Hey girlfriend ...

Today Tracey and Corrina have focused our own designed girlfriend ribbons ...



The words on our ribbon is girlfriends, girls just wanna have fun, friendship, best friends and girls talk

and from today till the end of May we are offering 25% off all our own designed ribbons. The DT has solely focused on our ribbons this month so keep coming back to our blog for many more ideas of using our unique ribbons

and now for some inspiration firstly from Tracey ...

Here's a quick card I knocked up :)



Shop Products
Girlfriends Ribbon
Bo Bunny Sophie Notebook
Large Journalling Tags
Websters Pages Blue Ball Fringe Trim
Pink Gardenia from the Romance Pack
Carolees Creations Tiny Flirtacious Cardstock Alpha Stickers
Foam Mounting Tape
3mm Double Sided Tape
12mm double sided acid free tape

Other Stuff
Bazzill Dotted Swiss
White Gel Pen

and from Corrina ....

Our Challenge this month was to use the wonderful ribbons from the my2angels collection, and I was so excited when my bundle arrived. I loved the pink girls ribbon but my girls are not in the pinky pastel frame of mind lately. I really wanted to use this ribbon on this paper ...




BUT they kind of clashed....so what did I do? I altered the ribbon of course!! (Head over to the TUTORIALS section of my2angels store to see how I did this...)

Here is my layout ... Birds of a Feather


I altered the ribbon and then made a large round calico flower to match. For the flower centre, I painted and inked a scenic route chipboard button, then finished it off with a coating of rock candy and some Twinklets Diamond Dust on the edges. The Websters braiding matched in perfectly, as did the black ric rac I had in my pack. I added small mists of Black Magic glimmer mist to the lovely Rose Moka paper to give it the edgey feel I wanted. The title was lightly misted with gold glimmer mist to dirty it up a little too.






MATERIALS USED

Papers: Rose Moka Graffiti paper

letter stickers: AC Thickers Jewelry Box and Carolee's Creations tiny black

ribbons: my2angels girlfriends ribbon, Websters raspberry braid, black ric rac

other products: scenic route chipboard button, Tim Holtz rock candy, Twinklets Diamond Dust, Glimmer Mist - Heidi Swapp Black Magic & gold

miscellaneous items: inks and calico fabric

and are you up for winning some prizes? Head over to ARTastic Challenge Blog where they are celebrating their first birthday with over $300 worth of prizes to be won (including my2angels charms) and why not have a go at their monthly layout challenge

TFL everyone
Hope your mojo is being kind to you today :)

Black and Orange Projects from the Design Team

Check out these orange and black combo projects created by the Design Team ...

First up Corrina ...
Book Week 2008 and my darling gorgeous little precious baby son, my little sweet 5 yr old, wanted to dress up like a spider. Yep. A spider. And not just any spider - a redback spider. And yes, I had to design him a costume. He was sooo interested in bugs and spiders and anything that crawled (although heaven forbid if one of these creepies had the audacity to crawl near him!!!!)


For this layout I have used a great Rusty Pickle paper (Eight legged Web), and I hand-stitched cream wool over the top of the web designs to really make them stand out. I stitched these great little spider charms on the webs - and gosh they look so real when you get them out of the packet - ewwww! (LOL!). The photo mount is recycled pizza box (yep...I recycle the boxes Tracy sends our stuff in!) sprayed with Heidi Swapp black magic glimmer mist. This glimmer mist is awesome - it's black with a gold shimmer in it - just glorious! On the photo mount I have cut pieces of my2angels design Explore Loud Messy Rough n Tumble 100% Boy ribbon and mounted them onto pieces of chipboard to raise them up a bit.





Materials Used:
Rusty Pickle Paper - Eight Legged Web (Costume Party Range)
Jenni Bowlin Studio - Chalkboard Alpha Vintage
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - black magic
my2angels design ribbon - Explore Messy Loud Rough and Tumble 100% Boy ribbon
spider charms
misc cardboard (I used an old pizza box), wool, needle.

From Wendy ...

This month Tracy asked us to use some of her ribbons and other my2angels goodies. So for my first share for the month I have used some of the Extreme Play Hard Boys Ribbon on this LO I did of my sons year 5 camp trip last year.



I have used (again) some Sassfras Lass Apple Jack My Type, together with some of their Glitter Alpha Stickers, which are a great sized alpha. The other alphas I used are American Crafts Foam Thickers Daiquiri Black and Carolees Creations Tiny Black Alpha Stickers. The grass is Scrapware Chipboard Mini Grass, however the tree is not but the scrapware chipboard love fern tree in the shop is very similar.





And from Tracey ...

I had a clean out on the long weekend. I hoard absolutely everything. Nothing gets thrown out it my house, especially if it can be re-used, re-designed, recycled, re-homed!!!
So I found this empty box ...



I had been hoarding and decided to make a cubie, dice decoration thing for the boys room. They can actually use it if they want to decide who gets to clean their room up.....lol.




SHOP PRODUCTS
Extreme Cool Play Hard Chill Out Awesome Mates Boys Ribbon
Making Memories Spellbound Brocade Orange
Thickers - Daiquiri White
Kindy Glitz - Black
Jones Tones Puff Paint - Black

OTHER STUFF
Mod Podge
Recycled Box

and from me Tracy (without the E) my first layout in a while ... adding blue to black using the new Scrapware Vintage Luggage Chipboard which arrived in store late Friday ....



Mark's First Passport Photos



The Bo Bunny Mama Razzi pattern paper was an easy choice for this layout. And the new Scrapware Vintage Luggage Chipboard was a perfect embellishment - since they are so generous in size I separated each suitcase and just used one which I inked and heat embossed silver on the buckles, hinges etc.

And more scrapware their cute mini aeroplanes which I inked and covered with Inkssentials



Also used the Tattered Angels Travel Bingo Cards - they are in a gorgeous vintage beige colour but because it wouldn't match my page I scanned them and printed out in black and white.

Of course any travel layout is not complete without our camera charms. Also added our buggy car charm.



Also from Scrapware is the clock hands which I was inked and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

Wrapped around the clock hands is a piece of string holding our Eiffel Tower Charms and underneath a small piece of white cotton ric rac

Also used black painted corrugated cardboard and the negative film strips are from the original layout. The original was crying out to be redone!

And lastly a piece of our 100% boys ribbon down the bottom of the layout.

TFL

Hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend

Introducing the Chic Bebe range from Teresa Collins. I know they have been around for a month or so but after seeing them in person recently I just had to get them in stock for you

Don't be fooled by the names, the wonderful thing about these two collections are that they are so versatile. Not only are they full of journaling tags and chic icons... well, they can be used for ANY age or ANY theme since all the back sides are more classic and non- themed

The pink and blue are the most beautiful shades and we have charms already that will match the ranges perfectly. For example our Fleur de Lis charms, all 3 crown charms match beautifully and we also have the glass pendant similar to the one Teresa used often on her mini albums.




So hard to choose favourites but I especially love these ...




Teresa has some gorgeous examples of using this range on her blog and you MUST scroll down about half a page and read her story on how she suffered a major stroke while 7 months pregnant - I love this lady's warmth and attitude to life. I think sometimes we just need to be reminded of what we have got and not what we haven't got!

Oh wow look scroll down a bit more and she used our large crowns (no she didn't get them from us silly! I wish!).

The blog I have directed you to is her personal blog but there are links on the side to take you to her company blog as well with detailed projects using her paper ranges.

We also have her Mr & Mrs range in stock also. It’s a beautiful black and white range (and only 2 papers specifically for weddings) the others are flourishes and designed classic motifs

FREE GIFT

With every purchase of any 3 pattern papers from our website you will receive FREE one of our new, not yet released, small gardenia mulberry paper flowers to match your pattern paper- available until the 20th May

These are a smaller size to our standard gardenias making them less bulky for your layouts and the colours are just gorgeous. So if you order 6 papers you get 2 flowers, order 9 papers you get 3 flowers etc etc.

Here are a few of the new colours




Oh and did I mention we have the Prima Watercolour Rainbow range in stock and a restock of some of our popular Glimmer Mists?

And also these cute charms arrived as well?



These Soccer Shirts come in packets of 3 and are excellent quality and very solid



These silver cherries match perfectly for the Websters Sweet as Cherry Pie paper range or
hanging off a scrapware tree or branch or
the October Afternoon range of papers in store?

And as they say on the TV here is one I prepared earlier...





To highlight the white flowers I applied White Opal Liquid Pearls.



The mini Gardenias, scrapware key and our love key charm




And I will leave you with our smiling sun and wish you all a safe, happy and creative weekend

Glimmer Misting with Heidi Swapp

Wow what an awesome (but tiring) day I had on Saturday with Heidi Swapp and Wendy Senger (the creator of Glimmer Mist). For those of you who follow Heidi's blog she is as lovely in person as she appears on her blog.

Here is the photos to prove the outing LOL ...



and I also got to meet Taryn and Kim which was really really great and they are just as lovely IRL.

So around 8 hours of solid learning on Saturday and wow did my head hurt afterwards LOL

Wendy shows us 25 different ways on using Glimmer Mist and we got to play with the new release Glimmer Glam and Glimmer Glaze

So what is Glimmer Glam and Glimmer Glaze - well I was confuse by what I read on the net so here is my easey peasy definition - well Heidi's words actually ...

Glimmer Glaze and Glimmer Glam are the same EXCEPT Glimmer Glam has glitter in it! Easy ah? They are a medium finish not like Glimmer Mist which is water based. I tested them on my charms (cause we got LOTS of free products to play with) and they stick to them and you add more layers to build up the colour depth.

Here are some examples with just one coat and added to the tips of the flowers ....

Here is Glimmer Glam - which comes in a container with a wide lid so you use a brush to apply it.



and Glimmer Glaze has a small brush attached to the lid




We also played with the Chalkboard Glimmer Mist which I love!!! Chalkboard will give you the same beautiful Glimmer as Glimmer Mist, yet the base will give you a semi-opaque finish that blends just like chalk. This is just like using art pastels or chalks! It will blend nicely with other Chalkboard colors or even with the original Glimmer Mist to create a variety of transparencies and add depth to your project

So going back to the techniques we learnt well some are very similar but I enjoyed the process of mixing the colours and adding more and incredibly (well to me anyhow)you can just wipe glimmer mist off, to blend it using a paper towel and keep reusing the same old colour stained towel. It acts as a resistant and won't transfer the mist back onto your new work.

2 basic ways to spray ...

Push half way down on the sprayer to create a spotted pattern

Start spraying from left to right and push down fully sprayer. Quickly moving across the sheet to create a fine even coat

Various people have asked which colour to buy as a newbie to Glimmer Mist and well Heidi explained go back to what you learnt at school with your primary colours and how you mixed them to make new colours. Personally though I would stick with the brown, black and pinks cause these are the colours I use the most to scrap BUT since learning the mixing and blending techniques my limited style of using glimmer mist has been wide opened.


We learnt so many different tips to share but my favourite (at the moment) is the resist technique. We used chipboard which had a resistant coating on them but hey if you don't have them, like me, but have embossing powder you can make your own.

On this layout I created a resistant by stamping an image on to my layout, heat embossed it then sprayed with 2 mists - Tiger Lily (my new favourite and will be stocking as soon as it is available from the supplier) and Graphite. After spraying wiped or dab off (it doesn't come off just gives a smoother finish not a mist finish). I also added some driplets to give it a bit more of a grunge effect since it being a boy layout by taking the sprayer out and letting drops from the tube fall onto my page.





And the second tip, which I just loved, was when you peel the backing off your chipboard don't throw it away ... use it!!! See the white frame? That is the backing of the chipboard frame (which I sprayed with tiger lily!) Cool idea ah?



Here are some flowers I made using Glimmer Mist and Embossing Powder centered with dark brown pearls and a piece of our gold flower chain



The embossing powders I used were chestnut brown and leaf. The brown one is now on this frame and the green one is going on another OTP I started today





On the leaves see the water droplet effect? I used clear embossing powder sprinkled on, heated, then sprayed with glimmer mist.



Our little girl charm has been coated in glimmer glaze

The glimmer mists that is currently out of stock on our site should be available by Friday this week. Unsure of delivery time for the new colours that I WANT no not want ... NEED!

Would also love to know your thoughts on the glam or glaze .. which one would you prefer to have? Please leave us your comments ...

Till next time

Its all about the boys ...

This month we asked the Design Team to focus on the my2angels designed products particularly our boys and girls ribbons. And as always they didn't disappoint coming up with unique and different ways to incorporate our designs into their creations...

The first layout is from Taryn ...

I love this photo of my 2 babies out walking in the rain together "just because". It's just so cute with the umbrella and the raincoats and all. I couldn't wait to get this one done, and love how it turned out. The Bo Bunny Mama-razzi range is GORGEOUS to work with.

Tracy has so many goodies that co-ordinate beautifully with these papers. For this layout, I have used:

Buzz and Bloom Chipboard - Urban alphas

Jenni Bowlin alphas
Mates ribbon (along the right hand side of the photo and I cut snippets of the words and added to the layout also)

Star charms

Black felt stars

Scrapware clouds

Brown cotton ric-rac

Brown grosgrain stitched ribbon

Black picot ribbon

Wooden Buttons

To add interest, I have stitched around the edges of the papers, and also over the ribbons.


This photo was just crying out for some rain clouds. I couldn't help myself, and got a little creative with them. Check out the My 2 Angels tutorials if you want to learn how I created these.

and from this month's Guest Designer Kim Jeffress

I was so excited when Tracy asked me to be guest designer this month, I knew straight away which papers I would choose from the shop the yummy scummy Apple Jack papers from sassafrass lass .

For MR MISCHIEF I used the fun Recite Apple Jack pattern paper and Nightfall Coordinations cardstock.



I grabbed from my2angels the awesome 100% boys ribbon which has lots of great words to describe your boy. To attach it to my layout I ran a piece of double sided tape across the whole piece of background and then from the right laid the ribbon down, about 2 thirds the way across I started to pleat the ribbon pushing it hard down on to the tape to help it hold, then at the end I used some embroidery thread in matching yellow to sew a cross to also help it stay in place.



The charms I used were the apple and the boys cap , For the cap I cut the shank off the charm so I could place it on the photo without the little loop showing...kinda cute hey!

I added some cream pearls randomly and a couple of black and white fabric brads for the finishing touch. On a closing note you will notice I have sanded the edges of my photos, this really makes the photos stand out on a dark background.

Aren't they fantastic layouts?

And how exciting only one more sleep till I get to meet Taryn and Kim IRL here ...



Yip we are having 3 classes with Heidi Swapp AND the creator of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist. Back soon with all the goodies we completed/learnt at the classes (check out Heidi's blog of photos of previous classes this week)

Hope you have a great weekend



PS Please please Taryn and Kim save me a seat in case I am late ... lost on the Brisbane roads LOL