4th of July!

Yay! The 4th of July is almost here--just one more week! Too bad I pretty much hate fireworks... Thankfully my mom also hates fireworks, so I'm never alone in the house watching the fireworks through the window! My mom, however, has a reason to hate fireworks. When she was younger, her two brothers set off one of those spinning fireworks which somehow got wound up in her long hair. It was obviously a traumatic experience for her, but I think her fear may have rubbed off on me. In fact, even when I was very little, I was terrified of fireworks. My mom has a picture of my dad holding me down on his lap about 3 feet from a "snake"...you know, those slow burning black discs that simply "grow" into a long black snake. Pretty much no real danger there...but yeah, I was afraid of those (too bad I don't have the picture--it's really quite funny!). Unfortunately, my fear has only grown with age. I don't mind the snakes too much anymore, but I really don't like my dad and husband lighting off those huge fireworks that could at any moment fall and shoot flaming balls straight at me! Okay, so I'm a little irrational...

Nevertheless, I do like making paper decorations that help celebrate the holiday in a safe, non-dangerous way :-)



I used a Pringles can and a Hershey's Cocoa can for this project. I have a whole package of Pacific Point pattern DSP, and since it and the Riding Hood Red paper I have are retiring in a few days, I figured I could use those!

This is the taller can:



I cut slits in the lid and stuck in little strips of card stock that I had curled around my finger. I mounted the accordion flower on a popsicle stick that I had embossed with White Embossing Powder to make a little holiday "flag". Here's a little tutorial on how to make those accordion flowers:

1. Cut a strip of DSP 1-1/2" x 12" and score every 1/2" (for glitter along the edge, place sticky strip along the edge of the front side of the paper BEFORE you score the paper. Leave the red cover on the tape until your flower is done)
2. Fold the strip like an accordion
3. Using sticky strip, adhere the two ends together and shape into a flower. Use a shape with a pop up glue dot to hold the flower in place. I used a star punch on the front and back sides.
4. Remove the red covering from the sticky strip along the edge and add glitter.

Here is the smaller container:



I used both clear and silver embossing powder to emboss star images from the In the Stars stamp set (retired). Because the lid of the cocoa can was brown, I covered it with DSP. I added another accordion flower on the top with swirl strips as well. This time, I put glitter on the star using the Two Way Glue Pen to adhere the glitter to the star:



Well, I'm looking forward to the fireworks show here in Chicago that I'll basically be able to see from my window! I've heard it's a beautiful show off the Navy Pier. I'm sad that I won't be able to spend it with my family like I usually do, but maybe I'll make some homemade ice cream and a fruit pizza made to look like a flag to make it feel more like home on the 4th of July :-)

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Paper: Riding Hood Red (111348)*, Pacific Point (111350)*, Brushed Silver (100712), Pacific Point Patterns DSP (112150)*, Summer Picnic DSP (retired)
Ink: VersaMark (102283)
Punches: Large Star Punch (110710), Star Punch (109045)
The Little Something Extra: Silver Brads (104336), Chunky Essentials Glitter (108797), Pop Up Glue Dots (104183), Sticky Strip (104294), 2-Way Glue Pen (100425), Riding Hood Red Striped Ribbon (111374)*, Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon (111365)*

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