My daughter’s three year old Birthday party was this past Saturday.  Being the DIYer and frugal person that I am, I opted to have it at the house instead of at a location.  This gave me the opportunity to do what I love- which is entertain my friends and family and craft.  The theme was a storybook theme.   One of the crafts I chose to do was to make a banner for the party that read “Once Upon A Time”.  I was inspired by a trip to my FAVORITE place…the Dollar Tree.

Supplies:

1 book- for $1!!

Construction paper

Die cut letters (teacher section)

Ribbon

Glue stick

Hole punch

First I cut all the construction paper in half to make the base.  Easy stuff.

Second, I pulled out pages of the book I chose to make an interesting backdrop for the letters.

On a separate note…when choosing a book from the dollar store…make sure you READ the pages first. This book: seemed innocent enough…I mean it has parrots on the cover; I ASSUMED it was about a lost bird.  But upon further investigation into my little crafty time, it was discovered that this innocent bird book is a cover for a deeply disturbing sex novel filled with salacious scenes that made ME blush- and I’m 34!  AND this was only the first THIRTY pages!!!  I can’t even imagine what the rest of the book is about…which I might be buying again…you know…er…just out of curiosity…

After that little debacle- we (my trusty sidekick sister) and I were able to get to work making this super easy birthday banner.

Take a piece of the book page (WITHOUT sex scenes) and glue it onto a piece of construction paper:

Then take your die cut letters and glue those onto the book page:

Next, punch a hole in the top of the page and string a ribbon through to connect each piece.  I used curling ribbon and we tied the ribbon to each individual page to stabilize it and keep it from moving around so much.

The result is an easy banner in what ever wording you choose!

This is why I love the Dollar Tree and will forever be checking the content of the books I buy from there!