Crate Paper

National Scrapbook Day + Huge Giveaway!!

 

There's Music in the air as we get ready to celebrate today's token event, National Scrapbook Day! Yep, that's right, we're celebrating with music and for good reason - the prize we're giving away today is above and beyond anything we've given away previously and it's all because it's National Scrapbook Day!! So, what exactly is it that we're making available to one lucky winner this evening? Take a look and then get ready - a treasure hunt awaits you!! See below for details!

   

"Super Pink" 16GB 5th Generation iPod Nano

As a part of today's festivities, we've coordinated Crate's first official "Blinkie" treasure hunt. What exactly does this treasure hunt entail? Well, we've asked our blog contributors to hide our new blinkie on their blogs. We're asking you to go and find them! Below is a listing of layouts. Underneath each layout is the layout designer's name and blog. Visit their blog, locate our blinkie (hidden of coarse) and note the location of the blinkie via "link" (write the link down or bookmark it). After you've located all the blinkies, send us your list of "links" at [email protected]. We're also asking that you post our blinkie on your blog or personal online gallery. Be sure to send us a link to your blog or gallery with the blinkie posted. After receiving your list of links and proof of blinkie set-up,  we'll add you to our drawing to win the "Ultra Pink" iPod Nano shown above. The WINNER will be announced tomorrow evening and hopefully, you'll have located all the blinkies by then. So, let's get started, shall we? Here's the first layout:

 Waleska Neris :: My Organized Mess
Brook Collection

Emily Pitts :: Here I Am
Pink Plum & Brook Collections

 

Suzanne Sergi :: Scrappin the Details
Bliss Collection

 

Davinie Fiero :: My Little Piece of that Azure Sky
Paper Doll Collection

 

Lucy Edson :: Lucys Crafty Life
Paper Doll, Brook & Pink Plum Collections
 

 

Mou Saha :: Collage Collage Collage
Brook & Paper Doll Collections

 

Lori Gentile :: It's the Small Things
Brook Collection

 

Lisa Truesdell :: Glue Stick Girl
Brook & Season Collections

 

Laura Craigie :: Evidence of a Good Life
Brook Collection

 

Larissa Albernaz :: In a Scrap of Paper
Brook Collection

 

Jill Cornell :: Blessed Scrapper
Brook Collection

Heidi Sonboul :: Queen of Paper
Brook Collection

 

Emily Spahn :: Just Em
Pink Plum Collection

Ronda Palazzari :: Help Me Ronda
Pink Plum collection 

 

Caroline Ikeji :: Pictures & Words
Brook & Pink Plum Collections

Well, we wish you the best of luck with the hunt! Happy National Scrapbook Day everybody! Be sure to revisit us later this evening to find out today's winner!! Also, join us next week to find out more about the layouts posted above - our contributors have put together a host of ideas for you to embark on - Happy Scrappin'! 

 

NSD

Check back Saturday for the wonderful inspiration and prizes we have in store for you.

    

Scrapbook Girl Next Door

 

A huge congratulations to Zoe Nemburt!! You're one of April's SGND! Zoe recently emailed us one of her CP layouts and we're crazy about it! We adore the way she's combined our chipboard flowers from the Paper Doll collection with other kinds of flowers. They sit beautifully together amongst the layers and textures that we soooo love about her layout.  Thank-you Zoe for sharing your talent with Crate Paper! Zoe will receive $50 worth of free Crate Paper goods!! 

Would you like to be our next SGND? All you have to do is submit your latest Crate Paper project to [email protected]. We select a SGND every other week and each wins $50 worth of Crate Paper product. We'll also feature your project on our blog! So, what are you waiting for? Send us your CP creations!

 

{Paper Doll Collection}

 

{Pink Plum Collection}

 

 

 

 

{Paper Doll Collection}

 

 

 

Don't forget to stop by the Crate Paper blog on National Scrapbook Day!! We're giving away "free music", literally. If you want to find out more, be sure to visit our blog on Saturday! We'll see you then!

Mou & Lucy

We've yet to introduce all our blog contributors to you, so we thought it a good idea to post a few today. We had intended on writing up one of our Email Monday posts, but we're pushing that post forward because we're awaiting further submissions. If you've been creating with some of our CP goodies, please do pass it along to us at [email protected]. Your project isn't required to be 100% Crate Paper - 50/50 is totally fine. We encourage you to blend our products with other manufacturers because we realize that most scrapbookers don't scrapbook with just one manufacturer's product. When sending us your submissions, please ensure that your images are at least 500 pixels wide at 72 dpi. We also welcome detail images if you have them and of course, tips and ideas are a feature we especially love. So, if you have a CP project in the works or created one previously, send it our WAY! Those that submit will have a chance to win $50 in Crate Paper product if chosen to be a SGND (we try to select at least two SGND's a month!). Just this morning we emailed someone to be our next SGND - we'll share her with you in a few short days!

You may already be familiar with these two ladies, but we'd like to formally introduce them to you anyway. They're a part of our new blog contributions team here at Crate Paper! Say "hello" to Mou and Lucy!

Mou Saha

 

 

 

Simply beautiful. Mou has done double duty with our Paper Doll "Peyton Ellie" pattern paper. Not only does it serve as the background for her layout, she also punched butterflies from the paper using Martha Stewart's butterfly punch. One of the great things about CP's pattern papers is that they're double-sided; pattern front & solid color back. They can be used together interchangeably and match perfectly. 

Designer's Tips & Techniques:

Using the two sides of a double-sided paper gives me variety without having to worry about coordinating paper. 

 

Mou has converted our CP photo tab stickers into "photo hangers" from lines which she drew on our Bloom "Pebbles" pattern paper.  We love how simply this layout portrays her birthday boy's big moment - happy birthday!

Designers Tips & Techniques:

Give your title sticker a little lift with foam adhesive for a layered look!

 

 

Pattern papers are now popular for hosting a barrage of surface finishes. Even though our papers are without a special finish, you can still dress them up with glitter, markers, gel pens and as Mou has demonstrated above, clear drying dimensional adhesive. 

Lucy Edson

 

Hi Everyone! It seems like I have been crafty all of my life and have always loved color. I started scrapbooking after becoming a mom and watching my photos pile up. I wanted to incorporate my photos into my artwork - I had been doing mixed media for about six years and have sewn and dabbled with stained glass painting and quilting for years, and scrapbooking was a natural progression. I immediately fell in love with scrapbooking and combining techniques from other crafts. I still love mixed media and often create OTP projects combining all of my favorite things; fabric, photos, paint, and stitching.

I have been married for fourteen years to a wonderfully supportive husband, Mark and we have a four year old daughter, Emma, who provides so much inspiration for my artwork. We live in a small town in North Florida and enjoy going to the beach and rivers. My family is first in my life and I love sharing my life with them. 

This hobby has certainly changed my life more than I ever imagined. The wonderful friendships and sharing community have presented many great opportunities and I've been able to design and share my love for being creative. I have been fortunate to be a frequent contributor to Somerset Publications with my artwork and tutorials. I can't wait to see what the future holds! You can follow my work on my blog: http://lucyscraftylife.blogspot. I'm so excited to be a part of Crate Paper and working with such wonderful artists. 

 

Echoing the movement of waves, Lucy hand-trimmed and border punched a variety of pattern papers, including our "Down Stream" paper, and sewed them to her layout to create a one-of-a-kind oceanfront view. If you look closely, you'll notice she used a variety of "scallop" style border punches to make her pattern paper pieces feel like waves - we luv this idea!

 

There are bits and pieces of Crate Paper hiding throughout this layout - we couldn't resist sharing this layout because is absolutely adorable. Check out the way Lucy incorporated some of the layout's design into her photo set-up. We don't normally think of our photos as being something we can always alter when creating a layout. Lucy did so in the most whimsical way and it suits the layout wonderfully. 

 

Vintage meets new is a trend we're all enjoying right now. This last layout from Lucy is a delightful mix of Season used in conjunction with an old sheet of music. The layout houses an old photo of Lucy's from 1978. 

Speaking of "Vintage", we're curious to find out what sort of vintagy things you've been playing with lately? Have you incorporated vintage items into your Crate Paper creations? If so, tell us about it! Leave your answer below - inspire us with your ideas!

  

Our Wednesday Winner is...

WAIT...lets allow the anticipation to build a little more...so many of you came forward with awesome ideas that we're sort of overwhelmed, but in a very good way! You're feedback is extremely helpful as we're new to the whole blogging thing and just growing cozy with what's entailed in managing this place. It's a hit or miss process, but we're quickly learning what it is you want to see here..from what we were able to figure out from your comments, we organized a nice long list of blog topics and ideas. Please review the list below and let us know if we've missed anything:

• More Giveaways! (We love giving away free stuff - join us on National Scrapbook Day for a major giveaway - details soon to come.)
• Challenges; Sketches, Photo/Color inspirations, Scraplifting, and more
• "Reader" Feature (Send us your projects!)
• Tutorials (We'll try to work on this)
• Cards, Altered Projects, Home Decor and Gifts 
• Mix of Old & New (If you have some of our older collections, we welcome you to use them and submit photos of your work to us - we'll definitely post them here.)
• Embellishment Focus
• Scrap Spaces
• Scrapbook Kit Features
• Crate Paper Recipe Box (Will do for those layouts that include one!)
• Technique of the Week (Love this!)
• Online Gallery (On our list of things to do)
• Double Page Layouts/Layouts with lots of photos
• Guest Designers
• Lots & Lots of Tips and Techniques + Photos/Images

That's quite the list, wouldn't you say?! We're totally inspired...and now for the WINNER!! If you were one of the lucky ones that commented in response to our last post, then you're probably wondering who the winner is today? Well, even though we thoroughly took heart in all your comments, this one landed the winner spot:

I love seeing the new collections but would love to have ideas for all the old collections as well. I heart Crate paper & have many of the old kits as well as Season the new one so I could use some fresh ideas on maybe the older products as well.

It would be nice to have sketch contests using Crate products too.

Posted by: Amy S. | April 21, 2010 at 04:02 PM

Send us your shipping info, Amy, via [email protected]! We have a box of Crate Paper goodies waiting for you at our warehouse. Congratulations! Woohoo! We hope you enjoy it all :)

Speaking of old CP collections, we happened upon a great round-up of layouts over at the Two Peas in a Bucket online gallery late last week from Lindsay Wingard. Since you mentioned posting projects using our old collections, today seemed the ideal moment to share Lindsay's work with you guys. She's found a multitude of creative ways to use the "Rainbow" paper from our "Season" collection. "Season" was an extremely successful collection for us - it was enjoyed by many of you..we figure it must of had something to do with the chatty birds and gleaming rainbows...lets not forget the clouds. So cute. 

 

Even though our "Rainbow" pattern paper takes up a whole sheet of paper, consider trimming only a portion of the rainbow to include on your project. Sometimes, less is more, especially when it comes to large graphic elements. 

 

We would of never thought of this idea on our own - that's why we depend so much on talented, creative scrapbookers like you. Lindsay used a large portion of the "Rainbow" paper to frame her photo. She also lined up the page title along the top edge of the rainbow. Her set-up makes it really easy to navigate her layout and serves as the perfect frame for her photo - handsome little guy!

 

It appears we forgot to add clouds to our Rainbow paper! Linsday has helped us out by adding them herself - it appears she popped them up with pop dots too! The clouds are trimmed from another one of our Season papers,  "Shower".

 

Every now and then, die-cut paper needs a little filler - Linsday trimmed an assortment of papers from the Season collection to fill in the white area of our "Cloudy" die-cut pattern paper. It creates a lively backdrop for her embellishments and photo! And just incase you missed'em; those two cute owls in the corner - doesn't Linsday have a beautiful set-up for taking photos of her layouts? We think so...

 

One more layout of Linsday's before bringing this post to a close - What we love most about this layout is the title, "It's a Bird, It's a Plane, no, it's Jackson Baby!" Just precious.

The weekend is upon us - we'll return Monday with news about National Scrapbook Day (we're planning a big blogg'en giveaway for the big day! Here's just a slight hint of what's to come: Apple) and Email Monday. Have a fabulous weekend you guys! Thanks for stopping by the CP Blog!

 

Just For You: Free CP Goodies + Projects Galore

Even though it's finally warming up outside in most parts, the blog contributors have been endlessly busy putting together lovely projects for you. Our inbox has been exploding with emails from our contributors! We swear they must be scrapbooking 24/7 with our stuff! So, how about a little inspiration?  Our blog contributors have come up with some ingenious ideas for using our pattern papers this week, including Miss Heidi Sonboul - Heidi is masterful at using & combining pattern papers. Yep, she is! Simply scroll down to find out what simple technique she used to dress up one of our pattern papers from the Paper Doll collection. Also below is a layout from Waleska - she punched a series of borders from our Pink Plum papers and used them to create a one-of-a-kind decorative background for showcasing a sweet pic of her boys. We instantly fell in love with her layout the minute we saw it! We think you'll love it to...go take a peek and see for yourself!

 

 

Project Designer: Heidi Sonboul / Collections: Paper Doll & Pink Plum

Designer Tips & Techniques: 

"I'm SUCH a big fan of layers and texture! In fact...the more texture the better! I've created a simple technique that can be duplicated and all you need is a craft knife. I took this beautiful floral paper from the Paper Doll collection and cut out all the white spots in between the flowers. Once I finished the cutting, I layered it on top of my Chocolate brown cardstock. I then placed a little bling in the middle of my flowers to add in more texture. Doing this makes the flowers pop off the page!"

"When picking paper, I always keep my photo in mind. Doing this will you a well balanced page."

"Right above my title, I created a row of little flowers. Simply cut two different sized circles and layer them on top of each other. Then using a flocking powder, I created the center of the flower and topped it off with a little bling. To finish the look, I added a little leaf to each flower."

  

 

 

Project Designer: Waleska Neris / Collections: Pink Plum

Designer Tips & Techniques:

"Mix chipboard and paper to add dimension to your layouts. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that one of the papers had the same design as the chipboard butterfly. To add some dimension, I cut out the big butterfly from the Raspberry paper, adhered it to the middle part of the chipboard, added another little piece of chipboard on top of the paper butterfly and embellished the butterfly with pearls."

"Create your own background using different pattern paper and punches. I think I was able to create a fun background using lots of different patterns without making the page look *too* busy by punching strips of paper (well, donut chains here) and adding them to a light color background paper."

 

 

Project Designer: Waleska Neris (Studio Calico Kit) / Collections: Pink Plum

Additional Tips & Techniques from Waleska:

"Dress up your title! I mixed some of Crate's little chipboard flowers with the chipboard alpha to make it look fun and springy."

 

Project Designer: Lori Gentile / Product Collections: Pink Plum & Paper Doll

Designer Tips and Techniques:

"I really love the color combination of pink, orange and teal. I adore the print from the Tori die cut paper and wanted to add interest to it and not take away from it, so I decided to do a background with hollow circles. The teal in the background really makes the pink and orange stand out."

"Because there's a lot happening on the layout, I outlined my photograph by photographer ""Pascale Wowak"" with an extra fine sharpie to make it stand out and still be the focal point of the layout."

"I outlined the die-cut flowers and butterflies for added definition and then bent the corners for texture. To raise them and add even more dimension, I used small square foam dots to adhere them down."

"As soon as I saw the chipboard word, "Delight", I knew I was going to use it to share a favorite quote by Alexander Smith, "Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition." I chose to stack each word on top of each other to create a border, if you will, to make the quote grab one's attention, yet still support the photograph."

 

 

 

Project Designer: Jill Cornell / Product Collection: Pink Plum

 

 

Project Designer: Emily Pitts / Product Collection: Paper Doll

Designer Tips & Techniques:

"Don't be afraid to alter a product to fit your style. I love to add dimension to my pages, but sometimes all I have are flat elements, so I do some altering to make them more dimensional. For this particular layout, I did three things to die-cut a flower: I popped it up with foam adhesive; I cut the petals all the way to the center then bent and formed them to add some lift to each petal; and I added large beads of glue to the center of the flower, then sprinkled them with glitter and let them dry."

 

 

 

Project Designer: Ronda Palazzari  / Product Collections: Paper Doll & Brook

Designer Tips & Techniques:

"This layout uses a combination of mostly Paper Doll and some of Brook. The flowers on the Olivia Grace paper were so pretty that I cut them out to mix in with the chipboard buttons, sequins, buttons, and those acrylic flowers from Petaloo. To make those cut out flowers stand out a little more, I curled up their edges and pop dotted them. On the Kate paper, I both machine & hand stitched some of the curves using dark brown and did so for added detailing." 

 

Project Designer: Ronda Palazzari (Cocoa Daisy Kit) / Product Collection: Brook

 

Project Designer: Ronda Palazzari (Cocoa Daisy Kit) / Product Collection: Brook

 

 

 

 

Project Designer: Lucy Edson / Product Collections: Paper Doll & Bloom

Designer Tips & Techniques:

"My daughter has taken an interest in crafting and wanted to learn to stitch, so I punched stitching holes in a tag for her to practice on. To my delight, she allowed me to use it on my layout, along with photos of her work in progress."

"I so love all the gorgeous colors in all the Crate lines and had fun combining border stickers from both the Brook and Paper Doll collections to form borders along the top and bottom of my layout. And more mixing with the embellishments by adding in a bit of Pink Plum, too! I created some dimension and texture by layering flowers over a lace doily and a butterfly on top. I kept with the stitching theme by adding lace, buttons and stitching to finish it off!"

Thank you designers for all you've contributed - gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous..as always. On another note, we're running a little give-a-way today!! We're seeking your feedback - we're wanting to find out what it is you want to see on our brand new, freshly spruced blog?! Share your suggestions in the comment section below..we'll be reading all of them! On Friday, we'll pick a WINNER to receive one of our newest collections (Paper & Embellishments!!). Join in - you just might win a an official box of CP goodies!!

 

Guest Designer :: Tina Aszmus

It's "Guest Designer" Monday here at the Crate Paper blog! Today, we have the brilliant, highly artistic Tina Aszmus joining us. Many of you know her from Studio Calico as she's been a member of their design team since the very beginning. She's also an avid photographer. As a Polaroid enthusiast, her photos often gloriously portray the imperfections and beauty of everyday life. We thoroughly enjoy her photography and eclectically simple scrapbook style here at Crate Paper. It's with great honor and excitement that we present three of her projects using our wares - thank-you Tina for guest designing with CP!

 Tina Aszmus :: Life.Love.Paper.

Tina Aszmus lives in Anchorage, Alaska with her husband Jeff and dog, Jesse. She works full time in a office and finds scrapbooking to be her creative release. She currently designs for Studio Calico and was recently featured in the Artful Blogger magazine. 

A little more about Tina...

When did you begin your creative journey with scrapbooking and how did you get started in the hobby?

I started a very awful scrapbook the year I graduated high school in 1996. I wanted to scrapbook my school day memories while they were fresh in my mind. That lead to rubberstamping since scrapbooking supplies were very limited. I moved onto collage and altered arts but I was still wanting to add more of my personal stories. By then more supplies were readily available. I haven't stopped since.

If you were to describe your scrapbook style in five words or less, what would they be?

Simple. Detailed. Eclectic. Personal. Fresh 

What inspires you to create? What are your primary sources of inspiration?

So much inspires me. Everyday images, the texture of a building, the graphic on a coffee cup. I love decor magazines as well as graphic arts and skateboard magazines. As far as blogs go, there are so many. I favor decor blogs such as Decor8 and sfgirlbybay.

Where do you do most of your scrapbooking? What time of day are you most creative?

I can tell you when I'm most uncreative and that's during the work week. I don't like creating when I'm drained and tired. It feels forced when I do. My favorite time is Friday nights and Sunday afternoons when I feel calm. Most of my scrapbooking is done in my own little creative room. I have a huge solid wood desk that I love to work on. 

What is your current favorite scrapbooking technique and why? What scrapbook techniques have you enjoyed previously and of those, which do you still use?

I'm a huge fan of acrylic paint. I love it because it's cheap, comes in a variety of colors and is simple to use. A few swipes on can add so much depth and texture. I don't feel like my page is done unless it has a touch of paint. Sewing is another technique I love to incorporate in my layouts. 

What is your favorite Crate Paper scrapbook collection of all time?

I'd have to say Seasons and Brooke. The paper with the birds saying "hi" from the Season collection is my favorite paper of all time and I love the blues and greens from the Brook collection. I'm so drawn to those colors. 

Tina suggests mixing different Crate Paper collections together on a single project. They work really well together..she's used both the Brook & Pink Plum collections above.

 

 

Also, try mixing B & W photos with color photos in a way you've never tried before! Incorporate Crate Brads with Crate's chipboard - it's a perfect combination!

 

 

Lastly, use paint and an empty tape roll or bottle cap to create circles of your layout's background - it's an economical means of adding detail to your layout and is sort of an unexpected surprise that creates strong directional movement.

Thank-you again Tina for being a Crate Paper guest designer this month! We adore what you've created with our collections and appreciate them greatly...our next guest designer, Kimmithy Achord, is our next scheduled guest designer. She'll be joining us the week of May 3rd - be sure to stop by then for more guest design features!

 

  

Studio Calico :: Joyland

We spotted another kit club with some of our goodies and of course, we couldn't resist sharing...all of you know this kit club is *uber cool* and everyone and their mother is waiting for a subscription to this place. Not sure how long the line is to join, but hey, we recommend them anyway! What's not to love about good ol' Studio Calico?! They sell rock'en kits and have a massively talented design team. Their online community is one of the most popular hot spots on the internet where scrapbookers gather and chat about the daily on goings of all things scrapbook-related. When we saw our products in their latest kit, we just knew that we had to share it here...including some of their design team projects. So, let's unveil their April kit: "Joyland" (which by the way..is sold out..to bad for us, cause we really wanted this kit! Maybe after April reads this she'll send us one from her secret stash - it can't be completely gone, can it?!)

 

 

 

Their design team is one of our favorites..some of the gals have joined us here at CP as blog contributors. We're super excited to have'em. They put together a really great line-up of projects using Studio Calico's "Joyland" kit. We've posted a few of their projects below for you to admire and enjoy - be warned, what you find below just might take your breath away..you're going to wish you bought the kit and the add-ons. Maybe next time...

 

Celine Navarro :: Brook Collection

 

Our very own Davinie Fiero - she trimmed her background paper to echo the shape of our chipboard flowers. She then combined the chipboard flowers to create a one-of-a-kind look, which we absolutely love. 

 

Davinie Fiero :: Pink Plum Collection

 

Davine Fiero :: Brook Collection

 

Jenn Olson demonstrates a new, creative way to use die-cut paper; trim sections from paper and use them to accent different areas of your layout, including framing photos!

 

Layered side-by-side, Kimmi Achord's border line-up has us rethinking how to use borders/decorative edging on our layouts. Kimmi is an upcoming guest designer here at the CP blog. She'll be premiering her creations the first week of May! 

Kimmi Achord :: Brook & Pink Plum Collections

 

 Happy belated birthday Nicole Harper! Sorry we missed it - we love your layout though :) That dear sweet umbrella wrapped around your title is sooo cute. You have to share how you created it with us. 

 

Photo strips have made a huge comeback - Nicole Samuels has redefined the photo strip by using it to frame a short series of chipboard pieces from our Pink Plum collection. Notice how the chipboard pieces "peek through" each of the windows. So very lovely!

 

Nicole Samuels :: Brook Collection

 

Another Crate Paper blog contributor from the Studio Calico team, Stephanie Howell. She uses some of our die-cut papers to tell the story of her daughter's meeting the Black Knight cheerleaders - I bet they had a blast :)

 

What a dream nursery for a little one - Susan Weinroth has organized and mobilized bits and pieces of Crate Paper throughout her layout. Not sure which is cuter - the layout or the photos? We like both.

Next week, Tina Aszmus is guest designing here..yah! Her specialty is photography (vintage specifically) - she does genius work with her Polaroid camera. Her photos are often raw and real - she's also a really amazing scrapbooker. Find her here on Monday.

Have a great weekend you guys! The CP Girls are moving on - it's Friday! We'd like to cordially thank Studio Calico for allowing us to share their kit today - be sure to catch their next kit if you haven't already. Sneak peeks are up and are available for the viewing! 

Introducing...

We have an incredibly talented group of ladies who recently joined us as CP's newest Blog Contributors. Today, we'll begin introducing you to some of these ladies and their most recent CP projects. Many of them are already busy at work creating layouts with their CP collections and are sending projects our way for us to share with you here. In the coming weeks, we'll be posting more designs from our contributors. We'll routinely be recognizing their efforts and sharing their amazing ideas here as their projects arrive in our inbox. So, without further ado, let us introduce our first contributor:

Larissa Albernaz

 

My name is Larissa Albernaz. I have been scrapbooking for almost five years and I'm totally addicted which means I see artistic possibilities over everything around me. Every day, I enjoy perceiving the colors in my surroundings and I pay close attention to my inner emotions, even if it's to throw them out only on a layout. 

Along the years, scrapbooking has provided me a great sort of artistic possibilities. It provides me to express myself in style, mixing paper, embellishments, colors, memories and a message. So, Scrapbooking to me is not only a way to preserve my memories but, it's the way I do Art.

In my Art, I pursue something that has sense to me, which inspires me and that can be different, interesting, cute, creative, colorful and fun! My style is eclectic, crafty. I also love shabby and vintage styles, anything that has a great dimension. 

 

 

 

 

"For my background, I used a flower chipboard accent as a mask. I also reproduced another chipboard wine pattern at the top corner to add some interest and a lot of layers and movement to my layout." - Larissa A.

Another great suggestion we have from this layout is to outline the edges of your die-cut paper with a fine tip pen or marker. Note how Larissa has done this above with our "Tori" die-cut paper from the Paper Doll collection. It lends a playful feel to the layout and brings definition to the die-cut edging. 

Ronda Palazzari

 

My name is Ronda Palazzari, like the beach boy song..help me Rhonda..only "no h". I currently live in the burbs of Denver, Colorado with my husband Andy and two teens. My house is ruled by two adorable Chihuahuas, Nina & Predro. I love being a stay-at-home mom and all things crafty....scrapping, cooking, knitting, sewing, interior decorating and photography. I'm addicted to chai teas, love to travel, say "Shut Up," "Totally," "Dude," & "No Worries" way too much, obsessed with colors & rainbow order, love to read books & sometimes reread my favorites, find that being a SAHM is one of the hardest but most rewarding jobs, am always listening to music & have very eclectic tastes, love baking & the scent of Vanilla, addicted to Project Runway, Top Chef & America's Next Top Model, love to sleep in late when I get the chance & very much a night owl, and totally dislike writing bios because I sound so cheesy. Some of my proudest scrapbook moments are being named Memory Makers Master (2009), becoming part of the Fancy Pants, Lily Bee, Purple Onion, and Cocoa Daisy Design Teams. I also have been blessed in being published in various magazines; Memory Makers, Scrapbook Trends, Artful Blogger and various other idea books. 

 

 

Ronda had a chance to enjoy the Brook collection while finishing up some design work for the Cocoa Daisy Kit Club - check out her blocking on the layout above..notice how each of the pieces fit so nicely together even though they're of different angles - the stitching makes it look like a miniature quilt! 

Stephanie Howell

 

Growing up with a ridiculously artistic mother, Stephanie tried and abandoned many crafts in frustration before she finally stumbled onto scrapbooking and fell in love. She made a few scrapbooks (in the loostest sense of the term) when she was in college, but truly became obsessed when she was pregnant with her first daughter. Scrapbooking is her therapy and has gotten her through six (soon seven!) of her husband's overseas deployments.

Stephanie has been published in Creating Keepsakes, Simple Scrpabooks, Scrapbook and Cards Today, Scrapbooks Etc., Memory Makers and Scrapbook Trends magazines. She designs for Lily Bee, Jenni Bowlin and Studio Calico. 

 Stephanie lives in Georgia and is married to Jimmy, who is a Major in the Army. She is also a stay-at-home mom to Harper Elizabeth, who is nearly four, and Sadie Caroline, who is two. In her spare time, she loves antiquing, reading and watching reality tv (her dirty little secret). She dreams of learning to sew, embroider, knit, quilt and cook (well). But most of all, she loves just being together as a family, and she relishes those moments...as they are few and far between. 

  

 

Look what landed on the cover of Ella Publishing, a popular online ezine!! Our dearest Stephanie Howell, congratulations to you for making cover! It's Brooks first official cover premier - we couldn't be more excited over here! Yah!! 

Shawn Webster

 

My name is Shawn Webster. I live in Virginia with my soldier and two kiddos (Adam is 8, and Madelyn is 2). I have been married to my hubby John for 9 years and going strong. I'm originally from PA but have been moving around with the military for awhile now. I have scrapbooking for almost 9 years and also enjoy making cards and other paper projects. Speaking of paper, this is my passion. I love the colors, patterns and textures and can never get enough of it. Just call me a paper hoarder. I admit it lovingly! Currently, I'm enjoying becoming a better "picture taker". I just can't call myself a photographer yet. I also enjoy a good book and I'm a total movie junkie. 

 Just having arrived yesterday, Shawna came up with a brilliant idea for creating your own die-cut paper using some of your favorite pattern papers (Crate Paper included!!). She suggests using a shaped mini album chipboard page as a template. Simply set it on top of your paper, trace around it and cut tracing out. She used this technique with our "Branch" pattern paper above (beneath the photo). 

We'd like to kindly thank today's designers for their contributions. We'll return on Friday with a very popular kit club and our next SGND! Could it be you? Quite possibly. Remember, in order to take part in our SGND contest, you have to submit your CP projects to us - if you haven't already, do so by tomorrow so that we can check out your work - you just might WIN $50 in CP product!

Email Monday

It's Email Monday everyone! The start of the week is here and we're bursting at the seams with lots of new projects from our fellow CP fans - thank-you to all of you who continue to reply to our requests for CP submissions. We thoroughly enjoy seeing what you create with our products. It's you that ultimately inspires us here..and because we have a whole lot to share today, we're jumping right in, so get ready cause I have a feeling that someone here is about to be our next SGND...which we'll be announcing later this week! 

 

What is not to love about this layout? Seriously..look at all them layers?! Thank-you Anthea for passing along your gorgeous layout - Anthea resides in Australia and already, she's located our Brook collection. It's amazing to us that our product travels so far...we've really come to appreciate our international fans. Are you an international scrapbooker? If so, we're especially interested in your CP creations - send'em our way!

 

There's an unspoken beauty that simple collages often portray - a small combination of items can sometimes speak volumes about a story - this particular layout came our way from Dana Tatar. We love how she brought together some of our pattern papers in this design - a basic grid format with just a few misc. embellishments. So very sweet. 

 

Our old friend, Lemon Grass, has found it's way onto this layout from Giselle Homer. If you're wanting to submit a project to us, but you don't have any our latest collections, we welcome projects using previous CP collections also! 

 

 

Jessy used a couple of our Summer 2009 releases, Bliss and Cottage, to create both her card and layout above. Jessy's hand-cut, layered flowers remind us that one can never have too many flowers - hand-cut flowers, often trimmed from pattern paper, can be an enticing feature on a project - use them with pop-dots and other dimensional elements for added appeal, such as CP's chipboard pieces.

 

Jing Jing Nickle sent us this adorable layout about her daughter's tummy - it so reminds us of our little ones :) 

Jules JcKenna-De Lumen used her Noel Mignon kit and some of our Brook Collection to record her "With Daddy" tribute layout. We love that she's encompassed all her page elements within the confines of a hand-drawn circle - also, notice that she's outlined a few of her flowers with glitter (easily done with Stickles) - great ideas - thanks for sharing Jules!

Mixed media layouts are some of our favorites - here's one sent to us from Kathleen Glossop using our Season collection. We'd love to find out how she created the background with the heart - it includes stitching!

 

Sarah de Guzman shows us that Paper Doll is fitting for all age ranges, even us older gals! She had an opportunity to spend a few moments with her cousins while celebrating her parent's 25th wedding anniversary - congratulations to your parents Sarah!

Another from Jessy that we couldn't resist sharing :: Cottage Collection

Tina GuiGui makes "waves" with Brook - the circles and waves definitely paves the way for Summer!  

 

All the way from Japan, these landed in our inbox a few short days ago. They're from fellow scrapbooker, Yukari  Takanashi - much like the rest of her layouts, they're gorgeously detailed - is that a window Yukari that you've sat our Cottage flowers in? You have some wonderful ideas here..

We're just about done with Email Monday - before we go, we just want to quickly mention that on Wednesday, we'll begin debuting projects from our blog contributors. Stephanie Howell surprised us with a little something earlier last week and Ronda Palazzari's been busy with her Cocoa Daisy kit, which included much of our Brook collection. We're super excited to share their work with you guys! Expect to see more of our contributors in the coming weeks - along with our next SGND announcement & soon-to-be-here guest designer, Tina Aszmus!