The Savage Flower

A Handmade Life

Baby Face Birthday Banner

It was my nephew’s first birthday last week and we threw him a little man’s ‘stache bash. It just so happens there are no mustaches involved in this first project, but I am so in love with it. I saw this super cute baby face birthday banner by Stephanie over at Simply Radiant and knew I wanted to make one, or two, or five.

These banners are the perfect excuse to bust out the millions of photos you’ve taken of your cutie throughout their first year. And it’s guaranteed to make folks smile as they walk in.

What you’ll need:

[list style=”style6″]
[li]baby faces printed on cardstock[/li]
[li]patterned cardstock[/li]
[li]double-stick tape[/li]
[li]tissue paper[/li]
[li]scissors[/li]
[li]ribbon[/li]
[/list]

Select several photos of the birthday boy/girl on your computer and crop them down to just their little heads. Gather a variety of expressions : big smiles, grins, yawns, sad faces, etc.

Change the color of the photos to black and white. You can make the faces as big as you’d like, but I decided to fit two per page. Print them out on card stock.
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To crop photos:

1. Find photo on your computer. Right click on it and open with Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

2. In picture manager, go to the top bar and click on Picture, then in the drop down menu Color.

3. On the right side bar there are three sliding bars: Amount, Hue, and Saturation. Slide the saturation all the way to the left (-100%) to make the photo black and white.

4. Go back to the Picture drop down menu and click Crop. Then just crop close enough to the head (you’ll be cutting around the face later). Most of my faces were about 4″ x 5 “. They don’t need to be the exact same size, as long as they’re close.

5. Save the cropped black and white image.Then import two cropped heads per page in Word (landscape orientation) and then print them off.  Most of the photos I started with were very large image files (from my DSLR camera). When cropped down to just the head, they were still very clear. I also used a couple of my sister’s Facebook photos, which were poorer quality and little blurry once cropped, but I was fine with it.
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Cut around each face. I left card stock on top of the heads to support the party hats.

Cut triangles out of patterned card stock for the party hats and secure on each head with double-stick tape.

To make the fringe for the party hats, start with three strips of tissue paper the width of the faces and about two inches long.

Stack the three pieces of tissue paper on top of each other and cut towards the middle all the way down to create fringe.

Cut down the other side as well, make sure to leave some space down the center.

Run some double-stick tape along the bottom of the party hat.

Now grab each end of the fringed tissue and twist a few times before pressing to the double-stick tape. Fluff up the fringe and trim any crazy stray fringe pieces.

Once all faces have been hatted and fringed, string them up with ribbon. I used two rows of ribbon taped behind the faces and the hats.

Comments

  8. Sure Samantha. There are a lot of different ways to do it and programs to use. But here's what I considered to be the easiest (hence what I did):

    1. Find the photo saved on your computer that you want to use. Right click on it and open with Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

    2. In office picture manager, go to the top bar and click on –> Picture then in the drop down menu –> Color.

    3. On the right side bar you'll see three sliding bars: Amount, Hue, and Saturation. Slide the saturation all the way to the left (-100%) to make the photo black and white.

    4. Go back to the Picture drop down menu and click –> Crop. Then just crop close enough to the head (you'll be cutting around the face later). Most of my faces were about 4 inches wide and 5 inches long. But they don't have to all be be exactly the same size.

    5. Save the cropped black and white image. I then just imported two cropped heads per page in Word (landscape orientation) and then printed them off. 🙂

    Most of my photos that I started with were very large image files from my Canon camera. So when I cropped them down to just the head they were still very clear. I also used a couple of my sister's Facebook photos which are going to be less quality and little blurry once cropped, but I was fine with it.

    Hope that helps. Let me know how your daughter's banner turns out!

  9. I love how you said "some party goers thought they were really cute, some thought they were a wee bit 'creepy.'" I think this is absolutely adorable and I can't wait to make one for my daughter's first birthday. Thanks for the inspiration!

  11. I recently made this for my son's 18th birthday, using photos from when he was a baby, up until recently. It looked wonderful, and he loved it so much it's actually hanging in his room now. Thank you so much for this great idea and such an easy to follow tutorial!

  13. I made two of these for a niece and a nephew. They were a huge hit! They really didn't take much time, either. I kept the photos in color. Thanks so much.

  14. Question on the card stock to print the photo's on. Is it 8×11 cardstock? I want to make one for my daughter's 1st birthday, cute idea!

  16. Yeah, it was 8.5 x 11" cardstock and I fit two faces on one sheet. You can definitely make the faces bigger or smaller, based on preference. But I found that two faces per page was the perfect size.

    Each face wasn't exactly the same size down to the millimeter – I just eyeballed them. Either way I think your guests will love it. It was so much fun at my nephew's first birthday. Let me know how your daughter's banner turns out. 🙂

  17. This is awesome. I am stockpiling this in my ideas for birthday parties. My stepdad makes the most hilarious faces and isn't too far away from 60, so I may even hang on to this for his shindig!

  19. Wow this is a beautiful idea!! I plan on doing this for my son's 1st bithday party. I do have a ? though, how do you import the photos into word?

  21. If you have the photos on your computer, just click the "insert" tab at the top of word. Then click "picture." Then you can browse for the file with your photos on the computer.

  22. Love this idea. And making one for my daughter's birthday.

    Can you explain a little more about how you did the fringe? Not having in luck. Does the whole stripe get twisted before placing on the tape or just the ends?

  23. Well I held one end still, then twisted the other end until the whole thing twisted then pushed it to the tape. It's a bit tricky. You kind of have to mess with it a little, until it looks right. Good luck with it! Let me know how it turns out.

  26. What a great idea! I too made these for my son's 1st birthday party and they were a hit! I had a hard time understanding how to twist delicate tissue paper without it tearing, so I glued each of the 3 pieces together down the center after cutting the fringe.

  27. Thanks for sharing this!!! Everyone including my one year old got a kick out of his little face hanging up aroud his first party! There face changes so much over the first year, this is a great showcase. I lamenated the faces and plan to save them for his 18th birthday.

  28. I made one for my Great Grandsons 1st birthday 3 years ago, now making another for my Grandsons 1st birthday, I am not too fond of my new computer print software so I found Lunapic, free and a great easy to use online picture editor. Go there you wont be disappointed! They have a circular crop tool that makes the photos relatively the same size.