picture this! challenge design team submission

Hey there blogosphere friends.  It's been a long while since I've been on a design team and I thought I would up my game and apply to be a part of the picture this! challenge crew.

I'm going to sneak peak my submission here today and if I'm one of the lucky selected design team members I will have the big reveal on August 1st.  Remember you saw the close-ups here first .. wish me luck!!

The picture this! challenge for the design team call is this very colourful mood board:

 

If you know me well, you would have guessed that I was immediately focused on those amazing giant pompoms in the image on the left and the coloured discs on the right.  Those colourful little dots became my focal point in the form of bubbles. 

Take a peak at the bubble splatter top right of Audrey's head.  That's bead paste medium mixed with finnabair silver mica powder through tim holtz's splatter stencil.  Crazy awesome result.  I'm hooked.

Come back on August 1st to see if I'm one of the lucky new design team members.  Even if it doesn't work out this time you have to come back to see the full layout which I'll post on August 1st.  It really was a fun one to put together.

Stay crafty.  See you soon.

happy new year! resolutions and rememberlutions for 2015 and january dt project

Resolutions have never been my strength.  They tend to be monster-sized goals that seize your attention for a few weeks until your best friend says to you, as you're carrying your gym bag out to the car with the greenest of green smoothies, there is a super sale at (you fill in the blank) and we will need humungous lattes to survive the rush.  Resolutions can be behemoths if you let them.  

But resolutions really are simply goals; we just tend to make them at a critical time when the world is bellowing sentiment of new beginnings and fresh starts.  Therefore we often take a reasonable, probably meaningful, goal and turn the little critter into a mountain of an accomplishment.

With that said, I have made two "resolutions" this year (I have many goals but two of which I really want to be mindful): (1) Organize better so that I may (2) spend more time with family and friends.  The first resolution may surprise those of you who know me.  I am quite the organized person.  Everything has a home and events and activities are always well planned and prepared.  What I need is a schedule.  

I read this article (Here’s What You Should Do Instead Of Making New Year’s Resolutions It’s called a “rememberlutions” jar and it’ll make you feel good all year) posted by Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine and decided to, in addition to my two resolutions, celebrate the smaller resolution successes as they come as well as all of the magnificent things, memories and accomplishments over the next twelve months by creating my own rememberlutions jar.

That coupled with our design team inspiration, I was off to the races.

I created a pendant for each of the four seasons of the year so that I have something to look forward to at the end of each season as the jar turns.

winter:

spring:

summer: 

autumn:

And here they are all together and assembled:

Whether you create resolutions this year or a rememberlutions jar, do what makes you feel good, makes you giggle and smile and let's you celebrate you all year long.

I'm entering my rememberlutions jar in the Sweet Stampin Challenge: New, Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #8: Something New for the New Year and Anything But A Card Challenge New Beginnings.  The rememberlutions jar is a new project created for the new year.

12 favourite 2014 projects over 2 posts bonus

So you know I couldn't just choose 12 projects, right?  Here's the overflow bonus selection:

3.  you should celebrate the end of a love affair as they celebrate death in new orleans, with songs, laughter, dancing and a lot of wine - francoise sagan (November)

2.  inked stamper design team december project: all you need is love but a little (hot) chocolate now and then doesn't hurt - charles schulz (December)

1.  the lights will guide you home: arctic sky winter wonderland tag
(December)

inked stamper design team december project: all you need is love but a little (hot) chocolate now and then doesn't hurt - charles schulz

It is starting to look a lot like Christmas!  Mother Nature has definitely prepared us Edmontonians for the winter solstice with a HUGE amount of snow just before the weekend.  And although the snow and the road conditions have fostered a number of colourful words, when all tucked up warm at home, sipping my Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte (no whip, non-fat if you're in the neighbourhood), past the din of tires spinning and snow plows beeping there is something so magical and peaceful with the world covered in white. 

Is it any surprise then that white is the in colour again this winter?  White ornaments, white trees, white deer heads.  White.  Which totally adds style to our December inspiration photo all that much more.  My Mind's Eye kicked it out of the park with their Sleigh Bells Ring collection.

Using MME's Sleigh Bells Ring collection and Prima's Coffee Break Cup O Joe paper I put together this fun, wintery, sparkly layout.  It has been a super long time since I worked on a layout.  For those who can date Alex's age by the toque he wears, you will recognise that this is an early 2014 winter layout.  Oscar has now been retired.  Not sure what it is about my monkey but he can definitely make a toque look good.

There are quite a few layers to this layout.  I started off setting up the first layer by laying down the book page, the burlap pieces and Prima's Coffee Break Cup O Joe papers.  I then inked splatters and hot chocolate cup rings using distress ink (pumice stone)/Tim Holtz splatters layered stencil and added stars and random droplets with dylusions sprays and izinks.  At the risk of sounding like a broken record, because this is the second time I will sing their praises in two posts for the Design Team, I will once again mention how great those little bottles of ink are.  Izinks are super easy to use and have a fantastic dramatic effect for very little cost.  Afraid to use them, you say?  Let me know in the comment section if you are interested in a class and The Inked Stamper can set something up if there is enough interest.  So don't be anxious about letting us know if you would like a demo on how they can be used.  Classes at The Inked Stamper are always super reasonably priced and you definitely get your bang for your buck.  

I outlined some of the stars to ground them.  A technique I learned at The Inked Stamper from Dawn.

Once that first layer dried I was all set to start building.  I added the photos, the snowflakes (Lawn Fawn stitched snowflakes) and the MME embellishments. 

I love dimension and I love creating dimensional pieces so that each time you look at it you find something new to notice which is why I will often add a pop-up piece or two.  The Prima cups O Joe and the little toques were perfect for adding that additional layer.  
 

Thank you for stopping by, remember to leave a comment and if you have any questions do not be afraid to ask!  I always love hearing from you and the Design Team have the bestest and mostest craft knowledge to share.  I am always learning from them.

Stay warm and craft-on my North American friends and to those in warm wintery locations: send us warm crafty thoughts.  We will need them until April.

exciting news! joined the new inked stamper design team

I am very excited to announce that I have been selected to join the inked stamper design team!  Courteney, our Design Team Coordinator, will definitely keep the team on our creative toes so be sure to follow along.

Round #1 of the NEW Design Team!

Hello everyone; its Courteney here!  I’ll be posting a lot more now for my position as the Design Team Coordinator.  I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgivings. I have been really busy this last week going through design team applications and I have to say you really did NOT make this easy on me. Everyone who applied was seriously so talented. Thank you so much for taking your time to apply we truly appreciate it. We could only pick a small team this time and I know you will not be disappointed. So please help me in welcoming these very creative, very talent ladies! For the next few days will be introducing Inked Stamper Design Team.  (In no particular order, we love them all!)

 
Pam Klebanov


With a main focus on mixed media, I love using materials in ways they may not have been originally intended.  Sort of like a craft scientist, I am often creating and designing in some unconventional mind space, experimenting with materials and mediums, mixing, deconstructing and altering to create multifaceted projects.  Friends and family, particularly my little muse, Alex are my greatest inspirations. everythingshetouches originated from a desire to share with others some of the things that I enjoy: paper crafts (layouts, tags, cards), sketching, journaling, painting, making jewelry and photography. Born in Montréal, Québec, I now live in Edmonton, Alberta.








Kate Tymko


My name is Kaitlin, but I sometimes go by Kate and I have lived in St. Albert for twenty two years. For as long as I remember, I've always been creative and surrounded by art. In the last few years I dove into papercrafts and have loved every minute of it. My parents (who I'm forever in debt to for letting me transform their basement into a creative studio a couple years ago) and boyfriend, Terry, have given me unwavering support in all my crazy creative pursuits. Blogging came next and fit in naturally between work and school. I'm constantly trying new things and finding new projects to work on and can't wait to see what I create with the Inked Stamper Design Team.

See you back tomorrow with Round 2! We have a total of 4 Designers, 2 Guest Designers, plus myself and Dawn. 

Courteney