Monday, June 10, 2013

Living In America - Greetings Challenge -The Outlawz

LIVING IN AMERICA
Create A Project Using Stars and/or Stripes

Hello, Crafty Peeples!
 Back in October of last year, I found myself engaged in a wonderful conversation with two fellow crafters. We met, casually, at the fabric cutting counter of Hancock Fabrics. They were curious about my purchase of so much burlap in different colors and were fascinated when I explained that I planned to use it to embellish greeting cards.

One of the ladies, a wonderful woman named Gloria P., invited me to do a class at her church. They had a group that was planning to make cards to send to the soldiers in Afghanistan. At the end of the second day of class, Gloria gave me a container full of  wonderful pieces of fabric saying, "I'm sure you will make something pretty with these".

When, I saw the theme for this week's Greetings Challenge, I knew it was the ideal time to use some of Gloria's wonderful fabrics.  As I sifted through the container of materials,  the idea for this project took root and all the elements seemed to arrange themselves with very little effort.

 My husband has declared this his favorite of all my cards to date. I rather like it, too, but I think that is  because we are both ex-military and this card strikes a special cord.  I have other fabrics that I may try to use for the 4th of July, we'll see!

I had only this one square of material with the anchor.  I could only trim one side and my hands were shaking as I cut it.  I remembered that Gloria had offered me more and that I had refused because I felt guilty about the fabric I had already accepted from her.  As I cut, I was wishing I had accepted at least one more piece. :D)

The words Valor and Honor, Liberty and Justice and USA were cut from different fabrics.
  I was very fortunate to find the words I wanted to use on the edge of  all the materials and
I was able to perserve the integrity of the remaining fabric for future projects.

 Once the tag is removed, this is what you see!
I love working with acetate windows.  It is possible to create so many interesting visuals. 
"Valor" is on the outside of the acetate.  Notice how much darker Courage appears.  Cool!
I cut the American Eagle from the same cloth as the words Valor and Honor.
I glued the Star Spangled Material to the back of the pocket card and then glued the
Eagle Material on top of it.  I used a very thin layer of Fabric Fusion

I think it is just amazing that these four different fabrics were so complementary to each other.
I am so happy that I was able to make this awesome project because of the kindness of a fellow crafter.
One day, maybe I will showcase some of Gloria's extraordinary embroidery projects!

I should have the step by step tutorial up for this later in the week!

Thanks for Stopping By!
Hugz,
Chana