Inque Boutique Tag and July 4th Decorations!

Hello again everyone! Please be sure to see my first post from today....I'm the guest blogger for JustRite Stampers this week!

This time of year is THE busiest for my family. The girls and I are on summer vacation yet we have ballgames, practices and tournaments, guitar lessons, my mom's birthday, Josey's birthday on the 4th, vacations to plan and our annual July 4th celebration. This year we invited about 55 guests...that's a lotta weenies and hamburgers.....and my mom's homemade creamy vanilla ice cream, YUM!

Well I always love to do a little decorating for the party so I try to get that done during the week, before all the chaos begins the day of the party. I have something very fun to show you that I've been dying to make! Stay with me first while I show you some more cool stamps.

I wanted to make a tag for my fun July 4th projects so I chose to use the sets called Build-A-Tag and Phantoms from Inque Boutique. Those links will take you directly to The Purple Turtle store where you can purchase Inque Boutique stamps. Below is my finished tag, I love that is has an Americana/patriotic feel to it. Today is the last day for the 20% off sale, just click the links above to order and use the code word AWESOME when you check out to receive your discount.
Here's what the stamps look like when you receive them from Inque Boutique. They are already pre-cut for you....raised images on one side and the same black image on the other side.
When you attached a stamp to your acrylic block, you can see the exact image that you are stamping through the clear block. Cool, huh?
Here's some of the stamps I used on my tag. Those black images are what you see when you look through your clear acrylic block. This really, really helps with the placement. That purple blotchy image is one of the backgrounds from the Phantom set. Very cool for adding some color behind other stamped images. The Inque Boutique stamps make very nice impressions, just be sure to use the black mat...or *secret weapon* when stamping. The extra cushion it provides does the trick. Also be sure to check out the other products that Inque Boutique carries like clear acrylic blocks, cardstock and ribbon. Fun stuff.
If you look back up at my finished tag, you'll see that I layered the tag with Spellbinder's rectangle dies and added some ribbon. I wanted my red, white and blue ribbon to have a vintage feel so I used a Copic marker to add a vintage worn look to it. Cool!
Now on to my big project. I saw this idea a magazine where a thermos was covered with patterned paper. I searched all the antique stores around here for a thermos and finally my mom had this one that was my Dad's. She was going to throw it away! *gasp* I snatched it up right away. I actually love that green color and will use it like that for Christmas time.

But for my July 4th celebration, I wanted it to be patriotic in theme. So I took some patterned paper from Rusty Pickle and covered my thermos. I used removable Dotto adhesive so that the paper would come off easily.
Here's my finished ensemble. I tied the vintage looking tag onto my thermos with red satin ribbon and then tucked it into an old wire milk basket that had 6 openings for glass milk jars. The jars were long gone when I picked this up at antique store but that didn't stop me.

I used quart and pint sized glass canning jars to fill some of the spaces. I filled the pint jars with all of the plastic forks and spoons for the party. A back opening holds red paper napkins. And a quart jar holds some wild flowers that Jordan helped me pick this morning from our flower beds and fields near the house.....daisy, tiger lilies, Sweet William and a bunch of weeds....makes for a good bouquet! We also added in a few Hosta leaves and some sprigs from our Spirea bushes but you can't see those in the photo. Anything colorful makes a beautiful summer bouquet. We stuck in a small American flag and our plastic ware centerpiece was complete. I LOVE IT!
And here's an old red serving cart that I picked up at a garage sale. It's rusty and well worn but that's just how I like stuff! I used an garage sale quilt on the top for pretty. Then I took a wire basket that I dug out of my dad's tool shed and lined it with a red, white and blue vintage apron. This will hold the plastic plates (must used divided ones for parties) and the plastic cups. And see that beautiful Longaberger basket? That was a gift I received just this morning from Kathy, one of my blog readers!! Thank you so much Kathy, it will get it's first use at my party this weekend!
I love the rick rack look at the bottom of the apron, very cute!
And for the night of our party, I always hang paper lanterns from the wood ceiling of our deck. The kids usually hang out up their with a CD player....they dance and sing and just do their own thing! The lanterns make it fun and festive. I picked these red ones up at Michael's for a buck each.

Our party is actually on July 5th this year and I can't wait! The weather is supposed to be nice too, woohoo! And I am looking forward to our entertainment this year too.....Jordan (9) has learned the Star Spangled Banner on her guitar. She has kept it a surprise from everyone else and now has it memorized without using her song book. I am already SO proud of her and I'm sure I'll wipe away a tear when she plays it at the party. She is nervous but I am sure she'll do great! Wish her luck!!