A New Addition

If you haven't already found yourself traveling overseas in search of fresh, inspiring scrapbook talent, you're truly missing out. We regularly receive submissions from all over the world including France, Germany, Singapore, Australia, Japan, Canada and other countries where scrapbooking has just as much of a foothold on crafters as it does here. Last week, we met an amazingly talented scrapbooker/paper artist from Japan. Some of you may already be familiar with her graphic inspired scrapbook style and awe engaging blog - her name is Kaori Watanabe. We recently invited her to be a member of our blog contribution team after receiving numerous submissions from her. We immediately fell in love with her work and thought that maybe you'd enjoy seeing more it here! We'd like to formally welcome Kaori as Crate Paper's newest blog contributor team member! Below is sampling of Kaori's work, including layouts using some of our CP goodies! Welcome Kaori!

Brook Collection

Look at all the bits and pieces of paper that Kaori has used to create this stunning layout! What we especially love about her work is that she's a total rule breaker! No grids, no borders, no boundaries. She creates "outside the box" in a sort of non-traditional fashion...it's fun & unbelievably beautiful!

Brook & Mia Collections

Along with this gorgeous layout, Kaori sent us a couple close-up images of some of the techniques used to create her layout. We've posted them below..you might run out and buy a sewing machine after seeing what she's done with hers...vellum + Pattern Paper + Ribbon...um, genius.

We're not really sure where Kaori found the slide holder chipboard pieces, but it's a real treat to see our papers on them! Backed with vellum, our pattern papers "pop"!

Brook Collection

Pink Plum Collection

Cottage & Lillian Collections

Little Sprout & Cottage Collections

Little Sprout, Cottage, & Mia Collections

Cottage Collection

Again, lets welcome Kaori to the CP team! We're super excited (seriously, super beyond-anything-we-could-of-ever-imagined excited) to have you on board..and now onto the next set of enticing news. Our paint splatter expert, Rhonda Palazarri, is putting together an awesome "paint splatter" tutorial for us this week. We encourage you to come check it out, especially if you've always wanted to try the ol' paint splatter technique..we're paint-a-phobics over here, so we're definitely interested in learning more about Ronda's technique. Supposedly, all it takes is a round tip paint brush/tooth brush and some paint...and lots of newspaper (incase you're splatter doesn't find it's way onto the paper). Come see what it's all about later this week! We're certain it will informative as Rhonda creates great tutorials. You won't want to miss it!