Independence Day!

I decided to make an Independence Day card for a friend of mine...I saw a sketch at Clean&Simple Stamping that just spoke to me and said..."I would make a great patriotic card!".  Here is the original sketch:

Of course, this was just a sketch and the stars could be anything but I decided to do something different and use...uh, yeah....the stars as STARS!

I actually have this wonderful Creative Memories star punch that also embosses that my friend, Cyndi, gave me a while back.  I love it.  It does a regular 5 pointed star and then it does a cut out star that is embossed.

Here is my take on the sketch:

I used some very old red and white Making Memories paper I had, white cardstock from who knows where and a piece of blue Bazzill.  The little blue stars on top of the white stars were done from Pink Paislee paper and punched with a little Fiskars thumb punch I have. The sentiment was done with various stamps I had around...the happy was from a Stampendous set...and the 4, t, h, and ! were from some teensy wood mounted stamps from Hero Arts that I've had for nearly 10 years.  I cut the sentiment out with an EK Success punch.

Below you can just about make out the bit of embossing...even though it's a bit blurry.

I've always loved red, white and blue together....they just make you want to stand at attention with your hand over your heart.
I'm entering this in the following Challenges:
Little Scrap Pieces: Use a Star
More than Favors: Wacky Wednesday #73 4th of July Theme
Paper Crafting Journey: Challenge - Feeling Krafty 
By the way, my friend Donna sent me the following video the other day.  It's of 2 girls and a boy (all siblings) singing The Star Spangled Banner a capella.  It is amazing....I hope you enjoy it. It gave me goosebumps and brought a tear or two to my eye....

Happy Crafting!