Strawberry book-page banners

After making heart-themed book page buntings
 
fromthis tutorial, I went on to make flower-themed ones

and decided I would design some strawberry themed buntings/banners for my dining room.  As time goes on I want to make some with a patriotic theme and some with autumn leaves.

Today, though,  I want to share the strawberry book page banners I made for my dining room windows.  These were so easy and fun to make.  One could use any theme at all.  I chose strawberries because I collect them and my kitchen and dining area have a strawberry theme.  I didn't take step by step photos but am going to try and present this as a tutorial of sorts.  Just adapt according to whatever theme you choose.

Some supplies you may need

1.  First, make a template for the individual banners.  You could use pennant-shaped triangles, half circles, ovals, or whatever you like.  I used rectangular ones with a v-shaped cutout at the bottom.  Draw or trace the shape you choose onto heavy cardboard and cut it out.

2.  Find an old book  to use for the banners.  I chose an old cookbook (from the California Fruit Growers) for this one.  Decide about how many individual banners you need to make by holding one up to your window and deciding how many would look good according to the width of your window.  (My dining room window needs about seven for each garland and my kitchen window looks best with five.)  Select the desired amount of book pages for each window.  Then trace around your template on each page** and cut the individual banners out.

3.  This step may be unnecessary, but I like to measure and draw a line across the top of each banner, a half inch down from the top.  Then I fold on this line, creasing it carefully.  This half-inch of paper will form the "casing" by which you'll thread your banners on the twine later to hang them.

4.  Now get ready to embellish the individual banners.  In my case, I wanted to use strawberries.  I searched online for a strawberry template without much success.  I ended up using a picture in a coloring book, then tracing a strawberry and hull separately on red dotted scrapbooking paper and green card stock.  I cut 2-inch squares of light green dotted scrapbooking paper and glued them diamond-wise on the book page banners.  Then I centered a strawberry on most of them, glued it on and then glued the hull at the top of the strawberry.  On the other squares, I used white buttons with yellow beads glued to the centers for strawberry blossoms, and added green rickrack for stems.

5.  Almost done!  Now you are going to thread the banners onto baker's twine, ribbon, jute, rickrack or whatever you choose to make the garlands.  I used red and white baker's twine.  Cut a piece longer than you think you'll need for the width of your window.  Then slide each banner in place with the twine in the fold of that folded-down edge you made previously, and staple the free end of that edge to the back of the banner, trying not to catch the twine in your staple.  You want the banners to be able to slide freely along the twine so you can get them at the proper distance from one another. 

A closer look at this process

Now make a loop at each end  of your twine so you can slide the loop over a tack or pushpin at either side of the top of your window frame.

6.  Hang up your book page garlands. 
 
All done!  They are beautiful!

** As I mentioned in my post about the flower-themed buntings, be sure the book you choose would be appropriate for any visitors to your home to read.  People will read them as they admire your banners, so choose carefully.  The cookbook pages worked perfectly for this fruit-themed trim.