PATRIOTIC RIBBON BANNER

Have you been seeing the patriotic ribbon/rag banners on Pinterest?  I have been wanting to make one for a long time!  As a matter of fact, all of the ribbons that I purchased last summer were beginning to get that dusty dull, so it was finally time to see what I could make.  My mother and sister were my guinea pigs, as they received for Mother's Day the first two that I made.  

As my son was working in the yard one day, I asked him to find some sticks that were a decent size.  He looked at me like I'd lost my mind, but the ones he found were perfect.  Now . . . a lot of the banners that I have seen have been quite large, and I think that's what kept me from getting started with the ribbons I have collected.  I wasn't sure how far my ribbons would go or if I would need to add some torn strips of fabric.  The thought process always got to be too much for my little mind, so I kept looking at the basket of ribbons (or adding to it) and walking away.  But then it occurred to me that I could make a smaller banner, and that's when I got busy.

The basket doesn't look too big, but it held quite an assortment of ribbons and trims, including three different lace selections.  Yes, I really did add chicken wire to my banners.  I can't explain what possessed me to purchase it for this project--it just felt right and, in the end, I loved the aesthetic of it!   It's just so unexpected, you know?

Not a very good photo (it's overcast today), but this is the banner on my door.  It wasn't originally created to take the place of my usual wreath, but I don't yet have my other patriotic porch decor and don't know where I'm going to want to hang the banner on the porch.  Notice the star?  I used a die to cut that (very sharp) shape from metal flashing and think it is a nice addition.  The photo below gives a closer look at some of my ribbon selections.  Most of the ribbons had wired edges, but they worked well.  I ended up cutting some of the wider ribbons in half so they would be easier to work with and less bulky.

The last thing that I added to my banner was the "celebrate USA" chalkboard tag.  That idea just came to me today, and I found an extra tag that I had cut last year with the scroll saw.  

The following Chalk Couture products were used to make the tag:

Handwritten Font chalk transfer

Beach Day chalk transfer

Bright White chalk paste

Ocean Mist chalk paste

Candy Apple ink

Placement Tape (to cover areas of the Beach Day image that I didn't want to chalk)

Mini Squeegee

Multi Tool

This was the first time I have used the Handwritten Font, and I found it very easy to work with!  It helped that the letters were a perfect fit for my tag, but the transfer has registration marks to make lining up the letters with perfect spacing an easy chore.  I didn't use those marks while working on my tag and realized halfway through that I could have left more space between the letters.  BUT . . . if I had done that, I wouldn't have had the perfect amount of space for "USA" at the bottom of the tag.  Uh huh . . . it works perfectly for me.

And on the subject of patriotic projects, let me end this post by sharing (again) photos of the pillow cover that I did last year (first shared in this blog post).  It features a wool applique design that I stitched onto the cover.  I 💕 this pillow so much!!!