CropChocolate.com Design Team Blog Hop!

Welcome to the First {official} Crop Chocolate Blog Hop.

Good morning ladies!! It's nice to have you here today!!!  I am happy to announce that I have been chosen as part of the CC Design Team.  I'm still amazed by this fact!

If you stumbled upon my post by accident and would like to start at the beginning (you've only missed one stop, but it's an important one), please go to http://blog.cropchocolate.com/.

Crop Chocolate is a one-deal-at-a-time website that sells AWESOME(!!!) scrapbooking/paper crafting supplies at reduced rates.  The selection is amazing, and the people there are great.  It's like a little family.

The project I made for the hop was six thank you cards for my breast cancer walk.  It's really three different designs, but I make two of each sometimes varying the paper or embellishments I use.  I've been trying to make the cards I send to my donors, and have been using as many challenges as I can do get them all done.  I hope you like these. 

All the patterned paper for these is from BG's eva (this keeps growing on me every time I use it).  The pink paper is from MM watercolor set.  The flowers on the top set are Making Memories glitter clears, and I used MM mini silver circle brads to attach the larger ones (they are also layered with smaller ones).  The pink ribbon flowers are from OT (Oriental Trading), as is the pink ribbon stamp.

Please browse my other projects and posts, leave comments and click to follow me on my DT and scrapping journey.

From here, you will visit with corriew - Corrie at: http://www.corriescrafts.blogspot.com/.  And then she will send you on from there.

Don't forget to stop back at Crop Chocolate when you're done to win some AMAZING blog candy (A Slice machine, 2 Design Cards, and other scrappy goodness).

Thanks for visiting and Happy Hopping! :)

CC Focus Group

The other new thing at Crop Chocolate is they were inviting shoppers to submit a project to join a Focus Group they are setting up to gain input on products they should sell.  As a member of the design team, I got an automatic spot in the Focus Group, but I still made a project to submit.  The only rules were that we had to use 4 products we had bought at CC.

I made another set of thank you card for my donors.  This time I used BG eva paper, MM glitter clear flowers, MM mini silver circle brads, MM watercolor paper, and American Crafts Slick Writer pens (to create a faux stitching).

Hope you enjoy it.

Crop Chocolate Design Team and Blog Hop Preview

Drum roll please.......

I can finally announce that based on my May and June challenge projects, I was chosen for the Crop Chocolate Design Team.  I can't believe it!!!

CC made the official announcement on Monday (but I'm a little slow).  I feel very honored to be part of this very talented group of ladies, and am still a little shocked that I'm part of it.  It's the first DT I've been involved in, and while it offers a lot of inspiration and motivation to create, it's also a little daunting knowing that you HAVE to come up with a project AND video EVERY MONTH!!!  I'm sure that after a couple months it will become easier, but until after the walk I will be biting my nails wondering how I'm going to get everything done.

The first official challenge we had was "something you've never done before", so stay tuned for that within the month of August.  But before that, please stop back starting tomorrow (August 5) for the official blog hop to introduce the design team members.  The first stop will be Crop Chocolate's blog at: http://blog.cropchocolate.com/.  Hope to "see" you there.

The project I've made for it is.... well you'll have to wait and see won't you!!!  LOL!!!  Here is a sneak peak of it:

May and June CC projects

So a couple months ago, Crop Chocolate announced that they were going to audition all the ladies who were part of the very large design team and select 10 to be an official Design Team.  The rules were that we had to submit a project each month, and CC would choose the top 10 to be highlighted on their blog with the project and a video.  May was the first month, and the theme was "All About Me".  I did a one page layout of why I walk for Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure.  Here are the pictures. 

I used ink to flick the edges of the picture mats to add some dimension and definition.  I felt it just needed that extra color to separate the two papers.

Then I also cut out a couple of the leaves and used 3-d dots to pop them up to add some extra dimension to the page.  All the patterned paper is from Making Memories Dilly Dally.   The pink background paper is from Making Memories watercolor set.  The chipboard letters were some from my stash.

I was happy with how it turned out, but it wasn't quite enough to make the top 10 for the month.

But since the 10 chosen for May were ineligible to be highlighted for June, I figured my chances were better and submitted a project for that challenge, which was the Monochromatic Challenge.

I decided upon a graduation card, since June is known for that.  And my inspiration was the fact that my DD's daycare teacher asked me to make a graduation card for her to give to her daughter (this was the project I listed for the blog hop below).  Since orange is not a color I normally play with, I decided to use it for the challenge.  I found a sketch in Scrapbooks.etc and went from there.

All the paper is from CC - the patterned papers are from Echo Park Summer Days, Basic Grey offbeat, Making Memories mat stack, and the cardstock is from a Hot Chocolate.  The tag is from Making Memories Chloe's Closet collection.  The ribbon is from American Crafts.

This is a close-up of the flocked butterfly I did.  I really love it, and it's really similar to rub-ons which are so versatile.  The flocking set is from Making Memories as well.

I added some brads and flowers as accents.  The brads are Making Memories mini silver circles.  The flowers are from Making Memories mini blossoms collection.

And I used my cuttlebug and an embossing folder to add some dimension to the back.

I felt this project turned out really well also, and I'm happy to say that I was chosen as one of the top 10 for the month.  The video I did was about the flocked butterfly and can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWYJsiwP4UA

Enjoy.