Happy 4th!

This year was another easy going one here in the Bence house.  Our neighbors that we enjoyed dinner with last year ended up going to the Stadium of Fire show at BYU, so we figured we'd be one our own this time.  Lucky for us, another set of neighbors came a-knocking on our door day before yesterday and invited us to join in a neighborhood gathering just across the street for dessert and fireworks.  We were so excited that we didn't have to be lame lighting them off by ourselves!

Check out these cute invites!

I was trying to come up with a dessert to bring when I stumbled across this recipe for a red, white and blue shortcake.  I had quite a few couponed Pillsbury grand biscuits in the fridge that I needed to use so I figured it would be perfect.

Good thing I made them early as I realized once they were freshly baked and on the cooling rack, that I didn't have a fun bread basket liner for the fourth.  No red, white or blue napkins even!  Crazy.  I ran upstairs to see what kind of fabric I had and thought that using up some of my leftover linen from curtain projects would be the way to go.  Only problem was that it wasn't very patriotic.  I channeled my inner six-year-old art project mind and opted to make a potato stamp star.  I had some red acrylic craft paint leftover from another old project.  Yahoo!

I grabbed the fattest potato I could find so I could make a decent sized star.

Then sliced it in half.

Next grabbed a piece of scrap paper, traced around the potato and drew my star.

After cutting out the star, I laid it on the potato half and used a toothpick to mark all the corners.

Then grabbed my knife and made quarter inch cuts downward from the inner marks to the outer marks.  Last take the knife and slice out the five sections.

Yay for potato stamps and very fat looking fingers!

To measure what size of cloth I needed I simply laid the linen down in the basket and eyeballed where I would make my cut.  It ended up being an 18 x 18 inch square.  The large chunk of fabric I had left had frayed ends from going through the wash after cutting and I actually really liked the look.  I decided to fray the newly cut ends instead of sewing nice folded ones.  After I frayed I threw it in the dryer for about 20 minutes to rough it up a bit more.  Not enough time for another full wash and dry.

Tools needed for stamping are paint, foam brush, stamp, a piece of scrap paper and some sort of tray...I used a paper plate.

I simply brushed a small amount on the star, just enough to cover it.  I found that if I put too much on, it really bled through the fabric.  I placed the scrap paper underneath the linen to protect the tabletop and soak up any extra paint.

Here was the first.  Didn't fully cover, but added to the look!

Here it is all finished!

So cute!  Love that the stars aren't perfectly shaped...gives them more character.  I think even if I had a star stamp, I still would have gone the potato route!

Here are the nommy biscuits all tucked away in their new linen napkin.

And the rest of the goodies that go on top!

It turned out delicious!  Butter and sugar turned those babies from a normal dinner side into a scrumptious dessert!

Sorry I didn't take any fireworks shots tonight to share.  Yes, Chris did do another big show, but the pictures never turn out!  I'm awful at night shots.  Instead I'll leave you with a pic of these two good looking peeps.

Go 'merica!