One of my favorite DIY and craft YouTube channels is HGTV Handmade. Featuring five talented ladies who each put one video a week on the channel, it offers huge amounts of craft inspiration. Recently Meg Allen Cole posted a video about making a DIY Affirmation Banner. I loved the idea, so I tweaked her instructions to fit materials available around my dorm room and made one of my own.
Making the banner was pretty simple. I mostly followed Meg’s instruction, cutting my paper into a rectangle that allowed for some of my straw to stick out, then I tied embroidery floss on to it. I then cut the bottom. It was supposed to be a triangle, but I accidentally cut out that triangle. I decided that this little mistake had not ruined the project, and moved forward. 
I folded over an inch or two on the top for my straw and found the center to draw my letters on. Once they were all outlined and colored in, I applied a line of glue to the back in an effort to create a tube to put my straw through. That really didn’t work, so I ended up sewing it shut. I actually really liked the effect, however. I went ahead and sewed it with the straw already inside, which I think works best. Then all that was left was to tie some embroidery floss to the two ends of the straw and hang it on the wall.
I decided that my banner should serve as a reminder to me, and I what I feel like I need to be reminded of most is to react with love. Often I react to negative situations with fear or anger, and things always turn out better if I can remember to react with love. My banner has been hanging above my bed since I finished it, and so far it has been a great reminder.
I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. -Charles Swindoll
michelle bizzell from coppell 