Here's a peek at our (sold out) April kit, featuring Basic Grey's Urban Couture papers, and our newsletter...
Fashion fades. Only style remains the same. (Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel)
It’s almost April, and this month, scrapologie brings you a gorgeous array of papers from Basic Grey’s new Urban Couture Collection. The unexpected color palette is unique and fresh, and infused with Basic Grey’s signature style. Like Coco Chanel, a legend and leader who revolutionized fashion, Basic Grey is a cutting-edge scrapbook products manufacturer that is revolutionizing the approach to paper and product design for the scrapbooking industry.
This month we want to tell you a bit about style, particularly about a woman who embodied style and was perhaps one of the greatest and most influential couturieres of the 20th century:Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel. Why Chanel? Chanel was an extraordinary visionary and a profound creative force. She took fashion in a completely different direction and created a style that would later become a classic. Her approach to design was one of elegance and simplicity. Her methods were often described as irascible and autocratic. Her pursuit of perfection was relentless – but she was, undoubtedly, one of the greatest couturieres and one of the most influential women of the 20th century.
Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was born in the French town of Saumur in the Loire Valley in 1883. Her mother died when she was six and soon thereafter she and her siblings were abandoned by their father who could not contend with the duties of rearing children. Chanel grew up among relatives and in orphanages. She learned to sew at convent school and found work as a dressmaker. She received the name Coco from a song she sung while working as a cabaret singer, but would later in life be referred to as “Mademoiselle”, particularly after she attained celebrity status.
Chanel would meet and be courted by a series of wealthy, generous and titled gentlemen who eventually would help her in founding the House of Chanel. Though she was helped by these individuals, she was also a shrewd businesswoman and quite confident of her own intelligence and ideas and she never married.
Chanel made several notable contributions to fashion, introducing relaxed jersey sport suits, inspired by menswear, and suitable for women who were increasingly entering the workforce and also engaging in active sports. Many contend that she was the creator of the little black dress for evening. She cut her hair short in 1917, setting a trend for women worldwide. She wore trousers boldly and daringly, at a time when it was considered scandalous to do so, and thus was instrumental in achieving social acceptance for women to wear trousers. She loved jewelry and made it socially acceptable and desirable for women to be seen in costume or faux jewelry. She wore strand upon strand of faux pearls and loved wearing bracelets, rings and brooches. She launched Chanel No. 5, created for her by an eminent French chemist who blended over 80 ingredients to create the costly perfume. With jasmine as its base, it was the first perfume to bear a couturier’s own name; the number five was her lucky number and the perfume was extraordinarily successful. Royalties from the sale of the perfume would ensure her financial independence for the rest of her days. She was also best known for her classic Chanel suits and she continued to design for Chanel until her death in 1971. The House of Chanel remains a successful atelier and one of Europe’s premier fashion houses today.
We are thrilled this month, to bring you a gorgeous kit from Basic Grey, featuring their breathtakingly beautiful papers from the new Urban Couture collection. Basic Grey has revolutionized the scrapbooking industry with their cutting edge approach to design. Basic Grey’s entry as a player in the scrapbooking industry has helped to legitimize scrapbooking as an art form.
Urban Couture, which debuted at CHA Winter 2006, is a collection of 12 stunning patterned papers in an unmistakably lovely and unexpected color palette of chocolate, café au lait, strawberry, lime, lemon and pale blue. If the essence of spring could be printed on paper, Urban Couture would be the result.
The papers are highly decorative, festooned with elegant flourishes, rich brocade patterns and stunning representations of birds and flowers. We’ve paired the papers with six sheets of premium Bazzill cardstock in Green Tea, Mocha Divine, Iced Cocoa, Sunbeam, Breathtaking and Watermelon. We’ve selected a gorgeous array of embellishments to coordinate with your kit. You’ll receive Flourish Rub-ons from Basic Grey, four sheets of Heidi Swapp She Chipboard Letters in lime, Heidi Swapp Silhouette Images Shapes in lime, three Big Board Chipboards in different flourish patterns from Fancy Pants Designs, a package of two photo connectors from Seven Gypsies, two 97% Complete Tags from Seven Gypsies (Photograph and Receipt), three Heidi Swapp chipboard flowers in butterscotch, three chocolate colored diecut bookplates in varying sizes, and five yards of sumptuous ribbon – pewter, sweetpea, chocolate brown grosgrain, strawberry satin and strawberry sheer from May Arts.
Additionally, we have six stunning supplements for you, aptly and fashionably named: Haute Couture, Pret-a-Porter (Ready-to-Wear), Style Notebook, Runway, Garment District and Urban Bling. Be sure to check out the gorgeous bracelet from Seven Gypsies in the Urban Bling supplement, made even lovelier with the Urban Couture papers. Chanel considered a suit to be naked without jewelry and I believe she would have approved of our gorgeous bracelet!
The Studio Girls have contributed an absolutely inspired collection of projects this month. I am in total awe of their talents and could stare at their projects all day long. You’ll want to get your kit out and start creating when you see their gorgeous work. Make sure to scroll to the bottom of this thread to see the design team’s work!
Finally, we have some recommendations for Books and Fonts this month. This month we would like to recommend Porcelain, which is the font you see used as titles in the photos of the kits and supplements. It’s an elegant and beautiful font and will complement the Basic Grey papers perfectly. Download Porcelain for free from www.dafont.com, here:
http://www.dafont.com/search.php?q=porcelain
Another font we’d like to suggest is Belphebe, a calligraphic font with plenty of flourishes to mimic
those in the Urban Couture papers. Download Belphebe for free from www.dafont.com, here:
http://www.dafont.com/belphebe.font
For further reading about Chanel, you may want to take a look at:
Chanel, the Couturiere at Work, by Amy de la Haye
and Shelley Tobin
And Coco Chanel, A Biography, by Axel Madsen
Again, don't forget to check out the fabulous DT work at the end of the thread!! This month we gave the design team wooden coasters from Target to alter - keep an eye out for the altered coasters - they're gorgeous! The layouts are just STUNNING. I know you'll be as floored as I was! I just have to say a word of thanks to the wonderful women who comprise my design team. Aside from the fact that they are enormously talented and contribute such a great deal to scrapologie, each and everyone of them are such amazing women, people who I am proud to call my friends and I love the sense of sisterhood and camaraderie we've come to share. Scrapologie would not BE without these women. I owe them a heartfelt thank you for all that they do. So THANK YOU ladies! I love my girlies!
Now without further ado.... introducing, Urban Couture! The first few pics are of the kit and close-ups of the kit, (I included a quick project with the 7gypsies tag and photo connector to give you an idea of how to use them). Then you can see all the kit supplements (add-ons). Details of the add-ons (price list and contents) will be posted in a separate thread later today or tomorrow. To be fair to everyone, I cannot do any presale of supplements, please purchase them through the store. The kits and supplements will go on sale in the store 9 pm e.s.t. on Friday evening. We'll start shipping on Tuesday next week and we'll ship in the order in which payments are received. It'll take me some time to get through all the shipments but rest assured you will get your kit! Thank you and Happy Spring!
Had to take a break from packing kits and shipping to blog a bit! Just wanted to share this adorable pic of my baby girl! We went to the Columbus Zoo for Eggs, Paws 'n Claws on Easter Weekend. She was completely fascinated with the bunny and the photographer had no problem getting her to smile - a near miracle since she is usually ignoring us when we are pursuing her with the camera. Anyway, despite her being tired and in a sugar coma from all the Easter candy, we got this absolutely adorable shot! I smile every time I see it!