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Sunday, February 15, 2015

One More Time for Inspiration Elevator!



After some thought and consideration, the time has come to retire Inspiration Elevator. But before we go, we need to hold a big retirement party, so we've invited everyone who's been involved with Inspiration Elevator back for one last reveal, and to our delight most were able to accept! We are so delighted to have so many IE alumni along this month! Thank you to each of you for helping us end our elevator ride with so much fun and creative energy!

This month's challenge is posed by one of IE's co-creators and team admin, Ann.
This month's challenge is simple, but I hope, challenging as well. 
Here's the challenge: Inspiration Elevator launched on May 15, 2012 and at that time, we explained our purpose as, "Welcome to Inspiration Elevator! What a thrilling day! Today is the launch of Inspiration Elevator (IE), a challenge blog created by my dear friend Christa Uttley and me. We chose the name Inspiration Elevator because it is our intent to raise our creativity to heights through challenges issued every month. We want to raise our designs from the ordinary to the extraordinary. We hope you'll join us on our journey!
 IE is a group of like minded scrappy friends who want to raise the bar in their own creative process through unique challenges that we issue to each other once a month. These won't be run of the mill challenges and we hope you'll join us each month and be inspired by the creative designs we've created." 
That vision has remained unchanged over the last (almost) 3 years. The challenge this month is to just create - no holds barred. Take some time, or challenge yourself to do it in 1/2 hour if time is tight, but think about what you'd like to create if there were no agenda, no design team requirement. In other words, create for you, and enjoy the process!

When Ann and I began this grand adventure I was knee deep in design work and scrappy obligations that I loved.  But as my fellow designers know, creating for others can sometimes mean we do not get to enjoy our own creative processes as much as we used to. IE was a way to bring that feeling back and to challenge myself to sometimes step outside my creative box. In the past three years, I have found the courage to try new things and create designs I love; just for me.  In recent months, my life has not left very much time (or inclination) to be as creative as I would like. But this final challenge inspired me to dig out the materials I love once again. I was inspired (as I usually am) by the pictures I find on our phones as they seem to best represent the daily snippets of life.

 I have always loved bright colours best and the tiny little embellishments from my stash helped flesh out my vision.



The big pink flower came from a bin or bracelet beads and the title is from the trusty Cameo files. (It is also and ode to a well loved phrase on Dr. Who from one of the characters Adriane loves most!)


We hope you'll take the time to hop through and visit each of our participant's blogs, beginning with our guests, then our current team, and finishing off with our co-founders. Feel free to leave comments and lavish each one with appreciation for all that they each brought to the Inspiration Elevator challenge over the last 3 years!


Thank you to each and every one of you have stopped by, learned something, and has been challenged. Thank you to my team members for great challenges, for tears, for encouragement, for inspiration and for doing what you are all so talented at doing in the name of Inspiration Elevator. Finally, thank you to my scrappy partner in crime, Ann, who never failed to keep us all on track, never missed a challenge and who never lacked for encouraging words. Love you.

Keep doing what you love!

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Bo Bunny Souvenir and Some Pages for a Friend!


Good morning! This month Two Scrapbook Friends asked me to work with Bo Bunny's Souvenir and I admit to loving the shabby, travel worn look to these papers. I asked my BFF Carey for some of her Jamaica holiday photos so I could help her capture these special moments for her family.

My favourite part of the Go Travel Jamaica design is the little bi of cardboard under the photo.
The layered chipboard and tags are awesome that come with this line, they really created flow along the edge of the photo and help tell the story.
I used some old Scrabble letter tiles and cork letters to flesh out my TRAVEL title from the Bo Bunny Line.
Some arrows and layered pennants finished it off nicely. I hope you'll be inspired by Bo Bunny's  Souvenir line to create some of your own travel pages!

Until next time, keep doing what you love!

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Inspiration Elevator November 2014: Layer It On!

Our main purpose here at IE is to challenge ourselves, each other and YOU to take the creative process to the next level;  to inspire growth and change in our scrapbooking beyond the mundane.
You can see all of Inspiration Elevator's previous challenges at on Facebook .  This month's challenge is issued by the creative Katherine Sutton. Katharine has a fabulous, eclectic style where she showcases all kinds of mediums and keeps the focus on her great photos. This month she has a  seasonal challenge to warm up your creativity this month. Here it is in her own words:

" 'cos Autumn is all about layers of leaves and layers of jumpers (in the northern hemisphere) I would like to challenge you to add lots of layers to your page....this could be layers of paints, inks, stamps, papers, glassine paper, acetate....lots of lovely layers."


Here is my take on this month's challenge.  I liked this technique based challenge very much. I have been in a creative funk and found sticking to the techniques I love really boosted my "flow". This polka dot paper from DoodleBug caught my eye at a retreat recently. The colours in brown, purple and gold seemed such a novel combination and really pulled the colours from this selfie of Adriane. I love her little dimple and all that golden light.

 
 I began my layers with the gold patterned paper and a piece of white cardstock. I added purple random stitches around the perimeter to outline the focal area of the design. I then layered a template and some modelling paste in in a few corners and added some glass bead medium and golden watercolour paint too.

 I layered the polka dot paper and a sticker edged sticker strip to keep the foucs on my photo. I added purple watercolours to a crinkled doily and layered it under my photo too.
A strip of matching striped paper stitched to the bottom of the photo and layered some pennant pieces on top. The subtitle sticker is actually the start of the whole title idea! A few layered buttons and VOILA: it is all done.


Here's a complete list of this month's participating designers!  We encourage you to check out each designer's creation this month, then come on back and give the challenge a try yourself! We would love to see what you create on the IE Facebook page!
Christa Uttley
Michelle Hernandez 

Until next time, keep doing what you love!

Monday, November 3, 2014

November Sketch and Challenge at Two Scrapbook Friends!

Hello! It is my turn to host our monthly Sketch & Crafty challenge!  We hope you are finding time in the cooler fall months to warm up your creativity. Let's begin with the sketch.



I created a nice, simple design that I hope you have fun using!

For the Crafty portion of the challenge, here's the scoop: Use something OLD, something NEW, something BORROWED and something BLUE! (I was inspired by my nephew who got engaged very recently!)

Here's my inspiration layout, using both the Sketch and Crafty challenge, featuring my daughter, Adriane. Her friend took these 'modelling' shots for fun and they really made me smile. In fact, photos were the  BORROWED element as they came from her iPad.
My something OLD was the brad on the title frame. I've had those lying around for a few summers and this chevron brad was waiting for something special! My something NEW was the Simple Stories line "Good Day Sunshine"  that I picked up this summer and haven't had the chance to use. (much...)  My something BLUE is the matting colour and the bits of sky blue in the patterned paper.

So! Share your OLD, NEW, BORROWED and BLUE while working with the sketch! Be creative and you can be entered into a random draw to win a $25 gift certificate to TSF!!!!

Please remember, in order to qualify and be in with a chance of winning, you must use the SKETCH and the CRAFTY portion of the challenge. Also, this month we would like you to identify the OLD, NEW, BORROWED and BLUE elements of your design. Just add the description to your blog or gallery post.

Here are our few simple rules:
  • Enter as many times as you like with each new entry showing an interpretation of both the Sketch and Crafty element of this month's challenge.
  • Each creation will gain you one entry into the draw to win.  Please enter a double page as only one entry. 
  • Proects must be linked using the tool at the TSF blog here in order to be entered to win.
  • Entries must be linked no later than 11:59pm on November 30, 2014.

I can't wait to see what you create! Happy crafting!