Fourth of July and Day 4 of Getting My Art On

Happy Fourth of July!  This flag is from Percy & Bloom who have free vintage clip art pieces.

When I saw the blue eyeshadow on this model, I decided to use her for a patriotic page - use only red, white and blue on the page. And a bee. I hadn't added that when I tool the photo. The pages look so much better in real life than they do in photos. I'm still working on my scanner.

This page is also to celebrate the Fourth of July. It is much more dynamic in the journal than it looks in the photo, particularly the cake. I think the textures of the whites don't photograph well.  Something about this girl is intriguing to me. 

I probably tell this story every year on July 4 (I didn't go back in the blog to check), but I'm going to tell it anyway. When I was a little girl, I always believed that July 4 was my birthday - I knew it was in July and we had a big picnic with friends and/or relatives, there were fireworks, fun. How could it not all be for me? I was disabused of this notion by the time I was 6, but I remember how special and safe I always felt. The Dads did some minor fireworks and then the kids got sparklers. The Moms were close by and there were buckets of water all around the lawn so that when the sparkler was done, we could easily snuff it out.  One year, we went to the local amusement park in Denver (the name escapes me) and they had a fireworks show over the lake. One of the big attractions was a special Snoopy firework in a frame (I didn't know it was in a frame). I loved the reflection of the fireworks in the water.

I have mixed feelings about this holiday because of the politicization of patriotism, but as an Air Force brat, I am always proud to be an American and proud to come from a military family.  We may not always take the right actions at the right times, but we are lucky enough to have so many freedoms. Freedoms that allow me to write here in this blog among other things.

Happy Fourth of July!