Rain-delayed Fourth

We had some nasty storms come through yesterday afternoon, which resulted in losing power for about an hour and half, which meant I-gasp-actually stamped an entire card.  But you don't get to see that today.  Instead you get to see a couple of cards I made for Splitcoaststamper's CAS July 4th Holiday Challenges. They have 22 different challenges posted (along with some fabulous inspiration cards!).  You have until July 8th to play along, so you should!

This one is for Lisa Lara's "what a melon" color challenge of red, pink, green, and white, as well as fionna51's tea challenge:

Since my husband is addicted to Earl Grey, I thought this poster would make the perfect card for him.  Yes, it's foam taped again, which, yes, means I had to foam tape those stupid "A" triangles again.  I did use a little trick for the "steam" dots: I cut them out of adhesive-backed paper, then very carefully cut around them and lifted the backing off.  If you're very careful, the dots will stay in the main sheet until you press them down onto the card, then you can peel away the unused portion, and voila, your dots are perfectly adhered in your precise pattern.

This next card is for another of Fionna51's challenges; this time it was to use something sparkly.

(yes, I call my husband "babes" with an s. I can't explain it.)  I'm thinking of using "you light me up!" for the inside sentiment, but am open to better suggestions.  To make this, I used a rhinestone template from the silhouette store, designed the card in the silhouette software, then cut it out to use as a stencil on my cardbase, like so:

I didn't tape it to my face; it's an ad from the magazine I was using to tape everything down to because I am milking my SU grid paper pad for all that it's worth.  Am I the only one that gets excited when it's finally time to turn to a new sheet?  And then gets sad when something gets on that new sheet, even though that is its purpose in life? No?  That's just me?  Ok, uh, then let's just go back to the card: I drew some lines to help me remember what dots were which color, then went to town filling in the circles with stickles.  Cutting out the words also provides perfect placement of the separate letters, too. If you're smart, you'll adhere those before you get started on the stickles (of course I did the stickles first).  The silver letters are metallic paper and the red ones are foil paper from DCWV.

One more picture before I head back to stamping.  Addison is not a fan of the thunderstorms.  Or firecrackers.  Or cats.  To help with the first two, we bought her a thundershirt, and it certainly got a workout yesterday:

Teehee!  I tried to get a back view because it's pretty funny--all her hair sprouts up at the top like a historical ruffled collar. Good times. Good times.