I was so taken by the inspiration photo for today's MIX challenge that I decided to just go for the CASE. I needed a birthday card for my brother and he is going to love this! I started with a piece of black cardstock and I die cut it before I did anything. Then I sponged Salty Ocean from the top down with most of the ink concentrated in the upper left. Then I fingerpainted the stripes. I wasn't crazy about the color of my red paint, so I added some Barn Door Distress Oxide reinker to it and mixed it with my finger. Remember when the Iraqis went and voted after the Saddam Hussein regime was toppled? That's what I look like today. Anyway, I let the red stripes dry, then painted the white stripes and let them dry. Then I stamped the trees along the bottom with Versafine Clair. I knew the only way I was going to seal that color into the painted stripes was to add some clear embossing over it. I painted stars with the tip of a paintbrush handle and then added some extra sparkly ones with white gel pen. The "Celebrate" and the banner are from Waffle Flower and cut out with my ScanNCut. As usual, I made two of these and I'm not sure I can part with the second one.