Creating A "ONE WORD" Banner

In previous posts I shared about the idea of using just ONE WORD as the focus for my New Year. Resolutions often  just  lead to another year of disappointment with ourselves anyway. Why not replace the typical resolution list with a single, focused WORD that identifies one key plan for our lives? I plan to usher in the New Year with my focus on HEALING. If you'd like to read about it check out the post.. I wanted to create a reminder to myself, a fun way of declaring my intent in this NEW YEAR to stay the course with my ONE WORD...HEALING so I began to research what others were doing on Google with ONE WORD. My friends, you all know how I love the seasonal banners, pennants and swags. I'm guessing you also know of my love for themes, party decor and celebrating the season, right? Well I came across a really wonderful idea using office supply tags to create a ONE WORD banner and I am excited to CASE this project. It was featured several years ago at Bless Your Neighbor a blog I found while searching the net.

I'm thinking this would be really a fun project to introduce this idea to my family. The consensus from sisters is  we found it works best for us to typically get together after the New Year to celebrate Christmas together. It started originally as a courtesy to me since we travel over the holidays to see our children and their families. That meant I didn't get to celebrate with my sisters and their children who live in the same state  :( 
I started inviting everyone over after Christmas and our celebrations continue to evolve but we've share gifts, food and fun like the typical white elephant parties. This year I thought it would be fun and encouraging to talk about our hopes, aspirations, and focus in this new year through the use of my "ONE WORD BANNER". 
Here is what I came up with as I looked through my craft room. I have an assortment of tags I have used for other projects over the years maybe you do too!
 I think this project could be created using commercial or handmade tags too. Whether handmade with your own cut outs or using die cut machine electronic cutting machines or a template this project is super simple and fun! 
So here is what I did to create my "One Word" Banner. I went searching through my craft room to see what I had on hand. These are the things I found. I decided to use the plain cream colored tags- the size was best for the letters I picked.

So look around and see what you have on hand... or 

Get some tags whether handmade or store bought. Depending on how many words you would like on your banner make sure you have enough tags on hand. Pick out the banner material. I've show you what I have on hand but you could even select some fabric and cut it about 1 inch wide by the length of your banner.

Here are some of the choices I had to work with. 

Next on to the words you select for your banner.Pick meaningful words, ones that really resonate for you. I have put together a collection of words that may resonate, if not perhaps they will INSPIRE you. 

This word cloud was created at Tagul

Once you have picked your words it's time to create the tags. I have a huge collection of stamp alphabets so I picked three sizes. The largest size was for my word to inspire me in this New Year, My selected word is HEALING. The next smaller was ONE WORD and finally the year 2015 was in another font. 

 

If you are not a stamper perhaps you would rather create using typed words, hand written words or even magazine collage would be fun!

Ok so here is my "ONE WORD BANNER"...
A quick and easy get the New Year started right project!
 I hope you like it. Write me some comments friends. Tell me what your One Word is for this New Year.

My One Word For The New Year HEALING

Back in 2010 I heard the author Kevin Hall speak. He shared his personal story and how it led him to write his new book, "Aspire: Discovering Your Purpose Through the Power of Words". I had the honor of meeting him after his talk. What he shared truly changed my way of thinking about using words and using them to encourage myself and others too. 

Later I began hearing about the idea of beginning the New Year differently, choosing One Word to help focus on the New Year and the aspirations we have for it. What a wonderful way to start the New Year. 

I have selected my One Word for 2015 to be HEALING. 

Aside from my family, neighbors and close friends most people would not understand my choice. Of those close to me, they would guess that most obvious reason I selected healing as my word might be that I developed Shingles in November of 2014. It for me has been a slow, painful process and in fact I am still dealing with post herpetic neuralgia. (What that means is the pain continues after the blisters healed.) The choice of the word healing though was not only prompted by the pain from Shingles. I had been thinking over some things. Each of us, as we go through life, experiences things that shape them. It mold us and sometimes changes us, some of us never recover. It might have been a betrayal by a loved one or perhaps a death of a child. For others, something out of their control unexpectedly shook their world. It could even be an accumulation of weighty disappointments.

In any case the pain from Shingles got me thinking about pain in our lives that holds us back and keeps us from enjoying life fully.

Why? Because we are carefully trying to protect ourselves from that pain. I thought of this as I was draping scarves over my face trying to keep the cool air from the fan from causing electric shock type pain on my skin. The post herpetic nerve pain had amplified my pain receptors and confused my nerves. What normally would be a rather pleasant sensation on the skin was no longer pleasant.

Unresolved issues in our life can be much like the nerve pain from Shingles, we hide from certain experiences. 

My One Word for this year is more about THAT healing...for myself and for others. I want to see HEALING! 

In With The New Year

Ushering in the New Year this year is much quieter than in past years. I am staying home and keeping warm (it is 10º tonight). My sweetie and I are watching a few movies and taking time to review the past year. We also are looking at this fresh new year with anticipation and are activating our dreams. 

What has seemed impossible to you my friends? Perhaps we can help each other in this new year to summon the will to make our dreams inevitable-together. 

A few years back I was challenged to focus on a Word Of The Year rather than a traditional resolution. Words are powerful. A word can inspire you, remind you, and even challenge you.  A simple word can  change your life. I've had a scripture sometimes or a word or phrase appear to me again and again, and I KNEW it was meant to be used. I couldn't escape my "word". It came to me repeatedly.  

My word of the year for this year is Healing.