Happy July 4th!

July 4th is one of my favorite holidays. I think it's from when I was a kid and I had off from school all summer.

On July 4th, we might go to the beach or boardwalk and we always had some kind of cookout with family. I love grilled burgers and hotdogs and deviled eggs! Mmmmm. Even after moving to Texas, I still spend almost every July 4th with my family in NJ. There's nothing better than eating Kohr Bros. orange swirl custard on the boardwalk, watching the fireworks over the ocean.

I made this "America" banner to celebrate Independence Day.

First, I cut out triangles from recycled chipboard. This gives each banner piece a sturdy backing to layer on all the embellishments. I selected my paper (all Rusty Pickle "Mayflower), cut it to fit the triangles, then adhered it to the chipboard backing. I printed and cut out some vintage postcard images and layered these onto handmade paper rosettes. I added some type of strip to the top of each banner - stitched paper strips, ribbons, even folded cupcake papers. The bottom of each triangle has a letter to spell out "AMERICA". I cut a small hole in each upper corner, then strung all the banner pieces together using ribbon.

Here are a couple of close-ups: