Three Cheers for the Red, White, and Blue!

ETA: This card appeared in the July, 2013, issue of Scrap n' Art.

Independence Day is coming up next week, and I'm celebrating by playing along with the Red, White, and Blue challenge at Shopping Our Stash.  I've made a card, which you see pictured below.

Supplies: patterned paper (Authentique), large alphabet stickers [used as stencils] (October Afternoon), small alphabet stickers (Lily Bee Design), paint (Liquid Pearls by Ranger), cardstock "brad" (Candi by Craftwork Cards), ink (Tsukineko).

The strip of paper with the Latin Proverb on it is the brand identification strip from the bottom of a sheet of Authentique paper.  It was fun to incorporate this strip--which would normally be a throwaway item--into the design of my card.  

I used the negative parts of letter stickers to spell out "USA."  Once again, I was able to reuse a "throwaway" item on this card.

I have explained my stenciling technique in a previous post, which you can see here.  In that old post, I used Stickles, but for my USA card, I used Liquid Pearls.  The trick to getting a satiny sheen on the letters is to apply the Liquid Pearls with a paintbrush and make sure that all your brush strokes go in the same direction.  Remove the stencils as soon as you have painted a letter; if you leave the stencils on, the Liquid Pearls will act like glue as it dries, permanently adhering the stencils to your project.  To make the removal of the stencils easier, you can leave one corner turned up (as you see in the photo above), thereby making a "handle' that you can gently pull when you remove the stencil.

I also squirted a few dabs of Liquid Pearls directly onto the paper, to create pearl-like accents.

Thanks for stopping by my blog to see my card today.  If you'll be celebrating on the Fourth of July, then I wish you a Happy Independence Day!