Belen Sotelo: My Word Banner for 2018

Hi friends. The new year is still a few weeks away, but many of us have already begun giving some thought to what our word for the coming year will be. I've decided that I'm going to keep the same word that I had for 2017, because I still have work to do in this area. My word in "Intentional".

For those of you not familiar with the concept of selecting a word for the year, you can do a quick internet search for a more in depth explanation, but basically it's a word that sums up what your focus will be for the year.

My word, Intentional, is a reminder to be more purposeful about how I spend my time, what I do for my own health and well being, and even what I spend my money on.
To help keep my word at the forefront of my mind, I've found it helpful to create little reminders for myself to post in my studio, at the office, and even in my car.

Today I'm going to share with you how I made a word banner to hang in my studio.

I started by laying a base of color to pre-cut chip board banner triangles using my gel plate.

 After brushing on gesso, I used a baby wipe to remove some of it through the Dancing Lights stencil.

Next, I added some Jane Davenport inks, sprayed them with water to mute their vibrancy, and hit it with my heat gun.

 I added more texture by sponging on some marks using the Repetition stencil to some of my triangles.

On the rest of my triangles I used the Bittersweet stencil and the Hash Marks stencil.

 Using various pens and markers, I doodled all of the triangles.

The I ran a black ink pad around the edges of each one.

I used my die cutting machine and cut out the letters for my word and glued them down.

To hang my banner I cut a length of jute cord.

To finish off my banner, I cut and tied length of ribbon and tulle on either side of each triangle.

Here's a quick video of my completed banner.

https://youtu.be/8HIZixLNss8


Thank you for following along. Happy Stenciling!
xo, Belen