Playing with CHA goodies for Ever After!

I just LOVE being on the Design Team for my favorite scrapbook store, Ever After, in Vista, CA... ESPECIALLY when the owner, Camille, gets home from CHA! She has lots of fun samples that we DT members get to play with before anyone else!

I was given five assignments and (surprise, surprise) the first project was for GRAPHIC 45, "A Proper Gentleman!" I just love this picture of the boys (Chris is the blond looking down) waiting for the girls to finish up their "photo shoot" before prom. They are all so handsome... and look so uncomfortable... I remember those days! I also love the layers on this layout. I backed the photo and embellishment pieces with chipboard and used 3-D adhesive foam to create the different layers.

Next is the bright and colorful "Flower Child" line by BO BUNNY (seen first above). SERIOUSLY... delicious colors and flowers and swirls... be still my heart! I used the exacto knife to cut out part of the corner accent and then "tucked" the photo behind the accent. I then cut flowers from another papers in the line to create coordinating flower accents that "popped" up off the layout. Add some rhinestone gems and swirls and there you go!

MY MIND'S EYE... BRILLIANT! The new "Hip and Luxurious Basics - Lush" is a FANTASTIC idea! Wonderful designs in flocked and inked papers in SINGLE COLORS... just black or just lime green, for example... in my opinion it is the new and improved option to cardstock! You get the single color with a single yummy design to back your photos! In the "Sweet Thing" layout, I used the beautiful flocked damask paper and added color and fun with the bright flowers. Using the black buttons help "ground" the flowers and bring them back into line with the layout. And Sweet Abby... our darling little puppy!

When I received the samples for the HEIDI GRACE DESIGNS "Crazy for Paisley" line, I admit that I had to sit and stare at it for a few minutes to figure out how I was going to make it work. The papers are very pretty and I love the glitter accents, but I still don't know exactly how these papers combine into a single line. I guess that is why I get paid the "big bucks" to create a design. ;-) In addition to the paper, I had to use the flowers and epoxy stickers... I was pleasantly surprised with the results. But, Camille wasn't done giving me challenging lines to work with...

Now, I know you are going to find this strange, but I thought about this layout for a few days. I know... I know... pink and oh, so girly papers, glitter paper, cute glitter chipboard alphas, and fun heart epoxy stickers... WHAT could be hard about this for ME? The "Bella Baby" line by COLORBOK is soooooo darn cute, I didn't want to cut it up! I know we have ALL purchased paper that we LOVE but we never use it because we don't want to make a mistake or use it for the "wrong" project! That was me this week. Then I decided to do a layout with Anna's birth announcement and it turned out GREAT! I even used the vellum envelope as a backing for the announcement. I made my own embellishments by cutting the words, dress and shoes out of one of the papers from the line, backing them with chipboard and "popping" them off the layout for dimension. The visual frame of the chipboard title, combined with the epoxy hearts, is subtle, but effective in the design. And that little Anna Banana at 6 weeks... OH... SO... CUTE!

Thanks for looking at this week's scrapping fun! Let me know if any of the above design tips were helpful or inspired you to create a new fun layout! (That would make my DAY!) Now off to create a layout for Creating Keepsakes and try to keep my mind off of Graphic 45... 5 more days until the new Design Team is announced... just keep busy... just keep busy... (Yeah, like that is hard to do around here!) ;-) Have a GREAT weekend!!!