Wednesday 7 December 2016

Beautiful You in the Mediterranean




I have to say that I am really excited to showcase these creations. Collaboration is a concept that I aspire to achieve in my professional job, and so its really exciting for me when I can find two stamp sets that can collaborate well together. I think the Beautiful You and Mediterranean Streets collaborates perfectly well together. Here is why:
To start off, I stamped the image of the girl with the umbrella first, and then created a mask of the same image with a post-it note. The same technic I used in my Merry Medley blog post. Placing the mask over the top of the stamped image, I stamped the alleyway in versamark and embossed it with silver embossing powder. The musk ensured that the image of the girl remained un-embossed. While it is difficult to make out from the photos, I was surprised to find that the combination of the embossed image and the un-embossed image gave it a 3D look. It created an illusion by allowing the un-embossed image to pop out of the background. I am sure other master crafters probably already knew that, but it was really quite a thrill to have discovered it myself for the fist time. I am feeling just a little proud right about now.




In the samples below I have used the same technic as the ones above, but here I only used the images from the Mediterranean streets with one another. I particularly like the combination of the cafe with the alleyway. They actually look as though they are part of one picture, and once again creating a 3D look with the cafe popping out of the background.




Here are some of the masks that helped to create the look of a 3D image.

I hope you have enjoyed the post, as I have enjoyed sharing it with you.  Stop by again really soon.

Friday 2 December 2016

Beautiful You: Part 2



Here is the second part of my Beautiful You collection. Here I played around with different colours. I also tried stamping on playful pallete designer paper and cut out the umbrellas and the dresses paired with various coordinated colours.










In this one, I embossed on rain drops from the weather together stamp set, and water washed over it with smoky slate using the aqua painter.

Thanks for visiting, I hope you have enjoyed perusing through my creations, I certainly have enjoyed creating them.

Thursday 1 December 2016

Beautiful You: part 1



Beautiful You is one set where the name speaks for itself, it is just beautiful. I was one of the lucky ones to win this set as prize patrol at #onstagelive2016. For those who are not familiar with prize patrol is, it is just another way of saying prize giveaways. It felt like I scored because this comes in a double box set, without a doubt the best one out of all the prize patrol.
Once I started to play with it, I just couldn't stop, I kept making more and more. The creative juices kept flowing on and on. So much so that I've had to break up the post in various parts to be able to showcase each design. So stay tuned for them all to be revealed one by one.
Here is the first design:



This image is my favourite from this set because doesn't really reveal much about the girl as she has her back to us. But I think that is what makes it more intriguing, she can be who ever you want her to be. Here I wanted her dress to pop out a little, so I stamped and punched out a petal from the bunch of blossoms, and used it as the lower half of the dress. I am quite happy with how it turned out, it actually looks like she has vintage dress on. On the right is another card that I made with the same image minus the petal dress, just to give you an idea of what a difference it makes.


To make the dress pop out a little, I used dimensional adhesive to lift it. To give it the look of a rainy and windy day, I stamped the brush stroke images from the same stamp set with soft sky ink. The umbrella is coloured with crushed curry.
staying with the vintage look, I decided to tear the edges and sponge with the same colour as the dress, emerald envy.


To finish it off, I put my sewing skills to work, giving it a stitched frame. I had heaps of fun with this card, can' t wait to reveal some of my other creations with this set.





Monday 28 November 2016

Birds of Peace


For this project, I had some thoughts of combining Merry Medley and Strength & prayer. This bird reminded me of a peace dove, and the Merry Medley has the phrase PEACE in it, which made it a perfect pair. 


 I wanted the bird to be embedded in the Merry Medley, instead of sitting on top. To achieve exactly that, I had to create a musk of the bird. I created the musk by stamping the bird image on a sticky note, and cutting it out.

I embossed the bird on first and then placed the musk on before stamping on the Merry Medley background over the musk. This left the bird unmarked while stamping the area surrounding the bird with the merry medley phrases.



This is how it turned out, just as I had hoped. I was quite pleased with the end result. The only other step was to sponge the edge and embellish it white twine.


 Then I couldn't stop at just one combination of colours, I was curious about a number of other colours. I think they all pretty good, can't quite decide which one I like best.


Monday 21 November 2016

OnstageLive

The three amigos set off on a journey for sunny Brisbane, eager to leave behind the multiple weather personalities of Melbourne. For one of us, boarding an aeroplane seemed just as difficult and unlikely as pigs flying. But with power of 'all for one and one for all', she was able conquer her fear of flying. Well done Rose, you're awesome!!!

                                               Selfie #1




We arrived in sunny Brisbane in the afternoon on Wednesday the 2nd  of November 2016. First thing that I noticed was the warmth of the sun as we stepped out of the plane, it felt awesome. We collected all our luggage and headed down to the waiting bay to catch our shuttle to our apartment, which thanks to the lovely Carolina, was already pre-booked.
Here is second selfie of the day:


A number of ladies boarded the bus with us, and we got a sense that they were also fellow demonstrators. You could feel the excitement on the bus and everyone was in anticipation of #onstagelive2016.
We were greeted by Nicole when we arrived at our apartment, which looked really nice from the outside. I remember thinking I hope it's just as nice in the inside. We collected our keys and headed up to the 10th floor, room number 1102.  Ours was a beautiful apartment, a luxurious apartment for two.We have to give Nicole Bonar a huge thank you. She went out of her way to ensure that we were all comfortable, and coordinating with so many of us to be able to stay in one place was such an incredibly difficult task. I'm happy that your brave enough to take on this challenge, it was so worth it for me.

#Onstagelive2016: Day 1

I woke to find that the warm sunshine pearing through the window, making it really warm in the bedroom. While it felt quite late in the morning, but it was only 6.30am, and we're not expected at the conference until about noon. I was planning to ease into the day until I heard Carolina say that we are meeting up with the rest of the group for breakfast at about 9am. That didn't leave much time to get ready as planned.

Eventually, we made it downstairs, not surprising to find most of the ladies were already there, getting busy swapping with each other. I was happy that I made swaps this year, would have missed out otherwise on receiving all the cards and gifts. That would have been quite sad I think.
This was when I first met some of the beautiful ladies I have till now only saw on FB, commented on their posts or they commented on mine. And so I decided  this would be perfect moment for a group selfie, so I took just  a few :-) before walking down to have breakfast together'.









Onstagelive2016: Day 1 highlights


  • Getting there before most people and taking more group selfies
  • Getting our very own crazy crafters lanyard from Kylie
  • Checking out all the showcase samples with the new products from the occasions catalogue
  • Seeing Sarah and Shelli live onstage
  • Being in the first prize patrol group and receiving the 'Beautiful You' stamp set, was so excited
  • Seeing the occasions catalogue for the first time, OMG!! Just amazing.
  • Watching the product spotlights, got some great tips from each presentation
  • Seeing Carolina going off to her first Centrestage dinner, feeling very proud
  • A whole bunch of us going out to dinner together, minus Carolina. We went a funky Indian restaurant. Had a really nice time, started to get more interesting after Kim ordered the 'Punjabi Punch'...lol.























OnstageLive2016: day 2 highlights


  • Watching Carolina on stage receiving her recognition for and advancement to Silver Elite, another feeling proud moment.
  • Watching Kylie being mentioned and recognised in pretty much every category  there was. Such an inspirational lady!
  • The make and take workshops were great, got to play with done of the new products, that was really awesome
  • Going out to dinner with all of the Crazy Crafters. Thanks for organising Kylie, it was such an awesome night.
  • Carolina eating the spare ribs Kim ordered by mistake, the look on her face when I told her, priceless...lol
  • Michelle daring me to put a coloured enamel embellishment on Bruno's head, and I actually doing it. Thanks for being a good sport Bruno.
  • Taking a ride on the Brisbane wheel at 10 o'clock in the night, Carolina doing a FB live stream from with the wheel. Best of all, Rose conquering her fear of heights.





Our make and take projects from day two, loved getting my hands dirty and trying out all the new products.






Crazy Crafters dinner organised by Kylie, it was a beautiful restaurant, great atmosphere. All the ladies looked beautiful, letting their hair down, cutting loose. A few of us decided to go for a ride on the Brisbane wheel, breathtaking views of the city skyline.

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DAY 3: HIGHTLIGHTS





Early morning breakfast with these lovelies




Final showcase of product, and Mitchelle's turn to cary out her dare, approaching a perfect stranger, placing a Bindi on his forehead and taking a selfie. Not only she actually did it, but she seemed to enjoy it as well. She was amazing, I am not sure I would be able to do it. 
An afternoon stroll to a nearby street market on Southbank









Saying our farewells, most of whom we wont see again for a while, perhaps at the next onstage event. Perhaps not even then as not everyone will be able to come next time. It was lovely to meet all of you, until next time my friends.






 




End of our  Bisbane adventure with a night out, selfies in front of the Brisbane sign and a rickshaw ride. what a awesome  night, and oh, not to mention tequila shots.

whilst I enjoyed spending some well deserved 'Me' time, I missed my boys terribly. It felt great to be back home. A big thanks to my babe for making it possible for me to go on this adventure and even a bigger thanks to my mother and father-laws for looking after my precious boys while was away. I am so very grateful.