“My Core’dinations Creative Frenzy”

A couple of years ago, I worked freelance for several scrapbook product companies.
I would make projects for those companies, showcasing their product, for trade-shows, catalogs, magazines and online galleries.
It was great!
I got to work from home, scrapping my own photos, and when they were finished with my projects, they mailed them back to me.
Plus, I got paid, AND got free stuff.
It was a lot of fun, but a whole lot of work.
I found myself torn between being a professional scrapbooker (I still laugh at that title!) and a professional mom.

I made the decision that my kids needed me more, and stepped down from my positions on all of my design teams.

Well, after achieving my goal of acquiring my masters degree in professional mom-ing,(that and now my kids are all in school full-time) I find myself with a lot of free time.

I am ready to come back.

I miss people in the industry, deadlines, the smell of fresh ink on brand new paper, and most of all, the creative process.

One of my favorite companies that I worked for was Core'dinations Cardstock.
I met them at a trade-show, when they first started the company, and I remember being blown away by their unique cardstock.

I know that sounds totally geeky.

They came out with cardstock that had a black surface on the top, but a colored core. When you tore the cardstock or sanded it, it revealed the colored core.
Remember back in grade school when you would color a picture with crayons, and then color black over the top, and scratch the paper down to the color?
Yeah, that.
But in cardstock, and without all the effort.
They called it "Black Magic."

Then they came out with white cardstock, with a solid colored core.
It was called "Whitewash."
Soon followed by a gorgeous rainbow of regular, textured and pre-embossed cardstock.

I just love cardstock.
I wish they had cardstock conventions, like Star Wars conventions.
For paper geeks like myself.

Anyway, finding myself looking to expand my daytime life (beyond my afternoon nap...)until the kids come back home again from school, I looked into some options.

It just so happens that Core'dinations is having a design team call!

I put together some projects for the call, and I will see where it takes me.
I hope they want me back.
You can click on any of the images to make them larger.
Here are some cards I did.
All of them are 100 percent Core'dinations cardstock:

A couple of layouts:
This is one I did using come Quickutz border dies. When I sanded the cut dies, it exposed the lighter core of the cardstock, and then I adhered them to cardstock of the same color.

This next layout, I used Core'dination Vintage collection for the background. See how it looks like a painted canvas?

The circles, and the top letters of the title were made with Black Magic cardstock-sanded to reveal the core color. I also dry embossed the circles for texture. The butterflies, and shadow letters are cut from regular colored cardstock, with a lighter core. You can see the lighter core when it is sanded.
Here is a close-up:

It's a pretty texture, this cardstock, no?
And then, while I was sitting around watching General Conference on Saturday, I made this:

I really like it.
Usually the things I make I could take or leave, cause they look really "homemade" to me.
But I actually like this. (shrug)
I cut all the flowers and leaves from the Core'dination Whitewash collection, using Quickutz dies.
Then I rolled the petals a little, and added rhinestones or pearls.
The quote reads:
"Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get." --H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Here is another shot to show the dimension:

And a close-up:

Can you see how pretty that Whitewash texture is?
Do you love it too?
No?
Just me?
Okay then.

And in other news...here is a small public service announcement to follow up on my last blog post.
I have received many e-mails.

Do you morons think that if I knew where to get Mexican diet pills I would still be in the United States? Heck no!
I would have a sprawling ranch in Puerto Escondido.
I would be fluent in Spanish.
I would be a Mexican Pharmaceutical Importer.
I would be rich beyond my wildest dreams.

At the very least I would post some pictures of myself "giving back" to Mexico, by doing some humanitarian work...and "oops" please ignore the fact that I am wearing an immodest string bikini in those imaginary pictures because I AM SO FREAKING SKINNY FROM THE GRAPEFRUIT JUICE.

Or perhaps the pills.