Happy July 4th!

Coffee of the Day - Moon Pie (it's about as all American as I can get!)

Happy July 4th to my friends here in the USA! I hope you have wonderful things planned with your family and friends! my day will be a quiet one with my dogs, but that is okay. we have fun together! they are my buddies! I made a pitcher of homemade sangria yesterday that is quite tasty, so will enjoy that later in the day, perhaps with a hot dog or something else fun on the grill. I'll see my family Saturday afternoon, so I'm really looking forward to that! :)

Before I get to my card for today, I want to share with all of you a little something I found over on the Inky Antics blog. There is a call to help get the bells of freedom ringing today to help celebrate our wonderful July 4th. you can read more about it over on the blog.

“As grateful Americans, we hope to resurrect the tradition of the ringing of the bells. Let us be in tune with each other and our history by ringing bells at 2 p.m. on this July 4th in honor of the 237th Anniversary of our independence, thanking God for his blessings on our land.” 

I know I'll be shaking my keys or whatever else I can find!

I realize I haven't posted a great deal here on my blog in the past few days, but I have been busy crafting in the background. lots of fun stuff coming up, just not able to share with you yet. don't you hate it when someone says that to ya?! sorry, but it is true.... not a lot of time for 'me' crafting right now.

I did manage to get a card made to help celebrate our wonderful 4th of July holiday though. this image and the fabulous 'America the Beautiful' sheet music were both freebies from Crafty Secrets. papers are from the Authentique Pride collection, one of my very favorite for patriotic goodies. the rose is Prima, buttons & lace trim from my stash, and stamps are some I saved from envelopes. I love to use them on projects like this. :)  a piece was cut from an air mail envelope and a little red ticket added. faux stitching with my white gel pen completes the card.

I am entering my card into quite a few challenges, since so many are tailored to the holiday right now. one challenge, As You Like It, wants to know why some of these embellishments are my favorites. I happen to know the 2 lovely ladies that own the blog, so I think Samantha is probably thanking her lucky stars that there is no pink on this card! tee hee! but really, there is something about vintage buttons that makes me weak in the knees. and if they are a bit dirty and the threads are still tied in them, oh my gosh, I am in love! as the title of my blog says, ribbons and trims rank right up there at the top as well! I am not one of those who use lots of paper flowers, but I do like to add one or two on my projects. I guess the main reason I don't go all out with them is that I don't have a lot, so I tend to hoard the ones I have. ;)  another embellie I love to use is 'found' items such as the stamps. it gives me quite a thrill to be able to give a new life to something that would otherwise end up in the trash. it's almost a challenge to try to find new ways to use little goodies!

Challenges:
Crafty Secrets - linky party
Crafting By Designs - show us your country's colors
Crafting with Dragonflies - vintage with layers and lace
Inky Impressions - red, white, and blue
Paper Pretties - red, white, and blue
Stamping Chef - red, white, and blue
Crafty Sentiments - red, white, and blue
Creative Craft - a stitch in time
LEJ Designs - recycle, upcycle, or use household items (stamps, envelope, ticket)
Our Daily Bread - red, white, and blue or patriotic
Party Time Tuesday - patriotic (badge is about half way down sidebar)
Tuesday Throwdown  - stars and stripes (bg paper is also little stars)
Craft Your Passion - red, white, and blue
Digi Darla - stars and stripes, red & white or red, white, & blue
Eureka - stars and stripes (bg paper is also little stars)
Get Inky - red, white, and blue
Kaboodle Doodles - national day or flag colors
Mema's Crafts - paint your patriotism
Paper Playtime - red, white, and blue
Simon Says Stamp and Show - anything goes
Chocolate, Coffee, and Cards - July 4th
Clearly iStamp - red, white, and blue
Simply Create Too - flag colors
As You Like it - fave 3 embellies (vintage buttons, paper flowers, and trims. I do love the little tidbits I save to use on my crafts like the stamps, too. it's fun to repurpose things!)
Natalie and Amy - trash to treasure (stamps, envelope, ticket)
Sparkles - steampunk or vintage
Simon Says Stamp - patriotic
Sassy Studios - red, white, and blue
DLArt - patriotic
Scrap It Girl - red, white, and blue