Patriotic Birthday Card

Happy Friday, dear friends! I hope you have the most wonderful day today. :o)

Since it's nearly Independence Day, oodles of my favorite challenge blogs are in the festive spirit. I was excited to play along, deciding upon a birthday card for my boyfriend's sweet brother. He's a Marine and was deployed to Iraq a couple times, making for nervous months. The Lord kept him safe, but he had some very close calls. He is now safely home, but the mental battle rages on from all that he witnessed. It's vital for us never to forget what our soldiers face every single day and to always remember why our beautiful nation is free. Read the Declaration of Independence as part of your celebration this weekend. :o)

In case it's hard to read the passage I wrote to use for the flag's stripes, I'll type it out below. My goal with this card was to be festively fun, yet filled with purpose. Just like he is. :o)

With three tiny twists of brads, you get this! (He will enjoy making the fireworks burst forth from the card... probably with sound effects.)

Text: In the eyes of a soldier, we see the soul of a great nation. For our country they sacrifice, consequences unknown. Their eyes reveal stories words cannot express. They fight with a life-consuming pride in America, the Beautiful; a free nation by bravery. In every veteran and current hero, a heart of gold. In you, the sword of the Spirit. Happy birthday, my dear friend.

Since he is so appreciative of anything handmade, I was determined to add a couple extra elements to showcase that. Not all went as planned, but the heart is there. I measured out the spacing for 50 drops of liquid pearls as the stars on the flag. Why I even tried this with my index finger still needing a splint is beyond me! I invite you to pretend they're uniform in size. ;) The woven squares under the flag serve two purposes. Most importantly, to reflect how we need to be tightly woven together as a country. Additionally, it's another element to make him smile at knowing the time and effort that went into something that looks so simple. The ribbon running beneath the squares and tied in a bow on top symbolizes the traditional yellow ribbon for troops returning home.

And of course the fireworks... he gets quite a kick out of my addiction to sparkles and loves seeing those touches on all my creations. So instead of simply adhering the stars to the card base as first planned, I amped it up to make them truly festive. I positioned the top one to make the rhinestones directly over "soldier." I hope with all my heart that he loves this card. It's appropriate that I ran into so many issues and had to settle with less than 'perfect' results, because he made a point of chastising me on Christmas when I deflected his praise over the dinner and dessert I was in charge of. He wouldn't let me leave until I acknowledged that I'm amazing. ;) He's like so many soldiers... a teddy bear with a golden heart, determined to make people see the good in themselves. :o)

Festive challenges entered (I know it's a ton! I don't know if my finger can take another card this weekend as originally planned, so I'm submitting this to all):
 * Birthday Sundaes (Stars and Stripes)
 * Celebrate the Occasion (4th of July: Red, White, and Blue)
 * Fantabulous Cricut (Happy 4th: Red, White, and Blue)
 * My Craft Spot (Seeing Stars)
 * Scrappy Moms Stamps (Stand and Salute)
 * Wacky Wednesday (Red, White, & Blue)
 * Whimsical Wednesday (Let's Get Patriotic, including brads, bling, or buttons)

Before I flutter off, I have a shout-out to share! Thank you Kim from Crazy About Scrappin' for awarding me the Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award! She is such a sweet person with lovely creations and I am truly honored that she passed it along to me. :o) If you'd like to read more about my original acceptance, you can read this post. Thank you, Kim! :o)

Thank you for stopping by my little blog today! Every visit means so much to me. :o) (And just so you know, you won't want to miss tomorrow's Sweet Saturday. It's so good that I nearly titled this Sweet Saturday Eve so I could post it sooner. It's the dessert that made my boyfriend's co-workers declare me their resident baker. Oh the pressure!) Enjoy your day and Independence Day celebrations, friends! :o)

Key Recipe Components:
 * Cricut cartridge: Simply Charmed (stars)
 * Paper: Creative Imaginations, Papertrey Ink
 * Ribbon: From stash
 * Miscellaneous: Brenda Walton rhinestones, iRock rhinestones, Liquid Pearls