July 4th Garland

Set up a happy paint-friendly work space to paint up your cards. I used two strips of painter's tape on each card to mask off three stripes, and then I painted them red.

Paint away on the white space but don't fret if ya get your tape all painty too. Once it dries, carefully peel tape off to reveal a swatch of red and white stripes. Painter's tape is best for this as its tack isn't as fierce as masking tape. Even so, a few of my cards lost a bit of their top layer.

Create a scalloped pattern by folding an extra index card into thirds and then sketching a curved shape at the edge. Trim with scissors and open it up.

Plop your pattern atop the backside of one of your painted cards and trace the scalloped bottom. Cut along the line you traced, and and then repeat this process for each card.

Roll out a seven-foot length (more or less if you choose) of white crepe paper and fold it in half lengthwise. Use glue stick to glue the top of each painted card between the two layers of the folded crepe paper, placing them about 5"- 6" apart. Create a hanging loop at each end of your garland by gluing the ends of the crepe paper into a loop as shown here.

Roll out additional lengths of crepe paper in red and blue and bring the whole party to your sewing machine. Stack the colors however you fancy while keeping the card-festooned strip on top. Use a long zig-zag stitch and slowly stitch through all your layers from one end to the other. It may take a moment to get the hang of it, but move slowly and you'll be fine.

To create the "firework bursts"; gather up your cupcake liners. Take one liner and turn it inside out, and then crumple the second liner and glue it to the inside of the first with white glue. Repeat until you have 9 or 10 bursts. I'm a bit of a cupcake liner addict and often pick up the holiday themed packs at the after-holiday sales. I found my liners at a local craft store; they were made by Wilton but you can use any color you like. Glue one cupcake-liner burst atop each painted-card flag and allow to dry.