Guess who is Guest Designing for How Much Is Too Much??!!!

Yep....yours truly!!! I was excited and honoured to be given this opportunity by Anna-Karin - thankyou. I get to design for 2 challenges throughout July.  If you haven't heard of HMITM, go there now & check it out - twice a month, challenges are put up that encourage you to use your stash - new and old, based on certain criteria. The criteria for my challenge are:

Challenge 175: Stars and Stripes Forever
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
 
My layout is below:
 
 

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.