Stampin' Up! Creative Crew Design Team Challenges for May

This is my first month to create for the Stampin' Up! Creative Crew Design Team.   Wow - I'm overwhelmed and hope that I'm up to the challenge!    My term is for May - August which will be an exciting time as we get to focus on the new catalogue.    Each Crew member is required to provide four projects per month to meet the challenges set for us.      I took this opportunity to use many of the products that will be retiring soon.  Definitely a hint of nostalgia when creating these projects! 

The first challenge is the colour focus - showcasing the colour I will miss the most from the retiring in colours:

I actually had two favourite colours and used them both on this card.   Concord crush and pear pizzazz go great together, I think.   Lots of embossing on this card!   The concord crush card base was embossed with the Framed Tulips embossing folder.    The inlaid embossing technique was used for the whisper white layer and the pear pizzazz sweet stems using the square lattice embossing folder.   Concord crush flowers were cut using the Floral Fusion Sizzlit and then embossed with the square lattice folder.   A pear pizzazz flower centre was created using a punch from the itty bitty punch shapes and sparkled up with a basic rhinestone.  A pretty ruffled bow is made with pear pizzazz seam binding ribbon.   The friend sentiment comes from the You're a Gem set.   

The next challenge was the catalogue focus - focusing on flowers.   Once again I chose to use all retiring colours and retiring product to create this project:

This framed project uses ALL of the retiring colours, with the exception of the crumb cake card stock used for the vase.   The retiring circle scissors plus was used to create the vase and the top and bottom were trimmed.    Decorations on the vase were punched from poppy parade with the retiring ribbon lace border punch and embellished with peach parfait itty bitty shapes and basic rhinestones.    Retiring dies were used to create the large flowers - the Island Floral and Daisies #2 dies.    Blushing bride daisies were centered with poppy parade circles and retiring clear circle brads.   Island floral flowers were made with concord crush, peach parfait, pear pizzazz and blushing bride, topped off with more clear circle brads.   Talk about colourful!

The third challenge was a holiday focus - create a free standing pop-up card for a special female, ie: mom, sister, friend, etc.:

Once again I used my favourite retiring colour combination of concord crush and pear pizzazz.   This was a great project as I had never used this technique before.   What a different twist for a card!   The tutorial for this technique can be found on Splitcoaststampers and I encourage you to give it a try.   The stamp set used is My Friend.    The rain drops were given some sparkle with dazzling details.   The retiring 5-petal flower punch was used for the flowers and the retiring round tab punch made the pull tab for the pop up portion of the card.

The final challenge was a scrapbook focus to showcase someone you love.   I love my Mom!:

This 12 x 12 layout starts with DSP from Beau Chateau - perfect with the Cherish flourish at the top of the page!   I finally ordered the heart framelits and just had to use them for this layout.   The largest scallop heart shape was embossed with the polka dot embossing folder and then sponged with soft suede to make the dots pop.   Smaller heart framelits were used to cut the pictures.   MOM was cut from soft suede using the Big Shot and the Serif Essentials alphabet dies (also retiring!).   The letters were stamped with an image from the retiring Wedding Sweet set and the edges sponged with more soft suede to give them definition.   The nice sentiment comes from the Petite Pairs set and is stamped on very vanilla with soft suede.   Embellishments include designer buttons and shapes punched with a punch from the itty bitty punch pack.   Tiny basic pearls and whisper white bakers twine add the final touches.

I hope you enjoyed these projects.   It's already time to start working on the challenges for June!   Thanks for stopping by.

Pat