fairy wishes...

I love to make banners. Don't be fooled into thinking they're only for holiday- banners are a fun way to decorate! As soon as I saw the sweet Fairy Wishes illustrated paper pack I thought it had everything a little girl could want to make her bedroom a magical place!

The finished artwork was perfect for me, as I would never consider myself an artist with pen and paper. No way, no how, but... with the darling little fairies already colored in... how could I go wrong? Put away your scissors too, because the dies from the Fairy Reflections collection make fast work cutting out each individual fairy. What a time saver that was!

The individual bunting flags needed a little accent so I selected one of the floral motifs from the Thinking Of You collection and cut it out of a heavy watercolor paper. I actually use the watercolor paper quite often when I want to cut something lacy and delicate because it's really sturdy- much more so than your regular card stock. Keep some in your arsenal!

Nuvo Crystal Drops in Dandelion Yellow made the perfect domed flower center for the daisies. I didn't like that the one flower on top of the cluster didn't have a center so I stuck a piece of tape to the backside of the die cut before adding the Nuvo drop. Once the drop dried I was able to remove the tape and the flower center was firmly attached to the watercolor paper.

The fairy images were layered with small pieces of chipboard to give them some dimension- they kind of look like they're dancing off the bunting flags! Layering always gives a nice shadow effect.

To tie the banner together I used crinkled seam binding that I dyed in soft shades of pink and green. If you feel like you can't tie a beautiful bow, then you should definitely try using seam binding! Since it's crinkly and shimmery, every bow looks absolutely perfect in it's imperfection. I fell in love with seam binding years ago for this very reason. Once the pieces were tied together the only thing left to do was to add some crystals to the bottom point of each triangle with some bakers twine...

Voila... a banner fit for a sweet little fairy!

xo,