Remembrance Day Tag

Remembrance Day is a memorial day in Canada to remember the members of our armed forces who have died in the line of duty. It marked the end of hostilities in WWI which occurred at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. At 11:00 am, Canadians observe a moment of silence. It's also a day where we express gratitude to those who have served our country and made so many sacrifices to protect us and our way of life. My dad was one of those people as he was a pilot in the RCAF during WWII.

I wanted to create a special post as a way of paying tribute to my dad and to all others who have served their country. I wanted it to have personal touches specific to my dad and his time in the RCAF. This tag is the result. I started with a white cardstock tag which I covered with a photocopy of Dad's escape map. Every pilot was given one of these cloth maps to keep in his pocket in case he was shot down. Paper could disintegrate but cloth would last longer. Next photocopies of his service book cover (burgundy) and his identity booklet cover were fussy cut and then adhered over the map.

Remembrance Day is also called Poppy Day so it seemed appropriate to colour a poppy image from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff  (can't find the link) with Prismacolor pencils and fussy cut it to adhere to the bottom of the tag. A little stencilling with Distress ink  and white acrylic paint was added here and there over the background. The sentiments were created with alpha and word stickers to say "Always & Forever...Remember". Another word sticker, "Courage", was affixed to the left hand side. I added a metal button in the shape of an airplane because Dad flew Spitfires and a bingo piece with the number 11 to represent the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. The edges of the tag were distressed and inked to add to the vintage or aged look I wanted. Finally, a collection of ribbons were stapled to the top of the tag to finish it off.

Dad is no longer here to see this but I like to think he's still watching over us and that he would be proud to see this tag. My grandnephew, Jake, is getting a tattoo this month of a Spitfire with Dad's plane number and their two birthdates. They shared a common birthday in November. I think that is about the coolest thing I've ever heard and makes me so proud of both of them.

Thanks for visiting today and for taking the time to read this post. It means a lot to me.

Life is good; so is art.
 Bonnie