<\/a>When most folks in the crafty community talk about making banners, the style that is normally thought of is shabby chic or vintage. I decided that I would try something a little different and approach making this pennant like an art journal page. <\/a>I was inspired by a beautiful poem by Maya Angelou called, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” (which I printed out on watercolor patterned paper and put on the back), and I took the opportunity to play with lots of different materials. I started with water color paper on the front, which I colored up with my Faber Castell Gelatos, mushing around the color with a little water on my index finger. Then I used some wood veneer adhesive backed papers (gifted to me by YT: Candace Scarborough) and a Tim Holtz dies of a bird cage and a bird. I accented the bird cage with some metal photo corners by 7 Gypsies, and laced through some narrow satin ribbon through the holes at the bottom of the cage. I also got to use a homemade stencil of flying birds, gifted to me by my friend Rosa (YT: ColorXplosion by Rosa). Using some Ranger Distress Inks in Vicotrian Velvet and Walnut Stain and a dauber I got the opaque to translucent effect I wanted on these birds. \u00a0I used E6000 to glue some\u00a0metal flowers in a couple of the open spaces as well as a bird cage and bird charm (which I also attached with another satin ribbon) to add some more interest and dimension.<\/p>\n

There seemed to be too much contrast between the woods and the metals and the background colors so I toned down the vibrancy of the background my stamping some music notes using the Ranger Distress Ink Vintage Photo. Ahhh, that was better. I like how the banner came out in the end, and I was really happy that I got to take a less beaten path to banner making with this project.<\/p>\n

This banner with the metal flowers is also being entered into the One Sweet Challenge for May<\/a><\/p>\n

The following is a video share of the project, which includes a reading of the poem:<\/p>\n