Hey guys, it's Kimberly here with another installment of Crate Style! First of all, I have a question for you - while sitting down watching a favorite tv show, do you ever come upon something that instantly hits you and right away, you feel a creative opportunity looming? This happens to me all the time, which is pretty much why I drive my family insane with note pads lying around holding scribbles of ideas from here and there. Literally, it just "hits" me; TV, Pinterest, Facebook, movies, etc. And yes, I carry a sketch pad in my purse, too, in case I see something on the "go". If I don't write it down or sketch it out, the idea will be lost, so it's important to have paper nearby, right?
Well, I sat down to watch the movie, "Step Up Revolution", with my daughter the other night and I was instantly inspired by the introduction title work when it came up on the screen. Not surprisingly, I quickly jotted it down...
If you happen to have your smart phone handy, you can also snap a picture like this for quick and easy access.
Pretty cool, right? Can you see how this inspired me to want to create something fun with it? I love it when a design like this jumps out at me, and feel the need to run to my table to play. It makes the creation process fall smoothly into place.
In the end, here's what came of the title work...
I "stepped" up the word Princess and tucked beneath it, the remainder of the title, "ball".
Here's a couple of close-ups. I'm loving the *new*Maggie Holmes line! It's pretty and sweet at the same time.
Ok, so here are two take aways from today's Crate Style:
Be sure to keep a sketchbook/sticky notepad handy at all times, because you never know when inspiration might hit!
Keep your eyes open - you never know when something might catch your attention! There are surprises to be had around every corner.
For quite a long time, the monthly design team project presentation has carried the title, "Designer Gallery". It served us well over this last year, but with 2013 in full swing, we're all about shaking things up a bit and bringing about a fresh appearance for the great work provided to Crate by it's top-notch, talented designers - the awesome CP Gals! So, today, marks the very first day of "Crateware", a monthly tribute intended to highlight the latest "Crate Paper" creations by the CP Gal team. They're always discovering gotta-try ideas from our collections and CrateWare is the chosen route in which to share them! It's pretty amazing what they come up with when we're not looking - we're truly lucky to have them!
We think Janna has a unique talent for mixing together the cool and eclectic. Whether it'd be small scraps of patterned paper, individual embellishments or cameo cut-outs, she just knows how to put it all together in way that beckons to be noticed. Nearly every turn host it's own surprise. We luv that.
CP Gal: Magda Mizera {Maggie Holmes + Old & New Crate}
This green/yellow color palette is a first for Crate - it's wonderfully warm and inviting! Everything about it says "Spring!"
Our creative spaces deserve a place in our scrapbook albums - this DIY Shop layout shows a snippet of Deb Duty's scrappy studio/office. The two match almost perfectly; Cameras, letters, color and all.
A guest project, Sophie injects a punch into this patterned paper heart arrangement by popping pieces of it forward - a great idea no matter the shape or papers chosen. Surely, a few of you will give it a try!
Another of Sophie's layouts, though this time her choice collection is DIY Shop. If you look closely, you'll see one of the brand new Photo Overlays. It's got a rainbow sheen with a hint of warmth. It's one of many...
A Girl's Day out is a must and recording it on paper with fave embellishments alongside a pink & green color palette felt like the right fit for Anabelle O'Malley. Her top fave is Maggie Holme's confetti filled envelope! Good Choice - we love it, too!
Ashley sent us this card as a last minute contribution towards last week's Creative Weekly. We opted to save it for today as Crateware is meant for cards as well!
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Please feel free to pin any of the creations found here. We want for you to enjoy them as long as you like! And don't forget, Crate has it's own Pinterest Boards!! We're always looking for new followers - our designers and other CP Family Members contribute to the boards daily. There's endless inspiration to behold - Join us at Pinterest today!
Hello Everyone, Stephanie Dagan to share with a little tutorial on making a super cute mini album! What's ultimately unique about it is that the cover is constructed from fabric. Personally, I love to use fabric on my projects! I find it to be warm and easy to work with.
To create a fabric cover of this type, you'll need a piece of cardstock. Choose whatever color cardstock you like since we'll be covering it with fabric. The paper measures at 9" x 5.5". Trim a piece of fabric slightly larger than the cut paper.
Lay the cardstock on top the fabric and fold the edges of the fabric over it as I've done above. You've a couple of options to hold the fabric in position. First, a double stick tape roller laid across all four edges. Some should overlap onto the paper. The second option is to use spray adhesive directly on the fabric - it's a bit tacky, but holds extremely well! Just make sure to spray it on lightly and with enough protective covering behind it so as to not get adhesive on your table.
Bring the cover to a nearby sewing machine and stitch a border around it. This further secures the fabric to the paper. Note that the stitching is just barely shy of the album's perimeter - less than a 1/4" inch.
Now for the interior pages. I chose three different patterned papers and vellum paper, which exhibits a title and journaling block. The pieces of patterned paper are slightly smaller than the cardstock/fabric cover.
I doubled the papers and positioned them "inside" the cover before sewing them together down the center. Consider the arrangement order of your mini album pages before completing this step. After the addition of the sewn binding, the pages are "as is".
On the back interior cover, I glued a piece of woodgrain patterned paper to hide the folded over fabric. I also positioned eyelets for ribbon to secure the album closed.
Once the structure of the album is complete, I filled the album with photos and embellishments. Essentially, I used the DIY Shop collection, which I LOVE.
In designing the album, I opted to limit the number of pages so as to get straight to the point and to share only those photos that evoked specific memories. The hardest part was choosing the right photos!
I hope to have inspired you today - if ever a moment you create a similar album, please feel free to share it with us!
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As promised, we've a formal congratulations to pass along to a member of the Gossamer Blue Kit Club whom participated in this month's GB/Crate Paper Challenge! Congratulations to Katrina Hunt and her cute pup!
Katrina, the layout's vibrant color palette and unique composition captured our attention right away! We "truly" love it ~ send your info to [email protected].
A very special thank-you to all whom participated in the challenge. We greatly enjoyed seeing your creations and appreciate them so, so much!! To check out the runner-ups, visit the Gossamer Blue blog!
Hey there! It's Ashley Cannon Newell on the blog today to share a fun card tutorial. If you make cards, you probably tend to focus all of your creative attention on the exterior of the card. But, what about the card's interior? I thought it would be fun to showcase an interactive pop-up technique. Since the card has an interactive function, I thought a video tutorial was the best way to show you how it all comes about.
Using the Party Day collection, I focused on birthday cards. I stamped the three candles and created the greeting using patterned paper.
What the recipient doesn't know is that inside, there are three cupcakes that will pop-up to surprise them!
Here is a video tutorial showing how I created the card interior...
I also created another card using the same technique.
I added a bit of stitching around the borders to add a bit of texture.
On the interior, I used cardstock die-cuts from the emphemera pack.
The quotes are around the centered "Happy Birthday" greeting.
Creating an interactive card is very easy to do. I hope you will take time to finish a card interior too, and perhaps, even make a pop-up card! The main thing to remember to do is to have fun. I just know the card recipient will appreciate all of your efforts in creating such a fun, interactive card.
Hi Everyone -- I'm back to share a few more pages from my Project Life album using the stunning and extraordinary DIY Shop collection. I just love it's vintage color palette and retro-ish designs. Honestly, they're quite perfect when it comes to helping me document my week back home in Bangkok; it's officially Week 6!
Given that it's a new month and all, I dedicated one big spread to the week, or in this case, the month, and had tons of fun using DIY Shop's die-cuts (glittery-gold is a must!), label stickers and also, a wee bit of washi tape from the washi tape paper (really like the idea that you get a 12" x 12" sheet of different "washi tape" designs).
I was really excited to get a chance to go back home. It's my first time back this year and already hoping that there will be more opportunities for a second trip; especially with the new "low cost" airline I was able to locate. The tickets were half the price of what you would normally pay, but the catch is that you have to fly mid-week. So far, a second trip is a total possibility!!
And as you can probably tell, I spent most of the time there eating to my heart's desire and of course, shopping. Finally went to the night train market. It's similar to the famous Chatujak weekend market, but this one starts at around 6pm (and also on the weekend), and has more unique items for sale (and tons of good food and great bars). Definitely recommend it if you're ever in the area.
And sharing a little bit as to the creation process on how I went about starting my weekly project. I usually work on my PL pages on Sunday as my week starts on Saturdays (and hubby is always busy reading his newspapers and magazines). I start by going through all the pictures taken with my phone and then spend some time figuring out which ones I want to use and where (hence the pink post-it notes). This helps me to determine whether I should include just one picture, or create a collage of pictures. Also, it helps me figure out which ones I'll actually print and use.
Thanks for checking in on this fabulous Friday! Hope you guys have a great weekend!
Red has certainly been a staple of my crafting projects in the last few months...I like to bring it out in the Fall and work with it through Christmas and Valentine's day; then I tend not to use it very much until Summer comes along. The nice thing about red, though, is that it goes with so many other colors. I actually had a tough time narrowing it down for this layout. But in the end, I chose to pair it up with gold because, well, I just love gold at the moment and when I was looking through my Crate products, the gold glittered embellishments from DIY Shop really stood out and begged to be used.
The photo in the layout was given a sepia, almost split-tone finish, but I wanted to mute the colors in it even more, so I sewed a piece of vellum on top of it. I definitely wasn't looking to have bright pops of color in this layout -- I really was going for a subtle, almost old-time feel -- and so, chose tans and creams to go with a paler red and the antiqued gold. Most of the embellishments come from DIY Shop, while Party Day supplied the base patterned paper.
Ashley Cannon Newell
The color red is so striking and vibrant. Red isn't for Valentine's Day anymore. I've combined different shades of red with hues of pinks, blues, and yellows to create three cards. My favorite thing about the card collection is that although they all have different designs, the color palettes bring them together. Mostly, I used the 6 x 6 paper pad from the Fourteen collection. The buttons on the "Thank You" card are from the Sleigh Ride collection. If you like cards like me, take out your favorite Crate Paper products that feature red and make some today!
Magda Mizera
Do you dream? I dream often - about the future, far away travels, special places and various other things. Mostly though, I dream of love. Love is, actually, all around us; the words we use, in photos captured, in the dinners we prepare for those whom we love. I almost always find love when creating beautiful pages and try to preserve nearly every ounce of it. How is it you "think" of love? Does it influence your creative output?
Janna Werner
When I started paper crafting in 2010, I created lots and lots of cards. After diving deeper into scrapbooking, I rarely made cards anymore. One of my crafting resolutions for 2013 is to make more of them. It's much more fun sending a handmade card than buying one. The Creative Weekly theme, "Red", was a good occasion to create love/friendship themed cards. I used each of the three new Crate Paper lines; DIY Shop, Maggie Holmes and Party Day. Each of them include a host of embellishments which make it amply easy to create eye-catching cards.
Evelyn Pratiwi Yusuf
The month of February is commonly known as the month of "love" and as such, the colors pink and red can be seen everywhere. Based on this observation, and on the idea of "love" itself, I wanted to create something that reflected upon a "big crush" of mine; coffee!! Some of my best moments have been spent with a cup in hand, sipping on delicious coffee. So, for this week's Creative Weekly, I crafted a coffee tumbler using a Red, Brown and Yellow color palette, and an array of products from the Party Day, DIY Shop and Maggie Holmes collections. It's fun and super easy to make! Check out the video to find out for yourself!
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Challenge In Progress
**Don't forget, since today is the very last of this week's "Creative Weekly", that there is a "Love Red" challenge in progress. The prize pack is a full collection, "CHOICE"! Already, quite a few entries have been received, though there's always room for more!! At no point in the future will the prize be so sweet. Surely, you've some "red" Crate products around to play along. Full details are available using this LINK.
I like to draw on my layouts with watercolor paints and that's exactly what I did with this month's Creative Weekly layout! In sticking with the theme, "red", I used the colors red, white and pink. Watercolor, when applied, is soft and serene. I think this type of look fits perfectly with the Maggie Holmes collection. I'm in love with this collection, especially the patterned papers. It's cute & playful!
Kimberly Neddo
I always get super excited when I have all my children together, and especially when they are all open to taking pictures! I love how happy they all are in these photographs. With this week being based on the color red, I thought these photographs would be perfect with the red brick background and their happiness. To add to the background paper, I added some splatter of red to enhance the design. I really love how the photographs "pop" with the red backing I placed behind them. I love working with red and kraft paper together, but adding a touch of the teal blue accents also helped pull everything together with this piece.
Sasha Farina
Very red. Wasn't that what you thought when you saw my layout? You're right, this is not something of my usual. But, I must admit, the color is growing on me. And what is more perfect than Red for February? With a red, yellow~ish and turquoise color scheme in mind, I went hunting in my scraproom. I picked a few papers from the Maggie Holmes and Sleigh Ride collections. I then chose to use the Gold Foil Thickers from On Trend and a few embellishments from Fourteen. They were just perfect for what I had in mind! :)
I used the patterned papers to 'fill up' the negative spaces left by the Silhouette, and stitched wavy lines with white thread as a texture addition. I'm loving the way this layout turned out! I'd say that if red isn't your color per say, try it at least once. You might be surprised!
Sophie Crespy
Red is the color of love and according to me there is nothing stronger than a mother's love; these photos of my girl wearing a hand-made "Donkey Skin" costume makes my heart smile. I wanted to spread love throughout the page. I did so using my Cameo. I cut a large "Love" title from red cardstock and arranged an assortment of embellishments around it. I cut arrows from Fourteen's patterned papers. I then transferred the same papers in "strip" form beneath my photos. There's even a hint of Gesso - can you spot it? I went on to balance the red with some blue & green that matches well with the photo's garden background.
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We'd quickly like to remind you that there is a RED challenge underway and your participation is in high demand! The specifics are listed HERE. There's a full collection up for grabs and you've until March 3rd to enter! With plenty of time ahead 'til the challenge winner reveal, and a smorgasbord of fabulous "NEW" product to be had, this is the ultimate opportunity to chime in some of that Crate Creativity you've been wanting to share with the world!! It could score you a dream box of must-have Crate Goods! Send your entry to [email protected] before the deadline. Good Luck!
For this month's theme I wanted my project to really show-off the color red, instead of just featuring it as an accent color. So, I started with the beautiful tone-on-tone striped "Crush" patterned paper from the Fourteen collection and sewed a large piece of vellum across the middle to soften the base for my photo and embellishments. I love the way turquoise contrasts with red, so I chose the blue and turquoise chevron "Wonderful" paper from the Maggie Holmes collection as my main accent color. I cut multiple "6's" from the DIY Shop and Fourteen papers with my Silhouette Cameo, and added Thickers for a little more interest. Finally, since this is a birthday layout, the chipboard and standouts from Party Day were the perfect embellishments!
Naomi Atkins
Hi Everyone! Our theme this week is "red". How perfect, since I have all of my cute Valentine photos ready to scrap! One of my favorites was this picture of my daughter from our Valentine mini session. I'm loving her red tutu!! She is nine, and is not going to want to wear tutus much longer, so I'm taking advantage of it for as long as I can! To dress it up, I let her play with some bright red lip gloss too so this was perfect for my red assignment!! I really wanted my red to stand out because the photo I chose had all of the bright pops of red that I wanted to accent with black and white. I chose the black and white for my other colors as well so the red would stand out. Crate has so many great red products to choose from. I used the chevron paper from the Sleigh Ride collection for my background. I accented the top of the page with a flower from On Trend, a tag from On Trend and a tag from Sleigh Ride. I then cut-out a square from the cream cardstock below and placed some red paper from Fourteen, behind it. I used a red and black bingo card from the Crate DIY Shop, and a red button from On Trend. My favorite thing about this layout is the chevron polaroid stamp that I embossed with Rouge Zing Embossing Powder. I'm crazy about this stamp from the Party Day collection. I keep using it over and over again! I cut out the center, and used one of the new polaroid filter frames from DIY Shop and then layered my title with a pop out "lovely" sticker from On Trend and of course, some Thickers! The red and gold happen to be my favorite Thickers ever, so I was excited to use them! I accented with a few more strips of patterned paper and was done! I really love how all the red tones stand out with the black and white and a few pops of gold. Can't wait to see what red layouts and projects you can come up with this month!
Piradee Talvanna
Being the month of love, I couldn't resist creating a little something for that special someone so that we can celebrate it throughout the year. I put together a few coupons that hubby dearest can use and just realized (as I'm writing this post) that it would of been super fun if I had done one for each month. That way, we would be able to celebrate our "love" throughout the year. LOL. For my project, I focused on the colors, red, black and gold and used both the DIY Shop and Fourteen collections to create the cards, along with having some fun with the silhouette and a die-cut file from the die-cut designer, Loni Stevens.
It takes just a smidge of red to brighten up a project. Think about it. How many times have you sat staring at a layout, or card, whatever, and thought something was missing? Maybe the color palette you'd been working with wasn't quite doing it's job. Lots of cool, and no warmth. Well, we've certainly been there. Our fave solution is the color "red". Just look at "Fourteen", Crate's latest Valentine's Day collection. If without all that fabulous red, chances are, it wouldn't be the same. It wouldn't remind you of the romantic holiday either. Red lends a "punch" you can't resist, so if ever in a project bind, try on "red"....
Speaking of which, this week's Creative Weekly theme is "Love Red". Being that it's still February, we're not quite ready to say good-bye to "red" just yet. We asked our CP Girls to create a project focusing on the flaming hue and Crate's "red" product assortment. We can't wait to share their creations with you, but first...
As always, Creative Weekly is serving up a challenge! Using this week's theme, craft a project from 75% Crate Paper - layouts, cards, altered goods, diy projects, etc. Keep it original and newly made. Photograph and send it to us by Sunday, March 3rd, 2013 (8:00pm Central Time). We'll select/announce a grand prize winner on March 4th. Runner-ups will be noted as well. All challenge projects that appear on the blog will be pinned to our new "Creative Weekly" Pinterest Board! The Grand Prize is a "full collection" (Choice): Maggie Holmes, DIY Shop or Party Day. One entry per candidate - send to [email protected]
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Megan Klauer
I started out with the idea of a very simple layout focused on my flower photo, but it quickly turned into a multi-layered design using lots of red, pinks, turquoises and yellows. I love how a layout can change as the creative process happens. I did a bit of cutting and tearing of Maggie Holmes' journaling paper to create my title work. This is a great example of using your paper scraps to the fullest!
Anabelle O'Malley
Red is such an elegant color! It makes an appearance on so many of my pages. I love it. For my page today, I decided to let the red serve as an accent color. Mixing red and cream is one of my favorite combinations! I used papers from the Fourteen and Party Day collections for the background. My photos, about our Valentine's Day chocolate fondue, had a lot of red in them already. So, I chose accent chipboard and die-cut pieces to provide that extra pop of color. DIY Shop has several fun red pieces that worked really well on here. Chipboard hearts from Fourteen and Paper Heart finished off the page perfectly!
Debra Duty
The color red is one of I use frequently on my layouts. Almost all of my layouts have at least a few pops of red, so I was happy to work with this month's theme. My layout is about me and my husband for Valentine's Day with the gorgeous Fourteen collection. My photo is in black and white to keep the focus on the lovely colors of the layout. I enjoyed mixing different shades of red along with some pink and a touch of aqua grounded by grey all on a white background. As a finishing touch, I added some splatters of mist in red and grey.
Marie Lottermoser
There's something very retro when you combine red, cream and aqua. It's one of my favorite color combinations! This year, I used it for my Valentine gifts. Instead of sending out cards or candy, I sent out heart-shaped sparklers with tags attached. I used red glitter covered Thickers from the Fourteen collection to give them that extra "sparkle" and added a match to get the fire going.
Hello everyone, this is Janna. I'm delighted to share my first Project CP Life post with you. Before I start showing you photos of my "week 6" pages, I'd like to tell you a bit about my Project Life album. With the beginning of 2013, I decided to make it my mission to loose weight. To motivate myself and as a visual reminder of my resolution, I started a PL album. The idea was to create a weekly double spread related to my weight loss journey.
During the first four weeks of developing the album, I realized that is was very hard to stick to just one theme as I didn't have that much to tell and/or show that was strictly weight loss related. To resolve this issue, I decided to expand the theme to include anything interesting or exciting that arises throughout the weight loss experience. Doing this allows me to stick to the standard two-page spread, which I love!
This first week, I used the Maggie Holmes collection. I have to say that I fell in love with this line as soon as I saw it. Truly, it's amazing! I love the bright colors, patterns and embellishments (especially the pins).
Here, you can see the entire week six spread. For flexibility purposes, varying page protectors will be used throughout the album. I prefer this set-up because it allows me to add a full layout from time to time and also, different photo sizes. These photos are 4" x 6". This is my first time using photos of this size as normally I use smaller ones.
In looking closely at the layout, you'll notice just how much I love to sew on my scrapbook pages. In doing so, my preference is white thread. For this layout I actually went ahead and mixed white and black thread (upper thread: white, lower thread: black). I love the contrast it lends to the page.
The pin is just perfect!! It's a quick add-on to this accent card.
Shifting left, these are the 4" x 6" layered cards & photos. To bring them to "life", I used the Maggie Holmes embellishments and images cut from my Silhouette Cameo machine. Furthermore, I used my Big Shot and embossing dies to create texture on some of the papers as is seen on the following close-ups:
Now, we're curious to find out if you've a fave collection that you're making use of in a personal Project Life album? If so, we'd love to find out which one it might be...have a great weekend, everyone!
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As promised, the weekly "Fourteen" winners are finally here on this wonderful Friday!! By far, this is the most prizes we've ever given away in just one week and the hope is that each of you has had a blast following along 'cause we surely have ~ that said, let's just get right to it, shall we? If you see your name/comment amongst the many below, send us your info at [email protected]. Congrats to all!
Grand Prize Winners
I am a Fourteen gal. I love this collection and it actually may be an all time favorite. I love the pinks with the aqua blues. Happy Valentine's Day! Elizabeth S, Utah Posted by: Elizabeth Stites | February 14, 2013 at 09:34 AM
I absolutely love Fourteen. Hands down my favorite Valentine's collection ever! Thanks so much for your generous giveaways! Bethany B, Cottonwood AZ Posted by: Bethany Becker | February 14, 2013 at 07:04 PM
Runner-Ups
Hmmmm....such a hard decision but I would have to say that Paper Heart is my favorite of the two. Posted by: Kim M | February 14, 2013 at 04:56 PM
i'm just beside myself here...i can't pick! they are both fab! i love them both so much! i think i'm going to go with 14 though...i think i need to duplicate megan klauer's "14" layout! just awesome! janelle s, belgrade, MT Posted by: Janelle Shultz | February 14, 2013 at 12:51 PM
Weekly Fourteen Winners
Seems to be a general trend: I have to start the valentines my youngest son and i will give to his classmates. I better get busy! Erika, Redwood City, CA Posted by: blurooferika | February 11, 2013 at 10:13 AM
Gorgeous layout!! I will make a nice dinner for my hubby and kids tomorrow, and my hubby and I will go out together this weekend. Margie V, TN Posted by: Margie Visnick | February 13, 2013 at 06:17 AM
First up- this layout is gorgeous!! LOVE! Second- our Valentine's this year is split up, because we have other things going on that night! So- we went to the movie "Warm Bodies" last night...and on actual Valentine's day we are going to make a big breakfast together and exchange gifts! Lea L., Montana Posted by: Lea Lawson | February 13, 2013 at 08:17 AM
I will be celebrating with my valentine at home this year. He is undergoing chemotherapy for colon cancer so it will be a quiet night at home. I'm even more grateful for him this February 14th! Thanks for the chance to win. Michelle M Idaho Posted by: Michelle Morris | February 13, 2013 at 06:09 PM
I am a Fourteen gal. I love this collection and it actually may be an all time favorite. I love the pinks with the aqua blues. Happy Valentine's Day! Elizabeth S, Utah Posted by: Elizabeth Stites | February 14, 2013 at 09:34 AM