February Winners - Part 2!

Today is the last day of February 2012!  WOW!!  On this special leap year day, I would like to announce the second set of winners from my February Blog Giveaway.

Big Congratulations goes out to.... KAREN TAMIR (Enchanted winner) & Me-Ma Kim (Welcome Home winner)!!

Keren Tamir said...
Tara, this is just fantastic!! thank you so much for always giving away beautiful prizes and products!! your work is always amazing!!
February 20, 2012 11:49 AM

Me-Ma Kim  said...
OH MY!! HOW AWESOME of you to give away such GOODIES!! THANKS BUNCHES for the chance. Have a GREAT Day,
Me-Ma Kim
February 15, 2012 9:53 AM
Ladies, if you could please send me off an email (torrjorr[at]gmail[dot]com) with your contact info, I will get you your prize packs ASAP.
Thank you once again to everyone for your continued support and sweet comments on my projects.  I have already set aside some wonderful prizes for March as well as a heap of scrappy projects to show you all - stay tuned!!

February Zva Blog Hop Winners Announced

We'd like to congratulate the following FIVE ladies who won a prize from our design team member's blogs on February's Blog Hop! Their names will be found on the following blogs:

Tara Orr

Susan Lui

Lisa Somerville

Karen Shady
Lisa Gregory

One winner from each of the 5 blogs will receive a Zva prize package worth $30.00.  Hmmm... it appears as though my name is on that list soooooo the winner from my blog is: Brenda!!

Brenda said...

Love all the layers and texture!

February 27, 2012 11:55 AM

Congrats Brenda and congrats to all this month's winners!  Brenda - if you could please send me an email (torrjorr[at]gmail[dot]com) with your contact info we will get your prize pack off to you ASAP!

Zva Creative February DT Blog Hop!

Zva Creative and our talented Design Team welcome you to join us for our February Blog Hop! We are happy to have you join us today today!
The Blog Hop begins at Zva Creative's NEW blog! Be sure head on over if you'd like to start from the top of the hop. You will also find a complete list of all the participating blogs there (in case there is a glitch along the way).

As you know, Zva offers many beautiful color groupings for pearls, flowers and crystals.  We want to make sure that they shine bright for you, so each designer was asked to share a creation using a specific color or color combination on their blog hop project.  If you like what you see you can find a list of stores and online retailers that sell Zva HERE.

The colours I was to focus on this month was yellow and brown.  I love working with these warm tones and found the perfect match for ZVA's beautiful flowers, leaves and flourishes in Bo Bunny's new Weekend Market Collection.

I love how these beautiful crystal flourishes combine both the yellow and brown tones.

I felt that the flowers needed leaves but once added, the green seemed to stand out a little more than I wanted.  I could either have painted the leaves with a whitewash to tone them down a little or opt to bring in some more green throughout my layout.

If you would like to play along with our design team, just follow along the blog path.  I am linking to one of the Zva designers and that designer is linking to the next and so on. Be prepared to be inspired along the way!

Hidden on FIVE of the designer's blogs is a Zva Creative prize package! Winners will be randomly chosen after the hop is over, so it's important to leave a comment on as many blogs as you can along the way.

The Blog Hop starts today, February 27th and runs through 11:59pm US Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, February 28th.

The 5 winners will be announced on Wednesday, February 1st on each of the five winning blogs. The full list of where our winners will be posted will be found on Zva's blog as well. We will do our best to notify each winner, but it's best if you can pop in to all of the blogs once again on Wednesday... plus, you never know what kind of inspirational creation that you may find there.
All you need to do is leave a comment on this Blog Hop post... you do not need to leave a comment on each and every designer's blog post to qualify. However, the more times you comment along the blog hop path, the more chances you will have to win.

We also thought it would be more fun to add even more chances to win our blog hop prize!  To increase your chances of winning:
* Comment to let us know that you posted on Facebook or "tweeted" about our hop (link to any of the blog hop posts)
* Comment to let us know that you asked your local store to carry Zva creative products.  If they already do, that's fantastic, maybe you can suggest other products that they don't carry.
* Comment to let us know that your "liked" our new page on Facebook or that you have started following Zva on Twitter.

The blog hop begins here at Zva Creative's NEW blog. Your next stop is at the beautiful blog of the very talented Windy Robinson!
Thank you for joining us!

P.S. Mark your calendar to join us again on March 26th for our next Zva blog hop!

Graphic 45 Design Team 2012 Audition

I cannot believe that February 2012 is almost over.  Where has this past year even gone!?  Flash back a year ago this very month and I was sitting on a beach in Maui with my mom.  I remember checking my emails at least twice daily (from the complimentary hotel computer) to see if I had received an email from Graphic 45 with good news.  Had I made it to the final round of their Design Team??  As luck would have it, I did receive my dream email from my dream company during that very vacation.  I was on top of the world the entire rest of the trip and all the while, frantically wondering what I would create for the final round of the competition.
I am so fortunate to have made last year's Graphic 45 Design Team.  Not only are the products insanely beautiful to work with, the entire Graphic 45 family is absolutely the sweetest, most understanding and generous individuals for which to design.  It has been an absolute pleasure to create for such an amazing family and wonderful company.

Today I would like to share with you, my application for this year's team - the 2012 Graphic 45 Design Team.  Although I am mainly a 'layout' kind of gal, many of the project that I wanted to share on this post are temporarily out for publication.  I incorporated a few older projects as well as some mini albums and cards which I feel represent my shabby chic/rustic style.

In no particular order, here are my projects for this year's first round.  Enjoy.
Project #1: Steampunk Card - To Dazzle & Delight

Project #2: Fashionista Layout - My Girl

Project #3: Magic of Oz Layout - Just You

Project #4: Magic of Oz Layout - There's No Place Like Home

Project #5: Le Cirque Card

Project #6: Curtain Call Gate Album

Project #7: Olde Curiosity Shoppe Tag

Project #8: Hallowe'en in Wonderland Layout - Wicked

Project #9: Once Upon A Springtime Layout - Daydream

Project #10: Steampunk Altered Box & Coaster Set

Thank you again to all my wonderful followers - your encouragement and sweet comments are so very much appreciated! Thank you also to Graphic 45 for the most amazing and memorable year I've ever had as a designer!
Now the wait begins..... Fingers crossed!!

7 Dots Laboratory Challenge

This months’ challenge at the 7 Dots Blog was based on a monochromatic scheme - based on one colour with neutral black and white tones. This Laboratory assignment was right up my alley as  I love working with tones that all fall within the same colour family.  I find keeping within the same palette allows me to tie my pages together more easily as well as adds a certain amount of fluidity.

I chose to stay within a neutral and warm pallette and added in lots of the gorgeous chipboard pieces - also from 7 Dots. I also decided not to alter the chipboard flourishes at all and kept them completely ‘naked’ as they matched the tones in my paper and flowers just perfectly.

To add even more texture and softness to my layout, I layered several crochet doilies in white and cream which also tied in the patterns of the paper as well.

Thank you so much for your visit today - will be back tomorrow with my application for the upcoming Graphic 45 DT Call - "An Ode to Graphic 45"!!

7 Dots Studio Supplies:
Chipboard
Patterned Papers: Follow the Rabbit, Duchess: Wonderland Collection
12×12 Elements: Wonderland Collection
12×12 Stickers: Wonderland Collection
6×12 Stickers: Wonderland Collection
Leaves & Flowers: ZVA Creative

Believe in Love

I was so very excited when I received my new package of 7 Dots goodies!! The new Wonderland and All I Ever collections are even more delicious in person! AND the new chipboard pieces are to die for – super delicate and compliment each collection wonderfully. I wasn’t sure which collection to dig into first but the black and white photo I was hoping to use seemed to fit better with the darker, blue tones in the Wonderland papers.

There are so many wonderful embellishments to chose from in the 12×12 Stickers, 12×12 Elements, 6×12 Stickers and of course the new chipboard pieces!

Here are some more close ups of the layered papers and elements on my layout, as well as some faux stitching around my photo. I’ve also used several pop dots under various stickers and elements to add dimension and deapth to different parts of my page.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Enjoy your weekend!

7 Dots Studio Supplies: Wonderland Collection:
Patterned Paper: Queen of Hearts, Quadrille, Mad Tea Party, Duchess
12×12 Stickers
12×12 Elements
6×12 Stickers
Chipboard

Other Supplies:
Edge Scraper: Making Memories
Film Strip Ribbon: Tim Holtz Idea-Ology
Butterfly Specifics Patterned Paper: Graphic 45
Misc: Doilies

Fashionista Layout & Sketch

Hello to everyone on this cold and rainy day. I am so over our depressing winter weather - grey and damp everywhere! Here is hoping that this layout I created with Graphic 45's Fashionista Collection will bring on some Spring sunshine!

I created this colourful layout with loads of fussy cutting and layering of flowers and embellishments which I also popped up for  added texture and dimension.  I normally scrap with black and white photos but found using the neutral background (newsprint) paper, the colour photos worked wonderfully to accent the lovely flowers and colours found in this timeless collection.

If you would like to create a similar project, I've also included a sketch for you to try.

Thanks so much for your visit today - be back a little later with some more scrappy goodies to share!

Graphic 45 Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Perfumeries, Le Fleur, Haute Couture, Potpourri, Tags: Fashionista Collection
Patterned Paper: Tags, Pixie Post: Once Upon a Springtime Collection
Patterned Paper: Le Romantique: Le Romantique Collection

Tropical Travelogue Projects from CHA

Hello again! Today I have a few left over projects from this past CHA to show you using the beautiful new Tropical Travelogue collection from Graphic 45

Although this collection is packed with beautiful, vibrant colours and imagery, perfectly suited for all your vacation shots, I opted to create a monochromatic project using only the darker papers.

The mini frame was purchased at Michaels for $1.50 - I simply punched out the backing and used the frame to hilight the piece of chipboard in the centre.  In addition, I used some of the packaging from the Graphic 45 staples collection to layer my card's cover.

Lastly, I transformed a thrift store tray into a sweet serving dish or display piece for the home using the more striking colours of turquoise and paired with the wonderfully classic, vintage image.  This was also a very quick and easy project which I finished with a little Modge Podge.

Thanks so much for your visit today!  I'll be back again tomorrow with a new 7 Dots Studio layout to share.

February Winners (Part 1) & NEW Blog Giveaways!!

Hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday!!  We consumed far too many sweets but it was fantastic nonetheless!
Thank you to everyone who entered the first part of my February Giveaway!! I have TWO winners to announce this morning....   Monique Nicole Fox and Lorena!!

#1. (Blitzen):
Monique Nicole Fox  said...
Ohhhlala!  Awesome giveaway!
I am already a blog follower and a Facebook friend.
Thanks for the opportunity to win.
Have a blessed weekend.
Monique Fox
mnfoxx1110@yahoo.com
February 3, 2012 7:14 PM

#2. (Sweet Tooth):
Lorena  said...Wow Tara - fantastic give away prizes.  I adore Sweet Tooth collection - it is one of my fav's. Have I told you how awesome you are lately?
Thanks for the chance to win!
Lorena
www.scrapingcorner.blogspot.com
February 1, 2012 8:58 PM

Congratulations ladies!! If you could please send me off an email (torrjorr[at]gmail[dot]com) with your contact info, I'll get your prizes off to you ASAP!

Now, on to the SECOND part of my February Giveaway!  If you are interested in getting your little hands on the prize packages below, please leave me a nice comment on THIS blog post and become a follower of my blog (if you aren't already).  You have until February 28th to enter.  I will draw TWO new winners on February 29th.

Good Luck!