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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Belli Challenge #68 - patriotic theme



This week's Belli Challenge is to create a project with a patriotic theme. You can interpret that in many ways. You could use stars, firecrackers, red/white/blue colors, military insignias, flags, and the list goes on.

I had to pull out my new Vintage Picnic stamp set from PaperTrey for this challenge. I love the little stars and flag inside the basket, and I thought it would be perfect. I went for a vintage-y, rustic, old-timey look by sponging all the edges. Instead of going with a bright blue and a bright red, I used Not Quite Navy and Riding Hood Red cardstock.

Did you see the star brads? They were originally gold, but I didn't want a shiny gold here. I heated up one brad at a time and dipped them in Distress Tea Dye embossing powder, heated them again to set the powder, and then covered them in Bronze distress crackle paint. I wanted them to have a bumpy rusty look to them - the embossing powder gives me the bumps and imperfections, and the bronze crackle paint gives me that rusty look. After the paint dried, I smooshed them around in some Walnut Stain distress ink to age them up a little bit.


Check out what the other Belli Girls have created here on the Belli Blog. I hope you are inspired to play along with us and create something patriotic. Don't forget to add your link to your picture in the Mr. Linky widget. If you upload to SCS or PCP, please use keyword CBC68.


Stamps: Vintage Picnic (PaperTrey), Take a Bough - the small star(PaperTrey), weathered wood stamp from Deadbeat Designs (found at Stamp Salado)
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Old Paper distress ink, White craft ink
CS: Whisper White, Riding Hood Red, Not Quite Navy
Other: sponge, star brads, Tea Dye distress embossing powder, Bronze distress crackle paint, star nestability, copics, Soft Suede ribbon

12 comments:

Robin Kirkpatrick said...

Great card, Holly. Love all the details on the star brads - great tips!

jdmommy - Anne Harmon said...

Holly, I had to laugh when I saw the basket........I don't want to tell youhow often I have done a similar thing!!! I love your patriotic picnic theme, and I love the soft look of the stars!! Great job!

Fern said...

What a perfect card for the challenge, Holly.. Love the bg, and I wouldn't have even noticed the basket it you hadn't said something... Great layout and design. Cute, Cute, Cute....
HUGS:0)

Dani said...

Love this! I'm going to need this stamp set, I can tell! The star brads are a great touch, love how you distressed them!

Joan Ervin said...

This is sooo pretty, Holly!!!! I love the stamps you used and the colors are gorgeous!!! You know I love the vintage look with all the sponging and those stars are FAB!!!!

Debbie said...

LOL Holly! I've done that soooo many times. Very cute card and love your colors!

Joanne Travis said...

I love your card and the Americana style of these stamps. So patriotice and awesome!!

Luv 2 Cre8 With U said...

Very cool card! I love it!

sandi maciver said...

Oh, I love the layout of this card, how patriotic, and the stars are just the finishing touch. Great job.

Anne Harada said...

This is so funny when you look hard and see the upside down basket!! But there's no way to tell, it looks great no matter what!! Great idea, bringing in a picnic theme for the 4th...works perfectly!! Great card!

Kirsten said...

Ooohh, this is fabulous. I love the patriotic theme and everything meshes so well together.

Girl can Knit - Cherry Lane Knit Stamp Quilt said...

very cute. I love the basket! I saw your card on another site! Nice job everyone did!