![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Happy-Birthday-Banner-1.jpg\" "\\"Happy")
<\/a><\/p>\nLove the bright colors!<\/p>\n
I used some scrapbook paper purchased about 3 years ago when I thought I would have time to make these amazing scrapbooks to document The Littlest Apple’s life.\u00c2\u00a0 3 years later<\/em>, this is the first time I’ve used this paper.\u00c2\u00a0 (You can see more of this paper in the background of the photo in my Apple Pie Scented Playdough<\/a> post).\u00c2\u00a0 LOVE it!<\/p>\n So, Ross Boss and I didn’t really measure anything.\u00c2\u00a0 We eyeballed all of it.<\/p>\n First we played “guess and print” until we found a font style and size we liked.\u00c2\u00a0 I think we wound up using Font Size 500.\u00c2\u00a0 Then we printed out all of the letters we would need.<\/p>\n At this point, we were having trouble figuring out how to get the letters traced onto the solid cardstock.\u00c2\u00a0 Ross Boss said “It’s too bad you don’t have one of those cool light table things, so we could just trace the letters onto the cardstock.” And a lightbulb went off in my head…we could use a window.<\/em> It was pure genius, I tell ya.<\/p>\n Except that it didn’t quite work for the green cardstock.\u00c2\u00a0 For the green letters, I just taped the cardstock behind the paper with the letter and cut through both sheets simultaneously.<\/p>\n Next, we glued the white cardstock to the colorful scrapbook paper, then glued the letter on top, leaving room at the top of the cardstock for hole punches.\u00c2\u00a0 We used adhesive spray, which works great for projects like this (and I much prefer it to Mod Podge), but Ross Boss and I both learned the hard way that it is REALLY hard to get the spray adhesive off your hands.<\/p>\n I added a rectangle with stars made with a giant star punch to separate “happy” and “birthday.”\u00c2\u00a0 I intended to add some stars randomly to the rest of the banner, but didn’t quite get back to that.<\/p>\n Finally, I punched holes at the top a few inches apart (using a regular hole punch) then fed my blue ribbon through, trying to make it lay as flat as possible against the backdrop of the white cardstock.<\/p>\n Now that I’ve entered the world of paper crafts, I can’t wait to make something else with all of the beautiful scrapbook paper.\u00c2\u00a0 You know, something besides scrapbooks<\/em>!<\/p>\n PS.\u00c2\u00a0 I also wanted to share a FAIL.\u00c2\u00a0 While Ross Boss was working on cutting out the letters for the Happy Birthday Banner, I was attempting to make a Buzz Lightyear Cake, using this cakepan…<\/p>\n Have you ever tried<\/em> decorating a cake like this?\u00c2\u00a0 Well I hadn’t, until this.\u00c2\u00a0 I knew it would be tedious, but it was SO DIFFICULT!\u00c2\u00a0 I probably should have practice my technique first with a simpler design.\u00c2\u00a0 Also, the little insert with the directions and the photo to use as your guide is reversed<\/em> from the way your cake actually looks.\u00c2\u00a0 A few days after this FAIL, I realized I could have rigged up a mirror or something so that the image “matched” what I was trying to decorate.\u00c2\u00a0 But my brain kind of imploded while I was trying to do this.\u00c2\u00a0 After my cake broke coming out of the pan, trying to smooth it out with frosting (which effectively removed all of the contours of the cake pan), I only got as far as the black outlines (which I kind of just made up as I went along) and filling a few areas before I threw in the towel.\u00c2\u00a0 It took me several hours <\/em>to do that much, and I didn’t even get to the main part of piping in the rest of the colors.\u00c2\u00a0 Besides, that was just a practice cake…I was either going to have to do it all over again the night before the party or somehow freeze this cake for a week until the party.\u00c2\u00a0 Cake decorating is so<\/em> NOT my thing.<\/p>\n Poor, deranged Buzz….<\/p>\n <\/em>We went with hastily decorated cupcakes and cupcake toppers instead.\u00c2\u00a0 And they were just fine.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
![\n<\/a>](\"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Buzz-Lightyear-Cake-Pan.jpg\"){kind=link}