Do you love the festive red, white, and blue bunting that symbolizes patriotic flair that folks display on the 4th of July?  The American eagle and the Statue of Liberty are  two icons that come most to mind when a lot of us think about this holiday.  Here’s a handmade 4th of July banner that I created by designing my own  file.

4th of July Eagle

The 4th of July digital die cut banner tries to display this spirit.  I wanted to have both the typical bunting that was in a half circle to use on all patriotic holidays such as Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day.  But I also wanted to have some that could hold a message in the center.  That dictated that I make both a half circle for the “traditional” bunting, and a full circle to give room for a message in the interior.  The  file I created contains both, but only the full circle bunting is shown here.

Circle Bunting

I also wanted to capture the look and  feeling of handmade bunting with it’s irregular folds, a perfect symetrical image was not what I was looking for.  So I started with a photo of some handmade bunting and drew my inspiration from it.  The resulting banner captures the soft folds of the bunting.  To let the bunting display the message “July 4th” it was made circular.  Again from photos, I drew an eagle and the Statue of Liberty.  These were used to anchor either side of the banner.  To string it and hang it, each banner piece was set with three red grommets to blend in with the red paper.  While not necessary, grommets help reinforce the hole, and one need not fear damage when moving each piece on the string for proper spacing.  The use of three holes helps each piece lay in a more straight line than does two.

July 4th Banner

This banner was made from three colors (red, white, blue) of 8 ½ x 11 card stock, and made double sided.  That is, you can read the design from either side so it can be hung against a wall, or visible from both sides.  Spray adhesive, ribbon and grommets were the only other materials used.  Some of the pieces on the icons are detailed.  Vinyl could also be a good choice for the top layer which has the most detail if you are more comfortable with that medium for small detailed work.