Personal monthly challenge....Here's July!

I'm always creating for someone else.  They tell me what they want and what colors to use, and I get to work.  I love what I do, but I sometimes feel like I want to create just for the sake of art...and for me.

I've decided that I'm going to challenge myself by doing a monthly tag.  Small enough not to take up too much time, but it will give me the opportunity to get elbow deep into techniques that I don't often get to use.  Each tag will represent what the month means to me.

I browsed around for some inspiration, and I certainly wasn't disappointed.

Country Living:  Paper Party Hats

mamapainter (Etsy):  Patriotic Bird Painting

Hoosier Handmade:  Patriotic Mantel Decor

These ladies are incredibly talented! 

When I think of July I envision the ocean, patriotic colors, BBQs, and warm summer nights. 

Here's my July!

Instructions:

1.  I used a standard manila shipping tag, but you could cut one out of card stock.

2.  Paint it with a wash paint.  I used Angel Blue.  I love how it just tints the tag.

3.  Add some glue in random lines along the left side and place a vintage dictionary page over the glue.  Let dry.  Once it's dry, you can carefully peal off the page; leaving remains where the glue adhered it.

4.  Apply white acrylic paint with bubble wrap to both the bottom right and top left hand corners.  Stamp several star shapes with the acrylic paint as well.  I used an old wooden stamp.  Let dry (if you're impatient like me, you can use your heat gun to set the paint).

5.  With black ink, stamp "Post Card" along the right hand side - vertically- and along the top left -horizontally.

6. Distress the edges of the tag and along the raised areas with distressing ink. I used Tim Holtz-Tea Dye. My fav!

7.  Cut two small stars out of paper and one large star out of cardboard.  Distress the small stars with ink.  Cover the large star in glue and then paint over it with white acrylic paint.  Let dry; it will give the appearance of being made of wood.

8.  Adhere stars to tag.

9.  String 20g. black wire with a few select beads and attach to the left side of tag through small holes.

10.  Using blue Cream City Ribbon, tear into shreds and curl (by pulling it through the scissors and your finger).  Thread through the top of the tag and then attach tea stained crinkle seam binding.

11.  Spell out JULY on a separate piece of paper with alpha stickers.  Cut to size and adhere to tag along the bottom center.

12.  Attach metal bookplate over the JULY.

Voila! 

I'm pretty happy with the outcome, though I think I stayed on the safe side rather than creating outside my comfort zone.  I'll have to work on that for next month.

Thanks for spending some time with me.

M.