Crate Paper

November Crate Color Challenge

 

 

Hello Crate Paper friends! It's Tara here to share with you the November Color Challenge! This month's color challenge was inspired with the help of my daughter Alaina, who pointed out a very eye-catching clothing display and we both agreed that it would make a fun color combination. (She's been talking to me about including her name in my post all month!) 

November seemed like a perfect month for a bright jewel tones and as promised I've included orange! 

The color palette for this month is: Orange Peel - Berry Pink - Sapphire Blue

and this month's inspiration wire:

 

Just a few guide-lines for the challenge before we start:

- You may submit a card, layout or project to be eligible. Projects need to be submitted by midnight (EST) November 15th . Please email your work to: cpblog@cratepaper.com

- You may use the colors in any proportion you wish, as long as you use all 3 colors in the palette. And you may add black, white or kraft paper to the colors.

- Projects must use at least 75% Crate Paper - you may mix any paper lines you like, old and new.

- The winner will be announced on November 16th and I'll share some of my favorite projects here on the blog.

- The winner will be selected based on creativity and quality of work.

~

I used this months color combination as an opportunity to scrapbook a few of my vacation photos from last month! Because I absolutely adore this Vintage paper from the Random Collection, I'll bend the challenge rules to include it, if you'd like to use it yourself!

 

 

When I have photos that I really want to make the focal point of my layout, I tend to leave alot of white space around the photo with minimal embellishments. I loved this photo of my daughter and our friends at Disneyland! 

 

 

For this next layout, I had the idea to create a 'hanging' banner and then to have small patterned butterflies dancing around. The butterfly theme was inspired by the photo! 

 

 

 

Some of my favorite cards are the simple ones, made from left-over paper that can be used for any impromptu occasion! 

 

and lastly, I made a quick Autumn garland for hanging or for wrapping up that hostess gift for Thanksgiving! I know - I know, it doesn't follow the challenge rules, but it was too cute not to share and it's another example of how to use up those scraps! 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed my projects and will be just as inspired to create something lovely using this month's color palette! I'll be back on the 16th to showcase some of your artwork and to share the winner of the November Color Challenge!

Happy Creating! ~ Tara

 

 

October Crate Color Challenge + Paper Heart

Hello Crate Paper fans and a happy Monday to you all! I'm excited to be posting our Crate Color Challenge once again!

October...... a month full of pumpkins, pretty leaves and hopefully sweater weather! What first comes to mind when you think of October? I always look so forward to getting down and rummaging through my boxes of Autumn decorations each year. The richer-deeper tones that lend themselves to this season are some of my favorite colors to work with! For this month, I wanted to do something a little unexpected with the color combination. No orange! (I'll be saving orange for next month's challenge.)

The color palette for this month is: Mustard Yellow - Peacock Green -  Khaki

and this month's inspiration wire:

Just a few guide-lines for the challenge before we start:

- You may submit a card, layout or project to be eligible. Projects need to be submitted by midnight (EST) October 25th. Please email your work to: cpblog@cratepaper.com

- You may use the colors in any proportion you wish, as long as you use all 3 colors in the palette. And you may add black, white or kraft paper to the colors.

- Projects must use at least 75% Crate Paper - you may mix any paper lines you like, old and new.

- The winner will be announced on October 27th and I'll share some of my favorite projects here on the blog.

- The winner will be selected based on creativity and quality of work.

~

From our design team the talented Michiko Kato created this layout for the challenge. I love the way she wound the string around a tiny wooden spool!  Did you notice how the string also acts as an embellishment to highlight a small part of the photo? So clever!

Since it really is the start of Fall here in the desert (more towards the end of this month) I decided to dedicate an entire mini to the Fall season and titled the little book: Autumn Plans. Measuring only 4x4 inches the pages were just large enough to include fun things throughout such as to-do lists, quotes, a few ATC's left over from last year and even my Grandma's carmel-corn recipe! {I used coasters as the covers for this book and hand cut all of the inside pages.} I plan on adding in more photos of our many adventures as we move further along into the season! 

 

Creating a mini album is a great practical way to document alot of smaller events but that all have the same underlying theme. In this case, Autumn.  

I hope you'll be as inspired to create something lovely using this month's color palette! I'll be back on the 27th to showcase some of your artwork and to share the winner of the October Color Challenge!

Happy Creating! ~ Tara

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Just a quick reminder, the new Crate Paper "Paper Heart" Collection is to make it's grand debut tomorrow. We'd love to set a spark to your preparedness and plans for the upcoming Valentine's holiday! Come "heart" the new designs beginning early morning...

September Color Challenge ~ Winner

 

 
Hello again everyone! It's Tara here and I'm happy to be able to announce the winner of this month's Color Challenge! I have to admit that this past challenge has been my favorite so far. I was so incredibly impressed with how many beautiful layouts we received and to see how many different ways this color combination was interprete, simply amazed! Thank you to all who contributed this month!

So, let's get's to it! The September Color Challenge winner is: Christin Gronnslett

 

 

We loved Christin's 3 photo layout, the use of color and the combination of old and new Crate Paper collections! (Emma's Shoppe and the Random Collection) Congrats to Christin for being our September winner!

I'll share some of my favorite layouts from this month but first I wanted to share this very creative project we received from Natt Smith. She created a flower holder as a home decor project. How clever and pretty!

 

 
I also loved what Natt had to say in her email to us: "there is no limit of creativity when it comes to pretty paper from Crate Paper."

 
 Scrapbook layouts really seemed to reign supreme this month as well as dainty handmade garlands! I'll share a few of our favorite pages from our challenge participants!

 

 
scrapbook art by: Nao Honbo

 

 

scrapbook art by: Carol Monson

 

 

scrapbook art by: Nancy

 

 

scrapbook art by: Tina Walker

 

 

scrapbook art by: Rachael Funnell

Thank you so much, again, to all of the Crate Paper fans who played along with the challenge this month! I hope you enjoy these Color Challenges as much as I do! Please join me here next month for a bold costume inspired Fall palette! Until then everyone ~ Happy Creating!

 

September Crate Color Challenge

 

 Hello Crate Paper fans! Can you believe it's already September and being the first Friday of the month, I'm excited to be posting our Crate Color Challenge once again!

September, while I was living in Northern California, was always the start of Autumn and I so looked forward to the crisp evening air and changing foliage. You could say that Fall is my favorite and my best and for that reason I'm naming this month's color palette "Napa Valley," in ode to one of the loveliest places to spend the changing season. 

The color palette for this month is: Raspberry - Petal Pink - Apricot

 

and this month's inspiration wire:

 
 

Just a few guide-lines for the challenge before we start:

- You may submit a card, layout or project to be eligible. Projects need to be submitted by midnight (EST) September 12th. Please email your work to: cpblog@cratepaper.com

- You may use the colors in any proportion you wish, as long as you use all 3 colors in the palette. And you may add black, white or kraft paper to the colors.

- Projects must use at least 75% Crate Paper - you may mix any paper lines you like, old and new.

- The winner will be announced on September 14th and I'll share some of my favorite projects here on the blog.

- The winner will be selected based on creativity and quality of work.

~

If you know me by now, you've likely caught on to my love of using girly color combinations, pattern papers and flowers to scrapbook with. This color palette plus the Random Collection was a match made in my scrapbook heaven!

 

For my "creative time" layout, I used the Crate Everyday challenge as inspiration and created a pie chart using the various papers from the Random Collection. I also discovered pie charts are a nifty way of using any scrap pieces of paper you've accumulated!

 

Ok, I'll admit it. I cheated at my own challenge and used a color not permitted but when you're dealing with pretty patterned paper some times rules can be broken. Right? In other words, please feel free to use the Vintage paper from the Random Collection.... it is only fair!

 

 

I hope you'll enjoy creating something lovely using this month's color palette! I'll be back on the 14th to showcase some of your artwork and to share the winner of the August Color Challenge!  

Happy Creating! ~Tara

August Crate Color Challenge ~ Winner

 
 

Hello everyone, Tara here to announce the WINNER of this months Crate Color Challenge! Thank you to all who sent me your lovely cards, projects and layouts. It's an exciting "job" to open my inbox each morning and discover how the color palette was interpreted! I'm always impressed with the details and the techniques that I see each month. I often find myself going back again and again to look over the Color Challenge entries before I send in my long list of favorites to the girls behind the scenes of Crate Paper. This month was no exception!

The winner for the August Color Challenge is: Maísa Mendonca!

 
 
 
 

Maísa's layout won us over with her bold use of color, artistic techniques  and the many chipboard accents incorrporated throughout. The deep blues immediatley caught my eye and then I took note of the incredible detail and textures of her layout. Simply said, Maísa layout is stunning. Congrats to Maísa!!
   
  I'll share a few more layouts that caught our eye this month! First we have a lovely layout from Genevive. I loved the little cluster of embellishments, the handmade flower and her use of actual denim!  

 

Anabelle O'Malley's "but MOM!" layout was a wonderful balance of product as well as the use of this month's color palette. I loved that the majority of her layout was kept neutral except for pops of the dark blue shade and that cute photo!

 

This next project made me smile and reminded me of how fun altered projects can be! Karin Hageman got creative with the denim aspect of this months Color Palette and created this denim "Pockets of love" project ~ complete with photo tags in the pockets and an embellished belt! 

 
 
 

We also loved Tina Fussell's simplistic "be still" layout. The small scraps of paper combined with the playful flag-banner made her artsy layout a stand out!

 

With this month's color palette leaning more towards the masculine side I received lots of tough, as well as sweet, boy layouts! Stacey Michaud contributed her "2nd generation friends" layout to the challenge. 

 
  

 I have a soft spot for cards! Who wouldn't love to receive a handmade card in the mail? This card, made by Nancy Doren, is layered to perfection. I loved the machine stitching, ink splatters, sequins and layered papers!

 

Thank you so much, again, to all of the Crate Paper fans who played along with the challenge this month! I hope you enjoy these Color Challenges as much as I do! Please join me here next month for my first Autumn inspired color palette and until then friends ~

HAPPY CREATING! ~ Tara

August Crate Color Challenge

 

 

Hello everyone! Now that the excitment of CHA is wrapping up it's time again for the Crate Color Challenge! August, for me, always reminds me of summer time vacations. Whether it's a trip to the beach, a picnic at the lake, camping or just a fun road trip, I wanted to created a color pallete that best captures that easy-laid back summer feeling. I'm calling this month's color pallete "the LakeBay house."  

The color pallete this month is: Sand - Khaki - and Denim Blue 

 
 

Because I realize that the new product collections haven't yet made their way to the your local scrapbook stores, I've decided that you may use any shade of Denim Blue you wish. (Yes, even an acid-wash denim if you'd prefer!!)

Just a few guide-lines for the challenge before we start:

- You may submit a card, layout or project to be eligible. Projects need to be submitted by midnight (EST) August 15th. Please email your work to: cpblog@cratepaper.com

- You may use the colors in any proportion you wish, as long as you use all 3 colors in the palette. And you may add black, white or kraft paper to the colors.

- Projects must use at least 75% Crate Paper - you may mix any paper lines you like, old and new.

- The winner will be announced on August 17th and I'll share some of my favorite projects here on the blog. The winner will be selected based on creativity and quality of work.

Although this color combo isn't the typical girly combination I would tend to choose, I really adored this neutral color palette! Sometimes it's fun to step outside of your comfort zone and be inspired by something new! I created 2 layouts by combining the Random Collection and Emma's Shoppe.

 

 

 

 

 

I also created a swatch mini album using my son's photos. A really simple idea for a mini is to take a series of photos. For example, this mini is called "the 7  faces of Chase." I took a series of photos and made them the focus of this little book!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you'll enjoy creating something pretty using this month's color palette! I'll be back on the 17th to showcase some of your artwork and to share the winner of the August Color Challenge!  

Happy Creating! ~Tara

June Crate Color Challenge Winner

 
 
 
Hello - hello!  I'm back to announce the WINNER of this months Crate Color Challenge! With nearly 50 challenge entries from this past week, it was easy to tell that this month's color palette was a fan favorite! Thank you to all who sent me your lovely cards, projects and layouts (as well as the sweet comments!)

Since we had so many participants and beautiful projects to choose from, we decided that one winner simply could not be enough. So, I'm excited to announce that there will be 2 Color Challenge winners this month!  

For our 1st Color Challenge winner, I chose this gorgeous layout by Melissa Stinson! Congrats, Melissa! We loved her simple approach to this months color palette and those pretty-flowery photos.

 

 And for our 2nd Color Challenge winner, congrats to Natt Smith! We were quite impressed with the altered chalkboard that she made! The balance of colors were just perfect for this month's color palette and the sweet little "scrap" banner is a super cute addition! 

  

 

I'll share some more of the wonderful layouts that I received this past week!

Project Artist: Cindy Lee

 

Project Artist: Justina Lu

Project Artist: Ebony van der Starre

 

Project Artist: Hélène Lambert

 

Project Artist: Kat Poole

 

Project Artist: Rachael Funnell

We also received some particularly sweet cards this month too!

Project Artist: Anabelle O'Malley

 

Project Artist: Marinette

 

Project Artist: Sarah Bargo

Thank you, again, to all of the Crate Paper fans who played along with the challenge this month! It's always wonderful to wake up each morning to an inbox full of inspiring layouts and projects from you all! Be sure to join me next month for an easy-breezy summer inspired color palette and until then friends ~ HAPPY CREATING! ~ Tara

June Crate Color Challenge w/Tara Anderson

 

 

Hello everyone! Tara here and that can only mean one thing: that I get to share another month of Crate Paper's Color Challenge! . With the start of June and summer for some of us, I wanted to create a palette that was both summery and bold. I think the start of summer is always a little exciting and this months colors reflect that feeling. Think: sunny afternoon picnic in the park. For June's color challenge I've chosen: Watermelon Red, Peony Pink and Sunny Yellow.

 

-The June Color Palette-

 

 

Just a few guide-lines for the challenge before we start:

- You may submit a card, layout or project to be eligible. Projects need to be submitted by midnight (EST) June 12th. Please email your work to: cpblog@cratepaper.com

- You may use the colors in any proportion you wish, as long as you use all 3 colors in the palette. And you may add black, white or kraft paper to the colors.

- Projects must use at least 75% Crate Paper - you may mix any paper lines you like, old and new.

- The winner will be announced on June 15th and I'll share some of my favorite projects here on the blog. The winner will be selected based on creativity and quality of work.

I created a couple of mini albums for this challenge, but at the last minute decided to make a LO. I share my mini's later on!

 

 
 
and more beautiful projects of this months color palette from the CP girls:

From Anne Jo, this sweet little canvas.

 
 

Jenny Chesnick created a cute layered gift-card holder.
{I love the shadow box look to her card ~ so pretty!}

 

 Heidi Sonboul created 2 projects for the challenge. Her LO fits the theme of this months color palette perfectly! Watermelon & Daisy's!

 

plus, a very summery thank-you card.

 

I'm excited to see what everyone creates using this month's color palette. I hope you like it as much as we do! And don't forget to pop back into the Crate Paper Blog starting on Monday for a week full of gorgeous and creative wedding ideas and a few giveaways too!

Happy Creating! ~Tara

May Crate Color Challenge Winner

 

Hi all! It's Tara, back to announce the winner of this months Color Challenge! I know that this months color combination was a little challenging (even for me), so I'd like to first say a very big thank you to everyone who played along!!

This month was particulary hard to choose a favorite, and I loved that so many of you were inspired to use the blue combination for girl themed projects and layouts! After much debate, a winner had finally been selected.

Congrats to Flo! We loved her "Paint Project mini!" The details are simply wonderful, the bottles of paint, paintbrush and mini canvas and there's even a mini album tucked inside the decorated box! I think her project and the use of the May color palette was a winning combination of creativity!

 
 
 

We also loved this layout by Michiko Kato! The flying balloons are a perfectly playful addition to her "fly a balloon" layout.

 

The photograph in Aud R.'s layout "Arboretet Mai is so incredibly striking! I loved that she used a photograph to incorporate one of the colors in the color palette.

 

I just adore pretty layouts that are full of tiny details and embellishment clusters, like this "Little Girl" layout by Helene Lambert!

 

Any layout that includes a childs artwork is worthy of recognition! Sabrina Alery created this sweet "Little Artist" layout.

 

I loved how Misty Willis used this month's color palette to create an elegant layout about how "Time Flies." The pleated paper adds such a great textured feel too!

 

Thank you, again, to all of the Crate Paper fans who played along with the challenge this month! I truly love seeing how each of you are inspired to use the color combination. I'll see everyone next month with a lovely new color challenge! Happy Creating ~ Tara

May Crate Color Challenge

 

 

Hello Crate Paper fans, it's Tara here and it's my favorite part of the month again. The part where I get to share this month's Crate Paper Color Challenge!!I've had this color combination on my mind for what seems like forever and I've fallen so in love with it that I think I just may try and incorporate it into my home decor ~ it's that pretty! For May's color challenge I've chosen the rich tones of: Royal blue, Sky blue and Lavender.

the May color palette:

 
 

Just a few guide-lines for the challenge before we start:

- You may submit a card, layout or project to be eligible. Projects need to be submitted by midnight (EST) May 15th. Please email your work to: cpblog@cratepaper.com

- You may use the colors in any proportion you wish, as long as you use all 3 colors in the palette. And you may add black, white or kraft paper to the colors.

- Projects must use at least 75% Crate Paper - you may mix any paper lines you like, old and new.

- The winner will be announced on April 18th and I'll share some of my favorite projects here on the blog. The winner will be selected based on creativity and quality of work.

Here's my take on the color palette and I will admit to you that this challenge, really was a challenge for me! I rarely use the color purple, it's not my favorite color and for me, it's often over-looked. So, for this mini I decided to use the lavender shade as my accent color. I custom blended 3 paint colors to create just the right shade of purple and painted all of the paper flowers I used in this project. By using lavender as more of an accent color, I found that I wasn't overwhelmed with the color purple and actually rather liked it! A little lavender can go along way!

 

I got a little adventous with this challenge and wanted to make a mini album titled: 5pm, because that seems to be the best time to take shadow photos in our front yard!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and some more pretty examples of this months color palette from the CP girls:

Kaori Watanabe

 

Heidi Sonboul

 

 I'm excited to see what everyone creates using this month's color palette!! And don't forget to pop back into the Crate Paper Blog tomorrow for an extra special Mother's Day giveaway - 2 wonderful gift baskets - one for you and one for mom!! Happy Creating! ~ Tara