Windmills and Banners

Our friend Stephanie (with this beautiful home) makes the cutest banners for each holiday.  She and a group of friends get together once a month to scrapbook and once a year they each bring a designed banner for different holidays...great idea right!  This one was made by Missie Rudy and it is darling!  You can find these in a bunch of etsy shops...but you can make one yourself! 

Steph gave me a tutuorial on how to make the windmills...they look so cute on this and can also be used to embellish lots of things.

Start by getting a book you can tear up a little bit.  Stephanie found an old dictionary at DI for .50 cents.  I used the back of one of my books that had an excerpt from an upcoming book that I didn't care to keep.  After I made mine I realized it works better if you trim the page first so the words are even on all sides of the paper.

Fold the paper long ways (not side ways) accordian style in a fairly tight fold...

Flatten all the folds together and fold the strip in half...

Holding the middle part together, fan out the rest of the pieces to form a half circle.  Hot glue the top middle pieces of each side so they stay together in the fan shape.  Repeat this process again for the bottom half of your windmill.

Hot glue the long side of one of the windmills to stick each side together...

 Each side will be a little bit loose so hot glue the next layers up together (on both sides) so it stays tight in the middle...

Make a second colored windmill to layer over the first cutting the paper down 1 inch from the size of your printed paper.  Embellish with something in the middle and all done!

Here are a few up close shots of Missie's banner and where she placed the windmills.  I love the little bird!

To attach each flag together Missie used a thicker ribbon and layered a decorative ribbon on top.  She used layers with different materials and paper in different yet coordinating patterns to give it dimension and amazing style! 

Thanks for sharing your great idea Missie and Steph.  What talent!  I've caught the bug to start making these for each holiday!  I've also seen these made for kids birthdays which makes for a fun party decoration!