Challenge 175 - Stars & Stripes Forever {July 4 - July 17

Happy 4th of July! Debbi here with this week's challenge.

First, I'd like to introduce our guest designer for this month, Belinda Achatz.

Here's a bit about Belinda, in her own words:

'Hello everyone - I absolutely love challenges that use up my stash & I am honored to be a guest designer at HMITM for July! My name is Belinda (aka busybel around the forums) and I am married & have 3 children – 7,6 & 10 months. I live in Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. I have been scrapbooking since 2006 & have an eclectic style - influenced by new product, photos, time available, the story I want to tell. I enjoy scrapping all sizes of layouts. I love distressing things, inking, paint, collage chipboard,& have a new-found love of Tim Holtz techniques/products, a long-time love of vintage, having something 'real' to say rather than just 'sentiment' and mixing new (products) with old. I also love art journalling, mixed media, ATC's and card-making.
I currently design for: Scrapmatts: an Australian chipboard manufacturer, Paper Inklings, an Australian paper/chipboard/rubon wholesaler and Mystical Scrapbooks, an Australian online store.'

You can see more of Belinda's work on her blog: Blaacraft

And now on to this week's challenge...

Here in the U.S.A., we're celebrating our Independence Day. In honor of that, I'd like you to use
** elements that include STARS (embellishments, patterned paper, etc.) and STRIPES (ribbon, patterned paper, etc.)
** a flag or banner accent
** and to play off the date we're celebrating, July 4, 1776, use:

• 7 - brads
• 4 - four-word title
• 1 - photo
• 7 - labels
• 7 - seven-sentence journaling
• 6 - patterned papers

Note: Your page can be of any topic or theme--it doesn't have to be about 4th of July. Have fun! Now for insiration from the team and guest designer...

Guest designer Belinda Achatz: Living in Australia we do not celebrate Independence Day - but I focused my layout on my eldest daughter overcoming her challenges & being a star and the layout came together easily. I incorporated the challenge criteria as follows: "You Are My Star"
I covered chipboard stars in glittery patterned paper, and added strips of striped patterned paper at the bottom - a mix of Crate Paper, We R Memory Keepers, Scenic Route. My banner accent was hand stamped in a rainbow palette of distress inks using a great stamp I found in my stash (I can't remember where it came from:( ) - but it was a ticket/journalling tag with a star flourish - I have used it whole in black as part of my title. I cut triangles from it for the banner. The brads include glittery ones as part of the banner, and a cluster of Crate Paper ones near the journalling.
I clustered a mix of 6 red-based labels mounted on a black chalkboard label from Pink Paislee to make a whole journal block. upon which I told my story in 7 sentences.. My patterned papers are as described above plus rainbows to back the title (from Sassafrass). Additional elements included the black glitter chipboard alphas from Pink Paislee - plus some of the swirly brackets from the same pack, and some black pearls.


Debbi Tehrani: I had this cheesy picture of my husband from last year's Fourth of July celebration that I never scrapped, so I decided now was a good time to scrap it. I used a lot of old papers on this page--I'm talking really old--combined with some newer stuff. I brushed the starry patterned paper with gesso to lighten it up because I was using a Color Combos Galore palette to make my page. My brads and labels are scattered about my page. I almost forgot to use a 4-word title, until I double checked the list, but fortunately I was able to think of one. And yes, I realize I don't have complete sentences, but I do have 7 sentence fragments!

Janet M- I'm coming in with two layouts this challenge because I couldn't decide which one to post after I got them done. Loved using all the patriotic elements in this and boy did I get into my stash for some of these items.
The first one is with my grandson Jonathon, somehow I forgot to do my journaling in these but I got all my other elements in.

This one is with my aunt Virginia and I'm so glad to have the moments with both of them captured.

Thanks for this fantastic challenge.

We always have the 4th of July picnic at our house and these are some pictures from a couple of years ago,Have fun with the challenge! Can't wait to see what you create!

Anna-Karin: Fabulous idea for a challenge Debbi! I stamped the background with stars, used a star patterned paper and a striped paper. The 6 patterned papers were arranged in a stripe fashion. The 7 labels are stamped (six for the journaling and one date label) and I used the brads to make a circle around the number 8 (for 8 months). For the flag, I used a quote sticker. The title translates ‘Up and (almost) away’, and the layout is about Anton’s efforts to learn how to crawl. The photo was taken the day before he managed to get the coordination right and off he went (to never ever sit stilll again). Thanks for this great challenge!!



Debbie F: Great challenge, Debbi! I decided to scrap this picture from our vacation this week. I always ask the kids to make a silly face when I'm trying to get them cooperate for a posed picture. This one cracked me up! I used Echo Park's Summer Days papers and embellishments. I decided to meet the six patterned paper requirement by making another banner. I continued the banner theme with twine and Jillibean journal sprouts. The labels challenged me, but I think I met it between the Jillibean stickers and sprouts. My journaling has seven fragments, if you include the title, and my stars are part of the sticker banner.

Elizabeth: I am from Canada, so I did a little different layout, but still incorporated all the items. The stars are in the yellow paper, the banner I made to hang from my title, and all the labels hold my seven lines of journaling. The cup in the picture has some kind of squirmy bugs inside. True father son camping style. Thanks for the great challenge Debbi!



To play, and have a shot at being chosen for our How Awesome Is Too Awesome Hall of Fame and creating as a HMITM Guest Designer, just share your layout through Mr. Linky below! We can't wait to see what you create!