Patriotic Plate Ribbon Banner

You can make this Patriotic Plate Ribbon Banner using seasonal paper plates for any patriotic celebration.

Months ago, I saw a banner made out of pumpkin paper plates and I thought I have to make one out of flag plates when summer comes around. I started stalking Target and Dollar Tree for the paper plates in May and finally found the perfect ones at Dollar Tree to make our Patriotic Plate Ribbon Banner. You can find some great ones at tons of different stores and online. I even linked to some cute and inexpensive ones on Amazon for you. I got the straws at Dollar Tree, too, but again, you can find cute patriotic paper straws all over during May and June.

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Patriotic Plate Ribbon Banner

Materials

• 8 or 9-inch Patriotic Paper Plates
• Blue Cardstock
• White Cardstock
• White 3/8-inch Satin Ribbon
• 2 Patriotic Paper Straws
• Scissors
• Single Hole Punch (This Type is Super Cool)
• Pencil
• Double-Sided Tape
• Glue Pen
• Printable Ribbon Banner Template
• Printable Varsity Letters OR
• Cricut Cutting Machine
• Varsity Letter Cartridge OR Cricut Access

Patriotic Plate Ribbon Banner Steps

1: Print and cut out the Printable Ribbon Banner Template on some cardstock. You’ll use this to trace around like a stencil, so printing on cardstock is ideal. Punch out the holes, too.

2: Trace the template around the center (or portion of the image in the center you want) including the holes. Repeat for as many plates as you will need to spell your desired word. I used five.

3: Cut out the ribbon banners from the plates. 

Punch out the holes with the hole punch. (The ones I linked to in the Materials work with very little pressure applied.)

4: If you have a Cricut, skip to Step 7. If you don’t, no problem, just sign up below to get access to our FREE Printables page where you’ll find the PDF used in Step 5.

5: Once you have the template saved, print just the first page on blue cardstock.  Cut out the letters and the stars. For the letters, cut along the outermost lines as indicated. 

6: Now print just the second page on white cardstock.  Cut out the letters and the stars, along the black lines on the letters. You can skip to Step 11!

7: If you’re using a Cricut, in Design Space, open a New Project and create a text box with a capital letter “U.” While the letter is selected, change the font to Cricut’s “Varsity” font. If you have Cricut Access, you may already have this font available, if not, you may need to purchase the digital cartridge.
Resize the “U” to 3 inches tall.
Copy/ paste the “U” twice and change those to “S” and “A.”

8: Next, you’ll need to click on all the little “eyes” over on the Layers Menu so you can see the second layers of the letters. Then right-click on each letter to ungroup them. Your colors may show up differently, they don’t matter as long as the similar layers are all the same color.

9: Now add a 3-inch star. Click on “Shapes” and then the “Star.” Resize to 3 inches tall. Over on the Layers menu, Color Sync it to the larger, outline “USA” so they’ll cut on the same mat. Select it and then click “Duplicate” so you have 2 stars.

Add another star and resize it to 2.5 inches tall so it fits inside the first star. Color Sync it to match the smaller, inside “USA” and duplicate that one for two again.

10: Cut the larger set on blue cardstock.

Then cut the smaller set on white cardstock.

11: For the Cricut cut pieces, attach the white layer underneath the blue layer using the glue pen. The smaller white stars will go on top of the larger blue stars.

For the hand-cut pieces, use the glue pen to attach the white pieces on top of the blue pieces.

12: Attach the letters and the stars to the banner pieces with the double-sided tape.

13: Cut the two straws into 2-inch pieces

14: Cut a 6-foot length of the ribbon.

15: String the banner pieces and the straw pieces alternately on the ribbon.

That’s it! I think this Patriotic Plate Ribbon Banner gives a lot of bang for the buck.

I chose for it to say U-S-A, but you could make a longer word that says FREEDOM or AMERICA, or even a name for a Boy Scout’s Eagle ceremony. If you don’t have a Cricut, and you want different letters, the font I used is called Collegiate Heavy. I love how this banner is super customizable. Comment below with how you’d customize it! If you make one, I’d love to see photos!

If you’re looking for more fun and easy Patriotic craft ideas to make, check out the tutorial for my American Flag Wreath. I used a few plastic table covers to make this one!

American Flag Wreath