Coordinates Collections

Fancy Pants Giveaway WINNER & Friday's Find!

Who doesn't love FREE STUFF???  Fancy Pants teamed up with CC to offer a $20 gift certificate to the CC store - they were featured in our February Song Birds kit - and are ALWAYS a favovorite :)

The WINNER IS:

"Love is in the Air"
and
I'm a CC FB fan/liker

Posted by: Kelly Massman | February 11, 2011 at 07:22 AM

** Kelly:  contact Jamie@coordinatescollections.com by March 4th to claim your prize **

Also I have the pleasure of sharing with you a FRIDAY'S FAB FIND:

 

AMYBUG!  I love her use of the January Sleigh Ride kit... just awesome!!  I love the added turquoise color for "Colorado", really just pops off the page, doesn't it??  Check out more of Amy's work here: Amy's Gallery

   

PCC - Cara

EDITED TO ADD: First, I'm happy to announce the winner of our Echo Park giveaway! Congrats to Elinor, who wrote,

"You can find me among the other fans at your Cooridnates Collection Facebook page :)"

Elinor, make sure you email jamie@coordinatescollections.com by March 3rd, 2011, to claim your prize!

Now, on to PCC!

After yesterday's blog post, I hope everyone is REALLY excited for Project Calendar Collections. I have to say, this project has changed my outlook on scrapping a bit. I love the idea of getting a bunch of photos on a page that normally wouldn't have anything in common, but that go so well together because they capture a moment in time. SO cool.

I mentioned on an earlier blog post that I'm going to be doing TWO PCC projects every month - and after finishing January, I can tell you that both are going to be very fun.

Every month, I'm going to put together a month-in-review layout using the PCC kit and add-ons. This month, it happened to be a two-page 12x12 spread, but that won't always be the case. I use the 3-ring albums from American Crafts, which lets me put all different size page protectors in one album. Some months I might do 6x12, or 8x8, or 8.5x11. I'm just going to play it by ear :)

I'm sticking these layouts right into my regular albums - no "designated" PCC album. I reserve the right to change my mind about this in the future, but right now, that's the system that I think will make me happiest. And yes, I'll definitely scrap some of these topics on their own pages (Henry's first birthday!).

This month I started with a sketch - the two page sketch at CC! This sketch is perfect for lots of photos, and gave me room for landscape and portrait pics, plus tons of journaling.  I just trimmed my regular 4x6 pictures a bit to make room. My papers are from both the main kit and the Echo Park add-on. I used Sugar Cookie cardstock - matches SO WELL!

I used one of the overlays included in the main PCC kit to highlight a family photo - I'm going to make it a goal to get a photo of the three of us each month. (There is a "film" on the overlay. Don't be like me. Peel it off BEFORE trying to attach your photo with glue dots.)

 

And a close-up of each side (I blurred out some of the super personal details):

 

And left:

 

(Confession: the picture of Phillip holding our cousin's new little girl is one of my favorites. Makes me want another baby :) Don't tell Phillip!)

I'm also doing a Monthly Mini. (I've decided it should be capitalized. It sounds capitalized when I say it in my head.)

I talked a bit about the construction of my book HERE. I won't always pre-make my mini, but to be honest? I was just itching to get started on PCC!

 

I love the little calendar - cut out from the PCC main kit. I think I want to try and include some sort of calendar every month.

Whew! I was a bit wordy today, huh? I can't help it! I think this is a great project. I can safely say that I probably wouldn't have even ordered pictures from January yet if it wasn't for PCC. I feel like doing a page or two (or a book!) each month is totally doable. I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my process, and I can't wait to see what you do!

Also, don't forget to add any of your PCC projects to the PCC section of the gallery so everyone can ooh and ah over how fabulous you are :)

 

 

And So It Begins... PCC Springs to Life!

Hi all! Linda here. Is it really mid-February? The year is flying! But can I tell you how excited I am for embarking on PCC?! Did you all see Debbie's post yesterday? She gave us a glimpse of how her PCC is getting started and how she plans to use old kits along with it. Nice work Debbie!

So far, PCC is stress-free for me! Throughout the month of January, I jotted down some daily notes in my cute and handy CC notebook (picked it up for $1); assembled my PCC kit, add-ons, and various other elements from my stash that mesh well with PCC contents; took pictures of memorable events (and a whole lot of snow!) along with the everyday shenanigans (including DH's sprained ankle!); and tagged all the pics that I thought could be potential shots for PCC in Shutterfly Studio (my photo software program).

Then this past weekend, I pulled together my two-page January layout in a snap! And ... I discovered a really cool feature that I didn't realize Shutterfly Studio had — a collage builder! There are so many templates to choose from based on how many pics you want to include. You just drag the pics into the template (tagging them as PCC first made this even faster!), choose the final size, save it as a jpeg, and then either print at home or order online. I opted to print my facing templates at home as 8.5x11 on matte paper. Once that was ready, the rest of it came together in a matter of minutes. I'm using the jewel set of Die Cuts with a View cardstock stack (goes well with PCC kit) but there's plenty of preselected cardstock in the store. For this month, I also used some new Sassafrass flowers, some Pink Paislee letters, and BasicGrey brads. I kept my design simple, letting the pictures speak for themselves. 

And voila! (Click on the layout for a larger view.)

 

And some close-ups...

My journaling came together really quick. I cut out the Random Thoughts element from the main PCC kit and just made quick notes of the month. Maybe I'll write longer journaling next time.

Now that I know how quick and fun this first month was to create, I know I can keep this up all year long! I may not do two-pagers every time; we shall see how the year goes! Hope you are enjoying your first round of PCC!

Spotlight: Past Kits & Monday Challenge winner

Good Morning Scrappers! I hope you all had a sweet day with the ones you love yesterday. 

Thanks to everyone who played along with my Make a Scene challenge. The winner is....

Adele_h!

Please email Jamie by March 1st for your prize.

While we anxiously await all the new goodies from CHA to arrive, I thought it might be fun to spotlight some of past CC Kits that are still available in the store.

Right now, most of the past kits are on sale, some of them as low as $9.99! This is a great way to get some of the kits you might have missed. You can view all of the kits HERE: past kits.

If you are participating in Project Calendar Collections, this is a great way to add some seasonal flavor for your monthly pages. Let me show you an example:

 
Here is a quick picture of my January PCC layout (photos to be added soon):

  
I dug into my Frosty Porch kit & add ons to create this. Notice how the Crate Paper works wonderfully with the PCC kit? It will also be making an appearance in my December pages.

Remember the May Funky kit?

 
 I'm thinking it might look really pretty with my PCC spring months.

And the colors of Festive Feast are perfect to mix with my October and November PCC pages:

For the kits where the papers aren't a perfect match, there are always wonderful embellishments that will work. Take for example the Fun in the Sun kit: 

The LYB embellishments would be perfect with your summer months, since there's orange and blue in the PCC kit. Also, the American Crafts word paper could easily be cut apart to add captions to your photos. And of course, the yummy Thickers!  

Take a moment to go browse the past kits and see what catches your eye.

 
 

 

 

 

 

Monday's Challenge: Share & Learn

Happy Valentine's Day!  Hope everyone is being showered with love today.  I am enjoying a relaxing beach vacation (it's summer in India).  I'll send some sunshine your way!

(Jolaine's Vintage-Print Flowers Tutorial)

This week's Monday's Challenge is a challenge for you to share a tutorial with us.  It can be a tutorial you made yourself and posted on your blog, or a tutorial you post directly on the CC Message Board.  You can also share a tutorial you found on a different blog or site, as long as it is not a competitor with CC.  Please refer to the Tutorial Forum Rules.  Links to competing sites will be deleted.

Tutorials should be posted or linked to in the Tutorial Forum on the CC Message Board.  You can do a tutorial about anything related to scrapbooking - making your own embellishments, using photo editing software, taking pictures, layout construction, mini albums, utilizing tools, etc.

I know you have a lot of great knowledge and I'm looking forward to what tips and techniques are shared this week.

Any eligible tutorial posted in the forum by February 20th will be entered to win a prize from CC - which means you can enter more than once.  I'll allow up to 5 entries per person.  Winner will be announced on February 22nd on the CC Blog and will have 14 days to email Jamie@coordinatescollections.com to claim her prize.

A Pre-Valentine Treat :)

I just wanted to quickly share the Valentine garland I made to surprise Emma tomorrow:

I used February's Song Bird kit, specifically the Cosmo Cricket Blackboard Album, and covered it with a favorite kit paper, die cut some scalloped circles and added the AC Subway Glitter Polka Dot Thickers for Emma's name.  They are connected with the tulle from January's Sleigh Ride kit.  Very easy to make, it probably took me about 30 minutes, and I'm going to string it across her bathroom mirror in the morning :)

Also, here is how I laid out all 6 hearts to show how you can make it work with one sheet of patterned paper:

Lastly, this is just a quick little layout I made using some of my favorite silly pics of Emma this last year:

March Preview Videos

Ahh, my favorite part of each month... check out the contents of these two AWESOME kits for March - Party Time and Sweet & Sassy! (for the record:  I do NOT have a choice of which still shots are shown for these videos... oh brother, this one is a real doozie! LOL)

 

 

 

February Blog Hop Challenge

Happy Saturday everyone! Today I bring you another installment of our monthly blog hop challenge. It doesn't get any easier than this...

Scraplift!!!

I invite you to pour yourself some coffee or tea and relax while browsing our wonderful Gallery. I'm sure you'll find lots of inspiration. Once you find the perfect layout for your photos or paper, don't resist the temptation, go ahead and scraplift! No need to feel guilty!  

Here's a beautiful and fun page created by DT member Marielle. She's truly gifted and knows just how to bring to life those fun and sweet boy photos.

 

 
I'm a girlie girl and boy pages don't exactly come easy to me so I decided to channel Marielle's fun style and this is my take on it.

 

 
 
As you can see, you probably will need to tweak a few things to make the design fit your photos and papers, and that's how you make it your own!

Here's how to play:

1. Create a layout inspired by anyone in our CC Gallery.
2. Post your layout on your personal blog or in the CC Gallery. The title of your post should be “Coordinates Collections February Blog Hop Challenge.”  Remember to add a link or photo of the layout that inspired your design.
3. Come back here and use Mister Linky at the end of this post to add the URL link to your layout.  In order to qualify for the prize, you must post your project by 11pm EST February 20^th. Be sure to link to your actual Blog Hop project POST, not just to your blog.
4. During the week, visit the blogs/galleries then head to the CC Blog Hop forum! Take some time to praise your fellow scrappers, discuss anything new you might have learned and provide each other with valuable feedback.

A lucky participant will be randomly selected to win a $25 Gift Certificate to the CC Store! The winning layout will be posted on the CC Blog on February 23rd.  Have fun everyone!

 

 

 

Friday's Fab Find and Marielle' kit ideas

 
Hello scrappy friends and happy Friday !!!!

This week it was my turn to pick the Friday's fab find and it was very hard to choose because of all the new projects to the gallery since our winter cyber crop !!

I finally went with this delightful layout from Celeste.

 
This layout really caught my attention because:

1-The teal color (my fave)

2-Crate Paper (love those)

3-the Twine (especially that little circle of twine with the snowflake on top!!)

4-The title made me smile (snow day does not make this cute kitty happy but this layout sure makes me happy ! It's just beautiful !!)

5- Great stitching and tags !

Congrats Celeste for being our Fab Find !! Please stop by the gallery and leave her some praise HERE !!

Now for my  February Blue Skies projects. Have I said yet that I LOVE Echo Park !!! and this Little Boy collection was just terrific to work with !

 
                      Little Boy

I am so happy to have gotten the sticker element sheet and the journaling cards that come as an add ons for this kit ( buy it !!! I have only about 4-5 stickers left on mine !!) I especially love when there are "title stickers" makes it so easy to create fun /fast layout. I also added some Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type in red (for the journaling ) from a previous CC purchase.

 
                     Hot wheels

Everything is from the kit plus a few buttons and glimmer mist in dark brown.

 
A little Birthday card . I added the chipboard trim from the Black Magic kit (such a great match!!)

and finally a little mini album I create for my baby boy. I wanted to document my son favorite toys for quite some time and when I saw this collection I knew right away this is what I wanted to do with it . Sorry this is a little photo heavy !!

 
                              Album cover

 

 
I hand stitch one of the sheer stars in this kit and used it a page in my album !

 
Here's the other side of the star.

 
 
 
 
I also used the sheer arrow from the kit as a page for my album and added journaling tag ,photo and stickers.

 
Here's the other side of the arrow sheer.

 
I added some light blue pom pom trim at the bottom of these 2 pages from a previous CC purchase.

 
and the back cover.

Hope you enjoyed these, I sure had fun making them :)  !!!

See you again soon, happy scrapping !

 
 

 

Fancy Pants February Giveaway

Coordinates Collections is using FANCY PANTS products in yet another monthly kit!  We are simply crazy for Fancy Pants products!  We are using the Love Birds line in the February Song Birds kit.

 

Coordinates Collections and Fancy Pants are teaming up to offer a $20 Gift Certificate GIVEAWAY!!  

Simply post to this blog entry by Thursday, Feb 17th with a TITLE for a layout or card using this kit. You can receive a second entry into the random drawing if you are currently a Fan or become a CC Fan on Facebook!  Simply indicate in the post that you are a CC FB Fan. The lucky winner will be announced on Friday, Feb 18th here on the CC Blog.

Be sure to take a look at the Design Team Kit Ideas using the Song Birds kit.

Fancy Pants products can be found in the CC Store.