June 1, 2012

no-sew cake bunting tutorial

I am quickly falling in love with bunting! A few months back I made a special birthday bunting for my nephew which Jodi then made the most beautiful painting out of for me and ever since then, I have had bunting on the brain like none other. Seriously, if I could have bunting in every room of my house I'd totally do it. But, alas, I'm 31 years old and need to act like it sometimes... so I'll settle on having bunting in every room only on days that end with Y. :)

Yesterday was Heather's birthday and her request for the big day was very simple- LOTS of butter cream icing! Of course, I obliged and made three pounds (yes, three POUNDS of icing) for her cake using my mom's amazing recipe. Have you tried Mom's butter cream icing recipe yet? You should probably stop whatever you're doing and click HERE for the directions. Serioulsy- best stuff ever.

Anywho, what goes better on top of a cake with three pounds of icing than bunting, I ask you? Answer: nothing. Why: because bunting goes with everything. You know this. And, it was such fun (and easy!) to make that I whipped up (that a little icing pun for ya) a little tutorial to share with y'all.

Ready? Ok! :)

Materials needed:
  • double sided tape
  • rope twine
  • wooden dowel rods
  • scrapbook paper

I got the materials, which will probably make a total of 7-8 different cake buntings, at my local Michael's. And, all for the low, low price of...


That's just about $1.25/cake bunting! Crazy! :)

I used two pieces of scrapbook paper (just 59 cents each) because I wanted to alternate patterns on the bunting. However, you could just use one piece of paper or use something you already have around the house- construction paper, wrapping paper, old greeting cards or even fabric scraps.
I decided that I wanted my flags to be 2" long so I cut a 4" strip of each paper and folded them in half. This is because each flag will be folded over so, 4" paper = 2" when folded.


After that, I cut little triangles! I started cutting on the folded side of the paper to make the big part of the triangle and, when cut, each triangle that I cut was actually a diamond when un-folded. I hope that makes sense. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the cutting as me with a pair of scissors in one hand should never be trying to take a picture with the other. Trust and believe, people. That's how you lose fingers. Did I ever tell you that I started The Fingerless Man's Club at the grocery store I worked at in high school? Yep. But, that's a story for another day. Moral is, though: don't take pictures while using sharp objects. You're welcome.
I digress.

After cutting all of your little triangle turned diamonds, you'll get...

Push that little pile aside for a second, and get two of the dowel rods and a 12"-15" (depends on how long you want your bunting) piece of twine.

Now that your twine is attached to the dowel rods and you know how you want your little triangle/diamond guys to be arranged, it's time to attach them to the twine!


 


Do that to all of your little guys and what do you have?

Extra special cake birthday bunting that you made yourself!

You can personalize this look in so many different ways- write or affix stickers to the flags to say "happy birthday", a name of anything else you might like. I also think it'd be very pretty to have two sets of bunting on a cake- one higher than the other. So cute!
This whole project took maybe 10 minutes and was so easy, anybody in the family could do it. It's also a great way to use of little bits of colored paper or fabric in the house to make a one-of-a-kind cake decoration. Wouldn't a bunting with stars and stripes flags be fun for the 4th of July?!

Let me know if you make a cake bunting for yourself or someone else- I'd love to see your creation! :)

4 comments:

  1. Gorgeous! I'm definitely going to do this for the next birthday!

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  2. Hmmm....Stella wants rainbow theme cake...I'm thinking rainbow flags!

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  3. I heart this! Also...my bday IS coming up in 13 short days...

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  4. Thanks again for the great tutorial!! http://www.take10withtricia.com/2012/06/no-sew-cake-bunting.html

    ReplyDelete

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