Hi everyone!
If you've been here before you probably know that my husband served in and retired from the US Navy and that I love making patriotic cards! You might even remember that my birthday is close to the 4th of July and that I graduated from in 1976, serving on the Bicentennial Commission during my last few years of high school. No surprise then that the 4th of July is a big deal in our household!
Of course, we have yet to celebrate this year's Independence Day, but 2026 will be its 250th anniversary! Lots to look forward to! (I had to look it up...one of the names for it is the "semi-quincentennial!" What a mouthful!)
Stamp Simply has a fabulous assortment of patriotic stamps that make patriotic cards easy and really fun to make because you can mix and match everything to get exactly the look you want.
For today's project I made a mini slimline card (finished folded dimensions 3.5 x 6 inches) which gave me a little more wiggle room for the width of that "1776" than a standard A2 card would have.
First I prepared the card front, stamping the text collage in the background with shimmery copper ink and adding a strip of designer paper to the top of the card. I filled in any blank spots with sentiments from the Liberty Bell stamp set. Then I stamped, die-cut and colored the bell images with Memento/Copic markers using coppery colors before adhering them directly onto the card front.
The numbers, die cut from a couple of sheets of designer paper, were adhered with dimensional adhesive squares.
I added a big red bow embellished with a small tag stamped "USA," tied on with some string through a heart-shaped button from my stash. (I'll be sad when I run out of these; I can't even remember where I purchased them...JoAnn I think 💔).
Here's the inside, where I stamped sentiments from a couple of our other patriotic sets and layered more of those designer papers.
- Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Liberty Bell Bundle (bell image and several sentiments)
- Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - The Red, White & Blue (word collage background stamp)
- Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Old Glory (small USA on tag, small outline star)
- Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - The American Eagle (America, Land that I love sentiments inside)
- Sizzix Thinlits Dies by Tim Holtz - Countdown
- Sizzix Thinlits Dies by Tim Holtz - Tag Collection
- Echo Park Let Freedom Ring 6x6
- Memento Full Size Dye Ink Pad - Espresso Truffle
- Delicata Non-Tarnishing Ink Pad - Celestial Copper
- May Arts 1/2 inch Wrinkled Ribbon 50 Yard Spool, Burgundy
- May Arts Baker's Twine - 110 Yard Spool - Kraft
- distress oxide inks
- Copic markers
- heart-shaped buttons from stash