my2angels 2014 Retreat (22-24th August)

You've been asking for one for several years now, so at last, after much discussion, negotiation and planning (and just a few bottles of white wine) - we are thrilled to announce the first my2angels retreat, right here on the sunny Gold Coast, in Runaway Bay.

The Retreat is to be held at the Runaway Bay Super Sports Centre. We will be sleeping in one of the lodges, with wheelchair access and quad bunk share.  Please bring your own towels.  Linen and pillows are provided.  You can check it out at the link to the Super Sports Centre here.

We will be catering the retreat ourselves, so please advise us of any dietary requirements on the enrolment form to be sent after deposit received.

Start time 2pm Friday 22nd August
 till 2pm Sunday 24th August (Itinerary to be confirmed)

Cost:  $220.00 which includes:

All meals for the duration of the retreat (2 dinners, 2 breakfasts and 2 lunches)

Bottomless cups of coffee, tea, water and snacks to eat between meals. 

All accommodation
Conference room for scrapping for the duration of the retreat
Goodies bag/gifts during retreat 

You can choose to pay the full amount or our payment plan (details on our website)

To secure your place, please pay deposit upon Booking 

These booking and payment options are available to pay via our website under the new "Retreat' category".  Payment is required via our Westpac Bank Account, leaving your last name and "retreat" as a reference.

The deposit is NON refundable (unless you can replace yourself).

The my2angels shop will be open all weekend for any last minute supplies or forgotten items. If your packing space is tight - you could bring just your photos and a basic tool-kit - and purchase whatever else you need at the Retreat. Alternatively - make it a stash-bash and bring a heap of your own papers to use up.  Whichever way you choose to go, be assured that someone will be able to help you with selecting the right combination of papers, embellishments and mediums in order to create your work.  You will also have full access to a Cuttlebug and Big Shot, along with assorted dies and embossing folders.

With plenty of prizes and challenges over the weekend and lots of inspiration and advice should you need it - you have no excuse for not letting your creative juices flow.

One of the prizes will be our Lucky Door Prize of a Big Shot Machine
(colour may vary depending on availability)

For our local scrappers we have a Saturday Special for you.  A $50 day pass that includes lunch and dinner, drinks and snacks.  
Plus the chance to win a Sizzix Big Shot in the Lucky Door Prize.
. 
So come and join up and scrap till the early hours - scrappy fun for all guaranteed.

For those travelling via plane, if you arrive at the Gold Coast airport, we can arrange to pick you up.  If you flying into Brisbane, you can catch the 'Air Train' (leaving from the airport), directly down to the Gold Coast. You will stop at the Helensvale Train Station and we will pick you up from there.

Booking details are here

Feeling a bit krafty this season?

Krafty Christmas ideas and how to emboss with a charm

Feeling a bit krafty this season? Here are a few ideas how to make a card, tag and gift wrap with kraft paper, doilies and some lovely embellishments from my2angels. 

Tracy sent me the new deer charm in antique bronze (also available in shiny gold!) and it is so lovely, I couldn't bear to use it only once. So I embossed a tag with it first! (I know you can't really see it on the above photo, but bear with me and all will be revealed)

The deer is 6cm tall, so a pretty decent size and chunky enough to go through my Cuttlebug without bending or breaking.

Take a piece of kraft cardstock (3x6"), lightly wet it and make the following "sandwich":

 A plate, silicon mat, cardstock (moist), charm, silicon mat, C plate. 

The sandwich could vary a little if you have a Bigshot or other machine. Just experiment.

Here is what it looks like after embossing: 

 All the details are nice and crisp, but it's stubtle enough to suit the gringiest of your friends.

Punch a pretty bottom border with a border punch. Spray glue a small doily on the tag (half on the front, half on the back) and cut off the top corners:

 Die cut a roundish shape (star, flower, etc) from a brown patterned paper, ink it with pinecone ink (which is the best brown ink in the world and matches everything!) and glue it on top of the doily. Fold it over and trim the corners.  

 Punch a hole and stick on one of those reinforcer thingies: 

 Tie a Christmas tree and bell charm on some red & white baker's twine and ink around the whole tag with the above mentioned pinecone ink and stamp a greeting:

 Done! 

If you make a bit of a production line, you can whip up a whole pile of these in no time. 1 piece of 12x12" cardstock will make 8 tags.

Now that you've embossed a million deer on tags it's time to stick that pretty deer charm down on a card!

Take a kraft card and emboss it with an embossing folder. 

The card packs from my2angels are a really good deal at 10 for $1.40, but I loved mine so much they're all used up. I used a 4x11" piece of kraft cardstock instead. 

Spray glue a doily on and layer 2 ribbons across the cards: 

brown organza scallop ribbon 

cotton lace

 Die cut a hexagon or other roundish shape from a brown patterned paper, ink the edges and attach two short lengths of antique bronze chain with 2 lobster clasps. 

 If your die cut shape doesn't have holes, punch 2 first. Glue the paper and chain down using Glossy Accents. 

 Add some dots with Liquid Pearls in platinum: 

Glue down the deer charm and you're done! 

For 10 cards you will need:

- 1 kraft card pack 

-10 doilies (11cm)

- 1x brown organza ribbon 

- 2x cotton lace 

- 1 antique bronze chain 

- 4x lobster clasps 

- 5x deer charms 

- some leftover brown patterned paper from your stash 

Presuming you already have an embossing folder, ink, Liquid Pearls and Glossy Accents, that's just a little over $1.80 per card.

If you haven't run out of puff by now, you might want to wrap some pressies next: 

Wrap your gift in kraft wrapping paper (from the cheap shop) and spray glue a doily over the top edge (size will depend on the size of your present).

  Cut out 3 stars and fold them as shown in my button & stars wreath post (I had some left from the wreath). 

Wrap some red & white baker's twine around the present twice, tie on a candy cane charm and finish it with a bow. 

Glue down the stars like shown in the wreath post and stamp or handwrite the name.  Done! 

This looks great for a pile of presents. I would show you, but they are on the ship as we speak; slowly, slowly making their way round the world to my family (thanks Australia Post for exorbitant airmail prices!). Christmas in January is also nice, right?

Geli

2013 Limited Editiion my2angels Christmas Embellishment Kits

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the .... way to a Christmas Embellishment Kit.

Three of them in fact - just in time for stocking stuffing or present posting - my2angels introduces a selection of ...

Limited Edition 2013 Christmas Embellishment Kits.

Antique Bronze Christmas Embellishment Kit
$6.99

This Kit contains a selection of Bronze Xmas charms and includes: some jingle bells, a stunning Christmas Tree (add some red rhinestones to it to make a decorated tree), an adorable handmade christmas pudding and tree bauble, some cute little Santa hats, a reindeer and a snowflake.

Traditional Christmas Embellishment Kit
 $18.99

Red, Gold and Green - traditional Christmas colours and traditional themes - there's something for everyone in this Kit. Golden jingle bells, a tinseled window and some gold Xmas charms, cute little Christmas angel pins, a tree bauble and green acrylic tree, some glittery Xmas ribbon, a stocking and "seasons greetings" bauble and a special, 'limited edition' Christmas Mix of Sugar Beads just for you.

Non-Traditional Christmas Embellishment Kit
$18.99

Wishing you a Merry Christmas is this non-traditional collection of embellishments. This Kit contains a mix of silver with blue, pink and purple accents. Jingle bells in all colours, pretty Angel pins, silver charms and hand-made ornaments - what more could you need for a pretty, festive Christmas?

Last, but never least - presenting our
Christmas Charming Baubles
$2.75 each

Each clear crystal is topped with a confection of tinsel, glass beads, white leaves and silver glitter. Just perfect to hang on the tree or tie to your presents.

So check them out in the new arrivals section of the my2angels store

Nothing says Christmas like red, white and bling!

Buttons and Stars Christmas wreath

Geli here ...

Yesterday I got a pack of the new swirl buttons from my2angels and right away I started thinking about what I could do with them. They're acutally pretty big, a whopping 3cm! (Pssst, find them here, there are other designs and colours too!)

My first idea was using them as a lollipop on a card, but I wanted something a little more different So, how about a funky button Christmas wreath? 

Nothing says Christmas like red, white and bling!

Here is how:

1.)

A paper doily makes a nice base. Mine is 14cm in diameter, but any size will work. Unfortunately a doily is kind of floppy, so something is needed to strengthen it a bit without taking away from the lacey look. I decided acetate was just what the doctor ordered. Cut a circle slightly larger than the doiley, spray the doiley with spray glue, glue it on and then cut out a circle from the middle:

(You can just kind of make out the acetate. Take it from me, it's there.)

2.)

Punch a hole and thread some red organza ribbon

through. Use strong glue (like Helmar 450, aka "stinky glue") to glue down both ribbon ends at the back. Tie a seperate bow and glue it on.

3.)

Unravel some baker's twine  so you only have the white strands, thread it through the holes of the red swirl buttons  and tie a bow on each one. A little drop of glue with keep the bow from coming apart:

 4.)

Glue the buttons on the doiley wreath with the before mentioned "stinky glue"

5.)

Gather 3 or more red & white paper scraps. 

Cut out stars (I used 15, the amount will depend on the size of your doily base), score and fold them like this:

 Keep folding until you have a nice little pile:

Most of my paper came from the bottom of my stash, but you can find the number paper here: December Documented Bingo Cards. 

6.)

 Put 2 foam dots on the back of each star...

...and glue the stars on the wreath. Finish it off with a few scattered rhinestones .

Now hang it up and enjoy! 

PS: To try out some other colour combinations, check out the button section here. Personally I like the black & white ones. 

GELI

New arrivals in store now ....

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

Well ok, not really - but to celebrate the upcoming festive season - we have a selection of gorgeous Xmas charms for you. Silver, bronze and gold - whatever your fancy. Check out those stunning angel wings - just perfect for Christmas cards and presents ...

Christmas Charms now in store

and how amazing are our Snowflake Filigrees??

Still on the subject of Christmas ... we now have Red and Silver Sequins - sold in 1m lengths. Tie a single length over the top of a contrasting ribbon for a stunning look to your present wrapping - or loop them through your name tags as a sparkly way to attach them to presents.

Something for the teens ...

and Large Fern Charms (for all the Kiwis out there, whilst it may not be silver but with a bit of Silver Embossing Powder or paint it can be changed lol).

For those travelling or thinking of travelling ...

and Filigree Corners in both silver and antique bronze.

A lucky find - some very funky 60's style 3cm buttons ...

as well as some retro 70's colour blasts.

All of our new products and recent re-stocks can be located in the new arrivals section of the store.

Garage Days for a girly layout

Hi Ladies,

Ngaire here. So it has been awhile since my last post. :( Not what I had planned, but life has been very busy and I've not had time or energy to devote to my scrapping. I did, however, very much like this new range by Kaiser - Garage Days - and so I decided to spend a little time putting this layout together for Madame.

It's a nice, grungy masculine range - a bit vintage in the image choice (which you either love or loathe), but you can ignore the images and use the cool colours and patterns if you are so inclined. The blues, reds and yellow work together really well and there is a fabulous ledger page to provide a contrast to all that colour.

I started off with a piece of Workshop - but rather than trim off the Manufacturer's Strip at the bottom - I left it, and trimmed off some of the paper from the top.  I also inked every paper edge on the layout with Versa Magic Jumbo Java, just to grunge it up a little more.

Then I added a cut-down section of Wheel Alignment. Love this pattern - and the contrast to the orange-red is simply awesome. To get this clean neat look to the two papers, use your craft knife to cut the edge of the title shape around the top half of the shape. Then slip the smaller paper in under the title shape and adhere. Now it looks like it is just the one piece of paper/design.

I've then added in a section of the ledge paper - Nuts and Bolts - to provide some contrast to all that colour. As you can tell by now - I'm going for a layered look for this layout, so I need something for all the colours to contrast against and the ledger does that nicely.

I used a little of one of the papers from the Paper Pad here, but you just as easily use a bit of Workshop if you didn't want to buy the pad.

Another piece from the Paper Pad, overlaid on a section of Gas Tank ...

and adhered over the ledger paper. The layering works as it repeats patterns (the diamonds) and colours (red and blue) - you end up with a complex look to the layout without much effort (well - without much apparent effort).

Finally - the photo. Madame and her adoring Daddy sharing a moment together out in the backyard.

I had a bit of a dilemma at this point - I liked the layering so much I didn't really want to hide it under a tonne of embellishments AND my poor brain is still a little fried, so simple was very appealing to my level of creative ability just at the moment. I'm having a bit of a 'funk' and rebellion at all the medium heavy and 'tonnes of stuff' trend at the moment, so I decided to keep it simple and see what came of that.

I popped together a small cluster of assorted cog/gear bits that were left-over from other layouts - along with a couple of die cuts from the Collectibles pack, a small flower and a wayward bit of twine. Some are only pieces of cog, whilst others are the full thing - and they have been inked with an assortment of inks (metallic silver, black and white with a light coat of Kindyglitz) to match the colours of the papers.

Another smaller cluster used some more of the spare cogs/gears (some are wood and some are chipboard), another flower and another die cut from the Collectibles pack.

I also used a diamond pattern die cut strip from the Sticker Sheet - but over the top of it I added a rubon from the Rubon Pack. As usual from Kaiser, it didn't work properly the complete length of the rubon, but since it is a grungy sort of layout, it didn't worry me too much.

The only problem with the rubon was that it wasn't long enough to do the entire width of the page. This left me with a section of the diamond pattern die cut strip that would be without a rubon overlay. To hide this missing section I popped the largest embellishment cluster underneath the photo and over the top of the missing rubon section.

This time I used an assortment of cogs and wheels from my stash. They're all chipboard and probably from a range of different companies. I kept to the same selection of inks - but added in a grungy light blue I found that matched the blue in the diamond pattern of one of the papers.

The final element was a tag I made out of a left-over bit of the ledger paper and a piece of twine. I popped a note on it about how much Madame loves her Daddy and cuddles with him.

So here is the final layout. Looking back at it now I am not sure that I like the simplicity of it after all - I might just have another play with it over this week. Browsing through the store pages for these papers I noticed some of the other store items that Tracy has popped in as suggestions - and there are a number of charms I want to add now - along with some of the new stamps Kaiser released with this range.

Garage Days is an awesome range to play with - I do like the way it suits a girly/daddy layout - as well as being great for all types of masculine layouts. So check out the store for Garage Days, you won't be disappointed.

Ngaire