Hello ScrapbookPal friends! Something magical happened when I opened up the shipping envelope and pulled out this Spellbinders - Clear Stamps & Dies - Stars & Stripes set. For a moment - a rather long moment actually - I stopped thinking about all the negative politics and news in the national headlines. I went back to myself as a young girl in pig tails (braids) who was excited about the upcoming holiday - July 4th! A time to be thankful and joyous for the great nation that we are so blessed to live within. We would be getting ready to celebrate, watch the fireworks, visit with friends, and eat hotdogs and strawberry shortcake. Mom would most likely have gotten us new T-shirts with flags on them, and we would have been warned not to wear them early. I was indeed feeling proud to be an American. It was a nice reminder.
My initial creative block disappeared, and I decided to make a shaker card. I love the movement and flow in this design, and I wanted to add to that feeling. I also thought I wanted to make a more traditional card - one that a veteran like my father-in-law might be honored to receive. It would have to have a gold frame!
It took me a couple times using scrap paper to get the dies close enough to keep the form of the flag. I kept trying until I felt it looked okay. The dies ended up having to be very close together, but I think it works. Just be very careful to tape the pieces down, and don't let them overlap each other. Otherwise, you will definitely damage the dies, and might damage your machine!
I planned to put a piece of red paper behind the cutouts, for the red stripes. I diecut the stars from a piece of blue paper and realized the little stars left behind would be perfect for the shaker bits! It did, however, require lots more of those little stars than I first imagined. I used the star die cut about 20 times, cutting a couple different colors of red, some blue, and a bunch of clear stars made from extra cellophane packaging. Later, I would also cut some gold stars to use around my sentiment. I made a thin shaker window by repurposing some more cello packaging.
I love this set because it gives you not only the dies, but stamps as well, with three different sentiments. I picked the Thank You for your service stamp, inked it with Tsukineko - VersaMark Watermark - Stamp Pad, sprinkled on WOW! - Embossing Powder - Super Fine - Metallic Gold Rich, and heat set it to melt.
Lastly, I cut a gold frame using satin gold paper from my stash and Pinkfresh Studio - Dies - Essentials: Double Stitched Rectangles. I used Altenew - Instant Dimension Foam Tape - 1/16" x 1/4" between my shaker window and the red background, and my favorite Bearly Arts glue to attach the frame and some gold stars that I die cut to accentuate the sentiment.
I hope you make yourself a flag card and have a Star Spangled July 4th! Thank you for visiting my blog - I appreciate you! My supplies are listed below, and available at ScrapbookPal.com!
Products used in this project, available at ScrapbookPal.com:
