Challenge #17 - Spring is in the Air! (and Top Artist winners!)

Spring Challenge
It’s officially Spring!  We love flowers and this is most everyone's favorite time of year!  With beautiful flowers in bloom everywhere, we challenge you to create a project with handmade flowers using whatever materials you choose (e.g., paper, fabric, etc.).

Check out Lia's flowers created using her Cricut (George and Basic Shapes cartridge) and glimmer mist.  She layered a five petal flower in three different sizes (.5" to 2.5"), sprayed then with water, and pinched up and then pulled down the petals one by one.  Believe it or not all of the flowers were made from white cardstock and colored with glimmer mist!  Her stems are also handmade.

Marie created this fabulous layout adorned with ribbon flowers!  She stamped the white background with Night of Navy ink from Stampin up! using an Itty Bitty background stamp and used her Cricut (Storybook and Hello Kitty cartridges) for the title and image.  

MsDee created a beautiful mini-album with lollipop flowers (so cute!) made from pages torn from a dictionary and coated with Utee embossing powder.  How gorgeous!

Myra made these begonias for her exploding box "Happy Birthday" card.  The begonias were made with a flower petal punch by the Punch Bunch.

Susie made a beautiful bouquet of roses from tissue paper and daffodils from Die Cuts With a View Gemstone cardstock in a vase decorated with an adorable Matilda stamped image.

Terry adorned her Easter egg basket with this gorgeous blinged-out carnation.

and then Terry made this awesome collage of an assortment of gorgeous flowers from patterned papers!! 

We certainly hope you're inspired!  Please show us what you've got by leaving a link to your creation in the comments!  Happy Spring!

Top Artist Winners
Thank you to all of the participants in our January and February challenges.  It was not an easy choice for us, but we are pleased to announce our Top Artist winners!  Our January winner is Yvonne for her Going Green project.  Yvonne made a gorgeous card with a recycled ribbon that had some serious sentimental value.  Check out her sweet project here.  Our February winner is Jana!  Jana made the most beautiful Valentine's day card for our Non-traditional Love challenge.  Get a peek at her card here.  Yvonne and Jana, please email us so we can send you the Top Artist badge to proudly display on your blogs!  

Challenge #16 - We Love Accessories!

You can never have too many bags right?  Our current challenge is to create a purse or backpack mini-album.  For a tutorial on the backpack mini-album see http://www.scrapbook-crazy.com/mini-backpack-album.html.  Our very own design team member, Denise, prepared a helpful video tutorial on to make the purse mini-album right here just for you right: Part I 

and Part II

Here are pics of the purses by Denise:

The awesome Denise also has generously shared the SCAL cut files for the purses here and here.  
Here are the rest of the gorgeous projects by our team.  The first one is a super cute purse by Lia.  She altered one of the chipboard purse albums you can get from Michaels and added a lollipop flower sprayed with glimmer mist:

Next is a beautiful butterfly embellished purse by Lisa:

Terry made this wonderful baby themed purse with adorably detailed inserts:

We hope you're inspired.  Please share with us your version by leaving a link to your project in your comment!

Challenge #15 - Happy Lunar New Year!

Happy New Year! – Chinese New Year began on February 14th and it’s the year of the tiger! We are really going to stretch our paper crafting skills and create paper lanterns. There are a number of how-to videos on the Internet, including this one (although it's not very thorough) using recycled red envelopes (aka red packets) used to give gifts during Chinese New Year and a stapler! http://how-to-make.blogspot.com/2007/11/paper-lantern.html .  This video by Dawn is easier to follow and more like the lanterns we made in school: http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-make-a-Paper-Lantern-77391934.  Just have fun and show us what you've got.

MsDee made these gorgeous lanterns with SEI patterned paper, pom pom ribbon and rhinestones.

Myra made her lanterns with Basic Grey's Corsage paper from the Junebug line and embellished the handle with an Asian-themed brad.

Susie made her lantern along with a stunning year of the tiger greeting card!

Finally, here is Terry's take on the lanterns.  The colors she chose are just beautiful and demonstrate just how versatile these decorative lanterns can be.

Okay, show us what you've got.  Leave a link to your creation in the comment section!

Challenge #14 - Non-Traditional Love

First, thank you to all of our followers!  We've surpassed 300!  We appreciate your comments and your participation.  If there's anything you'd like to see from our team, please leave suggestions in your comments.

For this week's challenge, we want to get ready for Valentine’s Day and create a Valentine’s day card, ATC or layout, etc. without using the traditional colors red, pink or white.  We're positive you'll come up with some fabulous projects and can't wait to see what you create!  Check out what our talented design team members came up with below.

Denise used ivory and purple glimmer paper to create this fabulous card.

Lia used distressing techniques for these gorgeous shabby chic tags!

Lisa used Stampin Up! goodies to create this beautiful cone full of hearts card!

Terry used distressing around the frame and patterned paper lettering (great faux embossing look) for her title on this charming "My Love" page layout.

Ms_Dee used Black and Gold Metallic Papers with Hot Off the Press "Dazzles" Stacked Heart Stickers and Dots & Stripes- Paper stack - (Black/Grey Polka dot paper)

Susie made these beautiful yet masculine cards using fabulous Die Cuts With a View paper and Stickles.

Please share your creations by posting a link to your project in your comment. We look forward to being inspired by you!