High Chair Ribbon Banner

Today, I started and completed my first project for Denver's birthday party.  It came together so quickly, I was able to do it during nap time with materials I (mostly) already had.  I did have to get a couple of rolls of ribbon but I found them for $1 from the Dollar Tree, so this whole project cost me only a few dollars.

I originally saw this on Pinterest and added it to the list of projects I wanted to complete for Denver's party.  Since then, I've seen a few friends do it for their little ones birthday parties and I just that I had to do it - I think it's so easy and adorable.

They make something similar in the store out of really thin plastic, shaped like pennants (sp?), but I decided I liked the way this looked better.

Because I haven't done a "tutorial" in so long, I thought I would share how I made it and exactly how easy it is to make.

First I took a roll of white grosgrain ribbon and started one one side of Denver's high chair tray and unrolled it until I got to the other side, to see how long it needed to be. 

I then held up a roll of colored ribbon and let it hang down from the tray so I could see how long the banner would be and approximately where to cut the ribbon.

Then I just started unrolling ribbon and cutting like a mad woman.  I didn't want all of my ribbon the same length so some are shorter and some are longer than the "main" length.

Then I got out my hot glue gun and started gluing.  There is no rhyme or reason to it or any pattern, I just grabbed ribbon and started gluing.  As you can see, I cut the ribbon at different angles and at different lengths and I didn't worry about gluing the ribbons evenly.  I knew I wanted them to overlap so I just went to town!

An upclose pic - all of the ribbon is just glued on.  Don't spend a lot of time placing them just perfectly because no one will see this part.

I just overlapped and overlapped and then overlapped some more.  I used a lot of ribbon - a lot more than I've seen anyone else use.  I say this because you shouldn't worry if you want it to have a lot of ribbon or just a few ribbons - every way I've seen this done has been adorable.  You seriously can't go wrong!  Then I just measured a blue ribbon the length of the white base ribbon to glue over the individual ribbon pieces.

I had glued some of the ribbons too far up on the white ribbon, so I just trimmed the overlap and then heat sealed them with a lighter so they wouldn't fray.

This is what the finished project looks like.  So quick and easy and adorable!

Tada!  It's all done!  I used tape to hang it up, but for the day of the party I'll be using glue dots under the white ribbon to hang it where nothing is showing. 

Now, my first instinct was to iron all of that ribbon to lay down straight but the more I look at it, the more that the ribbons are different lengths and that some of them curl and twist and that they are cut at different angles.  I just went across the bottom of each ribbon with a lighter to heat seal them so that none of them fray between now and the party.

So easy and so cute!  Project 1 down, only 967 more to go!  :)