Patriotic Picnic Place Settings

Wow, another Mishie update today! My friend Daisy SPARKS, from Eclectic Paperie, just emailed me. She's another July 4th/patriotic fan.....with a last name like SPARKS, she's gotta love the fireworks too! She's adding to the fun by generously donating TWO $20.00 gift certificates to the Eclectic Paperie online store! Thank you Daisy! So keep guessing.....here's a hint: You're all WRONG! :) Not even close. If I don't get any winners by the time I post my Mason jar reveal, I'll open up a drawing on that day and pick two winners.

Hellooooooo again my friends! Some of you are getting really excited about what's going to happen with those pint sized Mason jars. Let's have some fun....if you can guess what's going in my jars, I'll send you a Mishie original, hand stamped *something* using Vintage Picnic. I'll limit it to two winners.....IF you guess correctly. I might just stump you on this one. You have to be very specific with your answer too, I'll be the judge of your anwers. :) I don't have a date yet for my Mason jar post but it will before July 4th. (insert evil, making you wait anticipation smiley here!)

Welcome! The fun continues with the new Papertrey Vintage Picnic stamp set as my Patriotic Picnic takes shape. Today I want to show you some cute tags I made for my picnic place settings using Guidelines 1 Grid Cardstock, miniature bingo cards and images from the Vintage Picnic set. Come along for some summer fun!

I've really been intrigued by the Guidelines 1 and Guidelines 2 Grid Cardstock and all the possibilities it offers. The cardstock is pre-printed with light grey lines...you can stamp images from the Guidelines 1 & 2 stamp sets but there's sooo much more in store for you. You all know that I love to stitch on my cardstock right? Well what better way to get straight lines than to stitch right over the guidelines provided on the cardstock. I chose to create stitched squares on my cardstock. To do this, you simply stitch the entire length of the cardstock, skipping every other line. Sew both the vertical lines and the horizontal lines and you'll end up with an entire sheet of stitched cardstock.


Then it's up to you and your imagination as to what you can create. I'm starting my project with some punched squares using the Mega Scalloped Square punch. I wanted to get the nice square stitching in my punch out shape..you can get about 12 per page this way or more if you punch randomly and don't mind where the stitching ends up.

My next step was to stamp the little plaid napkin from Vintage Picnic onto scraps of Spring Rain 2008 Bitty Star Basics Patterned Paper for some paper piecing. I cut the top of the napkin with straight scissors and then cut the angled sides of the napkin with pinking shears. Repeat for as many tags as you want to create.
Next up was coloring the fun food topper image from Vintage Picnic. When you get your set, you'll be amazed at how well the toppers stamp on top of the basket images. You'll get images that look like one stamp every single time. Nichole, you did good!

Now. I want to talk a little bit more about the Copics. I get comments all the time like *you choose your colors so well*...or *I would have never chosen those colors but they look great*....and *how do you choose your colors for a project*. I have a tried and true method that works for me. First off, I have a color chart that has the actual marker color for each Copic I own. I created a simple 4 column table in a word document...wrote down every single color of Copics offered...and then fill in the color by the marker number each time I get a new marker. And before you ask, I'm sorry but I lost my word document due to a computer crash so I can't offer it to you here on the blogaroonie.

How I select colors: I take cues from the image I want to color. I know for the food topper image, I want some tans/browns for the bread, some purples for my grapes, blues for my cupcake, reds for the jam jar, etc. I get out my chart and look for colors that look pleasing. I then grab 1-3 colors of each tone...(for example V06, V93 and V95 for the grapes). Before I do any coloring on my actual stamped image, I test my colors by creating a little palette on scrap cardstock. You can see below, that I grouped together my bread colors, my grape colors, my cupcake colors, etc. I know exactly what the colors will look like when paired together before I start to do any coloring. It's just like mixing paint colors together, same concept. Then it's just a matter of coloring each separate little image within the big image. By using 1-3 colors of purple, for example, I can apply the light tone first, then do some shading with the next darker tone, then use the next darker purple if needed. (We'll do more on shading another day). But overall, it's just a matter of *painting by numbers* once you have your color palette selected. Practice, practice, practice...you can do it!

Okay, next up is my finished colored images. I stamped the food topper right onto my punched, stitched squares of Guidelines 1 Cardstock and finished them off with the paper pieced napkins, stamped, punched circles and some Vintage Touch Inks.
I adhered my colored squares to some Jenni Bowlin miniature, patriotic bingo cards and then to some more of the Bitty Stars patterned paper. The edges were cut with pinking sheers.
I couldn't resist some of my favorite dressed up clothes pins, complete with matching Vintage Buttons in Scarlet Jewel and Rustic Button Twine.

And here's my individual place settings. I've used a wicker tray, patriotic cloth napkin, my good plates and glasses....with my little tags clipped onto the empty glasses....

...and here's a little close up shot.......I tied my silverware up with strips of old denim that I ran through the washer and dryer to make them fray. The painted, wooden firecrackers are some that my mom made when she did toll painting years ago....and the pint jars are stuffed with cloth napkins...for now.

I've got something very, very special planned for those pint, canning jars.....but you'll have to wait for another post. (insert bwa-ha-ha torture laughter here) :) Hey, my posts get long winded as it is, it's time for a breather! I hope you liked my little tags, I think they'll be the perfect little center of attention at my place settings. Stay tuned for more of my Patriotic Vintage Picnic...I've got recipes coming and more of my vintage decorations to show you!