Sunday, January 3, 2016

Pumpkin Chevron Birthday Banner - FREE PRINTABLE!

Another birthday, another banner right?  Well this time the banner is BOTH a Happy Birthday and a Happy Halloween Banner!  The free pdf that you can download (via Google Drive) will say both of these celebratory phrases plus have some blank pages so you can add a name of your own.

I really liked the chevron fish birthday banner I created for Lucky's under the sea birthday party, so I wanted to use that theme but make it more appropriate for a Halloween/Birthday/Housewarming Party.  I modified the black chevron background and pumpkin silhouette and then started looking for some fun Halloween Fonts.  

 From top to bottom: Jackie O’Lantern, JI Pumpkins, Zombie Holocaust, Serpents, Punkinhead, LT White Fang, LCR Pumpkin Face, Ghoul, Alpha Shapes Pumpkins.  All fonts downloaded for free from www.fontspace.com.
This Halloween party I planned was supposed to have the joy of Halloween, but not necessarily be spooky and scary.  I didn't want the fonts to look like blood or something that belonged on the cover of a Stephan King novel.  I started looking for Halloween fonts in August, but when I searched again on October 1 there were suddenly more available.  In looking through the 400+ fonts available I pulled 15 before narrowing them down the ones above.  In the end, I thought that LCR Pumpkin Face would be super cute on top of a pumpkin background, but wanted to do a test to make sure it would still be readable.  


I printed out a few pages at font size 225.  I also wanted to get the orange of the pumpkin just right, so Keith drew me the pumpkin silhouette in three different colors so we could pick our favorite based on the way they come out of the printer.  I like the color of the "P" pumpkin the best so that's the one that will become the focus of the sign.  

I wanted to use these banners for multiple events:  Lucky's birthday party and his birthday photoshoot outside.  Whatever we use on his actual birth day can double up for his birthday party, too.  


To help these many words fit in a smaller space, I printed the letters two to a sheet of paper, but you could make a much larger banner by printing one page per piece of paper.  


We took the Happy Birthday portion to use the banner for Lucky's 2 year birthday photoshoot outside.  I was a little worried that the letters would be hard to read but you have no trouble seeing the Happy Birthday of the signage!  The photoshoot itself would be really easy to recreate - find a location in the late afternoon light and add a stool and a pumpkin.  Technically I did "make" the stool.  When I was 10 years old or so my grandfather and I made it was a project while I was staying with him for a week, but I think I mostly did a tiny bit of hammering.  I've held onto it all of these years and it is really fun to have Lucky use it on his birthday.  


For Lucky's birthday party on Halloween we used the entire banner - Happy Birthday AND Happy Halloween.  What a fun way to celebrate!  I'll share more details about his Halloween Birthday Party in the next few months.


This banner is perfect for your kids or friends who have October birthdays, or to use for just a Halloween Party.  You can download the Pumpkin Halloween Chevron Birthday Banner through Google Docs to use at your own party.   Enjoy!

The contents of the Pumpkin Halloween Chevron Birthday Banner PDF

I loved the birthday photoshoot so much that I set up a little photobooth for the Halloween party.  Here is Lucky in his costume with a generic banner made with a blank chevron pumpkin and more of the LCR Pumpkin Face font pumpkins.