Papertrey & 8 Project Favorites...
February 05, 2015
Woohoo! It's anniversary time at Papertrey Ink. For the next 10 day's we'll be sharing lots of new projects, product reveals, challenges, and of course...giveaways! Today is Meet the Team Day where Nichole is introducing the team for the coming year. There are some changes...some happy, some not so happy. I always love to see new girls, but that usually means we have to say goodbye to others...and that makes me sad. You can visit Nichole's blog to read the big announcement. It's all good though, I promise. ;-)
I can hardly believe that Papertrey has been around for 8 years...and that I've been here for nearly 6 1/2 of them. I have loved working with this company. Nichole and the rest of the design team feel like family. I want to thank Nichole for being the leader that she is. She is a source of constant encouragement and inspiration. She has a knack for recognizing the strengths of each and every member of this team and then encourages each of us to use and develop those strengths...all the while providing just enough structure and direction so as not to stifle creativity, but make it flourish. Without her I would have never had the courage to take the plunge into product design...but she believed I could do it. I'm so thankful for her nudging me in that direction because it has been a very rewarding experience.
I also want to say a big THANK YOU to all of you. Thank you for all of your kind comments and encouragement. I don't say it enough, but you all are the best! Thank you also for your support of my Make It Market kits over the past year. It's been a fun and wild ride and it's all thanks to you. Your support encourages me to keep working and keep designing. I truly hope you have enjoyed using them as much as I've enjoyed putting them together. And for those of you hoarding them -- this is your call to crack those babies open and put them to use...they're meant to be used and enjoyed! ;-)
So let's have a little year in review, shall we? Nichole asked each of us to choose 8 of our favorite Papertrey projects -- I chose to select 8 from the past year. Here they are in no particular order...
This one's pretty new, using Baker's Dozen. My 7 year old daughter told me it's her favorite card I've ever made. Now that's sayin' something because I've made a lot of cards. :-)
Then there's this one using the Beautiful Brushstrokes kit. I like the way the watercoloring turned out...plus it was fun to actually get to stamp with those flowers after spending many hours illustrating them!
Next is my ensemble using one of the Basic Bookmarks dies and the Book Club stamp set. The colors are my favorite and I love how the Life is Beautiful butterfly looks cut from gold cardstock.
Next is a card I did for this post all about Rainstones. I paired Friendly Flowers with Embellished Elegance and I love the way those two sets look together. I'm liking this color combo too...Berry Sorbet, some Raspberry Fizz, Aqua Mist, Limeade Ice, and a little Enchanted Evening thrown in.
Next is a card using Phrase Play #11. Who am I kidding...I loved the whole Phrase Play series. Those dies are all just plain fun to play with. I like the way the confetti garland turned out here and revisited that idea a few weeks ago for a Make it Monday project.
Next is my set of tree tags made with the Shaker Shapes: Tree die. I have to admit, when I was designing the Shaker Shapes dies the tree was probably my least favorite of all of the sets. But then I got to actually make stuff with them and they became my favorite. I love the way the little light confetti turned out and these were probably my favorite project of all the Shaker Shapes projects I made.
Next is a set of ombre watercolor tags that I created for this DT Tips post. Want to know a little secret? I totally forgot that it was my turn to do the newsletter that week. I usually make my project at least a few days before the post is due...but somehow I missed seeing that there was a second page of the schedule. Ooops. These were whipped up super quick that Friday morning (only after Lizzie emailed me wondering where my project was!) and guess what...they ended up on my favorites list! :-)
How could the Tinsel & Tags dome jar toppers not make my list? Want to know another secret? The domes fitting perfectly on top of a mason jar was NOT planned...it was one of those things that just kind of evolved while I working on my projects. I store all of my brads and buttons in jars and I was like, hey, these fit on top. Cool. Talk about a happy accident. :-)
Ok, so now you know all of my dirty little secrets. Ok, not all...I have a few more secrets up my sleeve, but I promise to share them over the next several days as the anniversary celebration unfolds. I hope you'll join me! This is going to be a fun party, not to mention a fun year here at Papertrey. I can't wait to show you a little of what's in store!