Aloha, all!
I'm sure that you know all about the various meanings of the Hawaiian word, "Aloha." But another phrase you may have heard in a song but not frequently read online is "Aloha 'Oe." That's a phrase that bids farewell.
Today, at our regular Sunday Duplicate Bridge game, we say, "Aloha 'Oe," to a treasured member of our club. He is British and has been working on our island for several years. Now, however, it's time for him to return to England, and we'll miss him dearly. So we're having a small party in his honor and my husband, the bridge manager, asked if I could make a banner. Of course I could make a banner!
For this banner, I used the Stampin' Up! Build a Banner Simply Created Kit. I originally bought it last fall intending to use it for various Christmas gatherings. But then our move to get away from the lava made life a bit too hectic, and so the banner kit sat unused – until yesterday! Out it came and I cannot believe how quickly this project took shape!.
Speaking of shapes, all three of the banner shapes included in this banner are made of a canvas- type of paper, and they are SOOOO easy to color up with the stencils that area also included in the kit.
The kit comes with a Stampin' Spritzer bottle, and I had other bottles that I could have used to color the banners. But I started reading about how to "protect areas" and "don't make too wet" and so forth, and decided spritzing was not going to work for me.
What did work though – and beautifully! – was sponging! So I sponged away, alternating the three stencil background patterns that come with the kit as well as the three colors I'd chosen: Pacific Point, Crushed Curry, and Real Red. Here are a few of the banners up close.
Once the backgrounds were done, I needed to decided what colors I was going to use for the letters to spell Malcolm's name. Finally, just to simplify my life, I stenciled all the letters using Real Red. Yes, there is a stencil for every letter of the alphabet!
I also wanted to use some wide ribbon in between each banner. The Crushed Curry Striped Grosgrain Ribbon in my stash was perfect. Alas, I did not have any other color that would work. Then I remembered all those boxes of retired product that I've still not advertised on eBay, and I knew where retired ribbons were. Sure enough, there was the retired Pacific Point Ribbon!. Perfect. You gotta love it when being lazy pays off!
After making this banner, I still have plenty of banner blanks left. But even if I didn't, Stampin' Up! sells the blank canvas paper pennants and the the jute twine for hanging the banner is a separate Refill Kit!
I see more banners in my future. Do you have birthdays, showers, graduations – anything like that coming up! This is SOOOO easy and so much fun. You should try it out! Here's all you need to make your own Build a Banner!
