Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

By Cardmaking & Scrapbook Layout Contributor, Peg from the blog Peg’s Crafting Corner.

Whether it’s Flag Day or Independence Day in the U.S. or in the country where you call home, the flag is something that should be honored and what better way than to scrapbook it.  Choose the colors from the flag for the embellishments and papers to enhance the picture and bring glory to your flag.  This layout was started after I took a picture of our neighbor’s flag with the setting sun behind it symbolizing our freedoms and independence forever.

I chose to use a piece of the Cottage Porch from the Coredinations Whitewash Collection and began sanding it using the Sand It Gadget and Dust Buddy to remove the paper dust.   I kept some of the white showing on the first layer of the paper to add to the dimensional look of the colors.  Some areas I sanded a little more to get a good amount of blue showing, too.  Be careful when sanding so you don’t sand a hole into the paper. 

I cut a piece of white cardstock that measured 4 ¼” wide x 5 ¾” long and laid it aside. Next, I inked the Stars Cuttlebug Embossing Folder using Faded Jeans Ink Pad by Ranger.  I placed the white cardstock in the folder and ran it through my Cuttlebug.  Once it had dried a little, I adhered it to the lower right corner of the piece of Cottage Porch paper. 

I cut a piece of red cardstock using the Martha Stewart Craft Station to be 4″ wide by 6″ wide.  I measured 1″ from the top and placed a guide line horizontally on the paper.  Then, I measured in ½” increments across the bottom of the paper from left to right.  I placed the paper in the trimmer and cut on the ½” measurements upward to, but not over the horizontal line at the top to create a paper loom.

Using white and blue cardstock pieces that had been trimmed to 1″ wide, I wove each piece into the red “loom” alternating between the colors.  

I put a touch of glue under each piece where it crossed over the red on the left and right edges to hold them into place. Then, I trimmed off the excess strips of paper to match the wide of the red paper. Adhere the woven piece and the picture onto the layout using a tape runner for both of them. This will be the mat for the picture.

For the half banner, I cut a piece of red cardstock 1″ wide by 12″ long and scored it using a scoring board at ½” increments.  I folded it accordion style or also known as peaks and valleys style.  Shown in the picture below. 

I punched a 1″ circle using the EK Paper Shapers 1″ Circle Punch and put Aleene’s Tacky Glue on half of it.  For this step, you will want a strong glue to hold the paper on.  Pull the ends upward to it forms a “U” shape and lay on top of the glue and hold in place until it holds.  Allow it to dry.  Once the glue has completely dried cut off the top half of the circle using a pair of scissors and then adhere to the layout below the picture. 

Punch stars using the Martha Stewart Starry Sky Punch All Over the Page and glue them onto the layout, the center of the medallion and the woven picture mat.  Place the title on using the American Crafts Dear Lizzy Thickers. 

Now, you have a layout that will honor one of the symbols of what your freedom means to you and help remind generations to come think about their freedoms.