Blog Hop: Tartan Day Blog Hop

Welcome to the Tartan Day Blog Hop organized by Gill at http://creationsbygillm.blogspot.com/. This is the last stop so thank you so much for stopping by!   If you arrived from Alethea's, you are in the right place.

The theme of this hop is Tartan Day. Though technically this is a celebration of Scottish heritage, when I think of Tartan, I think of Notre Dame and the Irish Guard.  Now I have to admit that my knowledge about the Irish Guard was quite terrible, until now! Here is some interesting information:

The Irish Guard was established in 1949 when H. Lee Hope, director of bands, wanted to add color to the band without taking away from its dignity. The Guard soon became a sort of protector of band members.

"An Indiana State Law makes it illegal to impede the progress of a marching band," said senior Guard captain Paul Balthrop. "The Irish Guard makes sure that no one gets in the way of the band and also adds a bit of flash to the band."

When the Guard was formed, its members played bagpipes, however that element was discontinued in 1954.

In 1966, then director of bands Robert O'Brien designed a plaid especially for the Guard uniform. In 1969, O'Brien's drawings were given to Frank Amussen who finished them and submitted them to the Court of the Lord Lyon in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 11, 1970. There the design was evaluated by the Tartan Advisory Committee to determine whether or not it was associated with any clan in Scotland. The design has been trademarked and copyrighted by the University, which prohibits anyone who is not a member of the Guard from wearing it.

Each of the colors in the plaid is signifies one aspect of the Notre Dame tradition: Green symbolizes the Fighting Irish; blue and gold, Notre Dame's colors; red, the Church and the Holy Cross Fathers; and black outlines the design. (Source)

Last fall, we took the kids walking on campus when we came in for the weekend to see a game.  We showed them where their Mommy and Daddy lived on campus.  Outside of my old dorm, I took these pictures of the kids sitting on top of the lions. I have a picture of myself sitting on one of these lions from when I was in college. Someday I will find it and scrap a coordinating page. Add that to the long list :)


Here is how it came out:

I created the Tartan myself (and I think I should have done research on the ND tartan BEFORE I made it so the colors matched).  I just used strips of paper that I had in my scraps bin, glued them on navy paper, ran it through the Sizzix using my SU Embossing Folder Square Lattice to flatten it all out and then ran it back through the Sizzix using SU's Top Note die to finish it off.  

Here is a closeup of the tartan paper that I made.  I added some white gel pen lines to the design as well after the paper was glued down.  I thought embossing it worked better because it flattened the paper and combined them in a way where it looked more cohesive.

I created this flourish that I just love! It cut really easily at this size (smaller one is 4 inches). I had to share it.

Click on the link below to download the SVG. Please post back if you use it, that is your "price" for something cut and free!

 

File link is now active. Sorry about those who stopped by and it did not work! (4/6 @ 7:14 A.M. CST) - Nancy

This is a hop with a difference as along the hop there  are  letters to find in the postings - not all blogs have the letters but if you gather all the letters then at the end of the hop assemble them to create a scottish themed word. If you then return to Gill's blog and enter the Mr Linky at the bottom of the post (do not reveal the secret  word yet).

Thank you so much for stopping by. Please become a follower if you are not! Hope you had fun on this hop!

1.  Gill  http://creationsbygillm.blogspot.com/

2.  Linda   www.thefruitofmyhands.blogspot.com

3.  Lisa G  http://lisagarrow.blogspot.com/

4.  Martha  http://pattisscrapingtime.blogspot.com/

5.  Vicky  http://the-artful-codger.blogspot.com/

6.  Anita  http://www.anitaandbugs.blogspot.com/

7.  Ann  http://ann-icklehaggiscraftspot.blogspot.com/

8. Amanda   www.scrapanddash.com   

9.  Debbie  http://debbiescrafttime.blogspot.com/ 

10.  Haidee   http://created2bunique.blogspot.com/  

11.  Valerie  http://canonburycreations.blogspot.com/

12.  Margaret http://diamondgirlcards.blogspot.com/  

13.  Becky  http://beckscricards.blogspot.com/ 

14. Laura  www.makinprettythings.com

15.  Jenn   http://www.memorieswithjen.blogspot.com/

16. Sharon http://craftyscot.blogspot.com/   

17.  Beckie  http://beckiedreyer.blogspot.com/

18.  Faith  http://faithfulecreations.wordpress.com/  

19.  Jill  http://thescrapoholic.blogspot.com/

20. Lisa P  http://handmadewithlove-lisa.blogspot.com/

21.  Alethea  http://lilodesigns.blogspot.com/  

22. Nancy http://blog.fancywithnancy.com/ <-- You are here and you are all done