ZionFireFriends - Banners - Garments - Flags

Davidic Declarations

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 11:25:00 +0000

I've gathered pictures of the 9 Davidic Declarations banners and added them to the gallery.

https://www.zionfire.com/gallery#Davidic%20Declarations
click the scroll to see the individual images.

A set of nine, these banners are anchored on a side pole as well as the top piece ( like a flag) and were designed to be carried on horseback. I still need to find a good picture of them displayed that way, with the sparkling spearhead that symbolizes the piercing of the heavenlies.

On the walls of Jerusalem, 1994

The banners were first debuted in Jerusalem for the World Prayer Congress in 1994, and were marched on the ramparts of the city on the worldwide March for Jesus that occurred during that event. We were definitely under the cover of God's protection as we walked these very Jewish-looking banners on the walls of the Arab quarter of the old city. It was a surreal experience of prophetic action.

The Covenant Names banners

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 14:33:00 +0000

<--click for gallery

The Covenant banners are a set of 8 that share the same shape and are often used as a group. We have found that God has used this collection of the covenant names to minister healing, to prophesy to the house of Israel, and to make statements about his everlasting covenants.

They first debuted in Toledo Ohio for a prophetic conference. Since they have been used at many events including various Night to Honor Israel celebrations in Dallas, Kansas City, and Miami.

I made these banners during a time when we were very financially "challenged". There was no money to invest in them, and none was appearing at the time when I sensed it was the timing to build these banners. At this point, I had already made a number of banners and one of the things I always did after a project was to keep and sort the scraps of fabrics and trims. My friend and fellow banner visionary, Judy, came over and we began to pray and go through the scraps in my storage area and sort pieces that seemed to go together into stacks scattered around the room. As we finished the sorting, the Lord began to show us which stack went with each of the eight covenant names. This provision--already in the storehouse--became the set of banners you see in our gallery. They all share the same shape, and are differentiated by their name, colors, and particular symbolic designs on that shape.

In the making of this set, I only purchased one piece of fabric. The rest all came from the materials stash I already assembled. This amazing circumstance has always served to remind me in all areas of my life that God always has a provision for what he has asked you to do, even if it seems like there is no way you can manage it.[/url]

Website response topic.

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:24:00 +0000

This topic has been made to gather any comments or questions related to any article which does not already have a discussion started. Please note the banner you are commenting on in your post. As comments come in, they will be split out into separate topics for others to add to.

Thanks for registering and for your thoughts and comments!

--Helena & Dean

Ideas needed for the right finish...

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:32:00 +0000

Greetings, I am trying to make a "mosaic" style picture using cut paper rather than stone. I want it to have an "ethereal" look. a magic, pearlescent, glittery look to it after I am finished. I have tried gold glitter spray, brush on glitter paint pearlescent medium in clear suspension and it just isn't looking right, The gold glitter looks ugly brown and sandy on the paper until the light is shining on it at which time it looks fantastic. The spray glitter gave a more even coating but then again makes the picture look sandy and yucky . Got any ideas?

introducing kids to flags and banners

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:44:00 +0000

Hey Helena. . .

I was just wondering (as I was reading about an upcoming worship conference) how to get kids into flags and banners. We have a small church. . .and one little girl who does ballet during worship. . . .would it be a good thing to have some small flags or streamers for her to use? I love it when kids dance during worship!

Blessings!

Moe.

:crooner:

Garments & Spiritual Baggage

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 01:44:00 +0000

We had an interesting discussion after a rehearsal this evening and it brought up some teaching we received while at the Las Vegas conference.

There was a heavy emphasis on walking in your own anointing. It came in several different flavors and in many different sessions. I'll share a couple of them because they were all good, but I want to talk about one in particular and how it impacts dancers especially, but all who minister in various and sundry garments.

It started on opening night with the keynote speaker. He spoke powerfully about many things, but one of the points that struck me strongly was his exhortation to the dancers to not simply copy another choreography to a given song. His point was that if Dancer A sees Dancer B move to a particular song and simply copies the choreography or even just lifts the powerful moves, whose anointing is Dancer B moving under? He suggested that it was Dancer B's anointing, not A's. He went on to say that God can work through Dancer A to establish his/her own powerful interpretation of that song, but that God works through us as we work through the process of receiving our own anointing for a given piece. You could draw an analogy to David looking at Saul's armor. David needed to fight the battle with his own weapons, not with someone else's ideas of how it should go.

I've told musicians this for years. "Quit copying the CD! That is THEIR arrangement, for THEIR voices and instrumentation, and THEIR anointing." Further, those songs on CDs are usually--USUALLY--not aimed at praise or worship services. They are designed for concerts and for radio play, NOT for congregational use. Yes, occasionally there are songs that do work, but even those should be adapted to the local situation. Same with dance, flagging, banners, pageantry, or any choreographed or even artistic endeavor! Pray it through, work it through, and God will provide your unique touch on the piece that will affect people's lives.

Someone else made similar comments in a different setting about garments. We made similar comments about banners. Banners need to express the vision of the HOUSE. People who copy our banners or any other maker's banners is doing so because they either are too lazy or self-doubting to work through "their" design, or they recognize the power in a given banner and want that power expressed in their own building. It doesn't usually work that way. God has messages that He wants to express to each segment of the body and He'll often take one theme and run variations tailored to each congregation or banner maker. I've seen maybe 75 "Jesus" banners over the last 20 years. Most of them were very good, most of them powerful or very powerful. None of the powerful or very powerful banners were alike! Just by quoting "The Name" there is going to be power. The word of God is like that and the Word of God even more so. How many ways can we portray Jesus? Hundreds, actually. Think shepherd, commander, savior, redeemer, prince of peace, counsellor, Son of God, Son of Man, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, Hope of Israel, and the list goes on and on and on. Each of those could be addressed on a banner with the single word "Jesus" on it, each addressing a different group of people. Who do YOU need Jesus to be for you today??

Now to the biggie for tonight: Garments & Baggage. If you are part of a team of dancers and you have common properties like garments, headpieces, and various worship implements or extensions as Helena likes to call them, do you share those things between team members? Do you share with other teams in your church or your community? Who takes care of your garments? Who cleans them physically, and who cleans them up spiritually?

The woman who taught this lesson was very, very direct. (I've never EVER been to a conference of any type where there was so much "in your face" honesty and direct talk about deep issues.) She talked about Dancer A using Dancer B's garments with permission. They were returned clean and usable. Dancer A put them on and ministered. She felt really strange and odd things began to come over her. The word "lesbian" was one of the descriptors (see? Told you it was BLUNT!) and feelings about dishonest interactions, lies, and other spiritual maladies. Her point was that when you loan a garment to someone, you're subject to whatever spiritual baggage comes along when it's returned. Ideally, the baggage would be righteousness and peace, but too often it's junk.

She made a really great point that with a dance group of any size, it's really important to have someone in charge of garments and properties. That person not only makes sure that things are clean and in good repair, but that person prays over them and cleans them up spiritually, too, soaking them in prayer for power and purpose. The one scriptural example that comes to mind is Elisha receiving Elijah's mantle. There was authority involved, not just a pretty piece of clothing. POWER. Anointing. All the same words here.

Shared this tonight after the rehearsal and the response from one of our dancers who has pretty good prophetic insights was that it was like a particular army during the time of the European plague. She named the general and the situation, but I did not write it down, so it's gone from mind. When I find out, I'll add it to this thread. Her point was that the army had a long march to get where it was going, but that most of the men died from the plague before reaching their destination. Why? How? As their comrades died, the survivors would take weapons, coats, boots, and any other clothing that was in better shape then their own. As they took the clothing and wore it, they also inherited the fleas and lice that came with it, along with the flea bites and infection with the plague bugs and usually death. Most of this death was at least partially preventable. Their clothes were infested and no one knew to clean the clothes before using them.

First the physical, then the spiritual. We can die or certainly suffer severely from other people's baggage. We need to be circumspect about these sorts of issues. Just another avenue of attack against the front line warriors in the spiritual warfare of the hour.

Finally! Me and my flags

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 06:30:00 +0000

Sorry for the long absence. I have been promoted on FORU.MS (CF) and it's been kind of crazy!!

Anyway, I got stage 2 in my cathedral pilgrimage which was at Peterborough Cathedral. I did that one because a dear friend was over from the states and wanted to see me in worship. She took this short clip of me on her digital camera but I did have a camcorder running but haven't yet figured out how to get the footage onto my pc!! Know how to upload it onto Youtube but there y'go! No doubt I will succeed given time.

Anyway, thought you like to see the clip though the music isn't great ("Sing Your Love" by Hillsong) and it was drawing to a close so the tempo was slowing down. I've added a pic of the Cathedral and I was worshipping right under the giant suspended crucifix so every time I looked up, there was the face of Christ looking down on me! awesome!!

abandoned projects

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 10:12:00 +0000

Do you have them? Projects for banners, flags, garments, other things that you designed, gatherred materials for, maybe even started working on but have not completed?

In fact, I have one that I've talked about on this message board here:

https://zionfire.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=35

I used to feel guilty about these things, and pressured by their presence silently awaiting me in their boxes. But I've come to learn something about that that has released me from the burden.

If you are called into this Bezaleel ministry, then you must realize that it is not something that you dreamed up---that it is indeed, God's call on you. God is responsible, therefore, to initiate, inspire, and energize the projects that you do. Of course, we must be faithful to seek Him for direction and timing, but it's all so very easy to start taking the responsibility on yourself to "get it done".

I recognize the anointing on a project as the excitement and desire to work on it and the flow of revelation that comes during the process. That communion with the Lord through each step of the way makes the creation of these holy objects one of the most exciting and fulfilling activities in my life. If the anointing is not there....it is a chore.....a dry obligation that is like walking through molasses to accomplish. It is as if "the cloud" has moved on, leaving you with dead stuff to manipulate and arrange.

So I have learned that when the cloud moves on, it is not shameful or a point of failure to put the project aside. It is just part of discerning the times of the Lord. He can call it forth again in an instant if He so desires......and in the meantime, it can wait. And it's destiny is off my shoulders. That is a very freeing thing.

Banners as catalysts to prophesy

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 21:44:00 +0000

In worship, the moving of the right banner at the right moment is a way the Holy Spirit uses these ensigns to prophecy of the Lord's character, His intent, and His sovereignty. That alone might be the total message and it is enough.

However, there is an aspect of banner ministry that often goes overlooked and is not always used to it's fullest potential---and that is the ability of the moving of the banner to focus the worship in such a way as to open the door for prophetic words or readings, prophetic songs or prophetic dramatizations, or times of deep ministry.

Any banner can be used by the Lord this way, but one particular banner that I've built has as it's primary ministry, the ushering in of the Spirit of Prophecy---which is Jesus speaking to His church. That banner is Living Word. It is a flaming silver sword with a white hilt shaped as a descending Dove. [click on image to enlarge]

The message is that the Word is a fire, and the Word is wielded by the Spirit of the Lord.

Often, in prophetic worship, it seems the moving of the banner, a prophetic dance or flag offering is seen as a culmination to what has gone before rather than possibly creating the threshold that allows us to go further into His presence. But if you think about it, doing those things can be our response to the moving of Gods' spirit, and if so, we need to be sensitive to wait on Him to see if He has more to say.

I would like this post to challenge our thinking...stretch our tents, if you will, to always being aware that as high as our worship goes, as deep as it seems, that there is always more with God. I have a voice memory that comes to me occasionally. It is of a dear worship leader friend who came back from a retreat at Elim and was almost breathless with excitement. She was the kind of worship leader that pressed into God deeper than many others...and yet what she came back with was "Helena, it's incredible, but there's more....there's so much more...."

And I always remember that when I think I've done and seen it all. Because of course, I have not.

Modifying fabric

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 07:53:00 +0000

I am working on a pair of flags and am having trouble finding the colors I want. Has anyone sucessfully used perminant artist markers on fabrics like silk essence or pearlescent tule(I think thats what it is). It has worked great for my miniture mockups but am not sure it will be durable enough for the finished flags. These flags need to be flowing so I do not want to add weight.

Blessings

Amy

Basic Banner Design

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 12:13:00 +0000

Here's the scenario: you are inspired by a scripture, a prophetic word, a vision or dream, a commission.....to produce a worship banner. But how do you come up with a design?

:zf: BASIC BANNER DESIGN

The following are basic concepts for successful worship banner design.

The first thing to do is pray and go into the Word. Get out your concordance and research all related scriptures to the concept you are considering. Write them down. Pray over them and highlight the ones that seem to "come alive" to you or are particularly cogent to the vision you have for your banner. Now, let the scriptures "speak" to you about the message of your banner, the words, the images and the colors.

Initial Sketch

This is very important. It's much easier to change your mind on a drawing than after you've cut up a bunch of expensive fabrics. Make your drawing as complete as possible before you start.

Size

God is BIG. And more important, He is bigger than US. Banners should tower over us to help communicate the bigness of God. (See my post on the power of perspective for some thoughts on that topic.) Make your banner as big as you can for the venue you will be using it in. I find a good size for one person to be able to handle is a banner about 4 feet wide and 8-9 feet long. Larger widths are certainly possible, but pose challenges for traveling and strength, etc.

Shape

Vary the shape of your banners, one to another. A rectangular shape is not inherently bad, but you have so many more options! The overall shape of a banner can be changed by hanging additions, drapings, or headers. Think especially about the bottom edge of the banner...it's a chance to be creative with your design. You are not limited to straight lines. However, be careful if designing asymmetrical shapes...you may have to do some strategic weighting later to get the banner to hang straight.

Perspective

Depicting certain scenes or images may require an understanding of perspective, that is, the way objects change in size as they approach a horizon point. Be aware that you can create a sense of distance and nearness by the way you handle perspective.

Illusion

You may want to depict a myriad of angels on a banner scene. You can't practically do that by constructing tens of thousands of angels to place on a 4 foot wide piece of cloth, so you must use illusion and perspective. In the banner Lord of the Harvest you can see that the suggestion that many angels are approaching is achieved by scattering a few angels in the background, but arranging the sizes and detail so that the forward angels are larger and more complete. That gives the illusion that they are at the fore of a group of many.

Glorified reality

When depicting natural images, real life forms like animals, trees, people, etc. it is best to not be literal in our renderings. Banners are a window to the spiritual. Natural mages on banners should have a "glorified" character. Think of the aspects of the kingdom and of our Creator....light, glory, brilliance, extravagant beauty....and seek ways to work those things into your natural images. For instance, in the banner Lion of Judah, there is a depiction of a natural lion. You can recognize it as a natural lion....however, it is not furry or brown. It is silver and has an eye made of a red jewel. Those changes are symbols of the spirit Lion's character, and that is what I mean by "glorified" reality.

Negative space

This is the areas on the banner that do not have actual designs on them. It is the space between the designs. It is as, or even more, important than the actual designs themselves. Negative space allows us to comprehend the design. Always stand back and look at your banner and take stock of the shapes of the negative spaces. Are they pleasing? Are they too big (do you see "empty" spaces?) Always check to see that your design "fills" the available space, but without being crowded.

Texture & Dimension

Texture can be achieved by using different materials, and also by the way those materials are used. Banner making is a 3-dimensional medium. Think of it as "fabric sculpture". You are not limited by a plane. You can add dimension by padding, layering, and draping. Fabrics do not have to be glued on flat....they can be scrunched, twisted, stuffed, shredded....and they don't even have to be fabrics. You can use papers, plastics, metals, gemstones, beads, chains.....whatever your glue and stitching can hold on to the banner. Use of a variety of textures give richness to your banners.

Letters

These are the single most important element of your banner, as they are what will be the main communicating element of your design. Choose a letter style that reflects the character of your message. A strong, militant message requires a substantial, prominent letter style. A message about mercy might require a softer letter style.

Consider the scale of your letters to the overall size of the banner. Use your space.

Make sure the letters of your main message are readable from across the room.

Pay attention to making the letters prominent. Padding and trimming are ways to accomplish that.

Sensory elements

Banners are not just visual. You can feel the air currents created as they move by you. You can smell spices or other fragrances built into the design of the banner. You can hear bells, or the rustling of tinsel or taffetas, and these can be a part of the message of your banner. Think about connecting with the other senses of the worshippers other than just through sight.

Symbols

Symbols are the language of the Kingdom. Learn about scriptural symbols and scriptural number & color symbology and use this language in your banner design. A good Bible dictionary like Ungers has information on this. E.W. Bullinger's book, Number in Scripture is good. I've also compiled a Bible Symbols booklet especially for banner makers that you can order from our ZionFire Shoppe.

Contrast and Color

Although the colors of white and gold may represent "holiness" in a symbolic way, it is a bad design decision to put gold letters on a white background. There is just not enough contrast to make the words readable from a distance. A solution would be to use black trim around gold letters, or use a gold letter fabric with a lot of black in it. Consider the issues of contrast and color value when making color decisions on your banner. Two colors that seem very different, for instance the primaries red and green, may have very similar color values and would therefore be difficult to distinguish at a distance. This does not mean that you can't use red and green next to each other....but that you should consider the values....say, a pale green next to a dark red.

Focused message

One of the most common mistakes that I see in beginning banner makers is the tendency to put every revelation you have ever had in your first banner....and so it might come out covered with twenty words and sporting a cross, a crown, a white horse, a river, fire and Mary and Joseph waving "howdy". Much better to focus on one aspect of God's character or Kingdom and design all the elements of the banner to support that one thought. Say you wanted to do a banner on the beatitudes. Much better to do a series of banners, one for each beatitude, and make each banner a unique design to support each thought.

Here is where your scripture research will help you. Remember those special scriptures that spoke to you? That's where you will find the design elements that will make your banner's message cohesive and powerful. Pay attention to this and you will be shooting one powerful spiritual rifle bullet instead of a bunch of buckshot. Got more than you can gracefully work into the banner front? Well, you have a whole great expanse on the banner back as well. Use that to enhance and support your message. Remember that in procession, people are seeing the back of your banner just as much as they are seeing the front. Use that space to make your proclamation even richer.

Â©ZionFire.com

Related threads:

All about glue

Basic Banner Construction

Basic primer for banner & flag fabrics

The power of perspective

fabric colours

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 13:13:00 +0000

I haven't been too satisfied with the colours I've been getting lately. Can't seem to get it across the to vendor that the shade of purple, red, green, etc., matters a lot. The purples seem to be more blue than purple and the reds more orange than blood coloured. It's so exasperating.

I have tried sending them samples and colour charts. I have to buy online as the one local fabric shop only sells colours suitable for dress(suit) making. There's also the cost issue - it's much cheaper online. However, if you can't get the colour you want/need cost gets a bit academic.

Anyone else have these problems. Have you sorted them, if so, how?

instructing new flaggers

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 10:38:00 +0000

Sometimes, you need to put a big flag in someone's hands and move them out into a processional or pageantry piece and you don't have a lot of time for them to practice.

Here are a few basic instructions that I've found have helped new flaggers be able to wield their flags without mayhem to themselves and others.

park: Always know where the tip of your flag is. If you can see the tip, chances are you will not be poking out someone's eye with it or banging it into the hanging lights or speakers.

park: When waving flag from side to side, use a figure 8 motion rather than a "windshield wiper" motion. It doesn't have to be a wide figure 8, but just enough to keep the flag from wrapping on itself.

park: When moving the flag in a circle, either turn your body with the flag, or remain stationary, but allow the pole to turn in your hands as the flag turns. That prevents the flag from winding up on the pole.

park: Another way to prevent the flag wrapping the pole is for every wrapping motion you do, do the opposite, unwrapping motion the same number of times.

park: if, inspite of all your efforts, your flag wraps or hangs up on itself anyway, do not panic and stop. Keep moving in your choreography, and allow the motion to unfurl the flag, or help it along by grabbing an edge as it flies by you and pulling it straight.

Basic Banner Construction

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 22:11:00 +0000

You have a design. You've sketched out the shape, you know the dimensions of your banner. You have purchased your fabrics. And now you are ready to begin.

:zf: BASIC BANNER CONSTRUCTION

There are all kinds of construction variables, of course, depending on whether you are building a sheer banner or a more substantial one. We'll deal with the more substantial one here. A banner with a front, a back and a stabilizing middle fabric.

STEP 1 THE FOUNDATION

the stabilizing middle fabric

This is a good place to begin. Your SF (stabilizing fabric) should be a close weave that does not shift--like a canvas or poplin. Even muslin will do, but I prefer the denser fabrics. Your first step will be to adhere your front background fabric to the stabilizer if your background is designed to be all in one piece. The gluing technique for this attachment that I have found works best is just looping the glue back and forth with about 4-6 inches between glue lines. It is not necessary to cover the whole surface. If there are any puddles or globs, smooth them out before positioning your top background fabric. Do glue all the edges. Now you can safely continue and add large or heavy components knowing that you will not be stretching your background fabric out of shape.

If your design has large blocks of different fabrics, you can use the SF as a puzzle backboard for the jigsaw pieces of your design. And in that case, you can sketch the design right onto the SF and fit & glue your top pieces on one by one. This is a very desirable technique as it will save quite a bit on fabric as you piece expensive fabrics together rather than layering them one on top of the other.

casing or tabs for the rod pocket?

This is also the time to decide how the top pocket rod will be constructed. If it is curtain casing style, that casing can be made from the SF, and the back & fronts glued to it. If you would like to attach tabs, that should be done at this point, or at any time before the back is glued on. The casing can be stitched or glued. Both are equally strong. 6 inches is a good standard depth to make the casing.

An easier way to make a "tabbed" effect than actually sewing and fitting all those tabs (have you ever done that and actually got them all to hang perfectly straight? arrrgggh!) is to do faux tabs. Faux tabs start out as a regular casing pocket finish. But after the back of the banner is glued on, notches are cut out of the casing to make the tab effect. Trim is glued to the raw edges to give a finished appearance. And there are never any tabs that hang funny and need adjusting. You can tell this is my favorite way to do tabs.

finishing the edges of the background fabrics

No matter how good an idea it seems to be to leave the selvage edges on the sides of your fabrics, DON'T DO IT! Cut them off, and finish the edges by gluing on some kind of trim. Right now you are asking WHY? It's got a lovely edge now, why mess with that? The reason is that in time, the center of the fabric will begin to sag, but the selvage edges will NEVER sag, and then you have a poorly hanging banner. Save yourself all that grief of later having to rip your banner apart by just doing it right in the first place.

STEP 2 APPLYING THE DESIGNS

applique: (jigsaw puzzle pieces) cut and place by gluing down the edges of the shapes. Put a few dots of glue in the centers of large pieces. No need for full glue coverage. Pad with fiberfill or quilt batting for dimension. Trim raw edges with decorative trim. Or finish pieces with serged rolled edges before adding to the banner. Don't be afraid to add dimension by scrunching and forming fabrics in a 3-dimensional way. Think of building your banner as fabric sculpture.

draping: You can add graceful effects by draping fabrics that are fluid and lend themselves to that treatment. They can be draped and free hanging, or draped and glued into a static position. Good technique when portraying things that flow--like water and garments.

lettering: The lettering almost always THE most important part of the banner, so give it proper attention. Make it fabulous, ornate or starkly strong, and make sure it is big enough and clear enough to READ! Remember to check letters for contrast, value and wow factor. Consider padding the letters. This is where you should spend some money on fabulous trims. Letters can be:

traced, cut out, glued down & trimmed (padded or not)

shaped from long strips of fabric and draped into letter shapes chalked on the background (padded or not)

painted on with fabric paint

formed completely from trims

[Consider ways to make your own unique trims, as pre-made ones can get quite expensive. You can cut-out long lengths of designs from fabrics, cut stretch fabric on the bias and pull the strips into a cord, you can trim letter edges with dimensional paint, or use Christmas garland beads wrapped with thin fabric strips or other inexpensive trims.]

An easy way to do letter templates is to blow up a font you like to the size you need and print on regular paper. Cut out the letter shapes. Iron a light-weight fusible facing to the back of your letter fabric. Now lay your letter patterns UP SIDE DOWN on the wrong side of the fabric and trace around the patterns right onto the interfacing. When you cut out the letters, your fabric will be already stabilized and the edges won't fray as you work with them. This technique allows you to use quite flimsy fabrics for lettering that you could not easily use otherwise.

ornaments: Glue AND sew heavy beading. (This is the only time you actually need to do some sewing. Sorry, no way around it. Because beading does not have a flat edge, constant movement and rolling will eventually pop off the beading, so you have to reinforce the glue with some stitching here.) Try to add some kind of ornamentation, fringe, bells or some other kind of doo-dad on the bottoms of your banners. The weight of them helps to pull out any wrinkles that may have occured during rolling or transport.

STEP 3 ATTACH THE BACK

Glue the back fabric to the back of the SF in the same way you did the front fabric, just some wide loops of glue. Bring the back and front fabrics up together at the top of your casing, and cut so that they both end exactly at the top of the casing fold. (If you've attached tabs, then of course, just bring the back fabric up to the bottom of the tabs.) You can glue a piece of trim over the joint or not...no one will see that border anyway as it will be resting across the top of the pole. Cut a notch out of the middle back for your pole to insert. Glue some trim on the raw edges. Now, if you are making faux tabs, cut them out, being careful not to cut too low and cut out your casing stitching/gluing. Glue trim on the raw edges.

Add your back design now. It might be tempting to put your back design on the fabric before attaching it to the banner, but remember, you want to work on a stable surface. So unless your back fabric is very stable on it's own, wait until it is attached to add your design. Since it is the back and you will be rolling against any design, it is best not to use padded letters or designs on the back, as they will tend to get very scrunched and look bad after a short time.

©ZionFire.com

Related threads:

All about glue

Basic Banner Design

Basic primer for banner & flag fabrics

The power of perspective

Worship extensions for kids

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:54:00 +0000

Always looking for ideas to use with kids. It's amazing how freed up a kid (and an adult for that mattter!) can get when you put a worship extension in their hands. They suddenly stop being self conscious and start dancing uninhibitedly, expressing such beautiful pure worship that I know the Lord must be pleased.

What is a worship extension? It's anything thing that increases the height, the range of motion and the colorfulness of what the physical body can do in worship expression. Flags, streamers, hoops, ribbons, scarves...all qualify.

Here's a couple we've used successfully over the years:

ribbon sticks

ribbon hoops

small flags

finger streamers, either tinsel or ribbons

scarves, can be reminiscent of water or flames, etc.

I like to get some fullness in to ribbon-y things, so I like to add a nice wide piece of colorful fabric in with ribbons, or use metallic tinsel for some flash.

The hoops are a better choice for smaller children as the flags or ribbons that are attached on sticks quickly become "swords" and otherwise lethal weapons!

I like a set of small flags that our church kids use because even though they are small, there has still been some care and thought put into their design. They are made from quality fabrics & trims and have a praise phrase or Name of God on them and are attached to the sticks with long ribbons, so that there is some movement beyond just the flag itself.

We designed a ribbon stick that was a basic dowel with a bunch of narrow ribbons attached to a fishing swivel at the top, but added a 6-inch wide band of silk essence in a brilliant color to give it some fullness. The stick was about 18 inches, and the ribbon length was about a yard.

I'm sure we've done some other interesting things that I'm not remembering now, but I'll add them as they come to me.

What sorts of things have you used with young people? Maybe we can inspire each other.