4th of July Celebration by Design Team Member Elizabeth Wiederspohn

Everyone loves a good celebration and I can’t think of a better day to celebrate than the 4^th of July.  I love our country, our freedoms, and our troops that protect them both.  Independence Day is my second favorite holiday (right behind Christmas.) so I am honored to create for Craft Warehouse on such a special day.  

God Bless America Banner
 

Supplies Used:

Pebbles Americana 48 Piece Paper Pad

Pebbles Americana Dimensional Stickers

Pebbles Americana Phrase and Accent Stickers

Pebbles Americana Printed Cardstock Shapes

Doodlebug Sprinkles Blue Jean, Ladybug, & Lily White

Doodlebug Washi Tape Air Mail

Hazel & Ruby The Makery Shine and Sparkle

American Crafts Thickers Maple White

Paper Accents Glassine Bags

Die Cutter

Sewing Machine

Scoring Board

 
Flag Banners

1.     Cut 72 2.5” stars using your favorite punch, Silhouette die cutter or your Sizzix die cutting machine.  36 should be out of red pattern paper and 36 white pattern paper.  If your paper is single sided, you may want to cut enough stars to double side each star.

2.     Sew twelve red stars together into a banner making sure to make one continuous string and immediately hang your star banner to avoid tangling.  

3.     Continue to sew strings of stars together making a total of three white strings of 12 stars and three red strings of 12 stars and hanging them alternating colors.

4.     Cut a square 7.5” and glue a 4.5” star or rosette in the center.  Using Thickers write “God Bless America” over the top and bottom of the star Punch three holes across the top and tie in front of the left corner of stars. 

Rosettes

1.     Cut 14 3x12” strips of cardstock making sure you have two of each color.  Next, using a scoring board, score the strips in 1” increments and fold the strips back and forth alternating directions of the folds. 

2.     Bunch the folded strip together and cut the end at different angles much like you would a paper snowflake.  Make sure that you cut the matching cardstock strip in the same pattern to make sure the pennant is the same all the way around then staple the ends of each pair of strip together creating a circle

3.     Gather and push down the center of each pennant.  Glue a punched circle to the back using a hot glue gun or a strong adhesive like E-6000 to keep the rosette from folding in on itself.  Let dry then flip over and glue a star to the front.

4.     Punch a hole in the top and tie to banner.

Pennants

1.     Cut 4 4x6” rectangles and 4 3.5x6” rectangles. Stack all rectangles together centering the smaller rectangles and cut the bottom shape of your pennant to make sure all pennants are the same shape.  I cut mine with a traditional triangle pennant style but don't be afraid to get creative. 

2.     Assemble the pennants by sewing or gluing paper pennants across the top placing a glassine bag on the bottom, the 4x6” rectangle in the middle and the 3.5x6” rectangle on top making sure to raise the final layer high enough to show the second layer of cardstock at the  bottom of your pennant. 

3.     Even off the top of your pennant by cutting off 1/8- 1/4” with your cutting board. 

4.     Embellish pennants using stickers, embellishments, sequins, and sprinkles.  Create dimension using double sided foam tape and layering different embellishments.  Punch holes in each corner and tie onto the banner. 

Land That I Love Layout 

This sheet is one of my favorites from the Pebbles Americana Collection.  I love the signage and different American icons.  It just made me want to scrapbook more.  I put together this layout using the three dimensional embellishments, stickers and cardstock embellishments from the Pebbles Americana line, Doodlebug washi tape and Sprinkles, American Crafts Thickers, and Hazel & Ruby sequins.  I also stitched in gold thread around the boarders of my cardstock.  Never used gold thread in your machine before?  I have a tip for you.  Gold thread does not behave well in your bobbin.  Instead, load your bobbin with white or cream colored thread and it will behave wonderfully. 

Thank You for Your Service Card & Operation Write Home

There is no better way to celebrate Independence Day than to honor the troops that keep us free.  I made a card to honor a Veteran I know with some of the remaining papers, embossing folder, embellishments and Lawn Fawn stamps.  Don't have a Veteran close by?  Check out this website http://operationwritehome.org  The Operation Write Home organization allows you to send a card to troops serving our country to let them know how much we appreciate their service.  They also have another service made available to our troops.  Troops are in need of cards to write home to their families on.  You can send your homemade cards to Operation Write Home and they will package them up and send them to our troops so they can send cards and letters home.  There are a couple of guidelines and requirements to what supplies can be used on a card so check out their web page before you get started.  I can't think of a better way to use my hobby.