Start by cutting a piece of paper in the shape of a pennant. I used the pennants die from Little B. Patterned paper that has a subtle pattern works well (mine is from Prima's Finnabar collection). You'll also need Distress Ink (or Memento Ink works well, too), a water mister or spray bottle, a non-stick craft mat and a heat tool.
Dab the ink pad directly onto the craft mat and spritz it with water. Because the craft mat (made by Ranger) is waterproof, ink-colored water droplets will form.
Turn your pennant face-down and lay it on the water droplets. If you swirl your paper around a lot (like you're mopping up a spill) the color will mix together and will turn your paper more of a uniform color. If you just "dab" the paper a few times onto the droplets without swirling as much, you'll get more of a splotchy look. I went with splotchy.
Use your heat tool to dry off your wet pennant. Flip the pennant over and rotate drying each side or your paper will curl up in one direction. After my pennant was dry, I used Tim Holtz's Splatters stencil and applied ink (the same Distress Ink I used in the last step) with a sponge. You can use ink daubers or make-up wedge sponges, which is what I use.
Next up was to make the pennant topper. I used a large edge punch from EK Success to punch a fancy edge in some coordinating paper from My Mind's Eye (Sweetest Thing collection). You could also use lace at the top in place of a paper edge.
I added some ink to the edge piece I cut and glued it onto the top of my pennant. Notice I left a flap at the top- that is the portion that folds over so you can thread ribbon through it later.
I was now ready to stamp on some images. I used Ranger Jet Black Archival ink for this part and used a typewriter stamp from TPC Studios, a crown stamp from Heidi Swapp and a sentiment stamp from Hampton Arts. I inked darkly around the typewriter stamp's edges but left the middle lighter so that the image wasn't too overpowering. I also stamped the crown onto the typewriter.
Next I used one of my favorite stencils from The Crafter's Workshop called Mini Paint Lids. I laid it over my scene and applied black ink to it with a sponge.
Once the circles were in place, I colored them in with more Distress Ink (yellow this time).
I continued to color in various aspects of my picture using Distress Inks and sponges.
I applied another couple of lines of cursive text using The Crafter's Workshop Mini Cursive Alphabet stencil and red/pink inks. I also added on some strips of Washi tape. After that, I inked around the edges of the pennant with brown and black ink.
I folded down the top flap of the pennant, taped it down, threaded a piece of ribbon through it and added some Prima flowers. Wa-lah! Done!
These pennants are fun to make and are a great way to use up scraps, utilize all your stamps and revive some of those tools (like edge punches) that may have gotten dusty. So dig up your supplies and see what amazing pennants you end up with!
