Custom Banners For Every Occasion
Custom Banners for Every Occasion
How to make Custom Banners using Your Cricut Explore
Nothing says party like great decorations and custom banners are such a fun way to riff on a theme and amp up the party atmosphere.
The Cricut Explore makes it really easy to make a fun banner AND easy to customize–even if Cricut Access doesn’t have the exact right clipart for your party theme.
When I first bought my Cricut Explore, I hated it! I’m one of those people that reads a million reviews before spending more than $20 on something and so I was excited to jump into the digital age of crafting. I’d read about all the customizing you can do and I dreamed of one-of-a-kind projects.
Truth is, the Cricut has a big learning curve and my dreams soon turned to throwing the machine against a wall. Cricut Design Space isn’t as intuitive as I’d hoped and it was only when I pushed myself to make something every week that it became my favorite crafting tool.
This project will make the Cricut your favorite crafting tool. It’s an easy project, but thanks to just a couple of tweeks it’s also an impressive one.
The first thing I did was take advantage of the amazing scrapbook paper pads that you can buy at any craft store or even at Walmart. A single pad contains several different patterns of paper, all color coordinated for a cohesive look. So you can use a few sheets for your banner and a few for some cupcake wraps and a few more for the flags on top of those cupcakes. One pad, lots of party supplies.
The second frustration I have with the Cricut library of images is that (understandably) it’s focused on cut files. Don’t get me wrong! I love cut files and use tons of them, but sometimes you really need good clipart. Clipart is known in the Cricut Design Space as Print Then Cut files. They’re getting more, but the pickings are still slim. And clipart is the second easy tweet to making great custom banners. Because if your kid loves an obscure cartoon character, or your teen wants everything to be about Harry Styles, then you’re going to need to import some great clipart.
I get all my clipart at The Hungry Jpeg. (That’s an affiliate link which means I make a little bit of money if you buy something after clicking it). It’s because I can buy the monthly bundle for about $25 and I get more clipart than I know what to do with, and so it makes me happy. I don’t buy Starbucks so I figure I can splurge on my clipart fix. They have tons of free clipart too. So that’s where I got my clipart for the cats in the banner. You can also get great clipart on Etsy or you can image search using Google and pickup images to import for great banners.
It’s so much easier to walk you through your first custom banner by video. So the first video is how to create your banner using the Cricut Design Space. I walk you through uploading the clipart. I also show you how to arrange your cut pieces so that you make banners that use your beautiful paper in the most efficient way possible. That’s another thing that drove me crazy about the Cricut at first–paper waste. So I solve that for you too.
Want more Cricut Projects? Check them all out here.
The second video just shows you how I put it all together. It’s also great because you can see how easy it would be to customize a dollar store banner just by printing out some pretty clipart. Because, if your kid is into Captain America it’s easier to skip using the Cricut and embellish what’s already available in the party aisle.
I’m starting a little Facebook Group where we live craft a couple times per month. Sometimes it’s a Cricut craft, or junk journals, or a little paint project. I don’t have a bunch of crafty friends and so I’m starting this group so we can craft together. If you’d like email information and updates, then sign up for our Craft and Chat list.
As always, signing up for our weekly newsletter get you access to my HUGE FREEBIE LIBRARY. You’ll never wonder what to do next. There’s more projects than time!
