Hello Maja Design fans and friends!  It’s Nancy Hanttula here again.  This week I am going to share a banner that I created using a beloved vintage, Little Golden Book, from 1971, FLY HIGH, written and illustrated by Virginia Parsons.

I absolutely love children’s books.  I love the stories.  I love the illustrations.  And I absolutely ADORE books that I have had for my lifetime (I guess I am considered “vintage” now 🙂 ) and finding vintage books in antique and thrift stores.

So here is an easy way to preserve a beloved book to make as a gift or to use as personal home décor…..use the pages to create a banner.  It can be used in a child’s room, in a play room or family room, or even a creative space.  How cute would this be to give as a baby shower gift?!  Now, I know some of you are going to perhaps cringe at tearing out the pages of a book….but, if you don’t use it, then what are you really going to ever do with it.  Well, you could save it to pass on for generations in your family, IF your kids and their kids and their kids don’t e-bay it, or donate it, or trash it.  I’m just saying what may be sentimental to you, won’t necessarily be sentimental to your off-spring.  BUT if you actually created something with it…well, I imagine it may actually have a better chance of being passed down.  Maybe.  But, if you really cannot bring yourself to tear out the pages of a book, then you could color copy the pages and use the pages that way.  Personally, I want to make that one-of-a-kind treasure.

Here is the book that I used for this project.

And yes, the torn out pages are behind the cover.  I didn’t use all of the pages.  I chose the ones I liked the best and told the story for me.

I used the Life by the Sea paper collection for this project, because I thought it showcased the book pages the best.

I cut out 5 different papers and matted the book pages onto them.  Added a coordinating strip to the tops.  Used a different border punch on the bottom of each of the banner pieces, and added some fun embellishments from my stash.

Here is a close-up photo of the first 2 banner panels:

and the 2nd two:

and the 5th and 6th panels:

finally the last one:

  It was hard for me to get a good photograph of this hanging on the wall.  I used a Fiskars ribbon punch on the very top of the panels, laced ribbon through them all to join them together.

The specific papers I used out of the Life by the Sea collection included:  (front) Nautic; (back) Islands & Skerries; (back) Seaside Cottage; (back & front) The East Coast; (back) Landmark; & (front) Drop the Anchor.

Other ingredients used in this project included:  Tombow permanent adhesive; Aleene’s Tacky glue; Prima/Ingvild’s chalk ink in Dry Sand, White, & Brick Wall; border punches from Martha Stewart, Fiskars, and EK Success;  metal embellishments from Prima; buttons and ribbon from my stash.

Thank you for taking the time to stop and take a peek at my latest creation.  I hope something has inspired you to create something amazing today!  Have a wonderful weekend!