God Bless America

Hi friends! Today I'm sharing a quick little Americana card I made over the weekend. I had some Liberty BoBunny paper scraps still on my desk from making my Thanks a Latte card. I had set these two scraps aside when I was working on that card as they seemed to tell a story. I thought they would make a perfect pairing with the Psalm 147:4 verse from the Shining Star set, so I embossed it on the paper with midnight muse ink and clear embossing powder.

I inked up the sides of the two panels of patterned paper with antique linen and vintage photo, then pulled out a stars embossing folder I picked up for 99 cents at Tuesday Morning last week.  I love all the teeny stars and know I'll be using this one a lot!  I embossed the card base, then added some of the same sponged colors around to continue the vintage look.  For the finishing touch, I added a strip of cardstock across the card with the God Bless America sentiment from American Hero.  I masked the sentiment to stamp it in a single line, then cut a star from some coordinating paper and glued everything together.

I hope you are having a wonderful Monday! We're hosting our annual backyard barbecue with family tomorrow, and the boys are so excited! They're pretty sure the 4th of July means a big starry bowl of red, white and blue skittles and m&m's, so what's not to be excited about? {grin}  And it's supposed to be 102 degrees, so perfect for a dip in the pool with all the cousins after the barbecue!

Verve's Red, White and Blue Sale continues through tomorrow with 25% off all stamps, including the pre-order of our July release!  Woohoo!

Enabler's List
Stamps: Shining Star, American Hero (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Liberty (BoBunny), cream (Neenah)
Ink: midnight muse, real red (SU!), vintage photo, antique linen (Ranger Distress)
Accessories: star embossing folder (Darice)

Americana Shine

Hi friends!  Happy Thursday!  It's the final day to get your entries in for our June Viva la Verve challenge and I realized I hadn't had a chance to use the June Week 3 sketch yet, so took a little crafty time for myself this morning.

I absolutely love making Americana cards.  I love the 4th of July and all things red, white and blue. I'm as American as...  cotton candy (because I don't really care for apple pie)!  LOL  So I pulled out my patriotic paper drawer and chose some papers from the BoBunny Liberty Collection to get started.  Shining Star is back in stock after a LONG hiatus and I have been really wanting to ink it up.

I started by stamping the trio of hanging stars on a stitched circle die cut, then coloring with Copic markers.  I matted this with a pinking circle die cut that I colored with copics to match the red.  The sentiment is stamped on a die cut from the Flag It Die Set and I cut the stars up top with the Starry Die, then colored with copics and a white gel pen.  I distressed most of the layers with antique linen, frayed burlap and vintage photo, then a paper distresser.  Then I finished off with linen twine and a trio of star rhinestones.

Here are all of my other June VLV cards.

June Week 1 using Get Together

June Week 2 using Get Together and Wonderful Marvelous

June Week 4 using The Buzz and Proverbs 16:24

June Week 4 Recap using Sparkly Dreams

I'm busy with prep for a 4th of July barbecue and just finishing up party favors for my parents' 50th anniversary celebration on the 5th.  Oh, and last minute errands to get everything ready for the boys to start Montessori school on Monday.  I've been waiting for the day I could send them off to regain a little of the me I lost when they were born and now that it's finally here I find myself terribly conflicted. I'm pretty much a big emotional roller coaster right now!

If you're in the mood for a sale, Verve's Red, White & Blue Sale is under way, with 20% off all stamps and dies (excluding new releases, which are 10% off) and 10% off sequins and ribbons! Definitely a great time to stock up!

Viva la Verve June Week 3

Enabler's List
Stamps: Shining Star (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Liberty Collection (Bo Bunny), cream (Neenah)
Ink: black archival, antique linen, frayed burlap, vintage photo distress (Ranger), copic markers, white gel pen
Accessories: Flag It Die Set, Starry Die (A Cut Above by VERVE), stitched circles stax (MFT), pinking circles nestabilities (Spellbinders), linen thread, rhinestones, paper distresser