Hello Summer Giveaway + Open Road Layout by Christine Middlecamp

Looking ahead and jumping into Summer, Crate Paper is reigning in the sunshine and warm weather with an early Summer Giveaway! To help you get started with your Summer Scrapbooking Adventures, we have up for grabs an OPEN ROAD goodie box - stickers, chipboard, alpha's and all!

Tell us your BIG plans for the Summer! Whether camping upstate or spending the days outside in the backyard with kiddo's-in-tow, we want to hear how you'll be enjoying Summer this year. Leave your response in the comment area below and we'll choose a winner on Friday, June 6th. Make sure to include your location (City/State) when registering your comment for verification purposes. If you want to chat up your summer bucket list, we're open to that as well!

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And now an extra special 'Summer' Open Road project from Crate Paper Design Team Coordinator, Christine Middlecamp.

 For me, this Summer is about pushing ahead, forging a new path into design and making waves at the pool with my little guy, Ethan. In between, I'm crafting like the rest and diving straight way into my scrapbook stash, including the latest Open Road collection from Crate Paper.

Just this last week, I sorted through my Open Road contents and organized them in preparation for a new layout. As is often the case, I paced the creative process so that I could carefully consider the details. There were more than enough to go around this time. ;) Open Road gave me plenty of options to choose from and in the end, I was optimally happy with the final project.

I was pleasantly surprised by this collection's color palette. Even though most it's weight is on the pastel end, there is no shortage of rich, vibrant color. The key is to break away from "just white", a very popular trend taking the craft arena by storm right now. Personally, I'm a color gal all the way. The more, the merrier.

For pops of color here, I placed a great deal of emphasis on the lively hue, 'Cherry Red'. I paired it with pink, mint, olivine, yellow and black - a fave color combo of mine. Red typically stands out more because of it's intensity. I even went so far as to make the page's title red to instigate priority amongst a busy layout.

I occasionally go out of my way to challenge a product to look entirely different from it's original form. As a collage artist, I work in 'bit-mode'. I love to cut things up and toss itty-bitty pieces around until I find that perfect match. It's like a puzzle to me every time I'm faced with a pile of patterned paper and embellishments. I take great satisfaction in disassembling and reassembling while never knowing what to expect in the end. This badge is made from a total of nine layers using Open Road's chipboard assortment, stickers, patterned paper and more. 

Right next store to the '66' badge is a petite 'Courage' framed square. Again, lots of surprises inside from stickers to a small trim of the 'number 10' playing card {journaling card lot}.

I'm a big fan of my gold gel pen. Let me tell you, it works like magic for bringing about a hint of metallic gold. I typically use my gold gel pen to create borders around things, or outlines. It's a quick fix for sprucing up ordinary embellishments, too!

Lime Green & Black/White - and that CUTE camera! Seriously Crate, you leave me speechless!

Them fancy stitched borders aren't always an easy embellishment to conquer, but when paired with tabs and other minuscule borders of colored paper, they can save on a lot of work and time in avoiding the whole sewing machine thing. Considering that I was once a quilter, I can appreciate pre-stitched embellishments.

And now for my favorite fixture - fancy gold sequins, yellow epoxy dots and vanilla rhinestones, all on top an Open Road 'peach label sticker' and 'pink chipboard arrow'. It'll put a smile on anyone who loves tiny plastic additions.

Finally, even though I'm a proud owner of a Silhouette Cameo machine, I'm not afraid to pull out my exact-o knife and craft a design from scratch. I first drew radiating lines from the layout's main focal point, the photo, and then carefully trimmed away every other section with my exact-o knife and ruler. I placed behind the open areas a large sheet of 'pink polka-dot' patterned paper {Mae's Cafe}. I intentionally left some of the black outline to remain visible to endorse a quirky, less-than-perfect feel.

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A brief reminder, there is a GIVEAWAY in full swing and you have the entire week to chime in with two cents worth of Summer happiness! Submit a comment as instructed above and be ready to find out if you're a WINNER this Friday, June 6th! Good Luck Crate Fans!

Comments

[bev]

nothing big planned for our summer. just hanging out with our grandson playing outside and swimming. couldn't be better!
Farmington, utah

[Laura Speidel]

Going to Portland and Seattle on vacation, Cancun for my friends wedding, spending a month in Colorado with the family. Round Hill, VA

[Carla]

First, your page is exquisite!! I love every single detail!! Second, we don't have a big trip planned yet, but we do plan to fix up our basement. Our 20yods has moved back in with us, and while our basement isn't terrible, it can use some improvement, so that's my main goal. Pueblo, CO

[ants]

Looking forward to visiting friends and family in Hungary and watching the spectacular firework display in the capital city. My kids are soooooo looking forward to this! Hopefully some lovely sunshine, too... West Midlands, UK

[JoAnn K Delery]

we have started our summer with a week at the Oregon coast, so beautiful! this week we have planted our first garden in 120 years, so that will be my pleasure most of the summer. i'm sure we'll have many trips over the mountains to see our oldest son and his family (4 grandchildren) and here in Bend with my granddaughter from our second son! my daughter loves to spend evenings outdoors so i look forward to many an evening with her about town.

[Ana]

Hi!! My name is Ana and I live in the lovely state of Texas in a small town out side of Houston called Hockley! This summer we want to visit Austin and spend the weekend there. We're major foodies (hubby is a chef) and wish to Visit several really cool restaurants and also visit the nearby rivers! We also want to take our kiddos top the beach!
Thanks for this giveaway!

[Elin Larsson]

I'll enjoy to be with my kids, family and friends. Hopefullly I'll make a trip and some renovation of our house and some picknics aswell.

[BIBI]

Beach holidays in Tuscany, Italy. I love the coast of Tuscany, full of colours and smells .
BIBI, TUSCANY, ITALY

[c]

Summer plans include a trip to Bend Oregon, where my husband will race Cascade Classic, and time with family! Excited!
c

[Anneke]

Going rock hunting in northern Ontario, lots of driving and hiking on the way :) would love to win this collection to document our travels! Anneke, Ontario, Canada

[melinda Wilson]

This summer isn't really planned out just yet other than an all girls beach trip in July. Since this will be our first summer as "empty nesters", we might just take off every weekend and arrive back just in time to go to work!
Pinson AL

[Brittany Kielar]

We are going on on two family trips. One in NC and one in FL. Both will be road trips going and coming!

Boca Raton, FL

[bernice J]

My summer is going to be especially awesome this year...I will be a mother of the groom! My son is getting married to a wonderful girl in August at a location that is a 11 hour drive from where we live. Thus we intend to make an adventure out of the trip. I can hardly wait, I'm so excited!
Alberta, Canada

[Connie Tacazon]

We're doing orlando...so so excited!!!

[Carmen]

We plan to take an extended weekend camping trip soon (Galesville, WI)

[Mandi Holmes]

No plans here. just work and beating the heat.

[Natasha (Brooklyn NY)]

Time for a road trip! Lots of inspiration. Great layouts.

[Margaret Roberts]

Love what you did with the map and all of the travel embellishments! I'm a travel fanatic, but this summer I'm sticking close to home (Kodiak, Alaska) since my daughter and family are moving here at the end of the month! I'm so excited! Now I'll have both kids and all 5 grandchildren close at hand. We'll enjoy the long summer days at the beach and on the deck, grilling salmon and making s'mores.