How to Create a Western Look with the Triple Diamond Rings Die

How to Create a Western Look with the Triple Diamond Rings Die

Cowboys, Ranchers and Rodeo Riders
Featuring the Bleached Wood Grid paper from the Dockside collection and the Triple Diamond Rings, Diamond Rings Border and Diamond Ring Cornerstone Dies

Today’s pattern refresher from the photo gallery is #143 that shows each section of it in photos. I’ll begin by flipping it and adding our new Triple Diamond Rings Die and journaling to give if a fresh look.

Mosaic Moments Refresher Course Pattern #143 and Triple Diamond Rings die

Mosaic Moments Triple Diamond Rings

Mosaic Moments Dockside Collection Bleached Wood Grid paper and Triple Diamond Rings, Diamond Rings Border and Diamond Ring Cornerstone Dies

This pattern accommodates photos you may be taking on your phone with minimum cropping. The 3×5 space is perfect!

Mosaic Moments Triple Diamond Rings

Mosaic Moments Refresher Course Pattern #143 and Triple Diamond Rings die

To change up the look of this paper tile and die cut I used a technique I like using for a tooled leather look.

TECHNIQUE:
I’ve cut the die and background tiles in two shades of rust brown from the Tim Holtz Distress Kraft paper from Core’dinations. On the bottom tile I have used Anna Griffin’s embossing folder for a small flower pattern to peek through the pattern in the tile. I’ve layered the top die section and used a sanding block to reveal some of that worn leather look.

Mosaic Moments Triple Diamond Rings

Mosaic Moments Refresher Course Pattern #143 and Triple Diamond Rings die

The Cuttlebug Textile Embossing folder was used for the 1” tiles and slightly sanded to keep with the worn tooled leather look.

What I love about using the Triple Diamond Rings die on this page is that it is also a traditional quilt pattern, cathedral windows, and Grant’s wife Patti Jo is a wonderful quilter. So a little tip of the hat to her too!

Mosaic Moments

Journaling on this block is a bit small to capture clearly so here’s the story:

Cowboys, ranchers and rodeo riders

“My heroes have always been cowboys”…so the line in an old country song says, and it’s true for me. When I was a kid the Western was King. We all played at being Cowboys and Indians. Our heroes were cowboys. We believed one day we could grow up to be cowboys…some of us did. Actually, that would be my cousin Grant.

Grant, his sister Jean and my aunt and uncle lived with us and then near us for a while when I was young. The only relatives that would ever live as close by. I don’t remember when they decided to head back out to western Canada but it was many years later, the summer of 1970, that we traveled to Alberta to see them.  My uncle was the Provincial Park Warden at Writing-on-Stone in Milk River. They had been stationed at various Provincial Parks in Alberta while they were out there and I think my dad was eager to see this wonderful western world he heard so much about. So off we went.  

That summer my cousin Grant introduced me to a new genre in literature…the paperback western…over the years I’d develop my own love of Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey and Stephen Bly. I could travel out west anytime I wanted to just by turning a page.

In the years that followed I’d hear about Grant’s exploits on the rodeo circuit through letters our mothers exchanged. And not until more recent years keeping in touch with his wife and daughter via social media to keep tabs on how each other’s mothers were doing did I get a small glimpse into his life as a rancher.

These are photos they have taken that capture a moment or two of their lives in these dramatic pics. Some dreams do come true.

Maybe “I should have been a cowboy,” too, “should have learned to rope and ride just like Gene and Roy…yeah, should have been a cowboy.”

Mosaic Moments Triple Diamond Rings

Mosaic Moments Refresher Course Pattern #143 and Triple Diamond Rings die

I had hoped to use these photos for a Tell Your Story layout someday, but this die and this paper for this week from the new Dockside Collection was too good to pass up. I will give you a peek at the companion page I made to accompany this story. I’ve just changed some of the photos I’d planned on using.

Mosaic Moments Pattern #116 pinwheel

Mosaic Moments Triple Diamond Rings

Mosaic Moments Refresher Course Pattern #143 and Triple Diamond Rings die

This page uses a pinwheel pattern #116. It allows me to use the smaller Diamond Ring Border die and the single Diamond Ring Cornerstone die and relate to the Triple Diamond Ring on the main page. This time the photos relate back to when we were kids so I did not use the same colors for the tile pieces. Each of the photos required a mat and that same color was used for the die cut and a darker shade for the background.

Mosaic Moments Triple Diamond Rings

Mosaic Moments Refresher Course Pattern #143 and Triple Diamond Rings die

I liked the combination of colors as it was with the simple tone on tone look but, the more I looked at it, I began to see fabric I used to upholster a couch several years ago and I had to change that! That was accomplished by adding another color to break it up a bit and the two different tan/sand colors brought out the pattern of the die. Only cutting two tiles was needed to be able to fill the sections of the four border tiles.

Mosaic Moments Triple Diamond Rings

Mosaic Moments Refresher Course Pattern #143 and Triple Diamond Rings die

 

Mosaic Moments Triple Diamond Rings

Mosaic Moments Refresher Course Pattern #143 and Triple Diamond Rings die

The photos on this page were originally slides and as I cropped and printed the images only one was not able to fit with the pattern so I made it a square. This left me with a large area to add a few names and places on the mat below. Sometimes you just have to adapt.

Mosaic Moments Triple Diamond Rings

Mosaic Moments Refresher Course Pattern #143 and Triple Diamond Rings die

The paper grid for this layout, Bleached Wood, is from our new Dockside collection of papers. Two pages lend themselves to a rustic look the Crackle Paint and Bleached Wood. I Hope you try them out with your next layout.

Mosaic Moments Triple Diamond Rings

Mosaic Moments Refresher Course Pattern #143 and Triple Diamond Rings die

Mosaic Moments Triple Diamond Rings

Mosaic Moments Refresher Course Pattern #143 and Triple Diamond Rings die

Andrea Fisher

Mosaic Moments Refresher Course Pattern #143 and Triple Diamond Rings die