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!!

 

Comments

[Kelly Massman]

I love the layouts you shared today! I doubt if I win your box seeing how it looks like I might be the first post, but I'd sure love to win it! I like to see layouts, layouts, layouts (scrapbook that is)! Thanks for asking.

[Valerie Bishop]

I love seeing layouts - but I'd also like to see some mini album/book projects. I have a hard time doing those and love to get ideas!

[Lythan]

I love the layouts combined with the tips as per today. But I would prefer to have just one or two per post as all that beauty is overwhelming in one go really.

[Amy P]

I enjoy the layouts that you already put on here. It's great inspiration. I would also like to see tutorials, maybe on embellishments???

[Robin S.]

Your paper and Layouts are beautiful! I would love a challenge on your new blog. A chance to win CP goodies is always fun!

[Bri Johnson]

Love all the inspirational layouts. I also love challenges and contests...and sketches! Thanks for all the layouts that give me ideas for using your fun product!!!

[Amy S.]

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.

[Kim M]

I love seeing the layouts and what can be created with your products. I would love to see more projects made with Crate paper, especially little mini albums. Oh, how I love minis. Tutorials on different methods of jazzing up your layouts with handmade embellies would be nice too.

[Erin]

LOVE all the inspiration today! I see some scraplifting in my future! It would be great to see some more challenges and maybe some examples of projects/mini-albums with Crate Paper. :) Thank you for the opportunity to win--I would be thrilled!

[Tara Orr]

i think the site looks great - gotta love the eye candy with all these gorgeous layouts. I always love seeing tutorials for things that are unique - specific embellies or even step by steps on a specific layout. Keep up the awesome work - and thanks for the opportunity to win some goodies!

[kat marie]

awsome layouts, i think the challenge idea sounds good!!! definitly some other creations other than layouts.

[Shawn Wenrich]

I really enjoy blogs that have talented designers that create not only layouts but cards and home dec projects. It's always great to see postings of new product coming out and videos are always great too. Something I've seen a lot of lately is two great companies spending a week on each others blogs and combining their products to create. This is awesome and there's always great giveaways when they do this. Thanks for the opportunity to provide some feedback.

[emily (justem)]

Great work by all the designers. :)

[Keshet]

Love what you're doing so far! Maybe more ways to use specific products, ie chipboard?

[Geralyn]

Thanks for the inspiration! I would love to see some tutorials on projects other than layouts, perhaps minibooks.

[Brittney A]

Posting more frequently so I have more goodness to drool over!

[Vanessa]

I'd love to see more tutorials and ways to use the product in home decorating

[Bianca P.]

Love the layouts!! Very inspiring!

[Andrea MacDonald]

You hit the nail on the head today! I love tips and techniques. I also love seeing projects from your readers too.

[emily pitts]

i love all the suggestions for what readers would like to see in the future. gives me lots of ideas :)