Thursday, April 26, 2012

May Workshop Registrations Are Now Open

Firstly, we would like to thank everyone who has enquired after our Lizzie's health.  Many of you are aware that in early March Lizzie was diagnosed with Bowel Cancer and it has been quite a journey thus far.  But in her own words 'don't give up on this over 50, overweight gal - she is a fighter' and that she is.... Lizzie is two weeks into recovery from major surgery and she is already keen to get back to everything routine.... while she still has a journey ahead of her, she has done remarkably well and we are so happy to know that she is going to be sitting in on the next workshop in May and is keen to see all of our workshop lovelies.


Our May Workshop is titled - Mists and MasksWe at Embellees have had a 'love affair' with mists and masks since we did our first Glimmer Mist Workshop with the gorgeous Heidi Swapp and the Tattered Angels Team way back in 2009 when they visited Australia.

This Workshop is all about experimenting with the different misting and mask products out the
re in the big wide world of scrapping.
Time to check out the feel, the look, the differences. These products are great tools that a lot of as are adding to our supplies and getting to play with them using different techniques will help expand their versatility as well as their appeal. 


The aim for the day is to have you play with techniques and products like Glimmer Mist, Mr Hueys, Dylusions Ink Spray, Tim Holtz Distress Inks and much more! 
 
 
 
 
In this Workshop we will be starting you on a journey with a very special project technique journal that you can refer back to, add to and decorate with some gorgeous new embellees we are going to also introduce you to... all handmade!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Workshop Details are:
Date: 20 May 2012
Time: 10:30 am to 4:00 pm
Venue: Edgeworth Bowling Club
Cost: $60.00 (includes kit)
** Lunch is not included - Club has great Cafe


Registrations have opened and spots are filling quickly, so please please ensure you have read our Terms and Conditions on our Workshops 2012 page tab above.

All enquiries/registrations should be directed to our email at: Embellees@bigpond.com

Embellees Embellishments - Covered Buttons

In our recent Workshop 'Papers, Punches and Photos' we had a lot of fun introducing our Workshop Lovelies to the art of making their own covered buttons to use on their layouts. 





We made three buttons on the day in different sizes that worked with our layouts. 

Here you can see the lovely yellow and white spot button used as the centre of our 'pinwheel embellishment' on the Rainbow Layout by our DT Member Natalie Bright.








Another sample is shown here on our Butterfly Layout added to a crochet doily that Lizzie had tinted with distress inks as part this embellishment cluster.

We love being able to introduce handmade embellishments (or Embellees as our name suggests) to our Workshops.

While it is easy to buy co-ordinating embellishments with most scrapbooking papers, it is always rewarding to use new ideas, techniques and more importantly your 'stash' to make your own.

For many years (Lizzie) has been making her own covered buttons when sewing and she then continued to add these to her layouts. 

It was great to find new tools that made this so much easier and cost effective.  We purchased our tools from an Oz Company by the name of:  Pack It In 

This great little company has good prices, quick purchase options and fabulous customer service.  We found them via their Facebook Page, which led us to their products on Ebay.



Here are some links to these sites:

Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Embellees/123092587736147#!/packitin

Ebay: 
http://stores.ebay.com.au/packitin-bags

To get yourself started you will need to:
  • Purchase a template/kit that matches size of button (one-off purchase)
  • Purchase a supply of buttons (we used the flat backs and sizes 19mm, 28mm & 38mm)
  • There is a very easy tutorial included on the FB page that helped us get going very quickly and is supplied with your template purchase
We look forward to showing you many more ways in which we intend to use these  'embellees' in our future projects.

Cheers
Lisa and Lizzie

It's A Wrap

On 18 March 2012 we hosted our 'Papers, Punches and Photos' Workshop and what a great group of ladies we had share the day with us.  Thank you again for supporting the workshops we present and for the feedback - it is so much appreciated.

The aim of this workshop was to get everyone using their punches and looking at them through new eyes.


We undertook to finish 3 layouts with lots of left overs for a 4th.  Our sample table above had everyone inspired to use their punches in so many ways. We tried to focus on punches that most of us have collected in our 'stash' over the years so that everyone could go home and continue to experiment.

Let's take a look at our projects:

This gorgeous layout by Lisa Greedy (the Embellees Creative Director) was inspired by the most basic of punched shapes the circle. 

This fabulous 'retro' look had  Lisa busy with a couple of her circle punches that took us back to our early scrapping days when we used both the positive and the negative punched shape. 

What is so great about this layout is that Lisa wanted to concentrate on using punches to create backgrounds and to mix it up with some 'old tools' (round punch) and 'new tools' (distress inks). 


Each of our Workshop Lovelies got to choose a Tim Holtz distress ink pad to add to their growing collection.... Lisa used: Peeled Paint, Broken China, Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade - great colour combination. What really makes this pop is the use of the Black Soot ink to pop the whole background


The next layout by Lizzie was the first of our famous butterfly sprays. The layout was created using a paint sampler from our local Bunnings Store. 


When working with colour this handy little hint really helps, as you can choose a colour palette and work with the sampler as your guide - something that is needed when moving through the rainbow shades (just ask Lizzie). 

Just loving this layout with the use of several butterfly punches in different sizes and then embossing and pop dotting them to add dimension.

Just love that Lizzie has also used the wording from the paint sampler as her title.

 ** Photo in this layout is by: Jen Hall from Jenerations Photograhy



This was Layout #1 in our Paper, Punches and Photos Workshop.  Embellees DTMember Natalie Bright designed this gorgeous layout and had us thinking about how we can use our edge punches to create a great page 'Embellishment'. 
 
What we love about this is that Natalie thought 'right outside the box' and used a Notebook Punch as her edge. By damping and scrunching her cardstock after punching her edge she created this fabulous shabby but very chic rainbow. 
 
Another great use of punches in a non-traditional way, was with the cloud masks used on the glimmer misted background. Natalie used a six petal flower punch and cut it in half and thirds to create her masks - well they don't need to be masks you could make them into 3-dimensional 'embellees - but what a great way to use your flower punches that have been languishing in the bottom of that basket!
 
This gorgeous Pomander Ball  was also made by our lovely Natalie Bright for our Papers, Punches and Photos Workshop. 
 
So much detail using a tiny flower punch double layered with pearl headed pins in a styrofoam ball. 
 
While Natalie was not inspired by the following tutorial link (we found this just recently courtesy of Pinterest), rather than duplicate the steps we have included a link here: 
 
Below are some other lovely samples we had made up for the day .......
 
 
 
 
We hope you have enjoyed the overview of our 'Papers, Punches and Photos' Workshop.
 
We will be back soon with more updates.
 
Cheers
Lizzie and Lisa