Begin by creating a new document in Photoshop CS3.

Make it 6 inches wide and 4 tall. Make sure you are using inches and not pixels

Type your name instead of the word July. Use a wide thick fat font

In the layers pallet select the "drop shadow" layer effect and use the settings below

Next, choose the "outer glow" effect for the same layer and use these settings

Same for inner glow

Also for bevel and emboss

For contour use this

Your type should look a little like this. Note that it will not have the black outline and may appear very light.

or it may look like this

Do a google image search for a flag and paste it into photoshop

You need to delete the parts of the flag that are outstide of the letters.

There are many ways you can do this. One is to use the magic wand. Target the white area of the type layer to get your selection.

Then target the flag layer and hit the delete key.

Make sure your layers look like this. Make sure the layer blending option is set for "overlay" for the top layer and "normal" for the flag layer.

Here's another example with fireworks in the background.