Saturday, July 30, 2011

Thank you Freehand Scraps!




Freehand Scraps is a monthly kit club offering 12x12 kits, mini album kits, and card kits. Each kit contains the latest products, exclusive embellishments, and non-traditional supplies to give your projects uniqueness and flair! At Freehand Scraps, no subscriptions are required. Buy only what you like. International shipping is available (please contact Elaine@freehandscraps.com to purchase internationally). Visit the Freehand Scraps blog, sign up for their newsletter, or "like" them on Facebook.

The August kit (available August 1st) features the dreamy Gabrielle line from BoBunny. Embellishments are from Basic Grey, Webster’s Pages, Crate Paper, and more.



There are 2 mini album kits to choose from this month, including a chipboard scroll frame album and a smaller acrylic tag album.



And here's a look at a couple of the cards from this month's card kit, which includes materials and instructions for 10 cards.


Be sure to visit the design team gallery to see the awesome projects made with our kits.

For your chance to win.....


on one of the great products offered above.. come play along!



We are looking for guest designers! 
Upload your project this week to our Facebook wall to let us know you're interested! :)

Have a great weekend! :)
-Suzanne

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Tic Tac Toe !! :)

Wahoo! It's time for one of my favorite challenges here at The Paper Variety - tic, tac, toe! You know how to play. Just create a paper project using 3 criteria either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally :)

~The Challenge~


The possibilities are endless!!  Please let us know the combo you picked in your entry.

~ Our Sponsor ~

We welcome a new sponsor to TPV this week, too:

Freehand Scraps :: Inspired Scrapbooking

This week's random winner will receive:

Join us Friday when we share more about Freehand Scraps! :) 
We have some great projects to share to get your creativity flowing!

~ The Inspiration ~
First, we welcome this week's Guest Designer,
Wendy Crowe

My name is Wendy and I have been a happy scrapper for almost 13 years now. My main subjects are my 3 great kids and my understanding and patient hubby of 14 years. I am a full time administrative assistant and scrapping is my daily escape.
To me, everything in life is one big photo op, as long as we are having fun. I love reliving all those great moments with my family when I am working on new pages. 
I try to keep my style clean and simple, but I love trying new ideas and techniques.  I have to admit, I am addicted to sketches.  I am so glad to have lots of friends who are willing to share my passion for this hobby and I love sharing with everyone on my blog.  I am so excited to be part of The Paper Variety!  Thank you so much for a great opportunity! 
For my layout this week, I chose to work right down the middle of the tic tac toe board. 
multi photo layout, water theme, banner
Great layout! Thanks for joining us this week, Wendy!
Next, our fabulous Team B...

Cassie
multi photo layout, water theme, banner
I was thrilled to have an excuse to scrap these pool pictures of Charlie and I in the pool!  I chose to go right down the middle- Multi-photo layout, Water theme, and using a banner.  I love this line by Echo Park- so bright and colorful!

Hannah
card, water theme, buttons

Hannah said, "This tic-tac-toe board is full of brilliant combinations, I can't wait to see all of your fabby work this week. I have used the centre line and have created a simple card. This novelty button set is just super cool, and had to be used on this card, designed for a newborn baby. Isn't that little rubber duck just adorable? :)"
stitching, multi photo layout, journaling strips
I had a lot of fun with the Tic-Tac-Toe challenge! It was so hard to choose, but I wanted to attempt something I normally don't do which is stitching, so I went with the top row, stitching-multi photo and journaling strips! In the end I had a lot of fun doing the hand stitching! This recipe was perfect for this 11 month layout! Can't wait to see what you choose! 

Rachel
 stitching, card, pink

Rachel said, "For this challenge, I chose to fussy cut some beautiful Bo Bunny paper in order to: make a card, use pink, and do some hand-stitching."

Sandi
multi photo layout, water theme, banner

Sandi said, "I LOVE tic-tac-toe challenges....so many choices.  But sometimes they can boggle my mind.  This time I decided on straight down the middle....multi-color photo layout, water theme and I included a banner.  I love living so close to the beach where I can enjoy beautiful beach days like this.  I used October Afternoon's Seaside collection (one of my all time faves) and included the darling little shore bird on the left that Suzanne recently made for me."

Suzanne
journal strips, buttons, one photo layout
I made a one photo layout, with buttons, and journaling strips :) These are the two lights of my life - my hubby Dave and our puppy Jax - on the historical battlefields in Gettysburg, PA. I used the July kit from Artful Delight! :)


There are so many possibilities for this challenge :) We can't wait to see  of the variety of projects you'll come up with!


Come join the fun for a chance to win our wonderful prize from Freehand Scraps!
Link up by Sunday evening for a chance to have your project/blog featured and before Tuesday at noon EST for a chance at the prize.  
One entry per person, please. 

Want to be a guest designer? 
Also add your project to our Facebook page!

Have a great week :)
-Suzanne

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Winner!

Gorgeous paper crafts, everyone! And some of you
deserve big KUDOS for including rainbow colors
AND a grid in your project! Woot! :)

This week's random winner has won this
beautiful Pink Paislee kit from

 Thank you, Paisleys & Polka Dots 
for kindly sponsoring us this week!

This week's winner is...
Congratulations mustangkayla!!
 Please email us at thepapervariety@gmail.com with your name and
mailing address and we'll arrange to get your prize to you right away.

Also, here's a special blinky for your blog! :)

*code is located on the sidebar*

Suzanne will be back in the morning with one of
TPV's favorite challenges and we
welcome a new sponsor!!
 We hope you'll join us! :)

-Abby

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Spotlight Night! :)

Wow.. I hope you all are keeping yourselves cool in the states! These past several days have been brutal hot for most of us. Hopefully we'll get a cool break soon :)

This week, our challenge is to...

Let's now feature a couple of your entries! :)
Ross
I love this sweet card created by Ross! So cute and I love her grid stitching :)

Kim
How adorable is this colorful boy layout!? I love Kim's grid design and use of circles, too! 

Congratulations
Ross & Kim!
 We welcome you to add our "featured blinky" to your blog,
just locate the code on our sidebar :)

We had just one Guest Designer entry shared on our Facebook page. But that's okay, because we were so excited to see that it was Maria! We've been a fan of Maria's projects since TPV started last year. This talented gal will join our team on August 3rd for that challenge week! Yay! :)

Congrats Maria Castillo!
Fabulous, Maria! Such a fun and delightful card! :)
Maria, please mail us promptly so we can reply with your Guest Designer assignment. :)

There's still time to enter this
week's challenge!
Create your grid &/or rainbow project and load it HERE before Tuesday noon est for your chance at winning this gorgeous kit from
Paisleys & Polka Dots!
Have a great week!!
Abby

Friday, July 22, 2011

Meet our Sponsor! :)

  
Scrapbooking & Papercrafting Kits
Paisleys and Polka Dots is a non-subscription monthly kit club that is a little different from the rest.  Maybe you find yourself in need of some inspiration, you are too busy and need something quick and easy, or you just can’t figure out those cutting instructions from a pre-designed kit.  Our kits take the guess work out of designing, so they are perfect for beginners, but also detailed enough for the seasoned scrapper to appreciate. All kits are pre-cut and packaged by page, so there is no more guessing what goes where.  Our kits are also perfect for crops; grab a few of your tools and supplies and you are good to go.  New kits are released at the beginning of each month and there is no subscription to join, so you choose only the kits you like.  
Visit our store here and on our blog here.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Huge thanks to Julie and everyone at Paisleys & Polka Dots!
We appreciate your sponsorship! :)

By playing along in our challenge this week, you could win this fabulous kit!
Kit Contents:
Pink Paislee Hometown Summer pattern papers
1 pkg. Hometown Summer Punchouts
1 pkg. Hometown Summer Chipboard Pops
4 each Hometown Summer Border stickers
2 felt die cut flowers and leaf
1 crocheted cherries
1 black zipper
8 decorative buttons
Various ribbons
Green rick rack trim
Yellow bakers twine
Green and white trim
1 tag chipboard album which includes various chipboard 
shapes (four large tags, two small tags, 2 circles, 
one decorative rectangle, and a flower)
1 binder ring

For your chance to win.....
 


Have a great weekend! :)

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Rainbows and Grids at TPV :)

What a great challenge last week! So many different takes entered
for Team B's photo inspiration challenge- we love the variety!
Lots to post today so let's get to it! :) 

-Challenge-
This week's challenge is to create a paper project that features a grid design or rainbow colors. Kudos to you if you can use both! :)

-Sponsor-
-Prize-
 This gorgeous kit is packed with Pink Paislee goodies! Be sure to visit TPV on Friday when we list what's included in this kit and also share more about

-Inspiration-

We're excited to present our first of weekly Guest Designers!
My name is Leigh Ann Baird and I'm a southern girl living in a small town in East Tennessee with my husband and 2 daughters. I am so excited to be part of The Paper Variety team this week! I started crafting about 7 years ago when I became a stay at home Mom. Once I adjusted to life at home with 2 kids, I needed something to do that was just for me. I started out scrapbooking and pretty much left it in the dust when I discovered stamping. I started my blog over 3 years ago as a way to push myself to create my own card designs and meet some other goals I set for myself. The best part of this hobby has been the friendships I've made online and in real life. I adore creating 3D items and I'm still amazed that a sheet of cardstock, some well placed score lines and a pair of scissors can create something incredible. 

 Such a super cute card! Thank you for joining us this week, Leigh Ann!

 Check out Team A's beautiful projects following our challenge!

Using a grid pattern is great also to use up all those journal tags which i found was great for my layout. I kept it girly, bit bright too with lots of colours.. 

The first thing that came to mind when i read 'grid pattern' is plaid, and that made me think of a weave design that i had already seen on a layout at my LSS store. Inspired by that layout, I wove strips of paper to make the background of this double-page, and then a few flowers, brads, buttons and chipboard pieces later, VOILA! In case you're wondering, i'm the one on the right with the cool cowboy boots! hehehe 

I wasn't sure how to tackle this one at first ... and my good friend, Lisa, reminded me (while we were out shopping for scrappy stuff) that I had some old grid-like templates in my collection ... so I dug through my stash and came up with an old CM template, which I used as the basis for this page ... this isn't my usual scrap style, so it was nice to try something different for a change! 

I really wanted to do a page of my new puppy. She is growing fast and getting cuter everyday. I used Echo Park's Summer Fun collection for this page. Lots of colors. My embellishments are in a grid pattern. 

I'm an absolute Crate Paper fanatic!  I new I had to use this line for this weeks challenge.  Those buttons were a necessary addition, I really wanted to use them on this so I came up with this layout.  Adding the twine was tricky but I'm please with it all.

Abby
I created a happy card using both a pattern and rainbow colors. Everything was cut from solid color cardstock and the fun sentiment is from Paper Smooches stamps :)

Enter your paper project following this week's rainbow/grid challenge before Tuesday noon EST for your chance at winning the beautiful Paisleys & Polkadots prize!

If you enter before Sunday evening, we might choose your project to be featured in our Sunday Spotlight! Want to become an upcoming guest designer? Share your project on our Facebook wall (with GD in your comment) before Sunday 6pm EST and we may choose you to be our guest! :)

Just ONE entry per person, please! See our rules page here.

Have a great week!
Abby

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Winner!!

Good evening!

Super quick post as my hubby and I are leaving on a jet plane ;) Well, jet / United Airlines same thing right? LOL!

 Time to announce the winner of our photo inspiration challenge:


Our sponsor this week was Nikki Sivils, with her Beatrice collection.


Thanks Nikki Sivils!!!

And our winner is...


Congratulations, Amy!!


I love her bright and cheerful card with the black/white base and pops of color. Great take on the photo!!

Please email us with your mailing information and we'll
arrange to have your prize sent to you soon :)
Also, here's a special blinkie for your blog:

 *Locate code on our sidebar*

Abby is back tomorrow morning with a 
brand new challenge and sponsor!


Have a great week ;)

-Suzanne