As I was reflecting on the 249th birthday of the United States, I was remembering back to years of traveling. I have been to 17 different countries, but most were just quick visits for a day or three. However there were some trips where I spent months in other countries: Japan, Yugoslavia - the part that is now Croatia, Ukraine, Albania, and I lived for a year in Kenya. Usually I was gone over the 4th of July, so on my return, walking under the huge US flag at JFK, or LAX Tom Bradley, or even just driving by the giant US Flag at Camping World off the 5 freeway in Santa Clarita, always caused the gratitude and pride to well up within me.
It has been many years since my world traveling days, but those experiences taught me so many valuable lessons that I haven't forgotten and they increased my love for my country each time I came home. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy my time away, but returning home to the US was always emotional. And for that reason I love to celebrate the land that I love.
So as I have said many times, I decorate my house in Americana decor from around Memorial Day through Patriot's Day on Sept. 11th. So this year I made another decor piece to add to it using supplies from the Stampers Anonymous Summer Curations 2025.
To make something similar, either a US version, or changing it up for another country, gather your supplies. I have links to my supplies below.
Cut a piece of Mixed Media Heavystock in half.
Spray each piece with Antique Linen Distress Stain. You can see I made one darker than the other one.
On the darker piece, stamp the text background around the edge. You can see I trimmed it roughly the same size as the Mini Etcetera tag so I could position words or images where I wanted. I stamped in clear embossing ink and then embossed it in Super Fine Gold Embossing Powder.
It will look like this. The center doesn't matter because only the top and bottom with show. It is very light here and I thought this would look good, but I ended up deciding that I wanted it darker.
On the lighter piece of paper, stamp the lines on the bottom half and the star on the top half in Clear Embossing paper and Clear Embossing Powder.
On a third half sheet of Mixed Media paper, color it with Antique Linen as well and stamp the Paint By Number stamps and emboss them in Gold. I used 1776 for this project. I also have the matching outline dies from Simon Says Stamp. All supplies are linked below.
Once all your stamping is finished you will have three pieces something like this.
For the tag, attach the text background piece to the Etcetera Tag with Distress Collage Medium.
Put a nice layer of Collage Medium all over the tag, then press the paper into it, making sure there are no air bubbles and that it makes a good connection all over the tag. Let dry.
I used Pixie Tape to mask across the top of the striped bottom part of the stars and stripes paper. With a blending tool I applied Lumberjack Plaid Distress Ink and sprayed it with Lumberjack Spritz to add a little shine. Then added some water drops to make it distressed. Let it dry naturally while you work on something else.
Once the stripes are dry, do the same thing to the star part of the paper, but with Chipped Sapphire and Faded Jeans Spritz. Let dry naturally.
Once both sections are completely dry, heat up a craft iron. Put the stars and stripes paper on a clean cloth with the inked side facing up. Lay a clean piece of paper on top and iron to reheat the embossing powder so it will soak Into the top paper. This is the too often used Emboss Resist Technique that I love.
The cream stars and stripes will be brighter once they are ironed as the clear embossing powder resists the ink. Outline the shield shape from the Etcetera Facades onto the stars and stripes paper. Keep the circle in the center. We are using the whole shield as one piece. Cut out the shape and then attach it to the shield with Distress Collage Medium just like you did the tag earlier.
While the tag and shield are drying, use the Paint by Number outline dies and cut the numbers out. Then using some Distress Kraft Heavystock, cut three more of each number to stack behind the stamped numbers and make them thicker. At this point I also realized that I didn't like the lighter color of the outline, so I went over them with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and that really made them stand out.
Once the shield and tag are dry, I always sand the edges to smooth them and to remove any paper that is hanging over the edges. Add two of each of the shim pieces from the facade to the back of the shield. Leave some room in the center for the Tiny Lights.
Using a Dremmel tool, drill a hole through the center of the tag, which you can see here is significantly darker than it was at the beginning. I went over it with Walnut Stain Distress Ink as well and love the vintage look to it! Thread the Tiny lights through the hole from the back.
Attach the lights at the top and bottom of the shield so that the light will shine up and below the shield. I attach them with hot glue on the wires, not on the light as it will melt them.
Here you can see the shield is placed at the top of the tag.
I added a 1/4" strip of a scrap from the 1776 paper to go across between the blue and red. It hid all of the imperfections where the two colors meet. Over that, add the 1776 pieces, which should stand out well not only with the darker edges, but also because they are 4 layers thick. The 1 and 6 will need to hang over the sides a little bit.
I added a few bits of Idea-ology. First, I added a Small Talk sticker from the retired Occasions pack that says We the People. I also took three Stars Adornments and painted them with Tarnished Brass and attached them as well.
Even with the changes I made once I started making this. I love how it turned out and it goes perfectly with my Americana decor. The lights don't show up during the day, but they do look nice at night.
Thank you so much for reading through this, especially my lengthy intro! I hope you found something in this tutorial that inspired you or at least sparked an idea for your own makes. Now let’s go have a creative day!
Tami
I
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