Best Creation Border Punch Blog Hop

It is Hip Hop time again ladies so grab your Bunny Ears and come on a fun hop with us to learn lots of incredible techniques to use all those fun border punches that you have.

You have arrived here from the blog of the talented Tracey Taylor. Don't forget to pick up the mystery letters on each ladies blog as you go to spell our mystery word. Send this to teresa@bestcreation.us for a chance to win our grand prize and leave comments on our facebook and all of the design team for 2 more chances to win your choice of a pack of glittery goodness.
Here is the blog list again... if you have arrived here by chance and want to start at the beginning, please stop by the Best Creation blog here...

Jodi Wilton
Irit Shalom
Karen Taylor
Liz Chidester
Mireille Divjak
Jona Panessa
Sandy Ang
Kim Arledge
Alicia Barry
Kim Holmes
Petra Offrell
Katarina Damm
Sarah Mullanix
Julie Walton
Brittny LeJeune
Debbie Sherman
Karen Thind
Tracey Taylor
Tina McDonald <----------- YOU ARE HERE!!
Emily Branch <--------------------YOU GO HERE NEXT!!
Nicole Wise
Best Creation Blog
***************************************************************
Alright, let me share my project and my tips with you for making the most of your border punches!!
I dug into the brand new Graduation collection that Best Creation just released! I didn't do a grad themed project, but I loved the grey and cream color combo going on, so I used it to scrap a layout of my sister's engagement! Worked perfectly!! And since all of the cardstock stickers and chipboard elements that come with the collection are grad themed, I dug into my stash and found some elegant embellies to top off the page.

Soulmates

In creating this page, I wanted to share with you a tip that I used... which often can help me to get double the use out of just one border stamp!
See the beautiful lace border below the photo? It's one of my favorite punches that Fiskar's has out. But now look down the left and right sides of the page... see that cream strip? That is the piece that is cut off when I punch my border! Normally we would toss that in the trash... but not me! Especially with this punch! I love the subtle look it gives! To create this look, I added a strip of black cardstock (the reverse of the black Glitter Dots paper from Best Creation) to the left and right sides. I then added the leftover (or negative) from my border punched strip. To finish it off, I added a small drop of liquid pearls to help define the look!

So there you have it!! Next time you are playing with your punches, give a second look at what you are about to toss in the trash! You just might be pleasantly surprised!! :) This happens to be the last time I'll be using my punches for a while... as I'll be doing a lot of playing with my Spellbinders die templates in the days and weeks to come! ;) But I'll save those tips and ideas for other posts! ;)
Thanks for stopping by! Now don't forget to take your letter with you...
"S"
Now go stop by the fabulous Emily Branch's blog!

Until next time... Happy Scrapping!!
~TINA~

A few little projects to share

Hello and HAPPY EASTER to you!!! I hope that you have a joyous weekend filled with loved ones and blessings! This weekend is a time for me to reflect on what my Savior has done for me and how thankful I am for my salvation! Today and every day!

Since returning from the Spellbinders Design team retreat, i have not been able to work on one single project without using my Spellbinder's Grand Calibur die cutting machine and the Die Templates! They are SOOOOO versatile and can do SO many things!!!! I am in LOVE! :) Today I have a couple of projects to share with you.

This first project is a card I made for Magistical Memories. That beautiful swirl on the front of the card is a chipboard piece called "heart border" and it is so elegantly beautiful! I covered it in Clear Snaps Color Box Cat Eye ink and Ranger distress powder. I then melted the powder with my heat gun, which gave it this beautifully distressed look! It went so beautifully with the KaiserCraft paper!
Supplies: Kaiser Craft Patterned paper, Spellbinders die templates, Recollections pearls, Ranger distress powder and ink, My Stamp Box Stamp, Clear Snap Color Box ink, Magistical Memories chipboard, Helmar Adhesives

Can I tell you a secret?... These last few weeks I have found myself LOVING making cards! I can't believe I just wrote that... but it's true! Using the Spellbinders Die Templates makes it SO much fun!! :) Now remember... don't tell!! ;)

The second project I want to share is a cute little Easter set that I made for Helmar... again, using my Spellbinders Die Templates! These were SOOO easy to make! And using the Helmar Liquid Scrap dots made those flowers stick on SO good!! We learned a similar version of these at the Spellbinders retreat and I just had to adapt them and make some Easter themed ones! :)
Supplies: Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots, Helmar Quick Fix Adhesive runner, Helmar Zap Dots, Fancy Pants Patterned Paper, Clearsnap Ink, Recollections blooms and pearls, Spellbinders die templates

Also I have some news... as of the end of this month my term is finished with Helmar and I will not be continuing on as a part of the Design Team. I have LOVED being a part of it and will continue to use Helmar on my projects! I look forward to seeing what the new team has in store!

I also have some fun news!! I have been asked to design some projects for the fabulous Iphone app "Sketches2Scrapbook" and "Sketches4Cards"! I will be designing with Anam's sketches for both cards and layouts! This will be lots of fun!! And seeing that I do not have an iphone, I will have some free app codes to give away once my projects are in!! Wohoo! So keep dropping by and I'll have those to give away someday... though I'm not sure when yet! :)
So... lots of changes... change is good! Looking forward to lots of changes coming up!
So until next time... Happy Scrapping!!
Tina

Spellbinders Design Team Retreat (long and photo heavy)

Alright, I promised I'd share some details regarding the Design team retreat put on by Spellbinders. There is SOO much to tell... and so much I can't tell! :) VERY exciting time, so much fun stuff coming up...

I left home at 3:15am on April 6th. After arriving at the airport, I was informed that my flight was delayed by 1 hr. I could have slept in... Yeah, right! :) So my wonderful Hubby went to Tim Horton's and got us breakfast! Then at 6:45 I was away. I couldn't stop grinning... I was beyond excited!!

I arrived in Phoenix Arizona at 11:30am. I was picked up by Cathy and Kim and off we went to the hotel. Since I was the first of the team to arrive, I had a few hours to kill. Sleep... sweet sleep! I got settled in the hotel room and crashed for about an hour! This is the view from the hotel room. Desert and mountains. It was so beautiful! Cloudy... but beautiful! :)
Thru the next 3 days, we were treated like royalty!! SPOILED ROTTEN! We were fed amazing food... both in the hotel and at some beautiful restaurants! Some of the snacks and desserts that were brought in were to DIE FOR! They almost looked too pretty to eat!... almost! And I was informed that there are no calories in the food in Arizona! I think I want to move there! LOL!
The people... I feel so honored to have had the opportunity to meet these girls in person. The 11 other team members are all AMAZING! I laughed harder than I have in YEARS!! We had so much fun! Here are some shots of the gals I had the honor of hanging out with and getting to know... They are all incredibly talented and have fantastic personalities! Each one is so unique and has something different to add to the dynamics of the team. We had 2 Canadians... Lesley Langdonand myself, and one gal from the UK, Christine Emberson. The rest were from all across the US. 4 were returning members from the 2010 team, AJ Otto , Judy Hayes, Kimberly Crawford and Latisha Yoast. And the remaining US teamies were Gloria Stengel, Michelle Woerner (My table mate), Shanna Vineyard, Tonya Dirk and Windy Robinson(My roomie).

The team that put together the retreat... they are amazing! They put SO much work into every little detail! Check out the room where we held our meetings and classes...
It was FULL of beautiful girly touches! Flowers hanging... real flowers on the tables... balloons... it was so beautiful and made us feel so special! And here is the star of the slow... the Spellbinder Grand Calibur!!
This is an AWESOME machine!! It needs no plug... it can cut several dies at a time due to the large plate it can run thru... and it applies even pressure through the entire plate to give a fabulous cut every time! I am in LOVE!!
Want a peek at the die templates that Spellbinders was generous enough to send us home with?
WOW eh? SO many sets of die templates to play with!! And the Grand Calibur AND the brand new not yet on the market Presto Punch! I'll share more about that in the next couple of weeks! Stacy and Jeff were SOOOO generous!! Can you believe this stash?
Want to see some more of the fabulousness we brought home... I will warn you... it is jaw dropping...I feel so unbelievably blessed... and the only reason I am showing the entire stash is to show you how HARD the Spellbinders team work to support their team... they work HARD to provide us with amazing cross promotional partners and the best of product to work with!!
Each team member was presented with this HUGE collection of ColorBox Cat Eye Chalk inks! Every color we could imagine! We nearly died!!! :) You should have heard the squeels of excitement!
And check out the bling...
Want2Scrap has partnered up with Spellbinders to bring you some Nestabling... bling shapes to fit the Nestabilities!! AMAZING! This is just the first shipment of bling from this EXTREMELY generous company!!
Alright... want to see the entire stash? Well... there are still 5 or 6 companies still to ship... but this is the majority...
And this photo does it no justice... there are things in bags still not spread out... but do you get the picture? GENEROUS and I'm SO BLESSED!!
At this time I want to take a minute to say THANK YOU to the companies who have partnered up with Spellbinders for cross promotion! You are AMAZING! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
Graphic45 Paper
Donna Salazar
Flourishes
Flower Soft®
Gina K. Designs™
Heartfelt Creations™
JustRite® Stampers
Layers of Color™ Art Stamps
Local King Rubber Stamps
Magenta Stamps
Our Daily Bread Designs
Penny Black® Inc.
Quietfire Design
The Rubber Cafe'
StampingScrapping™
Technique Tuesday®
Unity Stamp Company
WaltzingMouse
Want2Scrap
Anna Griffin®
Bazzill Basics Paper®
Beacon Adhesives
Best Creation Inc.
Buttons Galore and More
Craftwork Cards
Canvas Corp.
Clearsnap
Cosmic Shimmer
Cosmo Cricket™
Creative Impressions
Echo Park Paper
Fancy Pants Designs
GCD Studios
Glue Dots®
Imaginisce®
Jillibean Soup™
KaiserCraft
My Mind's Eye™
Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker
Scor-Pal®
SCRAPBOOK ADHESIVES BY 3L™
Sparkle N' Sprinkle
Want2Scrap
WorldWin Papers®
Artistic Wire
************************************************************************
While in AZ, we did more than just have classes. We also had a TON of fun!! One of the neat things they did for us was this...
You've all heard of a piniata? Well, this is the Spellbinders version... it's called a "DIE-iatta". When this baby broke, it was filled with die templates, and lots of other fabulous little goodies from our partners!! You should have seen us crawling around the floor like a bunch of children! It was so fun!!
A few more photo's...
Corporate office... lots of fun secrets seen in there! But I'll never tell...
I got to see real cactus! I even had to go out in the rain to get my picture taken with this one! LOL!
And check out the beautiful double rainbow we seen that night...
Here's the team...

What an amazing journey this was. I am blown away at having been given this opportunity! I feel so unworthy... but so blessed. Thank you Stacy... thank you Spellbinders. I can't wait to see what all this next year has in store...
Never in a million years would I have dared to dream that I would be given an opportunity like this. But I was. And for that I am so thankful! So always work towards your dreams... because you just never know what tomorrow holds.
Thanks for sticking with me thru this LONG WINDED post! There is so much more I would love to have told you, but I think this is lots... for now! LOL!
I have a project up on the Spellbinder blog today... it's not brand new, but it's there if you want to check it out and say HI! :)
Until Next time... Happy Scrapping!
~Tina~

Middle of April already?

Oh my goodness! Where has the month gone?!?! I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I posted!! Terrible me!
I'll be honest... with going away on the Spellbinders DT retreat... i was busy getting ready to go. Now that I'm back... Well... all I want to do is create! LOL!

however, I know you are all dying to know all about the retreat... so this post is my promise to you that I will be back later on today with some fabulous photo's, details and sneak peeks of some of what I'm creating! Lots that I can't show you yet though! :)
So... until later... bare with me! "I'll be back..." (said in my very best Arnold Schwartzinager voice... LOL!)
Until then...
Happy Scrapping!
~TINA~

Officially a Spellbinders Gal!

Today marks the beginning of my term as a member of the 2011 Spellbinder Paper Arts Design Team! I still can not believe how blessed I am to have this opportunity!

I head off to sunny Arizona on Wednesday April 6th for the official Spellbinders Design Team retreat! I am so excited to meet this amazingly talented group of ladies!! I get to be roomies with the incredibly talented Windy Robinson... she was just named one of Paper Crafts new Go-To-Girls!!! I'm so thrilled for her! And I get to be her roomie!! Perhaps some of her talent will rub off on me!! :)

Check out my sidebar for links to all of the blogs of these fabulous designers!! They are all so amazing! Someone pinch me... please! :)

I created a little THANK YOU card for this occasion. I want to thank Spellbinders for giving me this amazing opportunity! I want to thank YOU for dropping by my blog! Please feel free to FOLLOW me for lots of inspiration in the coming months!!

Supplies: Patterned Paper (Pink Paislee, Prima), Cardstock (Bazill), Alpha stickers (Doodlebug), Pearls (Recollections), Button (Jenni Bowlin), Die's (Spellbinders, "Parisian Accents"), Adhesives (Helmar Premium Craft Glue, Helmar 1/2 inch round Zap Dots, Helmar quickfix adhesive runner)

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog! I hope to see you around lots more in the coming months!! Don't forget to hit that FOLLOW button to be sure you don't miss anything! :)
Until Next Time...
Happy Scrapping!!
~Tina~