Tie Banner

Yep - I am still working on tie items for my friends baby shower.  But, I am on the home stretch.  I have only a few more key chains and coffee cozy's to make.  In the meantime while I am watching TV with the hubby in the evening I have been making some decorations for the shower.  Initially I wanted to use real ties to make all of the decorations, but alas I don't think I will have enough ties, time or energy to make that happen.  So, I had to improvise.  Here's a fun fact for you, back in the day I was an avid scrapbooker and card maker.  I have fallen off that train a bit and moved onto other things but of course I still have a huge stash of supplies!  I love printed paper almost as much as I love ties.  If you haven't guessed yet, prints and patterns are a definite weak point of mine.  So, back to my love of printed paper.  Upon pondering what decorations to make and considering the time frame I had to work with I decided that I had enough printed paper in my stash to make decorations.  I love etsy and have noticed these adorable banners that people have been making for parties etc. well, a shower is a form of a party so why can't I make one?

My Inspiration

Supplies needed:
Beautiful, colored and patterned paper
Scissors
Yarn or String
Hole Punch

Of course I couldn't make just a plain banner!  Oh no, mine had to be tie themed!  So, I went to one of my favorite places on the web, Google images.  I found this awesome tie image by "googling" tie outline tie template.  I printed it onto a piece of card stock since I knew I would be using it a bunch and wanted to make sure it was relatively sturdy. 

Next, I went through my collection of paper and picked out the pieces I wanted to use.  My friend didn't want "baby" colors at her shower, she prefers bolder, manlier colors (she is having a boy so manly colors are appropriate.) 

After selecting my paper, I traced the tie onto the back of the paper.  I fit four ties on each 12x12 piece.  I tried really hard to fit a fifth on one but I could not make it happen.  

Next, I punched a whole on each side of the tie. 

Then, I strung all of the ties onto a doubled up piece of yarn. I doubled it so that the ties would stay in place without adding knots to keep the ties in place.

I left a long tail on each side of the banner so that I could tie it into place easily on windows etc. For a patio door I ended up using 12 ties. 

You may be sad (or happy) to find out that I only have two more tie tutorials to share with you before the shower.  And, of course I will share some pics of the shower with you so you can see how fab everything turned out.  My friend Nicole (who had the original idea for a tie themed shower) and the brains behind the blog More Beets Please is cooking up most of the food and I can't wait to taste her amazing dishes.  She is a MARVELOUS cook.