Wheels of Glory

Rolling Thunder is a huge motorcycle tour that gathers Military Veterans & their supporters from all over the US & Canada on the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend. The ride was started in 1987 to call attention to POW/MIA soldiers, with 2500 riders & has grown to over 250,000 riders. The groups gather at local & not so local bike shops...& converge at the Pentagon in DC. They follow a parade route from there, with full police motorcycle escort, through DC, ending at the national mall. It is quite the sight to see & pretty incredible to experience! Goggle to get more info.

This is an annual event that is important to our family. My husband is an Army Veteran & has spent many years fighting for his country. Every year he rides & we wave & whistle as the riders go by. It is very emotional to witness the huge support for veterans as friends & neighbors come out to support the freedom that has been so hard fought over the years.

I wanted to show you can make a boy page if you take components of the happy, frilly, girly papers we love. Using the DT Bo Bunny papers I took the orange back side of the "dot" paper & distressed inked Tim Holtz's barbed wire mask along the bottom. I made a collage of stamps in the lower left & added layers of circles. Cutting out one of the fancy white circles from the "Sophie" paper, I distressed it using Tim's compass mask & added a big brad. Using Alterations by Sissix I cut the sprockets out of grunge paper, book paper & embossed grunge board. I painted the larger & stamped it then added the metal sprocket/clip. Another large decorated brad on the small book, paper sprocket finished this off. The effect is an eclectic mix that loosely resembles working sprockets.
The photo was the only one taken (this can happen when husbands go off with the camera) by a friendly by stander & was out of focus. I digitally added a soft focus which helps to make out of focus photos look cool, added the journaling directly on the photo, which can save space. I added eyelets & the Holtz key with some beads. The mat is painted with metallic acrylic. It seems like this would take a lot of time to assemble but with practice you will be able to just slap stamps, ink, & "stuff" & have fun doing it. Page 2: The big blue circle was cut out of the back of "Sophie Cut Outs". I embossed & cut out the flames & added a real flag. I cut the motorcycle riders to make them look like they were riding across the layout. Most of these products can be bought at Scrapbooksplus.
My challenge for the month is to either find where your local bike shop rides through the neighborhood & go cheer them on. Or go for the big experience & head into DC to partake in the ride & festivities celebrating Memorial Day. At the very least thank a veteran because no matter what your politics, these soldiers fight for us.