Okay, colour us blown away! Thanks so much for all the entries to win the latest giveaway!
Winner of two sets of Banana Frog letter stamps and some framed Scribble Flowers decor for your wall...
We are really excited to show you the new designs from Banana Frog. The new collection is called It's all about... and takes key elements such as hearts, stars and scallops and turns them into journaling spots, borders and embellishments. Each set measures 8x6" and so the stamps are great for scrapbooking, cardmaking and all papercrafts. They are all you need for your project, and oh my do we love them!
We are super excited to announce a new Design Team contest for 2009!
2009 will be an exciting year for Banana Frog and we are looking for talented artists to join us in inspiring creativity.
Monthly requirements are 1 blog article showing a project or tip and 2 layouts/projects using Banana Frog stamps. You may also be asked to create items for shows, magazine projects or other special events.
Please send us the following details:
- your name and address, and a bit about yourself
- a link to your online gallery/ or you can send us examples of your projects
- your blog details, if you have one
- details of any other design teams you are on (this is because we are very nosey at Banana Frog and it won't affect any result!)
Submissions and any questions can be sent to beverley@bananafrog.com
The closing date for applications is Wednesday 31st December and we will announce the new members on January 4th 2009 (which is my birthday by the way!)
Good luck to everyone!
Today marks a new era for Banana Frog! We are switching over to trade only so that we can concentrate on bringing lots of new designs, workshops and ideas (in fact there are some new designs coming soon!).
You can find a list of suppliers on the Banana Frog site here, and it is also listed here in the Links on the left. Over the coming months we will be highlighting the stores so you can get to know them.
Tomorrow we will be announcing the new Design Team contest and give you lots of information. So stay tuned!
For the next few weeks we are going to be having spring cleaning sales over at Banana Frog. We are starting week 1 with one of my favourites - Rouge de Garance. You will get 15% of all Rouge de Garance products for a whole week before we switch to another company!
Rouge de Garance manage to mix delicate patterns with vibrant colours which jump of the page. Their patterned papers and co-ordinating cardstock are truly delicious, their rub-ons are wonderful (and can I say, they add a little Je ne sais quoi!) and I love the alphabet stickers! Ooh, did I mention the kits?! These are really fantastic because they have everything you need for a little project -all you need to do is add some photo's!
The Banana Frog design team love working with Rouge de Garance too, and here are some gorgeous layouts using their papers.
Here Alison has used the Indigo collection along with Tropical Garden and Teen Tiny by Banana Frog.
For this layout, Nat has used the Urbaine and Daphnis and Chloe collections by Rouge de Garance along with Journaling and Super Stars by Banana Frog.
Hannah has also used the Urbaine collection for her Skate snob layout, along with Dominique (Large), Calendar and Journaling stamps by Banana Frog.
Week 1 of the spring clean ends on Monday 28th, and a new spring clean sale will begin...but which company will it be? :-)
Easter seems to have arrived out of the blue. The weather doesn't know whether it is spring or winter -so we have had snow, sun, hail and showers...all day! Also, don't know about where you are, but schools and nursery's here seem to be all at odds. I have my daughter at home next week, yet my son is at school. He doesn't have an Easter holiday (or half term break) until April 4th! So I have children at home for the next 4 weeks. Fun, fun, fun...but not much work getting done!
I wanted to show a couple of photo's of my two to wish you a Happy Easter.
First is Nathan wearing his easter hat. He made it for the school easter parade. Most of the mum's said that they had made their child's hat, but I can say, hand on heart, that Nate did most of his -and that is because he thought he would win a prize. Of course, I didn't explain to him that all children got a prize for entering :-)
My daughter Kerris was invited to a 3rd birthday party. The theme was Princesses and Pirates. All the little girls looked gorgeous dressed as one princess as another. All were in floaty gowns. Some had fairy wings, some had tiara's. All little girls dressed as princesses except one. My little princess refused to put a dress on, or even look at one. The ONLY thing she was going to the party as, was a pirate! She makes a beautiful pirate and definitely stole the show, but it would be nice one time to see her dressed as a princess!
I hope you are all having a wonderful easter break.
The brand new stamps will be available next week!
Today it is time to see the final four new sets from Banana Frog. I was going to do them singularly to give them each chance to shine, but ended using multiple sets on the examples. So here they all are!
The first set is a large (8x6") alphabet called Madfont. It is inspired by the font used in the title of the US Mad magazine. It is solid yet quirky, and also a bit western!
The second alphabet is called FT Rosecube. It is one that Shimelle drew my attention to, and we both love it. It is 3D, ever so slightly grungy and it also reminds me of an old type press. It is a great size for mini books as well as layouts and cards.
Both FT Rosecube and Madfont are used on the layout Little Rock Star.
Take Note is a journaling set, but has pointers for information such as 'Notes', 'Event' and 'Evidence'. I wanted something a little more elaborate and distressed. I was inspired by some wrought iron work in a local park. I loved the beauty of the design and how the aging process was actually enhancing that beauty.
I used the Take Note set on the layout 'Yeehaw Kerris!' along with Elegant Swirls, Swirls and Make a Chain to try and replicate some of the elegant wrought iron work.
Take Note and Madfont have both been used on 'Bonkers'. On this layout, I doubled up the large journaling shape to incorporate all I wanted to say. I also used Whirligig to replicate the circle design on the Rouge de Garance paper Picoti Picota No 7
The final set to show is called Tag it.
This is a great set for cards and gifts as well as layouts or mini-books. Alison has used it on her layout 'Jump for Joy' and I have made some cards, also using the Retro Greetings set.
Each of the new sets (including the sets designed by Shimelle) will be available from local stockists in the next week!
I did mean to begin posting the next sneak peeks late last week, but you know how life has a habit of getting in the way!
So, a bit late, but today is the turn of Budmo Jiggler (and no, I didn't come up with that name!) a great new large alphabet (8x6"). I love using crystals and bling at the moment and so matching that with stamping was ideal.
It reminds me of Hollywood and those mirrors with lights all around. At some point I will get my name in lights! The stamps work great on their own, or looks super glitzy if you pair them with crystals or even glitter glue. On the layout below I have used 3mm crystals.
On the second layout, Alison has included some crystals, and left some blank, which looks really effective.
This set will be available in a week or so either from Banana Frog or from your local stockist.
One of the first things people will tell you about Shimelle is that she loves cakes. This is true, although annoyingly she stays tiny and doesn't get spots! I think it may have something to do with her fascination with Alice in Wonderland, but that's another story.
So, the final set of stamps from Shimelle is called That takes the cake and it is a scrumptious set.
"I am obsessed with cupcakes and I don't care that Bev already has an adorable cupcake stamp set -- I needed more! The great big cupcake is similar to one I have hanging on my wall, only that one is two feet tall. I find it really difficult to be grumpy when I look up and there's a giant cupcake on the wall, so I figured that a big cupcake stamp on a card would make it pretty hard to be grumpy too. I also love cake stands, and manage to find all different uses for them around my house. My favourites are old and a bit wobbly. So from the other side of the scale from that giant happy cupcake, there's a lovingly wobbly stand for you to stamp tiny little cakes all over. I love how these look stamped in black outlines with colour added in watercolours."
Tomorrow sees the start of a new weekly article by Shimelle and then from Thursday I will show you more sneak peeks.
Todays sneak peek is of a set designed by Shimelle called Backgrounds. You must admit, it is not exactly the kind of quirky name you would expect from Ms Laine!
As Shimelle herself says, "Somehow I got so focused on making the stamps I wish I could find that I forgot to give this set a cool name. Please forgive me. These are my favourites and that makes them cool in their own right. I love, love, love the woodgrain look and I must have gone through about a zillion drafts before I finally got this to what I wanted it to be. I hope you love it too now! It's just the right size to cover a tag, create a background for a letter or a message on a card, and essentially it's super fun to layer. I think it's even more fun in colour than in natural brown. And then there are polka dots! But not just any polka dots! The polka dot background has two pieces you can use together or individually. I wanted to be able to stamp a solid dot background in a pale colour, then stamp a doodled dot over the top in a bright colour or black and have it look like I drew around every single dot individually. So that's how they work. Then there's a vine you can use on its own or layered with either of the other backgrounds. These are just a few of my favourite little things, all thrown together in one stamp set."
This is one set that once you see it stamped, you just HAVE to get it! Also, it is the perfect compliment to the new woodgrain papers that were released at CHA.
Tomorrow a sneak peek of a final set by Shimelle, but one that shares another of her passions!
Oh wow, not only are those stamps totally gorgeous but so is your art work... I'm totally in love with greens and blues right now so it's right up my street!