Zva Creative April DT Blog Hop!

Zva Creative and our talented Design Team welcome you to join us for our April Blog Hop! We are happy to have you join us and hope you enjoy all that we have to share with you along the way!

The Blog Hop begins at Zva Creative's NEW blog! Be sure head on over to check it out! Leave a comment there for a chance to win an extra prize package just for visiting the blog and telling us that you stopped by! You will also find a complete list of all the participating blogs there (in case there is a glitch along the way).
As you know, Zva offers many beautiful color groupings for pearls, flowers and crystals. We want to make sure that they shine bright for you, so each designer was asked to share a creation using a specific color or color combination on their blog hop project. If you like what you see you can find a list of stores and online retailers that sell Zva HERE.

My colour this month was Pink/Rosy Pink.  Just love all the beautifully coloured bling and the coordinating flowers!

 I've used the Elise Rebel Collection from 7 Dots Studio to coordinate with my ZVA goodies!

If you would like to play along with our design team, just follow along the blog path. I am linking to one of the Zva designers and that designer is linking to the next and so on. Be prepared to be inspired along the way!

Hidden on FIVE of the designer's blogs is a Zva Creative prize package! Winners will be randomly chosen after the hop is over, so it's important to leave a comment on as many blogs as you can along the way.

The Blog Hop starts today, April 30th and runs through midnight US Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, May 1st.
The 5 winners will be announced on Wednesday, May 2nd on each of the five winning blogs. The full list will be found on Zva's blog as well. We will do our best to notify each winner, but it's best if you can pop in to all of the blogs once again on Wednesday... plus, you never know what kind of inspirational creation that you may find there.
All you need to do is leave a comment on this Blog Hop post... you do not need to leave a comment on each and every designer's blog post to qualify. However, the more times you comment along the blog hop path, the more chances you will have to win.
We also thought it would be more fun to add even more chances to win our blog hop prize! To increase your chances of winning:

* If you are on facebook, please hop on over to Zva's page and share about our hop!   http://www.facebook.com/pages/Zva-Creative/219498574796457

* Comment to let us know that you "tweeted" about our hop (link to any of the blog hop posts)

* Comment to let us know that you asked your local store to carry Zva creative products. If they already do, that's fantastic, maybe you can suggest other products that they don't carry.

*Hop over to Zva's blog and leave a comment there to tell us that you made it there!

The blog hop begins here at Zva Creative's blog. Your next stop is Jolanda Meurs . Enjoy!

Thank you for joining us!

P.S. Mark your calendar to join us again on May 28^th for our next Zva blog hop!

Beautiful Life

I was instantly drawn to the soft tones of the All I Ever Collection from 7 Dots Studio and had originally planned to do a very feminine, pink, layout with lots of flowers and frills. For whatever reason, the darker toned paper kept staring at me…beckoning me to make my first cut.

I had already chosen the black and white photos that I wanted to use for this project and because the photos included both my son and daughter, I felt I could go either way – masculine or feminine. When I placed the photos next to the darker paper I actually preferred how it complimented the papers so well.

So… what was originally going to be a very shabby chic, girly layout, turned out to be more of a shabby chic, gender neutral layout – LOL! I hope you like the final outcome. Just goes to show that not every layout requires flowers to be ‘beautiful’ or girly.

Thank you so much for stopping by today. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Welcome Spring!

Spring has sprung and the Cultural Extras - Spring Celebration Challenge has been posted over at the 7 Dots Studio blog.  The design team was asked to be inspired by all things spring - Flowers, colours, celebrations, etc.

I chose to feature a carefree photo of myself taken recently on a trip to Hawaii.  Just love the relaxed feel emanating from the photo.  Girly beverage in hand, sunglasses on and eagerly awaiting the glorious sunshine promised from the new season of Spring.

I added touches of cream paint to some of my embellishments as well as around the edges of my papers to lend a more shabby feel to my project.

The beautiful, crystal blue flourishes and flowers are from ZVA Creative and the vintage inspired papers are from the 7 Dots All I Ever Collection.

7 Dots Studio Supplies: All I Ever Collection
Patterned Paper: Sandy Beach, Vanilla Buttercream, Velveteen Dreams
6×12 Alpha Stickers – Summer Nights
6×12 Stickers
12×12 Elements
ZVA Creative Supplies:
Leaves: FL04CA112
Flower: FL04CA104
Flower: FL04CA125
Bulk 3D Roses - turquoise

Happy Monday!

Good Monday morning to everyone! We had a wonderful weekend with the family as the weather was so beautiful. We all headed to our favourite park for a picnic and to feed the bunnies. Such a fabulous time!

I'd also like to share a card with you that I created using the timeless Fashionista Collection from Graphic 45

Lots of wonderful layers here with some fussy cutting and a little rolled up paper to add dimension and contrast.

Thank you so much for your visit today.  Before I go, I just have to share some absolutly beautiful music with you all.  How can you not fall in love with these songs and feel completely, utterly relaxed and inspired while listening?  Just love instrumental pieces.  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8MzHqkNBwo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=qmxFAT581T4

Prince Charming

Today's challenge over at the Bo Bunny blog focuses on a monochromatic colour scheme. While I tend to stay within 2-3 colours in my projects normally, this was still a bit of an effort on my part.  How do you hilight only one colour without having a completely washed out layout?  The way around this, I find, is to introduce different tones of the same colour as well as pairing with a neutral colour (like the cream I have used on my layout).

I've always been drawn to a very matchy-match kind of look so when my embellishments aren't exactly the right colour for my papers, I will either paint them or mist them, which I have done here on my flowers.

The gorgeous pearl flourishes and flowers are from ZVA Creative. I've honestly never found a paper or project that I couldn't easily add these embellishments to - perfect for every layout, card, altered item or mini album.

I also wanted to point out some stamping that I have done on my page.  I DO NOT STAMP.  At ALL. But, Graphic 45 has come up with a mini wooden alphabet stamp set.  Within the set are a few adorable images - butterfly, clock, etc.  Well..... look what I used!! (so proud of myself - LOL)

Thanks so much for your visit today!! Be back again tomorrow with a girly, girl card from Graphic 45 to share.