Before I started crafting, I never knew the 4th of July to be a card-giving holiday. LOL  Since I started making cards (it’s been a year and a half now!), however, I find that I want to make cards for every occasion and holiday! For my sweet friend, Jamie (YT: ScrappinStampers) I thought I would not make a summer card that was also “subliminally” patriotic. 😀

I used a cute Pure Innocence digi called “Butterfly Catch” that I had gotten for free from Heather Ellis (sorry I can’t seem to find her free digi website any more).  The little girl’s outfit seemed perfect to kind of mimic the American flag.  Her shorts were stripped horizontally and her shirt had floating hearts like the stars on the field of blue.  I used the following Copic colors:
Hair: C5, C7, C9 and B21
Skin: E50, 51, 53 and R30
Shorts: R22 and 08 with white Gelly Roll pen stripes
Shirt: B21, 24 and 18
Hedge: G12, 02, and 05
Grass: G05 and 09
Sky: B00, 01 and 02
Butterfly: R22 and 08 with white Gelly Roll pen hearts and dot accents

I also punched out some extra butterflies with a Martha Stewart medium Monarch Butterfly punch and the 3-in-1 Butterfly punch. I colored these (including edging them in black) like the butterfly in the digi image so that they would look like a little flutter of butterflies flying by.

I used the 6th largest oval and scalloped oval from the  Diemond Dies Oval Nesting Die Set and Scalloped Oval Nesting Die Set to cut out the colored image and to frame it.  To add a little sparkle on the frame, I added dots of Tim Holtz Distress Stickles in Broken China on each scallop. For the background layer, I used a thin paper from an old Recollections Brights and Basics stack that had some fun patterned circles in blues and greens in it. I “grounded” the whole thing with a triple wrapping of navy and white bakers twine, a double loop blue seam binding bow that I made with my Craft Dee-BowZ, and a little single loop pale blue and white polka dot grosgrain ribbon bow topped with a dark blue button.

Inside, I printed out a sentiment that I thought captured the free fun of the little girl trying to touch the butterflies as well as Independence Day: “In the pursuit of HAPPINESS”.  I also added a flutter of more punched out butterflies inside for good measure. 🙂

The following is the video share of this card:

This card is being entered into the following challenges:
MarkerPOP 4th of July Challenge
Raisin Boat The USA Challenge
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge
Craft-Dee BowZ Anything Goes with a Handmade Bow Challenge
613 Avenue Create Anything Goes w optional Sights/Sounds/Tastes of Summer

Thanks for stopping by! WOOF