard of the only Thomas cotton that Jo-Ann's had (before I found these fat quarters), but some of it ended up getting used in the quilt anyway. Yellow bias tape was the best match I had, and goes with Thomas's painted on number "1".

It'll hang in his room when the party's over.

I made a paper bunting too (haven't taken pics yet), and the quilt is actually done (camera died with pics on the cam's "hard drive")... watch for both here soon.

Thomas & Friends Fabric Bunting

Materials: red fabric (free - stash), Thomas the Tank fabric ($9.99 with a 50% coupon ~ $5 - Jo-Ann), bias tape (.50 cents - thrift store), thread

Total cost: ~$5.50

How to: Cake Bunting

If you haven't seen the practice of decorating a cake with bunting instead of piping on icing, well then, you probably don't visit Pinterest. Or Odeedoh. Or every crafting, caking, kid-ing blog ever.

I know, I know, bunting has pretty much reached "Put a Bird on It" status.

But it's so darn easy, and looks so cute! Way easier then trying to-- and failing at-- fancy frosting.

You don't even really need a "Cake Bunting Tutorial";

• I just typed up my message in Microsoft Word (making sure to hit the "tab" key at least twice between each letter)
• Cut the letters out in triangle shapes, free-hand, but I might try a template next time
• Folded down the top 1/4" of the letters (which was the bottom of the triangles)
• Placed the fold over a bit of yarn, and scotch-taped it
• Tied each end of the yarn onto two shish-kabob sticks
• Stabbed each stick in a cupcake
• Set it.... and forget it!

Quick and dirty, and less than ten minutes. Srsly! I didn't bother to make 'em two-sided, but it can be done. What's your cake bunting method? Probably a lot nicer than mine.

Happy 25th to my little brother.