A Cause for Celebration...The Play Date Cafe Blog Hop!

Welcome to all who are here for The Play Date Cafe
Blog Hop!  If you came by way of Suzanne's blog, you are
in the right place and at the end of hop! 
To start at the beginning, head on over to The Play Date Cafe
by clicking HERE

This is a bittersweet week over at The Play Date Cafe.
You know we have been looking forward to the exciting
announcement of our new Design Team and you will find
that list over at The Cafe and on my sidebar here.

This week also marks the departure of Julie Campbell,
one of our senior designers.
Julie joined our team over 4 months ago and her creativity has
been so inspiring to us all.  She has had some wonderful
opportunities come along that are keeping her extremely busy and
we know that 'many good things must come to an end'.

We are truly going to miss her, but we know she'll be around!
She has chosen this week's color palette for the challenge and
it's a lovely, springy one to be sure.

I used a fabulous floral stamp from The Artistic Stamper as my
background on this card and layered the colors to be soft and muted
using Colorbox Chalk Ink in Wisteria and VersaMagic in Sage.
The sentiment is Wordsworth.
I punched the upper border using Martha's pansy border on
'Chloe's Closet' from my Making Memories BOO collection  : )
The lower border was punched using a Fiskars scallop and the
layered flowers are from Sizzix.

This great prize above is what YOU can win just for participating

in the blog hop.  Here is what you need to know....

There are THREE ways to give you the best chance.....

You MUST visit and leave a comment on each of the

designer's blogs.  The starting point is over at 
The Play Date Cafe.

There are ONLY 9 blogs to visit 
and all you have to do is click on each name!

To have an additional chance to win:

2.  Become a follower of The Play Date Cafe...easy-peasy!

3.  Play along with this week's color challenge

All the details on how to play are over at The Cafe.

Deadline to enter the giveaway and challenge
is 11:59pm EST, Tuesday, March 16
Winners will be announced on
Thursday, March 18th

Good luck & have fun!

Begging for Spring!

As I made a visit to my friend Julie Campbell's blog

I found one of the seven deadly sins setting in.

You guessed it...

ENVY!

 

I had already started working on this card last

night, but after seeing the lovely photos of

an early spring in California, I decided to get this

finished so I could get a decent photo

because the sunshine just isn't cooperating right now.

This is from the new 'Songbird' Collection from DCWV.

I did a little sewing and added buttons and

Diamond Stickles and the verse is a rub-on

(which is my BOO for the day...

I've had those FoReVeR!)

My favorite embellishment though, is the ribbon

detail that I tried my hand at thanks to the 

tutorial over at the Gingersnaps Creations blog.

Erika shows step-by-step this ultra-easy way to

make the gathered trim WITHOUT sewing.

I used fabulous textured satin ribbon from

Martha Stewart.

 

So did you visit yesterday?

I had a great time putting together the

'Autograph Sessions' interview with 

Diana Trout, author of 'Journal Spilling'.

If you missed it, just click here.

I also want to congratulate Jennie and Hels

over at The Artistic Stamper on their 400th follower.

Jennie is giving away another batch of blog candy 

to celebrate, so I hope you will stop by & say hello!

That's it for today....but before I go,

here is what I want to know.....

What technique or product for paper crafting

have you NOT tried yet, but really want to?

I've been thinking about some tutorials for you

and would love to know what trips YOUR trigger!

Leave a comment and let's see what we come up with!

DESIGN TEAM CALL - Could it be YOU?

We are so excited to extend an invitation to YOU!

The Play Date Cafe Challenge is 3 months old and it is time 

to add new talent to our Design Team.

Do you enjoy playing with color?

Do you enjoy a challenge?

 Do you enjoy being an inspiration to others?

We are looking for a variety of styles.

Cards, layouts, altered art, shabby chic or vintage

retro, grunge, clean and simple...you name it!

The term would be for 6 months

 

Along with creating a weekly project inspired by colors

from your fellow design team,

once a month or so, you would also be responsible for 

choosing color inspiration

We are looking for fun, creative people with a blog

and the capability of taking crisp, clear photos

If you would like to apply, 
please provide the following:

3 creations that show 'who' you are as a designer

A list of your current/past design team experience

(No DT experience necessary)

Your name, address, phone #, email & blog address

Send the photo files and above information to

julieranae@hotmail.com

place DT submission on the subject line

WORLDWIDE OPEN CALL

DEADLINE FOR DT SUBMISSIONS

February 28, 2010

The Play Date Cafe is headed in a very, exciting direction!

We have had a number of potential sponsors contact us

along with some other surprises.

We hope you will consider joining our Senior Designers

Sarah Anderson, Julie Campbell and me

as we head into the Spring and Summer.

Looking forward to hearing from YOU!

Introducing the Newest Member of the Play Date Cafe Design Team

 This week completes the first cycle of hosting by our designers at The Play Date Cafe Challenge.  We cannot begin to tell you how much fun we have had as we prepare the inspirations behind each challenge.  We are busy with new ideas and surprises that we are excited to share, so today, I am happy to reveal WHO created the projects in last week's sneak peeks!

I am thrilled to tell you that Julie Campbell of A Vintage Chic is the newest addition to our design team.  Julie's style is classic, unmistakebly vintage.  Her blog has been a favorite of mine ever since I found her and I was so excited when she accepted the invitation to join our creative team.  
Let's get to know her a little bit more...

"Hi!  I'm Julie...Jules from here on out at The Play Date Cafe (don't want to get confused now, do we?!)  I live in a lovely house my husband built in the central coast area of California.  We love it here...surrounded by so much beauty and fabulous weather!  I'm a very happy and busy wife to Roger and mother to three beautiful, loving girls; Chelsea, Sarah and Annie.  I've been stamping for about 4 years now, and have loved learning and evolving!  My favorite style is vintage--I love everything about it!  I love to go overboard with my use of beautiful trims, but especially with glitter--
can't get enough of it!  

I give all credit for any creative bone I have in my body to my wonderful mother, Karen Smith, who is an amazing artist!  She is a dollmaker, and does just about anything else she sets her mind to.  She encouraged me early in life to try any kind of art that appealed to me, and always helped along the way, but let me develop my own style.  She gave me my love of all things vintage, as well, surrounding us with beautiful family heirlooms, beautifully illustrated old books and lovely artwork.

 

 I'm so excited to be working with Julie, Alison, Sandi and Sarah at The Play Date Cafe--what a wonderful, inspiring group of women!  I'm so looking forward to all the great color challenges ahead as we all continue to learn and create together."

I hope you will join me in welcoming Jules as she hosts this week's brand new Thursday challenge at The Play Date Cafe.