Less Is Better

My nephew just joined the Marines. Yep, he's in basic training right now, and needs some love, so I decided to make him a card, just to let him know I'm thinking about him. Something patriotic. You know, red, white & blue. Sounds easy, right? Not if you're me.

I tried several failed attempts to make a flag on my own, and it didn't go well:

Then someone reminded me I have the Land of the Free stamp from the SU mini catalog. I've tried to ink that up in the past using red and blue markers, and I've not been all that successful. Then someone sent me this video, so I gave that a try. This is my version:

I made mine A2 instead of square, and I also added some baker's twine. Love that stuff. I don't know how I've lived without it up 'til now.

This was a ton of work, and in the end I decided it was too much. Just too much. Then I remembered this card I saw on the Paper Smooches blog and I made this:

I colored the stars with glitter pens, then I stopped. Maybe my mind is just more twisted than most, but do those stars look like the Rockettes? You know: long, leggy dancers? With skimpy tops? I may be long over-due for a vacation.

We learn a lot about ourselves when we craft. I found out this evening I have not one piece of textured navy blue card stock in my stash. I know that because I spent 30 minutes looking for a piece and couldn't find any. I have all the other color families of textured card stock, but the one with navy blue? Noooooooooooo.

And not one of my vast collection of Core'dinations card stock packs contains anything remotely close to navy. In desperation, I took out a couple of pound-of-paper packs I've had for ages (years, even) and this one single piece of dark blue is the closest I could get. Sigh.

I used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to get those stars mostly lined up, then I realized they were too far to the right. Well, the first three attempts I had them centered, but I managed to destroy those, one at a time. This was going to be my last attempt, and thank goodness they were only off-center and not schmeared. Important note: Assemble your card, then color the glittery goodness. OMG, what a mess.

I added a piece of my ever-present baker's twine and a button made from a remnant of the trimmed piece of dark blue textured card stock. Then I called it "done". I like it a lot better than the first one I made.

I can see this is going to be an on-going challenge for me, especially if my nephew makes the Marines a career. I'll be sure to share any other patriotic things I devise.

Thanks for stopping by!