Patriotic Banner -- Remember

I've been seeing banners for some time on different blogs and have been wanting to make one but never getting around to it.  Decided to change that this weekend.  I used my Cricut and my George Basic Shapes cartridge and cut some stars.  This cartridge has one icon that has slots in the image.  I decided to use that one to make the base of the star and then cut smaller shadow stars and silhouette stars in alternating colors.  I used red, white and blue in honor of our Memorial Day holiday and I figure I will flip it and use the other side for the 4th of July holiday in another month.  I decided to alternate the colors of the stars and my constant color was the silhouette star which would always be in white.  I cut the large base in alternating red and blue and then the shadow star that went on top in the alternate color.

I chose the word remember for Memorial Day as that is the reason for this holiday...to remember the sacrifice of those who have served our country, who have gone before, who have bled and died for our freedoms.  I cut the letters for the word from the same cartridge.  The "R" and "B" letters have a solid mat background which I sprayed with some Perfect Pearls in silver.  I also sprayed the solid stars with the Perfect Pearls before I glued the silhouette star over the top of it.  I tried to get a pic of it here to the left so you could see the glitz.  At the points of each of the stars I put some bling, red and blue rhinestones to match the background star and the letter on each star.  Then I found some clear or white star bling and added those as accents to the letters to make them pop a little. 

As you can see from this next photo I picked up some red, white and blue grosgrain ribbon at Jo Ann's to thread through the back of the stars.  There are eight stars on this banner and the largest star is cut at about 7.69 x 7.34 inches.  I then scaled down the inserts so there was a nice border on the base around each smaller star.  In order to have enough ribbon and the ability to tie a bow at each end I bought 3 yards of the ribbon.  I strung each of the base stars onto the ribbon and then spaced them out a little, once I had them on the ribbon I affixed the top stars on with glue dots.  I didn't want to use adhesive as I wanted to be able to slide and adjust the stars location as was necessary.  I may have to add a few more glue dots though as they seem to want to pop off of the background star. 

I plan on hanging ribbons with pics of my sons and my future daughter-in-law who all serve as reservists in the Navy and Army National Guard respectively.  As my oldest serves his country right now in Afghanistan, we pray for the safety of all of our enlisted and retired military personnel and offer our thanks to them and their families for their service to our country, both at home and abroad!

Until next time, Imagine, Create, Enjoy!  Happy Memorial Day!