Fireworks

Happy (belated) 4th of July! I celebrated the day by making some 4th of July cards with fireworks. Since I was so late making them, I didn't have time to mail them to anyone, but I did text a picture of the card to some of my family and friends. 

Fireworks - Regular Size

I could not find any current stamp sets that had fireworks, so I went through my old stamp sets to find something appropriate for the 4th of July. I found two stamp sets to use: Happy Fourth (SU set from 1999; used the words) and I Love Canada (SU from 2002; used the fireworks). Canada Day (July 1) is close to our Independence Day (July 4), so a lot of the stamps in each set can be used to make celebratory cards for each holiday.

Even though I used old stamp sets, I used current paper, ink and embossing powder to make the card. Start with Shimmer White Card Stock. (4 1/4" x 5 1/2"). Use VersaMark ink to stamp the fireworks images. If you work quickly, you can stamp all of the images before adding Clear Embossing Powder (from Basics Embossing Powder assortment) to stick to the stamped images. Shake off the excess powder, then heat emboss the images with the Heat Tool. You will barely be able to see the images since everything will look white, so hold the paper to catch it in the light to see when the powder has melted. Now, to make the fireworks really show, watercolor the background with Starry Sky ink (what an appropriate name for this card!) using a Water Painter. Although you want enough water to make the ink spread easily across the paper, you want this ink to be really dark to make the fireworks show up well. After the paper has mostly dried, gently rub a paper towel over the embossed fireworks images to get any residual ink off. Here's what the paper looks like after these steps.

Fireworks Background

From here you can decide how to make the card. I have a few versions to show you. For the original card shown, trim the background fireworks to 5 1/4" x 4" and adhere to a Basic White Thick Card Stock card base (5 1/2" x 8 1/2", then folded in half). The watercoloring of the background will make the shimmer paper curl, so make sure you use strong adhesive to adhere it to the card base. The "Happy Fourth" was stamped with Sweet Sorbet ink on Basic White Card Stock. If your ink is really juicy and you work quickly, you can get Clear Embossing Powder to stick to the stamped image. If you do that, then heat emboss it before die cutting it with a die from Tasteful Labels (retired). Use the fine tip end of the Starry Sky marker to make stitch marks along the edge of the white label, then adhere to the card with Dimensionals. The colorful stars were die cut from the darker sections of the 2022-2024 In Color Glimmer Paper with stars from the Sports Event dies (retired). The stars can be adhered to the card with your favorite adhesive.

Fireworks - Note Card Size

If you want a smaller version, you can also make the Note Card size (3 1/2" x 5"). You can use the pre-cut and pre-scored Note Cards (comes with envelopes), or cut your own from Basic White Thick Card Stock. For this card, I cut the background fireworks paper the same size as the Note Card. Everything else was the same as the first card shown.

Fireworks - Other Words

For this version, we're back to the regular size (5 1/2" x 4 1/4") and the background paper was adhered to cover the entire front of the card. The words are from a stamp called "Stitched July" from Stampendous!® in 2008. The words image was stamped in Starry Sky ink on Basic White Card Stock. The red portions were colored with Sweet Sorbet Blends. The paper was die cut with the largest die in Seasonal Labels. I didn't want the label quite as big as the die, so after die cutting it where I wanted the bottom to line up, I moved the paper up to the top portion and die cut it again. The left and right sides nicely stayed lined up in the grooves of the die, so you can't tell that the label size was adjusted. 

Hope you had a fun day of relaxing and celebrating!