The Polka Dotted Zebra: October 2010

You have maybe seen pictures of these darling accordian style baners floating around. I was feeling generous and decided to make a brief tutorial for you. A BIG thank you to my cute crafty friend Holly Smith for teaching me how to do this and to her husband Landon that made the cutest graphic letters for us!!!!
Here is a picture of her banner. I love the look of packaging paper too, and it would go with any decor!

For this inexpensive project you will need:
Scrapbook or packaging paper (each 12x12 sheet will make two letters)
Adhesive (glue gun, sticky runners, stapler, your choice or whatever you have on hand)
Scissors (and a paper cutter if you have one)
Ribbon, hemp, or whatever you choose to string your letters on for your banner
Printer (to print out letters, or use cricut, whatever your preference)

1. Begin with a 6 inch x 12 inch piece of paper. You could choose to mix and match, use printed, solid, whatever your preference.
2. Fold it in half ("hot dog") or the vertical/skinny way so it looks like this:

3. Unfold and then fold accordian style about every inch. It may be easier for you to mark every inch on the back side if you are a perfectionist. (like me!)

4. Fold back in half like so, and secure the first ends with adhesive, or staple:

5. Do same to opposite side so you end up with a pinwheel like circle.

6. Repeat for each letter you need for your banner. (if you are making this Spooky one, 6 times)
7. Cut out your letters and glue to center of pinwheels. (I used hot glue)
8. Punch a small hole on top of each letter and assemble banner. (You can obviously adjust the length to make it longer or shorter depending on where you will hang it.)