2013 Artisan Design Team Blog Hop Project 1

no images were found

Hi Everyone! .. for anyone who’s still around after my almost one and a half year hiatus!

Forgive the length of this post.. I have to insert a little story to re-acquaint us and catch you up on my being back to the blog!

After a much long overdue return to my blog, I’m back with some exciting news! This Spring, I finally got myself in gear to enter the Annual Stampin’ Up! Artisan Design Team contest.  On June 28th, I received a call that I was one of the 20 finalists!  I was surprised, excited and nervous all at the same time when I heard the message on my machine when I got home and listened to our messages late that night  … I ran screaming up the stairs to my husband who thought that a mouse or something must have gotten in our house because of my screaming and jumping!  Seeing the look on my face, he quickly figured out that it was happy jumping and right away knew what the call was about (and then started jumping too) … only thing was he though it meant I made the team already!  .. that was another nerve-wracking 3 week wait (until awards night at convention in Salt Lake City) that I got to spend getting to know 19 other wonderfully kind and talented artists.  For these new friendships, I am forever grateful!

Awards night was a whole other level of nervousness! Once the time came for them to call the 10 members who were selected to be on the 2013 Artisan Design Team onto the stage, I was even more stunned to hear my name called.  I’m excited and honored to serve on this team for the 2013-3014 Stampin’ Up year and to be in the company of all of the other finalists and Design Team Members! We’ll have lost to share with you this year!  .. and since I’m officially on this team, I won’t be going on any 18 month long hiatuses again since I’ll be sharing regularly as part of the team! I’m happy to have this (obligation) honor!

Now that I’ve re-introduced myself and you know that I’ll be here to stay, I welcome you to the 2013-2014 Artisan Design Team blog hop. We are kicking-off the year with this hop to share the 10 projects that we submitted to Stampin’ Up! as our entry to the contest!  If you’re starting here, you’ll hop on over to Becky Cowley’s blog next and if you’re following the hop, you’ve probably arrived here from Mercedes Weber’s blog…. both wonderfully talented! I hope you enjoy our hop!  Just use the buttons at the bottom of each post to click on over to the next Artisan’s page and be sure to come back each day for the next 9 more days to see each one of our 10 projects!

My first project to share with you is one of the 3 scrapbook pages that I submitted.  This one is special to me (well, they all are!).. when our computer crashed, we lost many of the photos we had taken when Lennon (our now 6 year old) was a baby but thank goodness for Facebook I was able to get some back.  I hesitated to use these photos because of two things (the quality and the cropped out bare bum) but that center photo is one of my all-time favorite photos of Lennon!

no images were found

no images were found

I wanted to do something fun with the Canvas Creations and I love the Chevron trend, so I created a template using the cardboard from a package of Designer Series Paper (DSP) to create a chevron template. (I’ll come back to share a  photo of the template in a future post (or will add it here later) To create the template, I kept a 3/4″ border intact around the 12 x 12 piece of cardboard from the DSP package by using the trimmer to cut out a 11 1/4″ square from the center of the cardboard.  I used that square and cut it down to 3/4″ x 3″ strips to create the chevrons and then once I had enough strips, I adhered them to the square frame I had leftover.  This will all make more sense once I share a photo.  (I would also recommend creating it out of a window sheet as opposed to the cardboard).

Once I had the template created,  I tore the Canvas Creations down to size so that it fit the opening of my chevron template and then sponged with Baja Breeze (it looks more like Pool Party though so that would work great too) to achieve the chevron pattern on my canvas.  I love the look of sewing and love knowing that once I’ve attached something right where I want it, it’s not going to fall off, so I attached the canvas to my page by sewing it to the crumb cake base.   I wanted the photos (of course) and the canvas to be the main attraction so I didn’t want to add a whole lot more to this page.  Plus, I wanted it to be something that others would want to re-create! So,  I added just a few stamps and embellishments.  I stamped the buttons from Button Button (retired) in versamark onto the Crumb Cake base page and embossed them with clear embossing powder.  I also stamped some tags with That’s the Ticket and Show and Tell 1  in Early Espresso ink on Pool Party cardstock and then either cut or punched them out (Ticket Duo Punch).  The last little touches were the Naturals Designer Buttons, tied with a little bit of Linen Thread.   To get to the other Artisans just click on the buttons right below.  They are followed by a supply list.  Be sure to post with any questions and I’ll do my  best to help you out!

If you missed Mercedes, be sure to click back to her blog. I love her page!  Or jump ahead to Becky Cowley.. be warned, you may need a cupcake after!

Paper: Crumb Cake CS, Canvas Creations, Early Espresso CS, Pool Party CS, Sahara Sand CS Stamps & Ink: Versamark, Early Espresso Classic Ink, Baja Breeze Classic Ink, Button Button stamp set, That’s the Ticket stamp set, Show and Tell 1 Accessories: Stamping Sponges, Naturals Designer Buttons, Linen Thread, Clear Embossing Powder, Heat Tool Other: stencil created from DSP backing to create Chevron pattern, Sewing machine