Feeling Patriotic

Hello everyone!  It's Kim from Katydid Cards showing my true colors.  Patriotic colors, that is.  I have two cards to share with you today.  I hope they inspire you to check out all the great patriotic cut files in the store and make a few of your own for friends and family for the 4th.  Here's my first card:

I made a simple rocker card, but it has a real "wow" effect thanks to the focal piece using the God Bless the USA cut file.  It’s got lots of layers so this is quite a beefy piece, which I love.  I cut it from Marina Mist, Night of Navy, Cherry Cobbler and Whisper White card stocks.

I converted the “God Bless” portion to print only on the Whisper White.  After putting everything together, I used Wink of Stella on the Night of Navy and Cherry Cobbler.  I only wish I could capture how beautiful that shimmer looks in person.  Here’s a close-up of that:

The digital patterned paper came from the Bada Bing digital collection by Amanda Heimann.  I changed almost everything, though, by reversing the color scheme and replacing the circles with stars.

For the inside, I used another Miss Kate Cuttables cut file, 4th of July Title and changed it to print only.  I added a few more stars and that did it.

My second card was made using the July 4th Set which has SO many components.  It's really a great buy.  My inspiration for this card actually came from this cut file.  Here's the card:

The file includes three concentric stars.  As soon as I saw them, I knew I wanted to make a shaker card with them.  I had never seen a multi-layered shaker card previously (though I sure there must be some), so I decided to give it a go.  I kept the same format, but increased the size to fit my card front.  I used the small stars (reducing them to 1/4" and smaller in size) in the same red, white and blue colors for the shaker contents...but switched the order so the shaker contents differed from the layers.  So, the bottom blue layer, with the smallest star, has red shaker content.  The middle white layer has blue shaker contents. The top, red layer has white.  Here's a view from the side showing the layers:

I found the perfect greeting for the front of the card in the Birthday section of the store.  Yup, I did say I used the Birthday Word file for a 4th of July card.  I inserted the word "Celebrate", sized it to fit inside the largest star and welded it.  Here's a closer look so you can see what I'm talking about:

For the inside of the card, I used the Independence Day Title and converted it to print only.  I think it goes perfectly with the front!

I hope you enjoyed my cards.  I always enjoy sharing them with you!  See you next month!