Winging Banner Tutorial

After posting pictures of Travis' winging banner, I got a lot of wives asking how to make it, so I went to the source. Paige, who originally wrote it up, sent me the PDF for it, so that I could pass it on to you. It's written for Marine colors, but if you are a Navy wife, just trade the red for Navy and the dark yellow, for a lighter yellow and I think it will look just fine.  She included a way to hang it by making a pocket on the back, but I chose to use grommets that I bought for fabric at Hobby Lobby. Either way is great! I also chose to sew on my borders, but using the Wonder Under looks just as good and is much easier, for sure! Paige also mentioned that she would love to see other banners, especially if you change them up a bit. You can post links here in the comments or email them to her. Her email is on the bottom of the PDF.  So here ya go! Let me know if you have any questions!  You can download it and print it from this website.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/64272252/Winging-Banner

Bunting and Cupcake Toppers.

When we arrived home from the winging, I had cupcakes baked and the house decorated to make the occasion feel really special. Travis was surprised and I could tell that it meant a lot to him.  I made the cupcakes in cute little gold cupcake wrappers and then took paint chips from Home Depot in gold, red, and yellow and cut out little flags and attached them to toothpicks with double stick tape. I thought they turned out really cute for something so easy.  I also sewed this red and yellow bunting to hang, which was also very easy. I opted out of hemming them, because it wasn't the look I was going for. I got the fabric at Wal-mart along with the white bias tape. It was so quick to cut them out with a rotary cutter and then sew them on with the cute zig zag stitch. I had a ton of triangles left over and will for sure make more of this for future celebrations. It's great that the bunting is reusable for other times in Travis' career. It would be so easy to also make this in different colors for birthday parties and such.  I really enjoyed getting to see everything come together.

Winging Banner.

When Travis first started Advanced here at Whiting, I came across directions for the winging banner that the wives made their husbands for winging and I knew I had to do it.  It was kind of labor intensive and the Wonder Under (iron-on adhesive) totally disagreed with me and my ironing board cover, but I am totally glad I did it. I was so proud to hang it on the house and have it up when his parents arrived. 

Winging gift.

Yes, those are my toes... too lazy to edit them out. :)

For Travis' winging I knew that I wanted to get him a little something special that wasn't too over the top.  He had been talking about wanting a felt board for his patches, so I took that idea and ran with it. I got a frame, minus glass, at Hobby Lobby. I got a piece of wood from Lowe's, where they cut it down for me in the perfect size. I picked up some cork board squares and some black felt and went to work. It was super easy to assemble. I just attached the cork boards to the wood, then covered the whole thing in felt, staples it down on the back side and slipped it into the back of the frame and held it all in with a black piece of poster board and staples around the edges. I got some eye hooks for hanging it and attached those to the back and I was all done. It was a super easy project and he loves it. Now he has a place to keep all of this old squadron patches and various other ones that he collects and since I added the cork board, he can also use it for pins as well. It turned out to be the perfect gift and will look great in his new office.

Winging.

This is the winging ceremony where I pinned on his official wings. It was such a happy... and HOT day! From here, he selected CH-53E Super Stallions, so we will be moving to North Carolina for the FRS, more training, and then in about 6-8 months, we will move to San Diego! Everything is so unreal and exciting.  

We are totally thanking God for letting everything go so smoothly and for Travis getting his first choice of helicopter. We give God the glory and are praying that he will continue to prepare the way for us as we move across the country. We are praying for housing, for church homes, and for good friends. We are also praying for God's timing in everything.  

We are thrilled to start this adventure!

The CH-53E... refueling mid-air and also carrying two humvees and Marines inside

Amazed that my husband will fly these and so proud!

Gold Wings.

He got his gold wings! I am so proud of my husband. He has worked for those wings for so long and now we are about to start a new incredible journey. I am so excited to be on this journey with him and honored to be his wife!