Shake it up!

It's time to shake things up a little at Lotus Paperie. Spring is trying its hardest to evict all signs of winter up here in Canada's Frozen Tundra but in an effort to feel refreshed and inspired, the Design Team is undergoing a major facelift! We are holding an open call for all you would-be designers out there. It is a wonderful opportunity to get to know some wonderful new friends, to play with gorgeous scrap supplies and to push your personal creative limits on a weekly basis. Even if you've never been on a design team but you have a passion for scrapbooking, your submissions to this open call are warmly welcomed! If you found your way here via PUBCALLS, then you already know what's expected of your participation in the Call. If you haven't seen that post and want more info on what you need to do to take a stab at being on the Lotus Paperie design team, read on... (NOTE- if you have read the PUBCALLS post, please read below anyway, it's a little more detailed info that what's posted on their calendar! thanks)

You are:
creative, passionate, committed and know the importance of deadlines and also that your best work is what you want others to know you by.

You scrapbook for fun or to save your sanity but do so with conviction. You scrap because you love it and rise to a challenge. You are comfortable sharing your personal journaling and photographs without editing (unless they're addresses- we don't need any creepy stalkers showing up at our front doors! or boob shots from those breastfeeding photos - or worse, the graphic birth photos...Eeew!) You don't take life or yourself too seriously and are an open communicator. You are sensitive to others' feelings but have a positive, easygoing attitude.

We (Lotus Paperie) are:
first and foremost, a business but we understand that it's the people who make our business. We openly welcome constructive criticism (and random gifts during birthday week!) and are eager to make being on the Design Team as positive an experience as humanly possible for all involved. We are deeply committed to bringing creativity & joy to the lives of those who share in our passion for paper arts and all forms of crafting and have great respect for what others share with us. We are a warm and grateful group and eagerly anticipate growing the Lotus Paperie Team!

To make a submission you will need to email the following:
-3 of your best pages, one of which needs to be brand new and created from the sketch found below. Please only submit this page to this call and we politely request that you refrain from publishing it elsewhere until you hear back as to whether or not you are invited to join our team. We want that page to be a big surprise to all our faithful blog readers.
-write a brief bio about yourself including your scrapbooking interests/experience, as well as links to your blogs/online galleries and other design teams that you are on currently or have been in the past. Also, if you have a photo of yourself that you love, please feel free to include that too!

Here's the deal if you are invited to join the Design Team:
-you will receive one monthly Couture Collection for every month that you are on the team. You will receive that kit at least one week before the first project for the month is due (barring unforseen circumstances like shipping delays/postal delays)
-you will create a minimum of one project for each week of the month using sketches and other artwork as inspiration which is emailed to you for the beginning of the month using no less than 75% of Couture Collection materials in your pages/projects.
-Artwork can be created all at once or week by week, whatever works best for you. You will not be contacted if your submission misses the weekly deadline (thursday night, 9:00pm pacific time). If you miss more than two deadlines, your will be dismissed and your spot will become available to someone new.
-You will submit well photographed/scanned digital images of your artwork. You will make efforts to eliminate unsightly glare& shadows from your submissions. Poorly captured images will not be posted and will qualify as a "missed deadline", however, those who are invited to join the team will be given pointers to help them make the best possible digital reproductions of their work.
-You will promote Lotus Paperie on your blog by either a link, gallery, weekly postings of your Lotus Paperie projects or all of the above. We politely ask that you maintain & update your blog regularly as we link to you every time we post your pages.
-You will not post pages created for the DT anywhere on the web (except for our private Yahoo group- see next point) until they have been published to the blog. NO EXCEPTIONS. If this is not respected, it will count as a 'missed deadline' after two occurrences, you will be dismissed and your spot will be available to someone new.
-You will upload your pages to our private Yahoo group as a backup in case emails get lost or accidentally deleted (It's been known to happen...a little overzealous with the 'delete' button!)
-You will participate in the once-monthly vote on our Yahoo group to assist in determining a winner in the page contest for pages uploaded to our Flickr Group. You may participate in the Yahoo group more frequently if you wish.

Having said all that, we are regular folks just like you and sometimes things happen. We are pretty flexible and understanding. We want this to work for you as much as we want it to work for us. We want you to be happy so if life gets in the way of something crazy has happened like the dog ACTUALLY ate your page, dude, let us know so that we can come up with a solution together!
Remember to think outside the box and let your personal creative style shine. Please don't post your submission or personal contact information in the comments section but rather, email it to lotuspaperie@shaw.ca Can't wait to see all the wonderful submissions!

PS- the call runs until April 30th at midnight PST. The winners will be contacted via email. Those of you not selected will not be contacted. Winners will be announced in early May.

edited: this open call is only available to Canada & US residents. Sorry all you uber talented overseas gals, we hate to exclude you but we still invite you to participate in the weekly challenges & the Flickr contest!!

Good luck everyone!

Rookery Road Couture Collection

The newest Couture Collection suffered some delays in shipping but after a long wait (thank you Canada Post!) it's all here! I can't tell you how excited I am about this kit. It is bright & lively, just perfect for spring. Plus there's a little black to keep it edgy and hip. Your Couture Collection contains one each of six prints from Scenic Route's "Laurel" collection, all of which are double sided. See below for images depicting the reverse print of each featured in this Couture Collection. You'll also receive six sheets of cardstock (two vanilla, two watermelon, one lime green and one black) as well as a pack of Scenic Route aqua blue alpha stickers. You kit will also have 1yard of pink striped ribbon, three mini calendar tags from Paper Pixie, a white paper starburst embellishment from Nicole Lombardo, vintage money bands (too bad there wasn't money to wrap them around!) from Miss Alayneeah . And just when you thought we couldn't possibly stuff any more goodies into this kit, we thought we'd also throw in some Queen & Co. flowers, Maya Road chipboard birds - cuz we all love those birds! and two pieces of vintage inspired fabrics measuring approximately 12x6". The fabric prints are hot pink with white star bursts and vintage coupons. This is such a bold & lively kit, I can't wait to get scrapping with this one, expecially since the snow up here in the frozen North is FINALLY starting to melt.

You can purchase this kit using the Paypal button on the sidebar or at the bottom of this post. If you wish to order this kit with another past kit or you want more than one of this one, please email me so I can send you an invoice with combined shipping so you don't pay too much!

Rookery Road Couture Collection
$49.00 including shipping

Challenge 65

What a crazy week. I tell ya, these four day weeks really mess me up. I almost didn`t have a page to post either, time just gets away and with a four day week, I swear, Friday really sneaks up on ya! So here`s our sketch for this week. I really love this page especially since Polaroids have officially quit production. I made my page using faux-laroids, which I`ve been dying to use. I think it worked out really well for this page.

This is the last sketch of the month and no pages have been uploaded to our Flickr Group! *gasp* So if you are interested in winning a free Couture Collection and you want really good odds of winning, then this is the perfect time to give it a shot! You don`t have to make pages with the current Couture Collection, you can use any products you want but if you DO have a Couture Collection, we`d love to see how you do it! Be sure to reference the weekly challenge that your page is for in the title so we don`t miss it in the voting.

Ronda

Jessi
Vanessa
Tania

Sallie
Danielle

Christine
(a late submission due to technical difficulties!)

And just to give you a sense of how much stuff is actually in this kit, Tania made a few extra goodies from her scraps (and I`m quite sure that she`s still got tons left!) There`s only a couple of kits left so you gotta hurry and order yours!

Oh ya, challenge 64 - I almost forgot!

This week's challenge is one more fantastic piece from Kal Barteski. This great painting is titled "It's okay". We all had so much fun working from this painting and it's amazing how many of us took the plunge and tried out the 6x12 format. I know I really enjoyed working on this scale- it puts 4x6's to really great use, the scale is just right. I have to say how uncanny it is that Sallie and I managed to produce such similar pages. Weird!


Of course, we want to see what you guys can do with this challenge too! So go get creating, upload your page to the Flickr Group and at the end of this month, we'll vote on a winner and that just might be YOU! Now, you don't have to use the Couture Collections but of course you're welcome to if you've bought one. There are still a few left so get 'em while they're still in stock.

Vanessa

Jessi

Ronda

Tania

Danielle Sallie

Christine

Oh and let's not forget to announce the winner for the Birthday Eve giveaway. This is the big fat prize and the lucky winner is Jayne! YAY! You get a wooden arrow from Miss Alayneeah, a mini album with top loading page protectors and a mini-coaster book. Also, a late arrival in the birthday week giveaway(not pictured) is a set of colorful tags from Elle's Studio! So Jayne, congratulations and please email me with your mailing info so I can send out your prize!!

Enjoy your Easter weekend. Don't overdose on chocolate though!

cocktail headache

I refuse to call it a hangover. I'm calling it a cocktail headache. Nothing a little coffee can't fix, right? LOL . Ray took me out for birthday dinner with our neighbors - who we LOVE- to the most amazing restaurant. Now, keep in mind that we don't really have an abundance of fine dining locations to visit for birthday dinners, in fact I was fully prepared to go to Boston Pizza! But instead we went to a little hole-in-the-wall place in a stripmall style building with a pub/bar on one side and a gas station on the other. I didn't have very high expectations at all, although I'd heard great things about the place so I was cautiously optimistic. We walked in and the decor was stunning, the atmosphere was lovely and there wasn't a child in sight (always a good sign for a grownup's night out!). Our friends arrived as we were being seated and let me tell you how fabulous the food was. Between the seafood stuffed mushroom caps and the fillet mignon I couldn't have been more pleased. The vegetables were absolutely perfect, they served one of my favorite wines, Yellowtail Shiraz (YUM), and they brought me a divine slice of tiramisu cheesecake- complete with birthday candle (sans serenade, thank GOD!). After our dinner we headed downtown to a great little martini lounge that had the best atmosphere. It was urban but not cookie-cutter or glossy. Rustic but not grubby. It was a completely perfect. Okay maybe the bartender needed to learn how to mix a Cosmopolitan that didn't taste like boozy lemonade but other than that little detail, it was a five-star night. Yay for me.

Now, lets back it up a little. Here's what my day was about before the fancy night out...

I didn't blog yesterday because there just wasn't time so here it is today. I started my day with a phonecall from my dad who serenaded me with the traditional birthday song and when that ended, I headed over to the kitchen to serve up a little birthday cake for breakfast. It's customary in our family for the birthday person to eat birthday cake for every meal until it's gone. I decided to share it with everyone yesterday. The night before I baked an angel food cake and made whipped cream and we ate what is pictured below for breakfast! YUM!
So day 2 of Karen's Birthday week box contained this amazing cook book. I'm a bit of a cook book hoarder and a very experimental cook- luckily my family doesn't have to suffer through too many weird dishes- but this will be an entirely new food adventure. Can't wait to get started. This is a fantastic gift (I'm beginning to feel a little pressure to rock out her birthday box...)
And this morning as I sipped coffee from my new and very stylish Starbucks mug from Day 1, I opened the Day 3 gift. Wow, does my gal know me or what?
I can't wait to wrap this gorgeous yarn around my needles...so many projects already on the go so it'll have to wait for now but stay tuned for updates on what this yarn becomes...I'm sending you big fat industrial strength hugs, Karen. Thanks sooooooooooo much! I'm loving opening these little gifties every day. I swear, Birthday week is the BEST idea! What fun!!!

It's here!

I just got home from town. We hit the post office and I picked up my birthday week package from Karen...


can I tell you how hard it is to root through this box and search for the one marked "day 1" and not peek at the rest! Man, I do NOT have that kind of discipline, but at the risk of being 'docked' next year for not following the make-them-up-as-you-go rules, I thought I better not peek.

Good thing Karen included her very decorative disclaimer on this package...

What a treat! I love a good cup of tea and these look like they're gonna be a lovely (temporary) replacement for those evening glasses of wine...

and really what good is new fancy loose leaf organic tea without a new fancy Starbucks mug. Gee, Karen, I think we're starting a birthday-mug tradition. I guess I can retire my pink gerbera one from a few years back...
How fun! I love birthday week. These little treasures are so delightful to unwrap (even if they aren't shoes) and I swear, every week should be birthday week!! Thanks so much Karen. I'm sipping my new tea as I write this

YAY! It's birthday eve! I'm heading out to town today to collect some parcels from the post office. I can't wait to get one in particular because it's from Karen - who has informed me that although there are a week's worth of gifties inside, I'm NOT allowed to 'catch up' on the pre-birthday gifts, I'm only allowed to open one gift per day for the week following receipt of the box. That's the rules according to the yet-to-be-written rulebook of Birthday Week.



This is the gift for yesterday's post. There weren't too many comments but I liked Tania's the best. I love a girl who knows how to just let herself fully embrace the birthday girl-ness like that!! And I know what to send you for your birthday. (I still remember that amazing bag of scrappy birthday goodness you gave me for my birthday when Noah & Chastity were in Gr.1!!) So happy my-birthday-week to you! LOL I'll send your goodies with your next Design Team Couture Collection. FYI, the above prize is a 6x6 slab of Daisy D's paper & diecuts as well as a wooden birdie from Miss Alayneeah again. Congrats & happy birthday eve.

There's a little more to give away. Want in? Share with me (and all my blog-lurking readers) what you like for your Birthday Dinner. I am going out for dinner to a local steak house with friends but am considering making a cake for myself anyway. I'm still undecided but want to know if you have a traditional dinner you make every year or if you have a current fave that you'd like for your own Birthday Dinner. Winner of today's giveaway will be announced sometime tomorrow.

two more sleeps!

Okay, so yesterday I honestly planned to blog so I could share some more Birthday Week giveaway goodness BUT after what was supposed to be a quick trip to town promptly turned into a very frustrating situation in the Superstore parking lot. My three year old had (at some point during the last few weeks) crammed some mystery object into my ignition and it lodged itself into the deepest recesses of it so I couldn't start my car. It had been starting just fine, with a few quirks- you know the ones where you have to jiggle the key up and down while trying to turn it to the right?? so other than that, there were no signs of trouble till I had to try and get home of course with the front seat full of groceries. Of course, it had to be the day I had frozen meat sitting there!UGH

So, that being said, I didn't really have any blogging mojo left when I got home. But I'm super excited to see how many of you are commenting. It makes me really feel the Birthday Week love! Would you like to see the prize for all those great comments?? These goodies are from some of my friends over at ETSY. The wooden shapes (in today's giveaway and the last giveaway) are from Miscellaneeah and the tags are from Kellydesigns4U.


And the lucky winner of these super fun goodies is... DEMENTI!!!!!

edited: sorry about the MASSIVE font. I can't change it- I tried. I'm not yelling though, the font size is STUCK! GRRR (okay, that part was meant to be a little louder, but not the stuff below! LOL)

so if you email me with your mailing information I'll send this package out to you. Congratulations!!

Alright, there's another giveaway in the spirit of Birthday week. I celebrate for the whole week and receive gifts from my husband, friends & myself. I do this to really draw out the experience of being the birthday girl and because I'd rather cool and creative mini gifts over one super huge extravagant gift (that would likely be useless and take up space I don't have). I want to know what you do to make your birthday (or others' birthdays) special and memorable. Do you have traditions? What's your favorite way to celebrate for yourself? Share your stories here and a winner will be chosen and announced right here. Let's see whatcha got!

Well, it' s Sunday morning - not a typical blogging day for me- but I know many of you are wondering who the winner is from yesterday's Birthday Week Giveaway! Well, there were seven comments to choose from and I asked my husband to pick a number between one and seven (he hadn't read any of them yet so he didn't know which comment belonged to which person) and he chose number SIX! Allison, you were the lucky commenter and your prize bundle is pictured below. I need you to email me your mailing address (again) because I have no idea where I put it! lol


So you didn't win and you maybe want another shot at some free Birthday Week stuff...Well, guess what. I'm going to do another draw tomorrow morning. Comment on today's post and we'll see what you get! I want to see more names in the list this time! C'mon, you know you wanna!

Enjoy your Sunday!

Can you believe it! Only five days left till Birthday! YAY! So in the spirit of Birthday Week, I'm going to do a little giveaway. I want to see who out there likes free stuff and whoever leaves a comment in this post will have a shot at some random birthday week goodness! I will post the winner and their prize tomorrow morning. I won't tell you what it's for (but it's some super fun scrappy related stuff) so you might want to just take a chance and see if you win it!

on your mark...get set...GO!

Challenge 63

Yahoo! This is my favorite week of the ENTIRE year. I even like this week better that the week leading up to Christmas. I like to think I'm a pretty balanced person with only mildly selfish tendencies and an ability to put others before myself when necessary. However, Birthday Week is all about me, what I like and what I wanna do!! So that means a little pedicure lovin' at the spa, a super delish dinner out on Birthday Day, my really great birthday earrings that I ordered from Etsy, a little bit of new yarn yumminess and maybe a book for good measure!

My pal, Karen & I often help each other celebrate our Birthday Weeks by giving each other little daily gifts. It's going to be a little different this year because former traditions had us making daily deliveries which is not going to be possible this year so instead, we've been on the hunt for a bunch of super cool things to put into one big box. The idea is that every day leading up to birthday week you still get a gift, just reach in and pull one out!!

Ray's been recruited into the Birthday week celebration style too...remember the emergency outfit from last week? That was the 'meat' of the Birthday week stuff, my new earrings that I ordered to replace a lost pair that was similar to these ones (below) and of course, our new movie. A pretty fine lead-up to Birthday week if you ask me!

Okay...so enough about that! It's time to look at our sketch. We have been having so much fun with our kit this month. I love that the colors are SO not 'springy' and just so easy to scrap with! I've been really enjoying getting caught up on some photos from Autumn that have gotten a little forgotten. I especially liked dusting off a few more of my sewing supplies and rockin' out a bit of embroidery on my page.

The sketch for this week is pictured below. If you want a shot at winning one of our Couture Collections, create your own page from the sketch using your own supplies (or if you have a Couture Collection, feel free to use that!) and upload a photo of your page to our Flickr Group. At the end of the month, the design team and I will pick our favorite page and the lucky winner will be announced right here! As a matter of fact, we've got the winner of February's submissions announced below...scroll down to see who won this month.

Vanessa

edited: after some slight mismanagement of the contents of my inbox, I've relocated Jessi's page for you to enjoy! Sorry Jess!!

JessiTania

Ronda

Christine

Danielle

Sallie

This Month's Flickr Winner!!!
BBHome
please email me your mailing address so we can ship your Couture Collection!


And here are some of our other favorite submissions. Great work everyone!