August Design Team Projects

Now that my August Stampin' Up! Creative Crew Design Team projects are live on splitcoaststampers.com, I am excited to finally be able to share them with you.  All three of my projects were designed as a quick and simple way to give a small gift whether it be for a friend, teacher, co-worker, and/or neighbor. Since the audience I created my projects for is primarily Stampin' Up! demonstrators, I designed my gifts with a Stampin' Up! workshop hostess in mind.

Project #1:  Accordion box with notecards & envelopes.

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Project #2:  Card "purse" with matching notecards.

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Project #3:  Stationary Set

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That's all for now ... I hope you've enjoyed this month's projects.

~Hallie

June Design Team Work - Projects #3 & #4 Combo

Are you ready to see my final CCREW Design Team project for this month?!? {shake your head, yes} Great!! Let's get to it. 

Theme: Out with the Old, In with the New! What’s speaking to you from the new catalog or what will you miss that's retiring? Let’s go WILD! Anything that catches your eye with any new or existing products, it’s your time to get wild and share the muse!

DSP/Color Focus: Show us your favorite color. Try it in a color combo you haven't used before!

Hands down, one of my favorite SU! colors is DAFFODIL DELIGHT because it is such a bright, cheery, and happy yellow ... and then you add in some (now retired - UGH!!) Polka Dot Parade DSP (because we all know I'm a sucker for polka dots) and viola! I'm in crafting heaven. I used the MOJO347 Sketch for my layout and chose the color combination using my SU! Color Coach. I was a bit concerned when the color coach indicated Daffodil Delight should be paired with Pacific Point and Elegant Eggplant {yikes!} but I gave it a whirl anyway and I'm quite pleased with the result. I added in some Basic Gray to help tone down the other colors and of course I used my SU! Square Lattice and Decorative Dots Embossing Folders to add some texture to my card and that's how I got to the next challenge. 

Catalog Focus: Use your favorite product in your favorite way! Make us fall in love with it too!

If you have been following my blog for very long you know that I am an embossing folder feen. My embossing folders are my go-to tool on nearly everything I create. As a matter of fact, I'm not really sure how I functioned prior to their existence, but I did, and I'm super happy we have them now. I used the *NEW* Work of Art stamp set and oh.my.gosh, I'm pretty sure I'm in love!! Oh the possibilities!!!  Okay, so before I get lost in a day dream about my next card using that stamp set, I will show you the one I have ready to go. Ready?!? Viola!!!

 

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That wraps up this month's design team work so I'm off to print the challenges for July and *hopefully* have them completed sooner rather than later. {wishful thinking, I'm sure!} In the meantime, if you're stuck in a stamping lull and looking for some inspiration and/or a challenge, I highly recommend you boogie on over to the MOJO Monday and the Pals Paper Arts blogs. Great Stuff!!!

Hugs, Smiles, Blessings, and Happy Stamping!

~Hallie

June Design Team Work - Projects #1 & #2

You know it's been too long since your last post when your blog doesn't recognize you and requires you to sign in!! *sigh*

I am quickly coming to the conclusion that I am not an every.single.day blogger kind of girl right now. It's not that I don't want to blog every.single.day, it's simply that life continues to throw many unforeseen circumstances at me, and although it is frustrating at times, I strive to find the blessings amongst the chaos because the book of James tell us ...

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."  James 1:2-4

"Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him." James 1:12

...so between life's daily struggles and challenges, chauffeuring teenagers, my family visiting regularly, a new and completely unexpected (and fairly large) church commitment, my design team deadlines, organizing our family reunion that is two short weeks away, dog sitting, and most unexpectedly the death of a very dear loved one, onward I persevere towards my crown of life. 

Having  said all of that, I actually have a couple of design team projects to show you this week. I cheated was resourceful this month and used our family reunion invitation that I posted in my last blog post as my solution to the Holiday Focus challenge. The challenge was to celebrate your favorite holiday with a new technique and, although a Gatefold card isn't a "technique", I took the liberty to use it for the challenge since I added the inside pockets to hold the "cards" with the resort and RSVP information.

Theme: Out with the Old, In with the New! What’s speaking to you from the new catalog or what will you miss that's retiring? Let’s go WILD! Anything that catches your eye with any new or existing products, it’s your time to get wild and share the muse!

Holiday Focus: Celebrate your favorite holiday with a new technique!

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The next challenge, the Scrapbook and More challenge, was fun to work on and I'm thrilled with the way my project(s) turned out.

Scrapbook and More Focus: Celebrate your best friend on a scrapbook page or by making a gift for them.

For this challenge I chose to make a gift for my invisible friend so I wouldn't have to give it away. Naturally I was at a loss of what to make so I turned to my trusty little 3" binder that is chocked full of Becky Roberts' perfectly written tutorials. When I came across the set of three gift boxes in her 12 Days of Christmas - 2008 Edition, I went to work and created the awesome little ensemble below ... and since it's for one of my imaginary friends, I'll go ahead and tell you that it is proudly displayed on my desk so everyone who enters my craft room aka: my cats and dogs can see it.

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That wraps up two of the June challenges so I will be back tomorrow with the card I made that covers the last two challenges for this month.

NOTABLE INFORMATION:

The 2014-2015 Annual Catalog will be live at 12:00pm MST.

Click HERE to join my team and become a Stampin' Up! demonstrator for only $50.00 AND attend our SU! Annual Convention (a $295 value) for FREE!!

Until tomorrow ...

 Hugs, Smiles, Blessings, and Happy Crafting!!!

~Hallie

Design Team Projects - March

I am cheating a bit by posting my March Design Team work before it goes live on SCS, so we'll just consider it a two hour sneak peek for you, my lucky readers. Okay?!? Good!! The challenges for March were great and I'm glad the time has come that I can finally share them. I hope you are as excited about them as I am.

Theme:  
Statement of the Heart
We've all read the Stampin' Up! Statement of the Heart: To love what we do and share what we love, as we help others enjoy creativity and worthwhile accomplishments . . . in this we make a difference! This month, let's live that out and share what we love!

Designer Series Paper/Color Focus: Make us fall in love with your favorite DSP! You can use any current DSP from the annual, Occasions, or Sale-A-Bration catalogs.

No doubt about it, our Stampin' Up! Polka Dot Parade DSP is by far my favorite DSP. How do I know this? Well, as a matter of fact, I used it on every.single.one of my projects without even realizing it until it was time to photograph them. I guess that could technically mean that all of my projects fall into this category in addition to the other categories that I will be posting them in. Oh well, I'm okay with that!

I used a Pals Paper Arts sketch challenge (PPA164) for the layout of this card and I am pleased with the way that everything came together. Although it was extremely tedious to paper piece the letters for the Happy Birthday sentiment from the Outlined for Fun stamp set, it was worth the time and effort.  This is such a bright, cheery, and fun card; it is sure to make its recipient's birthday Happy, Happy, Happy!!! 

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Catalog Focus: Envelope Punch Board or Simply Scored. Show us what you love about these awesome tools!

For the first part of this challenge I created a stack of File Folder Cards using the Envelope Punch Board. I dressed them up with some ... wait for it ... Polka Dot Parade DSP, the Banner Blast Stamp Set, and the Petite Petals and Banner Punches.

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For the second part of the challenge I created what I would consider to be one of my all-time favorite little containers ... a French Fry Box!! I used the Simply Scored tool to make the cross-hair score lines on the box and then decorated it using some Polka Dot Parade DSP, the Itty Bitty Banners Stamp Set and Framelits, Burlap & Polka Dot Ribbons, the Petite Petal Punch, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, and a Button with Baker's Twine. Love, Love, LOVE it!! So Stinkin' Cute!!!

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Holiday Focus: There are 3 holidays in a row in March: St. Urho's Day (3/16), St. Patrick's Day (3/17) and my birthday (3/XX)! For this challenge, make a birthday card in purple (for St. Urho) or green (for St. Patrick). Use a technique or layout that you love!

*Note: "my birthday" refers to the person who wrote the challenge*

Not gonna lie, this challenge stumped me a bit. A GREEN or PURPLE BIRTHDAY CARD? Seriously?!? HMMM ... <insert blank stare at the paper with the challenge on it> ... UMMM ... <insert me scratching my head> UHHH ... <insert smoke coming out of my ears from the gears turning in my head> ... okay, you get the idea!!!  So after being lost in the Hundred Acre Woods for a loonnnggg time bit, I slowly started putting this card together. Piece by piece and with sweat dripping from my forehead great determination and perseverance, I finally finished it. It was Gumball GREEN and it had the words HAPPY BIRTHDAY so I considered it a WIN!

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Scrapbook and More Focus: Show us something you love on a scrapbook page, This-n-That Journal, or 3D project! Let's all remember what we love about stamping this month and share it with others!

I was super excited when it finally came time to work on this challenge. I decided to make a scrapbook page since I made pages for both the January and February Scrapbook and More Focus challenges. 

I have had my Statement of the Heart stamp FOR-E-VER and have never really had a place to use it so this provided the perfect opportunity to pull it off the shelf and dust it off put it to good use. I kept my page true to the challenge and incorporated as many things as I could that represented all of the things I/we love about Stampin' Up!

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If you've made it this far, it is quite possible that your eyeballs are bleeding from all of the reading so I'll wrap this post up and give your eyes some time to recover while I prepare my next post.

Thanks for being part of my little piece of the blogosphere!!  Happy Stampin' & God Bless!!

~Hallie