One of the easiest and cheapest ways to dress up a birthday party is using those inexpensive rolls of crepe paper streamers. They can really create a wow factor. When it came time to decorate for our daughter’s second birthday, I wanted to create coils of colorful crepe paper bunting to decorate the large space around our outdoor dining area.
Today, I’m sharing the tutorial for how to create DIY paper bunting.
Supplies
The supplies to make your own crepe paper bunting streamers are pretty simple:
- Crepe Paper Rolls (Walmart)
- Twine, Jute or String (Home Depot)
- Staples and Stapler (Walmart)
- Scissors
When it comes to selecting the colors of crepe paper streamers, I love the look of choosing three of your themed party colors. You can choose as many as you like (go wild!) or just go with one, but I subscribe to the rule of threes. Hence I chose pink, white, and purple for a berry-themed birthday party.
Why Use Crepe Paper Streamers?
Crepe paper streamers are one of my favorite materials to work with when decorating a themed party. One, they are ridiculously inexpensive. I got each of the six rolls for Bea’s berry-themed birthday party for only $1 per roll from Walmart. Crepe paper from Walmart is the best. And two, they come in just about every color imaginable.
How To Make Crepe Paper Bunting
Making crepe paper bunting is one of the easiest birthday party decor ideas I’ve ever brought to life. And I’ve had some pretty nuts ideas, just ask my husband. For the time I wanted to turn the wall of the dining room into a giant under-the-sea backdrop.
It took us a while to come up with a system to get started, especially with two children (ages six and two) who desperately wanted to help. Here’s the how-to.
Precut Streamers
Determine the length of the streamers for your bunting and precut a stack of them.
We tested out a shorter length of 8″ hanging (16″ cut because of the fold) which we liked inside. Outside, because of the breeze, the length looked too short. We opted for a 12″ hanging (24″ cut) length.
Cut And Hang String
Next, precut your string. First, measure the space where the streamers would hang. Take your string or jute for a dry run and hang it in your space before attaching the crepe paper. Then cut all the strings you need, with a little extra at each end to help with hanging.
For our project, I needed six strands of jute at 23′ apiece. I ended up cutting the six strands at 25′ each to give us a foot at each end to hang the crepe paper banner outside.
Place Crepe Paper
This is where we came up with an efficient system and strung the jute across our dining room so we could place the crepe paper pattern all at once. A large space to work is helpful!
At first, we had the string on the table and just placed and attached one piece at a time. You could totally do this, but it took forever compared to hanging the jute.
Also, note…toddler doing toddler things and “helping.”
Staple Crepe Paper
Next, adjust each piece of crepe paper and staple them all. Staple through both layers of paper, just underneath where it’s folded over the string.
Our original plan was to glue the paper using either glue dots or the kids’ glue. But we quickly nixed that idea because we knew it would take too long.
At first, we were trying to staple the crepe paper to the string to keep the paper from shifting. This led to the crepe paper banner ripping more in the breeze. If we stapled the crepe paper just below the string, yes the streamers shifted along the jute some but they didn’t rip.
Hang Immediately
Doing this project the morning of our daughter’s party was imperative due to rain the day before but it also made it easier since you really do need to hang the bunting right after you create it.
The one time we just coiled the banner up on the table to move on to the next, the string and the streamers got SO tangled. From then on, hang as we go was our mantra.
Finished DIY Paper Bunting
And scene. A finished DIY paper bunting for our daughter’s second birthday. The rest of the day, as I baked a cake and cooked dinner for our friends and family, I could see the bunting streamers fluttering in the breeze.
It was so charming and somewhat therapeutic to watch. Especially while I was boiling potatoes and the layer cake I was frosting melted and slid apart due to the heat and humidity in the kitchen. The joys of summer birthdays!
After the party, since no rain was expected for a few days, we left the streamers up. They were magical and we enjoyed them so much.
How Big Were Our Crepe Paper Banners?
The banners we created were 23′ long each with individual streamers of 24″, folded over for a finished length of 12″. Each streamer was placed about 6-8″ apart.
Six strands of these banners were plenty big to cover the space above our outdoor dining room table. It was also enough streamers to be a focal point and provide enough visual impact to make it worthwhile.
How Many Crepe Paper Rolls?
I bought about 12 rolls of streamers because who wants to head back to the store mid-project?! It only took six rolls to complete the DIY paper bunting. This was for about 140′ of bunting streamers.
To estimate the quantity you need first figure out your total length. For us, this was the 23′ for each strand multiplied by the six strands. A total of 138′ for our project.
Then multiply your total feet by two to get the total number of streamer strands needed. This is estimating a streamer every six inches or two streamers per foot. For our project, take the 138′ times two for a total of 276 pieces.
Then multiply the number of streamer pieces you need by your desired streamer length, factoring in the fold. This looks like the 276 pieces I needed times 2 since the sizes I used were 2′ pieces, folded over to 1′. This yielded a grand total of 552′ of streamers.
Finally, divide by the length of each streamer roll. Each roll I purchased was 150′. So 552′ divided by 150′ gave me 3.68. Since I was using three separate colors, just buying one roll of each wouldn’t be enough. So two rolls of each color left plenty extra for mistakes.
How Much Did It Cost?
It cost us a whopping $11.99 to create the crepe paper bunting for Bea’s party. Best twelve bucks I’ve ever spent for birthday party decor!
Here’s the supplies list with the cost breakdown:
- (1) Roll of jute – $4.67 (Home Depot)
- (6) Rolls of Crepe Streamers – $6 (Walmart)
- (1) Box of Staples – $1.32 (Walmart)
How Much Time To Create DIY Paper Bunting
The banners didn’t take nearly as much time to create as we expected. To make and hang these banners took us about an hour and a half. But that was with the two of us making them together. It would definitely take longer with just one person.
The longest part was figuring out how to make them and creating a system for hanging the string in the dining room, which speeded up banner creation immensely.
Other Party Banner Options
I really adored the result of these crepe paper banners and I definitely want to recreate them for future birthday parties. It’s right up there with our big number photo collage birthday tradition.
I’ve tried quite a few DIY banners and other backdrops in the past, like making my own tassel garland and tissue paper banners. But creating coils of colorful crepe paper bunting streamers has been my favorite.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial along with a first look at Beatrix’s second birthday party! A full-party post is coming up soon!
