Happy 4th of July

Hi There! It's me Shari, and I'm here 6 days early with a tag that I made for the 4th of July holiday!  Since I post here at Artistic Outpost on Sundays, I won't be back again until the 5th of July and I didn't want to miss another occasion because of poor creative planning!  So, it's Happy 4th of July early!!

I'm using the Hero stamp set to create this pretty simple tag.  If you can ignore the bit of crookedness going in, so can I! ;) :)  Things went askew on me when I stitched the piece of enameled Beautiful Border die cut down at the bottom, OH BOY-Let's just say I'm lucky this actually came through the sewing machine in one piece!! 

This is how the background of my #8 manila tag started out--I'm using the Distress Stain/Ink-Distress Paint Resist technique with my Stars Layering Stencil and Broken China Distress Spray Stain & Barn Door Distress Stain. 

I stamped the flag image onto tissue paper with Jet Black Archival.  I then painstakingly fussy cut the flags & frame of this image out and adhered to this tag with Matte Decou-Page and heat set.  I stamped the flag image again onto mixed-media paper and heat embossed with black glossy embossing powder, then fussy cut the frame and adhered over the image on the tag. 

This handsome little soldier was stamped onto mixed-media paper with Jet Black Archival, water colored with Distress Markers and my detail water brush and heat set.  I rubbed a little Tea Dye DI over him and fussy cut.  I adhered onto the tag with foam squares and outlined with Walnut Stain DI and my water brush, then outlined again with my white gel pen. 

Here's a nice close-up of that enameled piece of Beautiful Border die cut. I inked it with Vermilion Archival then covered it with Red Geranium embossing powder and heat set.  I did that two more times to the front and back.  I stamped the sentiment onto tissue paper, fussy cut and adhered to the bottom on the tag with Matte Decou-Page. 

This number 4 is actually part of the flag image.  I inked and stamped that section of the image onto mixed-media paper three times, fussy cut and glued together with Matte Decou-Page.  Then I inked it with Watering Can Archival and covered with silver embossing powder and heat set.  I adhered it into the corner with Matte Decou-Page and outlined with Walnut Stain DI and my water brush, then outlined again with my white gel pen. 

I embellished this tag with a couple of mirrored stars and a messy seam binding bow that I colored with my Broken China & Barn Door Distress Markers.  I inserted a wire pin into the bow and attached a typed token to finish this off. 

Do you have any of our patriotic images in your creative inventory?  How about making something with them and bring them over to our, quickly winding down, monthly challenge?  It's Anything Goes with your AO stamps at our Show Us Your AO Art Challenge and you've got until 11:55pm MDT on June 30th to show us your stuff!! 

Thanks so much for joining me today!  See ya'll next week!!


Designer:  Shari Trumbull
Ain't That Artsy Fartsy