Let Freedom Ring

June 26, 2023

Hello and welcome back!

Hope everyone is ready for the upcoming 4^th of July long holiday weekend! I know I am so excited to have a few extra days off of work for some much-needed R&R (rest & relaxation) and C&C (crafting & coffee!).

For my card today, I have created a 4^th of July card featuring the brand-new stamp set from Dare 2B Artzy called Patriotic Sentiments paired with the new Star Duo Stencils and a few other Dare 2B Artzy goodies.

To start the card, I created a Z-fold car base. To create the Z-fold card base, you cut a piece of cardstock to 6 inches wide x 10 ½ inches long. Once you have the cardstock cut, you score it on the long side at 3 ½ and 7 inches. Before folding and scoring your card, you will need to trim off a bit on the top side of the first two sections. This will create the top angled view for the first two sections. You can do this by drawing a pencil line with a ruler or by being footloose and fancy free like I was and just eye-ball it. I placed the cardstock into my trimmer and lined up the 2^nd score line with the leading edge of my trimmer blade and then shifted the cardstock so that the first two sections would be over the cut line and just trimmed away a nice slice.

At this point you have a scored piece of cardstock. I didn’t fold mine right away, I waited until I had the front and inside panels done but that’s totally up to you.

To decorate, I used several different Dare 2B Artzy products.

First, I ink blended some Midnight Blue ink onto some Neenah Solar White cardstock using the new Star Duo Stencil. I used the one that has the clustered star shapes.

I cut the stenciled panel down to 3 ¼ wide and 4 ½ inches long and cut it an angle to match the card base but I left an 1/8-inch border all around the panel.

Next, I cut several strips of cardstock in silver, navy and some of the Dare 2B Artzy Holiday Stripe paper. This paper is perfect for holidays but on the back side it has a nice red and white polka dot pattern which was perfect for this card. I used some Score-tape to adhere the strips to the ink blended panel at an angle. Once I had a few strips adhered in place, I trimmed off the overhanging strips with my scissors.

For the front sentiment, I stamped and heat embossed the Let Freedom Ring from the Patriotic Sentiments using some Red Embossing powder. I cut a circle that was just slightly larger from some silver glitter cardstock to create a border and adhered it to the outside border on the sentiment for a little pop of shimmer. I popped the sentiment up with a bit of dimensional foam on the front panel of the card.

Using the other stencil from the Star Duo stencils that has all of the little stars, I used it to emboss a piece of Navy cardstock by running it through my Spellbinders die cutting machine with a rubber embossing mat and a couple of shims. I did spritz the paper slightly to help with the embossing. I love how that turned out with a perfect embossed star background.

I cut the embossed panel down so that it would fit behind the front panel and have the nice embossed stars peeking out. The cut panel measured 3 ¼ x 5 ½ and then cut at an angle to match the card base with a 1/8-inch border as well.

For the inside flap on the left, I stamped the sentiment; “One Flag, One Land, One Heart, One Hand, One Nation Evermore” by Oliver Wendell Holmes. I really love that quote and thought it would be perfect for a 4^th of July card. Once my sentiment was stamped, I cut it out using the smallest rectangle from the Slim Mini Wavy Layers die. It worked perfectly for cutting out my sentiment with a little manipulation by cutting one end and then moving the die in closer to make the cut at the opposite end and running it through the die cutting machine a 2^nd time. This technique is perfect for creating die cut layers to fit any sentiment, I use it often.

On the last inside panel to the right, I started by using the Night Sky hot foil plate and foiled the background onto a piece of matte silver cardstock. Of course, this hot foil plate is amazing and it works perfectly with a 4^th of July card theme. I cut the finished panel down to 3 ¼ x 5 ¾.

I added a couple of strips of cardstock in white glitter and more of the Holiday Strip paper as well as using some of the left-over star embossed navy cardstock. I placed all of these at an angle along the bottom of the foiled panel.

Next, I stamped and heat embossed the Happy 4^th of July sentiment with the red embossing powder again and added another circle border that was just slightly larger using some blue glitter cardstock around the outside edge.

Then I was able to fold my panels into the Z-fold by folding the first score line backwards and the second score line forwards just as you would with an A2 size card. I used a bone folder to really crease the scored lines.

For some finishing touches, I cut several pieces of glitter cardstock in white, blue, red and silver using the small stars from the Curve Slimline Border Dies, Wavy Slimline Border dies and the Mini Gift Tag dies because there’s a nice star with that set as well. I used the small stars to provide a pop of sparkle on all the panels. Each was added with a bit of liquid glue or Score-tape.

As a fun touch, I used the Candle Pocket Die and cut it from some 110lb white cardstock and then from some red glitter cardstock. I used my scissors to snip apart the candles and then added a strip of blue cardstock to the front of the candles cut from the white cardstock. Next, I adhered the red glitter candles on top of the blue layer and snipped off the flame on the glitter cardstock. In place of the flame, I added the small star die cut from silver glitter cardstock to create a firework. How fun is that?? I thought it turned out so cute!

That finished up my card for today! I hope you’ve enjoyed my Dare 2B Artzy 4^th of July Card! I love that I was able to take so many products and use them in different ways and repurpose them to create this fun card.