Wednesday, November 11, 2009

A Day to Celebrate...

......our Veterans! Happy Veterans' Day!

.......my sister's birthday! Happy Birthday Kathy!

........my 1 year blog anniversary!
WOW!!! I can hardly believe it! I remember being a bit nervous about getting this started.....mostly about learning how to use Blogger. It seems silly now! How I love writing and posting! It's been a great journey! Thanks to all of you for keeping me inspired!

I have several posts for today......first of all to honor all our veterans.

Thanks to each and every one who have fought for the freedom of this country and who continue to preserve the freedoms we so enjoy!
I created this tag to honor our Veterans using Artistic Outpost stamps from the Hero set.

I first stamped the flags which were inked with Ranger Adirondack Denim and Cranberry. I wiped any ink off the areas that I didn't want to stamp.....I didn't want the border. I gave it a light misting and stamped it on a tag.

From there, I added an Eclipse mask so I could add the background images. I picked and chose how I stamped them repeating parts of the music staffs and printing. I left the mask in
place to add distress inks starting with Antique Linen, then
Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain and Black Soot. In the first photo you
see the mask in place with the edges distressed.

The second photo shows how it looked after I removed the mask. I didn't really like the stark edges of light color around the flag. The 3rd photo shows how I added Distress inks to smooth the
transition around the flags and verse. I left some areas lighter when I distressed to highlight them. To finish it, I added 2 stars near the verse.....these were antique copper which I inked with StazOn Midnight Blue. I used a piece of vintage ribbon with stars at the top. I rubbed some Distress inks over it to "antique" the stars which were white. I tied a tiny navy ribbon around it and added another star. When I use brads in this kind of layout, I cut the fasteners off the back and just mount them with foam tape. It's so much easier to position them especially when deciding where to to put them. It seems if I punch a hole for a brad invariably I want to move it. This way I don't remove the foam backing until I'm sure of where to put them.

Please honor our Veterans today wherever you are. We are so blessed by their dedication to protecting our nation!

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