Vintage Book Page Buntings and Table Runners

In finishing the series on how to use Vintage Book Pages for decor, I'll focus on the little buntings I made and the table runners.  So inexpensive and so fun...I think these two elements were among my favorites at our son's wedding rehearsal dinner.

I made three different kinds.  The one made of squares was easy.  I folded the papers to the width I wanted, and cut squares on the fold from book pages, black card stock, and hymn pages.  Put a bit of glue on the insides of the folded rectange, and then glue them with the black crochet thread sandwiched in the middle.  I spaced them out about every 3 inches.  Then when dry, use a small heart punch on the center of the folded paper.  (PS...it worked out GREAT to store them hanging over the top of our guest room door while I worked to get all six done.)

The pennant style bunting was made in the same way, altho the shapes cut were diamonds.  If you prefold your paper, then cut a long triangle shape on the fold, they will be nicely matched and easy to open, add a bit of glue, then glue them with the thread sandwiched in the middle.

Lastly I punched 1.5 inch circles out of book pages, cardstock, and hymn pages.  These I sewed together down the middle with my sewing machine.  So quick and easy.  I spaced them about 1/2 inch apart.

Please note that these buntings can tangle easily if you are transporting them someplace.  Wrap them around a piece of cardbord or a file folder, and they will stay tangle-free and flat until you are ready to use them.  Great way to store them after the party too.

Here is a view of how I layered them down the center of the table, on top of the paper table runner and plastic table runner.  (This photo was taken as I 'practiced' at home to see how it might all look for the dinner.)

Some of these adorable little buntings are now being used in my home!  :)

The book page table runners were made from old Ideals books.  The pages were the perfect width.  I used a craft knife to remove them from the books, used a paper edger to scallop the long sides of the page, and then zigzag sewed the short edge of every 2 pages together.  Because of the minute space between the sewed papers, they fold nicely into the size of one page, for storage and for transporting.

For the dinner I laid them end to end down the center of the table.  Only having every 2 pages sewn together allowed me the flexibility to put as many as needed down the table, since the tables were different lengths.  And the sewing gave the table runner, as a whole, more stability as a runner, than if all the pages had just been laid end to end without the sewing.

I've so enjoyed sharing these ideas with you.  Let me know if you make one of them!

Happy Crafting!

Donna
Linked To:
Sweet Little Gals
Made By You Monday

Vintage Book Decor ~ Rehearsal Dinner

Our sweet son just got married this past weekend in Chicago and I had the fun of putting together the decor for it!  

The dinner was held at a fabulous eclectic place in Logan Square called JAM.  Please give them a look-see at jamrestaurant.com, and make a point of dining here for breakfast, brunch, or lunch if you are in the area.  We had TONS of comments on the delicious and different foods that Chef Jeffrey Mauro served for our buffet dinner.  The service is fabulous, the building is gorgeous, and it's refreshing and different...but not weird.  :)  Chef Jeffrey is actually going to be featured on the Food Network this Spring in an episode of The Sandwich King!  

Our son loves to read and has alot of vintage books and vintage decor in his Chicago condo, so I found it a perfect match to use vintage books as the theme for my handmade decor.  I barely had to buy anything, as I already had vintage books to use for crafting and others to use for stacking.  So this was a very inexpensive genre to use, and so much fun!  I'll blog about the different things I made in several parts.  

I found this fantastic idea of 'book flowers' HERE...a big thank you to the creative blogger, Sara, who posted this tutorial!! I looked at our thrift store and found ONE vintage book with colored page edges.  For $1, I bought it, removed the cover with a craft knife, and it was rather easy to then do all the tucking of segments of pages.  A rubber band keeps it in place, and the ribbon dresses it up and covers the rubber band.

Isn't it pretty when the colored edge shows?  The spine of this book was too stiff to allow the book to bend completely around into a circle, but it worked GREAT as a half circle.

I made about 50 of these paper tags to dress the favors with, and used one of them to go in the center of the ribbon...the finishing touch.  More on these toppers another time.

Ready to try this project for yourself?!  It makes a great centerpiece for a table, but it's now also standing on my fireplace mantel here at home!  :)  Let me know if you make one!
Come back soon to see some of the other projects I made, including vintage page table runners, buntings, tags, and favors.

Enjoy!

Blessings,

Donna
Linked to:
Beyond the Picket Fence
My Romantic Home
Sunday Showcase
Sew Many Ways
Sweet Little Gals
Shabby Art Boutique
Finding Fabulous
Shaken Together