Fourth of July Card and Pin Wheel Wreath by Guest Designer Michelle Wofford

Hi everyone, Michelle back again to share a couple more projects for 4th of July.  The Stars & Stripes line from Doodlebug Designs Inc. has some great double sided paper and what better to make for the 4th of July than a United States Flag card with this line. 

Start by making your card base, trim cardstock to 6" x 6 1/2", score on the 6.5" side at 3 1/4".  Fold in half, your card base is now 3 1/4" x 6".

Trim seven 1/4" x 6" strips of the red star patterned paper and one 1 3/4" x 2" rectangle from the blue patterned paper.  Ink edges if desired. 

Starting at the top of the card base, adhere the first red stripe.  I use a liquid adhesive, like Beacon's 3 in 1, which allows you a little wiggle room to line up the paper. 

Continue adding stripes, evenly spaced until you reach the bottom.  Use one of the strips to place between the strips as you adhere them to the card base.  This will make it easier to line up the strips and keep the spaces even without much work.

The bottom strip should be flush with the bottom of the card base and your card should look like the picture above.

Take your blue rectangle and lay out star brads to get an idea of where you want to place them so you have an idea of where to pierce your paper.

Use a paper piercer an piercing mat to pierce holes for your brads.

Add your brads.  The way these brads are made you can play with them a bit until you have them in a position you like, just twist the bottom to rotate the star.

Using pop up adhesive attach the star studded rectangle to the top left corner to complete the flag. That's it your done!  You could make this on a larger scale for a home décor piece as well.

Speaking of home décor, my next project is a simple pinwheel wreath  made using the pre-cut pinwheel kit from Doodlebug Design Inc.'s Stars & Stripes collection.  I love this kit for a quick and easy project like this.

 

First assemble all your pinwheels.  The kit comes with enough to make 12 pinwheels, you need 11 to make this wreath.

Start by separating each pre-cut square from the sheet it is attached to.  Then gently separate the diagonal slits at each corner.  Stick a glue dot in the center.

Start with the top left corner and gently fold over, being careful not to crease it and attach the tip to the glue dot in the center. 

repeat for all four corners.

Now you have your pinwheel base. 

The kit comes with these fun circle punch outs, they are reversible and have a different pattern on the back.  You can use these with a pop up adhesive in the center, or you can do what I did.

I love the look of these with a little bling so I used the largest size of the coordinating jewels for the centers.  To secure the gem, I added a glue dot to the bottom for extra hold and used a dab of quick dry liquid adhesive  to make sure they hold long term. 

Once you have all your pinwheels made, make the base for the wreath.  Trace a circle about 6" in diameter onto a piece of chipboard.  Trace a second line about 1/2" in.  Use scissors or a craft knife to cut around the outside circle and around the inside to create a ring.  Cover with patterned paper.  Your ready to attach the pinwheels.

Use a liquid adhesive so you can make adjustments as needed as you place the pinwheels on the wreath. 

  

When your done you have a fun pinwheel wreath for your 4th of July décor.  Allow to dry and add a ribbon to the back as a hanger.

I hope you've enjoyed viewing these fun 4th of July projects, as much as I enjoyed creating them for you.  Now go create something great!

Supplies used -

 Cardstock

Patterned Paper - Doodlebug Designs Inc. 

Jewels - Doodlebug Designs Inc.
Brads - Doodlebug Designs Inc.
Pinwheel kit - Doodlebug Designs Inc.

Paper Trimmer

Wet / dry Adhesive

pop up adhesive
Martha Stewart score board
scissors
chipboard
glue dots

Thanks for looking ~ Michelle

Do you have a great idea to share with us? Would you like to design for Craft Warehouse? We would love to hear from you! Send an email with your name, blog address, and a sample of your work to jenevans at craftwarehouse dot com.