This month we decided to REALLY challenge the Design Team. The challenge was this: to create a layout, still true to your style, using 100% Couture Cardstock! We could ink it, paint it, tear it, and gloss it. We could print on it, punch it, doodle, and scrunch. As long as the team was only using Couture Cardstock, anything could be done!

At first, I was terrified. I am a detail girl. I love to hand-cut tiny elements that add visual interest in my layouts, but had never created ALL of my own embellishments for a project.  I found myself looking at the palette of colors that I had picked out, mentally going through a checklist of all the art supplies, stamps, and mediums that I own.

What fun this turned out to be! What I thought was going to be difficult, actually turned out to be incredibly blissful. Therapeutic almost because I was able to free all that creativity lose onto the paper, creating my own patterned paper with details to cut out. The layout became completely my own.  I used Couture Cardstock’s  Brandenburg, Charcoal, Fallen Leaf, Frosted, New Leaf, and One Sheet Wonder.

Tomorrow Alyssa will be bringing you a couple more 100% cardstock projects,  I hope that you find some inspiration in what all the designers have created!

xx Heidi

Today’s Challenge: Use Stamps!

Rules for both of our month-long contests follow:

First, we are giving it all away! In honor of National Craft Month, we are holding a month long contest in March. The winner will receive 1 of every product in our store.  That’s 291 sheets of cardstock, in every color, weight, and texture you could ever need!  Here’s what you have to do to win: put our blinkie on your blog using the code available in the sidebar to the right.   Leave us a comment (on this post) with a link to your blog where you posted our blinkie, and you are entered to win!  That’s all there is to it! We will draw one very lucky winner on April 2nd.  (if you already have our blinkie, leave us a comment and tell us that too, you are eligible to win).

Second,  to celebrate National Craft Month, we are holding a month long contest here at Couture Cardstock, and your participation will determine the size of the prize!  Each day during the month of March, we will be offering a challenge on our blog.  Each day, you have one opportunity win a prize pack by completing that challenge and linking it to that day’s post.   For every challenge entry received, we will add a sheet of cardstock to the prize pack. All entries must be posted by 11:59 pm EST the day of that challenge and the winner for each day will be selected the following morning.  The minimum prize pack will be 10 sheets of your choice, the maximum depends on YOU!!

The details:

1. You may enter each challenge once (only one entry per person per day).
2. Entries must be posted in a gallery or on a personal blog, and must mention Couture Cardstock in the description.
3. You do not need to use Couture Cardstock in your entries, although we encourage you to do so.
4. Each project completed may only be used once.
5. All entries must by posted and linked to the corresponding challenge post by 11:59 pm EST, the day the challenge is posted.
6. The minimum prize pack per day will be 10 sheets of your choice.

Both contests are open to anyone, anywhere.  However, International winners (outside the US) will be responsible for their own shipping costs.

Note: Prizes will all be shipped at the end of the month.