4th of July Frame

      This weekend, I was poking around for a little 4th of July inspiration on Pinterest and found all kinds of fun.  When all was said and done, I decided to make a frame to put onto my mantle.



Here is a glimpse at my pin board -



To see all of it, you can click here.  (I ♥ Pinterest)  Making this little framed up collage was simple, cheap and fast.  A lot of my favorite things a project can be.  Here's what I used -



An 8 x 10 frame bought 50% off at Hobby Lobby
Scissors
Paper Cutter
Tape
Card Stock white paper
Card Stock patterned paper

Let's talk about the paper.  One of my favorite blogs in the world, Jones Design Company, made some paper that could be downloaded and printed.  There were lots of different patterns, and you could pay for a certain print in lots of colors or the entire collection.  I bought the whole collection, because it would all be so great for cards and tags and such.  I love the style - you can see the collection if you click here.  I also just used plain ole construction paper that I had on hand.
      I started by printing the words that I wanted.  I went with "America the Beautiful" in the font Jellyka Western Princess that I downloaded for free here.  I also did "Land of the Free.  Home of the Brave" in the font Bickham Script Fancy which I downloaded for free from here.  (I got the tip off for this font website from Jones Design Company as well.  ♥ the new font horizons.)




I cut all of the words with straight edges using the handy paper cutter - scissors would work as well if you don't have one of those.  I then just played around with different combinations of the red chevron paper that I had printed and the construction paper to see what I liked the best.  I backed other words with just the blue construction paper to have some variety.  I used tape to secure everything, since it was going into a frame and not going to be messed with.




I cut some stars out of white card stock.  I decided that I wanted sort of wonky stars, so I folded paper over and drew half a star, then cut them out.  To get perfect stars, you could easily pull up a google image search and trace it from the computer.




Then, I just arranged it all on the light blue/gray houndstooth paper that I had printed out until I liked it.



And, there you have it, a little 4th of July themed decor for my mantle.  Here's hoping this year we don't burn down our neighbor's bush like last year.