Men ATCs for a swap

Remember this tip-in from the July patriotic swap? Well, I printed it on the same paper and printer as the men in the photo below. However, I think the picture above has less color in certain areas, and that is why you can see the background through it so well.

Although it is subtle, if you look closely, you can see the vintage sheet music I used to back the men for the Men ATCs. I got the images from a free Father's day countdown while in CA. Since I couldn't save them to my computer or my friend's computer, I printed them. They were originally tags that I cut to length, but the width was 1/2" smaller than ATC size, so I had to create a background.
I began by cutting the men to size, then sewing around their profiles. I'm still not very good at corners and turning on a sewing machine, but I've never expected my sewing to be perfect. Next, I cut "Hero" from some thin, shiny cardboard and swiped the words with Distress Ink. The only color I have is Antique Linen, so obviously, that's what I used.

I don't know much about Distress Inks, but I thought they were dye inks and dried nearly immediately. When I got ready to glue the words to the ATCs, I noticed that the ink had not yet dried. So I got out my heat gun and went to town. However, the lovely background I originally had, turned to blobs of color when heated. So now I know I can't use distress ink on shiny surfaces unless I want the blob look. Thankfully, the word is small relative to the rest of the page.

I'm normally a stickler for all the same, but this time I had to bend my own rules. Technically, everything is the same except the images. So, I guess these fall under the "similar" category. Even though they are only similar, I thought they turned out pretty good. The only thing I regret is not adding photo corners. I think they would have been a nice touch, but I could only find three, obviously not enough for the swap.