Celebrating 250...

 

I made quite a few cards for the 4th of July this year. Of course, all but two of them were donated to the thrift store, and I was very surprised when they all sold--and quickly, too. In past years I have donated only a couple, thinking that people really didn't make a practice of sending them. Maybe the fact that this is the 250th year of this country's independence has made the difference.

These cards were a great way to use up some scraps of patriotic patterned paper, so I made more of them than I am sharing here. Once again, it felt good to use some scraps.

The fireworks were die-cut from glitter cardstock, the word "celebrate" was stamped, and the 250 was die-cut from a scrap of red cardstock.

This card was made in a similar way, except the fireworks were part of the pattern on the DSP and the word "celebrate" was die-cut.

Just a simple sentiment was stamped on the inside. In fact, all the cards I'm sharing here, have this stamped on the inside.

I had a sheet of very, very busy DSP and was perplexed for a while as to what I could do with it. I finally tried a couple of simple ideas you see above. I had a full 12" X 12" sheet of this DSP, which meant I could get 6 cards from it.

Since the pattern included gold and silver, I used a strip of gold metallic cardstock down the left side with the die-cut 250 centered on it and a few holographic stars for sparkle.

For this card, I placed the 250 a little differently and added a light gold glitter cardstock burst of fireworks. To draw the eye to it, I added a gold gem to its center.

And finally, because I love making bookbinder cards, I had to make a couple of those, too. This time, I stamped the word "celebrate" on some white cardstock, cut it out and popped it up over the 250, which was made up of vinyl sticker numbers.

The binding on the left was covered with strips of red, white and blue cardstock that were each a tiny bit wider than 3/8".

Are you doing something special on the 4th? We may go and watch one of the local neighborhood parades, or head to the lake in a park that is only blocks from our house. A lot depends on the weather and how comfortable it is to be outside. This week we are having a heat wave with temps in the 90's and high humidity. I am super grateful for air conditioning on these hot days. We never had air conditioning when I was growing up, and I remember trying to sleep in the hot upstairs of a poorly insulated house!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl