Introducing Project 12

We've decided to join together with Scrapbook & Cards Today magazine and introduce you to something called Project 12. The Project 12 challenge is simple. The idea is to create a layout on a monthly basis which recaps what you’ve been doing. Whether you took 31 photos, no photos, or 100 photos, simply choose your favorites that best described what you were doing that month, and create a layout. The end result will be a complete album representing 2010 (just think- if you're also participating in our Basic Grey Page of the Month program you could have TWO complete albums this year!).

The beautiful thing about your 2010 album is that some of the work has been done for you by way of Becky Fleck’s sketches. Every month the sketch will be a little different, but at the end of the year, you will have a cohesive album as each sketch will have similar elements.

Here at Creative Accents, we'll be declaring one of our crops each month a "Project 12" night, where you can come with photos from the previous month and work on your layout. Sketches & full details for Project 12 are available on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog. We recommend you check out the new sketch each month and plan ahead which photos you would like to use before coming to the crop. Our first Project 12 focus will be at our crop on February 12- this will allow you time to complete your January layout by the Feb. 20th deadline!

Of course, you don't have to participate online & submit your layouts each month, but there are prizes to be won... and we all love prizes! Even if you don't win, think how good it will feel to have a finished layout each month! (I'm actually contemplating scrapbooking last years photos for this project! LOL)

Check out the fabulous sketch Becky designed for your January layout- then take a look through the photos you took in January and see which you can use to make this sketch work with them! We look forward to creating with you throughout 2010!
Now that you've been inspired by Becky's sketch.... why not hop on over and print off a FREE copy of the February set of Page Maps! It's one of my favorite things!

February 2010 SOTM

Here's they are: the sample cards for our February Stamp of the Month! You can see alternate photos and a bit of a how-to from both Tanya & Eulanda on their blogs. I apologize for the washed out photos... my camera died on me mid shoot and the camera I normally use for this is at home- oops! Of course, these all look much nicer in person, so we'd love it if you came to see them in the store :)This first card is my contribution to the board (I just couldn't let go and let the girls do ALL of them!) I stamped the wavy flower border on some satin ribbon from my stash with Brilliance ink (it's the BEST for ribbon!) and matched it with some pieces of the coordinating patterned papers. I embossed the frame, sentiment and butterfly using American Crafts ZING embossing powder and cut out the designs. They're edged lightly with distress ink and mounted on the card with foam squares. The addition of some Prima flowers and clear bling from Hero Arts finishes the card off. Hope you like it!
I won't bother describing these cards for you, as the girls have done so on their blogs- but I will tell ya the first two were created by Tanya and the final card by Eulanda :) Thanks so much for your contribution ladies- it's great having a helping hand with this project!

February Stamp of the Month

Introducing our February 2010 Stamp of the Month! I absolutely love the new Letterbox collection by American Crafts, so I decided to just go with it and bring in a coordinating stamp set by American Crafts as well! SOTM members will enjoy the versatility of this set, Enjoy, especially when combined with all the matching papers & embellishments we have in the store!

I knew the end of January would be a bit crazy for me, so I asked two of our designers, Eulanda & Tanya to help out by making card samples for our board this month! I'll post some photos tomorrow of their cards (plus the one I put together tonight!), but you can check out a peek by visiting their blogs- here & here. Enjoy! I'll see you again tomorrow!

Valentines!

Here's a taste (2/3) of the cards we'll be making at our "Valentine's for Everyone" class on Wednesday night at 6:30pm! Hope to see you there! We'll be having fun with stamps by Cornish Heritage Farms, Stampendous & Hero Arts and playing with some QK dies, fabulous ruffled ribbon and, of course, bling :)Oh yes... and there WILL be chocolate involved (and not just the colour!)- gotta love it!
See you on Wednesday! This class is just $15 ($10 class fee, $5 materials fee).

Birthday Party Animals

My baby sister turned 25 this week... wow! She's not a fan of all those traditional birthday things like cupcakes... so I turned to a fun stamp set by Pink Cat Studio to create a simple card for her! These Party Farm Animals cracked me up and were so much fun to color with my Copics, I can't wait to play with them some more! I paired them with papers & ribbons from Cosmo Cricket's Earth Love collection, which perfectly suited the springy feeling we've been experiencing here in the Cariboo! I refuse to hope that it will actually last, but we may as well enjoy it while we can, right?
Happy birthday, Joy! I'm looking forward to partying with you tonight :)

Ready for another challenge?

In with the NEW... mixed with the OLD!

January's challenge is to take something NEW (maybe a Christmas gift or something you bought at our Boxing Week sale) from Creative Accents and use it together with something OLD from your stash (perhaps you've been hoarding it for a couple years... or more!?). Your project can be a scrapbook page, card, altered item or mini book. It must include some products that are currently or have been recently available in the store (purchased within the last 3 months). This is your chance to pull out something you've been meaning to use for a while: papers, stamps, embellishments, tools... and make it fresh for 2010!

Our design team members are starting to bring in their creations based on this challenge, which are sure to help inspire you! I'll get some photos up here on the blog to show you soon... unless they post them themselves first :)

Bring in your submission for our challenge by Saturday, February 6.

Everyone is welcome to participate. This is not a contest, entries will not be judged. All participants will have their name entered in a draw to win either a kit for our next challenge or a small gift if the next challenge is not kit based. Entries will be displayed on our creativi-tree in the Creative Studio for approximately one month, then returned to the participant. Happy creating!

We're in this together....

So I'm putting out a shameless plea for you to nominate Creative Accents to win one of the new lines to be released at CHA from Cosmo Cricket! The best part is that if we win.... YOU win!

I'm so excited about a promo Cosmo Cricket (such a fun company!) is doing... check out a sneak peek on their blog and we could win FREE STUFF from the new releases! Details and pictures are on their blog- go pick your fave line and nominate Creative Accents (and YOURSELF) to win!

CHECK IT OUT NOW :)

Thanks in advance for the nomination!
Tara

Technique Tuesday

Introducing a new class series we'll be offering in 2010: Technique Tuesdays! We'll have more details on it soon, but I wanted to tell you about our FIRST Technique Tuesday class, coming up next week, January 19!

This week's technique is coloring with Copic Markers and we're thrilled to have Eulanda back in town to show you the basics of how it's done! Be sure to sign up if you need some tips for making better use of your Copics or if you're just curious what the hype is all about.

We're hoping to be offering you lots of great techniques for using products you already own as well as some fabulous new ones you'll want to add to your collection. If there is a technique you want to learn or a product you don't know what to do with... let us know and we'll try and work it into an upcoming class!

Feel the love of new products!

We had a busy weekend in the store doing inventory... counting every little item in the store (yep- we have LOTS!) and finding some treasures that had been hidden away :) All the Christmas products have been moved over to our "Seasonal" section in the Creative Studio and this week they are our Deal of the Week- Yep, right when you're ready to scrapbook all your Christmas photos we've got the stuff you need on sale 20% off!

Moving that out of the way made room for lots of fresh products... especially Valentine's Day products! We've got papers & more from My Mind's Eye, Bo Bunny & Pink Paislee, plus new goodies from Basic Grey from their Sugar Rush & Origins collections- yum! Hero Arts has some lovely stamps perfect for the upcoming holiday as well and we've got many other bits and pieces to spur you on creatively! Stop by and check out all that is new in the store very soon... and remember, you'll save 20% on Christmas products this week!

p.s. Today is your last chance to get a ticket for this weekend's crop at Maranatha! Stop by and get yours today!

January 2010 SOTM

Introducing our January 2010 Stamp of the Month: Flourish Background from Hero Arts! This fabulous, versatile stamp is cling mounted and covers an entire standard sized card front.
All of my sample cards are fairly simple this month, but I have a feeling this stamp will be showing up on a ton of future projects! As I look through the Hero Arts 2010 catalog, I'm noticing this stamp on a bunch of the samples- Wow! I hope you'll love it as much as we do!

On this first card, I embossed the SOTM in white on Kraft cardstock and in clear (over yellow ink) on the yellow cardstock. The sentiment is a piece of 'flair' by American Crafts.

This wintery card features Rocco Raccoon by Stampendous. I thought the flourishes suited the trail left behind by Rocco's skates. The SOTM was stamped simply in Broken China Distress Ink on both papers.
This card is actually part of a set I created as a Christmas gift for my Grandma! The SOTM was inked with three shades of Distress Ink & spritzed with "Ink Potion No. 9" to blend the colors, after stamping I heated it with my heat tool. I love the soft mixing of colors! The patterned paper strip is by Harmonie and I added a small strip of Glitter Ritz for some extra bling :) The sentiment is from a lovely set by Stampendous.
I embossed the SOTM in Brown Sugar ZING embossing powder by American Crafts and kept this card pretty simple beyond that! The chipboard snowflake was inked up with distress ink and covered with Tim Holtz Distress Crackle paint in 'Rock Candy' and the sentiment is by Hero Arts.

And now for some BONUS samples... we've been having such fun playing with this stamp! This first project is a copy of one on the front of a Hero Arts CLING catalog... I fell in love with the card and had to duplicate it :) I added a sentiment from a past SOTM (August 2009). The background is very subtle- stamped with White Memories on Kraft (are you noticing a theme here? I'm kind of in love with Kraft right now!).
I had the SOTM in my hands before Christmas... here's a couple sets of quick Christmas Cards I created using it! This first one features the QK Snowman (which is still on back order... good thing winter lasts so long here!).
This second set features some paper poinsettias by Prima & a fun striped paper by Collage Press. I rubbed distress stickles over the large poinsettias for some extra shimmer and LOVE how it turned out, such a pretty touch! Assorted bling from Prima's e-line and a Hero Arts sentiment finishes them off.
One of our designers, Cheri, was in a pink mood when she played with her stamp :) Here's what she brought in to show us:
Cheri used a fun saran wrap technique on the card backgrounds... maybe she'll share some how-to info on her blog if you ask really nice?

Hope you enjoyed the samples! We can't wait to see what you come up with using this fabulous stamp!

School Fundraiser Crops!

We've got tickets available in the store for TWO upcoming fundraiser crops! What a great way to start the year off getting a bunch of your scrapbooking done :) Both crops include a weekend of scrapbooking space and support a local school for just $50 each. Check out the posters in the store & around town for full details regarding hours, food provided, etc. Please bring cash to purchase your ticket.

January 15-16 at Maranatha Christian School

February 26-28 at Cataline Elementary School

Hope you have room to schedule one or both of these fun weekend events on your calendar!

Happy New Year!

2010... a new year, a new decade, a new start for many of us! We've got lots of new things planned for Creative Accents this year, and we look forward to many creative days with our customers!

As of Monday, we will have new business hours:

Tuesday-Friday: 9:30am-6:00pm

Saturday: 10:30am-5:30pm

Sunday-Monday: CLOSED

As you break out your new 2010 calendars, here are some dates for you to schedule in some creative time with us in our Creative Studio! Our basic crop fee is $10.

Upcoming Crops:

Saturday, January 2: Wrestling Day Crop 11am-11pm ($20)

Friday, January 22 5pm-11pm

Saturday, January 30 1pm-7pm

Friday, February 12 5pm-11pm

Saturday, February 27 5pm-11pm (includes a Show & tell from our retailers event!)

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Card Contest Winners!

We have loved the burst of creativity on our creativi-tree with our annual Christmas Card Contest this year! Thanks to ALL who participated- either by bringing in a card or placing your votes! Here's a peek at our creativi-tree as it is today- isn't it fun? Stop by the store this week if you'd like to take a closer look!
And now, I'm pleased to announce the winners!

In the Kids Cards category:
First: Jayden
Second: Mikaela


In the Quick & Simple Category:
First: Heather
Second: Shelley

In the Embellished & Enhanced Category:
First: Dorothy
Second: Carla
Congratulations to ALL of you! Your cards were so fabulous, we wish we could have offered even bigger prizes!

Keep a watch out for details on our first challenge of 2010 coming soon- one of our resolutions is to keep our creativi-tree loaded with inspiration from & for our customers :)

Boxing Week Sale!

Our Boxing Week Sale begins at 1pm on Monday, Dec. 28!

On Monday from 1-7pm you can SAVE:

- 40% on almost everything* in the store
- Patterned papers are buy 10 get 10 FREE
- Clearance items 70% off the lowest marked price
- Christmas Stamps Buy 1 Get 1 FREE


Tuesday through Thursday at 4pm you can SAVE:

- 25% on almost everything* in the store
- Patterned papers are buy 10 get 10 FREE
- Clearance items 70% off the lowest marked price
- Christmas Stamps Buy 1 Get 1 FREE


*Copic Markers, QK Santa's Workshop items, specially priced items & new arrivals not yet on the shelves not included in the storewide sale.