Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July! One of my favorite things about Independence Day is always the fireworks displays. It's been a few years since I've seen any fireworks in person (having to work at 7 a.m. the next day tends to put a damper on late-evening festivities), but I do still like to watch the television broadcasts (except when they cut away to show the faces and reactions of the spectators. Um, I tuned in to actually watch the fireworks, not to watch people watching fireworks). And the best part of most any fireworks display is of course the grand finale when the entire sky seems to be lit up. So today I wanted to make a card full of fireworks in the night sky:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!^®):
Stamps: Greenhouse Garden, Something to Celebrate
Card stock: Midnight Muse, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White
Ink: VersaMark, Cherry Cobbler, Midnight Muse
Accessories: Subtles Glimmer brads, Iridescent Ice embossing powder, Gold Detail embossing powder, Embossing Buddy, Cherry Cobbler baker's twine

They didn't come out quite as sparkly as I wanted, but you get the idea. The cool thing is that these are actually flower stamps! Yep, they are the same stamps I used in the second card in the post A Walk in the Garden (June 9, 2012). If you look closely, you can see that the larger "firework" is actually the detail stamp for the orange flowers, and the smaller one is the detail stamp for the purple flowers. I even used one of the stem stamps to create the "trail" for the large fireworks.

Inside of card: A couple more fireworks and a quick
handwritten greeting.

I'd never realized that these stamps looked liked fireworks. I was inspired by my good friend Faith who had used these stamps on a patriotic-themed card she made last year (unfortunately I couldn't find the card on Faith's blog to add a link, so you'll have to just trust me that it was adorable).

To finish off the card, I stamped the word "celebrate" and then hand-trimmed around it to make a waving banner. Before I adhered it to the card with a brad I gently bent it down in the middle and up on the end to add some dimension. I added another touch of Cherry Cobbler with some baker's twine wrapped around the bottom of the card.

With that card finished, I decided to make one more patriotic card, this one with a more vintage feel:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Card stock: River Rock, Cherry Cobbler, Midnight Muse
Ink: Early Espresso
Accessories: Stripes embossing folder, large and small star punches, hemp twine, paper piercer, mat pack, sponge, Dimensionals

Inside of card: A few small punched stars.

Surprisingly, there isn't any stamping on this card. I did use ink, however, to sponge the edges of all the elements to give the card a distressed look. I also added pierced holes around the edges of the blue card stock (I did this freehand, so the lines aren't perfectly straight) and in the other three corners of the embossed red card stock (used a template for these, so they're more even). The last detail was some hemp twine wrapped around the bottom of the card.




I hope you and your loved ones -- whether near or far -- have a safe and happy holiday. Thanks for stopping by!