Grad Party Yard Sign

Well, after a LOOOONG hiatus from posting any entries (although I've been busy at work on a bunch of projects,) I have a fun one for you. A friend recently threw her daughter's high school grad party and was looking for a fun, unique yard sign indicating the event.  I have been wanting to try my hand at one of those great pennant banners that are so popular right now.  This was the perfect opportunity. (Unless I was going to make one to celebrate my dog or something and put it in my own yard, I have no use for one!) First, I purchased 3/8 of a yard of 16 different fabrics of all different patterns and bright colors.  My banner has 8 pennants so I purchased two fabrics for each pennant.  I just picked off the shelf at the store and laid them out across my cart as I went to make sure they were generally compatible.  When I got home, I laid them out in pairs that would eventually go together.  Here are the colors I chose. Brenna, the graduate, has such a fun and funky style and I really enjoyed picking out cute fabric that I thought she would like. 

I used inexpensive canvas as the backer to add a little strength to each pennant and cut the pattered fabric with a one inch border of canvas showing.  A rotary cutter and cutting mat with guide made the job really quick and simple.  I eyeballed the size I wanted on the first one and they ended up being 14 3/4" across the top and 17" at the longest point for length.  That's the measurement for the canvas, the fabric then, would be one inch smaller in each direction. 

To join the two pieces, I used fusible webbing from the fabric store.  Following manufacturer's directions, I ironed the rough (non-paper) side to the wrong side of the pattered fabric first.  Then, removed the paper and centered the fabric on the canvas before ironing with a hot iron again to "glue" the two together. 

Then, for a little added pizzazz, I stitched a simple zigzag stitch around the border.

With the second fabric print that I chose to go on each pennant, I cut a strip that was 4" wide and as long as the width of the fabric from salvage edge to salvage edge.  I planned on making pleated flowers to go in the center of each pennant. Using heavy spray starch, I ironed each strip in a fan fold with roughly 1" wide pleats.  It took a lot of ironing to get the starch to dry/stiffen thoroughly, but that's a really important step. Once the fabric was pleated, starched, ironed and cooled, I counted the pleats on each one and cut the tail of fabric off so that each "fan" had  14 peaks and 14 valleys.  On the last one I cut 1/2 way though the 1" pleat (you will see this in the next picture.) I gathered the fan together and ran a large needle with thread through all layers near the to edge. Tie in a a square knot snugly to gather in the center.

In the above photo you can see the little 1/2" piece I was referring to.  That creates the valley where you are going to join the beginning and the end to make a round, pleated rosette.  I added a line of fabric glue to the 1/2" section on the right side of the fabric and pulled the opposite end around and lined up the raw edge into the valley with the glue.

I really like Beacon Adhesives Fabri-Tac because it's clear, it's thick, so it doesn't bleed through the fabric and it grabs almost instantly so you don't have to sit there and hold your pieces together for very long. I glued the pleated flowers to the center of each pennant using the same glue.  Using my Cricut, I cut out of black card stock the letters to spell out Brenna's name as well as a 2012 and graduation cap image. I attached those with Fabri-Tac as well, putting the glue on the back of the letters since they were being laid down on just the peaks of the pleats. 

For the "Congratulations" sign, I used a left over piece of sanded plywood that was 2'x8' and I ripped a piece of pine down to 1 1/4" wide to create a frame around the plywood.  After attaching the frame with brad nails, I primed (shown in the picture) and painted with black chalkboard paint. 

I didn't get any pictures of this part of the project, but you can see the finished product in the final pictures.  I cut out the word CONGRATULATIONS on my Cricut and kept the reverse image of each letter to use as a stencil.  Using a paint sponge and white primer (which is flat and chalk-looking,) I painted on the word congratulations, making sure to lay out my stencil firsthand and measure to find the center.  My husband had some angled pieces of aluminum with holes that worked great for legs because we could easily pound them into the ground and they already had holes to screw through to attach the sign.  Here's the final product:

I hung a little bucket of chalk to one side so Brenna's friend's and family could write her little notes of congratulations or sign their name.

Mom got to write the first note! You can also kind of see in the below photo that I added silver grommets to the corners of the pennants and you can see how I joined each one with a short piece of twine, linking them together.

I think it looks even cuter after all the signatures and notes are written all over it.  Definitely a fun project that I wouldn't mind doing again.

Have a great week!