How I wish I lived in California, where Artsymama was teaching her Flower Banner class last week. Or, at the very least, I wish I had been faster in checking her blog and Etsy shop, where she was selling some of her banner kits. By the time I realised they were for sale, they were already sold out.

Kit or no kit, however, Artsymama’s banner idea was too good to pass up, so I adapted it into a project I could do with Niccolo—a flower banner with his name on it. Which meant using cheap leftover supplies (Ryman the Stationer’s pastel paper from last year, pattern paper out of my own printer, a remnant of crepe paper from Christmas and millinery flowers which dated back to Nicco’s christening…three years ago!) rather than pretty vintage stuff.

Niccolo’s flower banner takes pride of place among books and CDs

Of course, the end result is nowhere near as lovely as the Artsymama original, but Nicco and I had great fun making the banner and hanging it. It was good for letter and name recognition too. So thank you, Artsymama!