Red Carpet Studio Challenge #73: Born on the 4th of July

I've got a gazillion photos of this project so I'm not going to list too much of the challenge details. If you want to make something inspired by the upcoming holiday, please take a photo or two and share it with us over at Red Carpet Studios Challenge Blog. You might even win a little something!

Our theme for this challenge was the movie: Born on the 4th of July. I don't generally make cards for this specific holiday but I love a color palette of red, blue, and vintage brown. So I decided to take a different paper craft route: a banner! My family usually gathers sometime during the holiday weekend for a BBQ and the most requested item to serve is Kabobs! If the weather is good, we sit out on our patio and enjoy the outdoors while we eat. I love to dress up the patio with a few patriotic decorations so this will be used next week!

Here's the banner in it's entirety gracing the back of the patio (where the lighting was a bit better for a photo!):

 

Let Freedom Ring Banner:  This is the first paper banner I've ever made and I'm rather pleased with it. It's honestly not that complex, I admit, but just the alternating patterns and the bold black letters make me happy. I'm always too judgemental of my own handwriting so to me the letters that I hand drew seem a bit awkward. I'm learning to acknowledge that no one writes the way I do so it makes this banner one-of-a-kind, a work of art.

I originally conceived the idea of just spelling out "Freedom" but I needed my banner to be a touch longer (so it would look okay on the patio). I added the end panels to say "Let" and "Ring". You can see all the close-ups below. The paper was white watercolor paper as my plan was to use sprays and stains for most of the coloring. Each little pennant is about 5X7". I used stencils, Dylusions sprays (London Blue, Cherry Pie, Postbox Red, White Linen), Distress Stains (Salty Ocean, Barn Door), paper flowers, a touch of washi tape, silver Uniball pen (to outline some stars), black acrylic paint, and some heavy body white titanium acrylic (to make a dimensional resist, on the "O" panel).

 

After I had the panels done, I punched two holes at the top and just laced a regular old ribbon through the tops of each. The "Let" and "Ring" panels are my favorites. After I sprayed one, I realized how much it looked like a sky during a fireworks display.
Here's a couple close-up of details:

I did not do anything to the backs of these panels but my intention is to make the banner double sided. I have 9 panels so the word "CELEBRATE" will fit perfectly on the back to make a nice everyday, all-occasion party banner! I'm hoping to put my bright colors to good use on the reverse side!

Remember to share any work you make over at Red Carpet Studios! I'd love to see what you create for your 4th of July celebration!
-Wy
"I see fireworks. I see the pageant and pomp and parade. I hear the bells ringing out. I see Americans...ALL Americans...Free. Forevermore."  --Song from "1776", John Adams (played by William Daniels)
[The name of this song escapes me at the moment. It's that last song..."Is anybody there? Does anybody care? Does anybody see what I see?"]