Hybrid Workshop Was A Sell Out!

After lots of discussion and, we will admit, some hesitation we decided earlier this year to look at introducing a Workshop that was all about Hybrid Scrapbooking.  It is true... a lot of our Workshop Lovelies were reluctant at first... lots of 'I don't do computer stuff...

I don't have Photoshop... don't think that would interest me'. 

Well we convinced them to join us on the journey and the resounding feedback was ... thank you, thank you.. you have opened our eyes to a whole new world of scrapping!



Our Workshop was not about computer skills or having certain software applications, it was about using digital options in simple ways that didn't have to challenge their computer skills more than what they were already doing using word processing or their camera software .... the advantages of purchasing digital papers and elements that they could use again and again, 'bunny slipper buying' - oh yes, turn on the computer and go shopping in your PJs if you get the urge and last but not least... budget busting options.

Our team became addicted as we pulled our workshop projects together - Miss Lisa (aka Lisa Greedy) was on a roll and her beautiful layout shows her creative use of elements (tags) and alphas purchased online... add some mixed media background - gotta love some distress stains, paints and Punchinello (aka sequin waste) and this is one fabulous Hybrid layout that everyone just loved.








Lizzie just loves the idea of being able to download projects that she can combine with bits and pieces from her stash ... Hybrid at its best!

She took some inspiration from an online project and started with a white timber frame (minus the glass), added some digital paper as the background, baker's twine, paper doily and a bulldog clip... a great way to display her finished calendar pages!

Lizzie introduced these gorgeous calendar pages she has made for a friend...by adding some 'Embellees' magic..... antique doily pieces, pearl brads, stamped images, diecuts, handmade flowers and Kindy Glitz the pages came to life and added that Hybrid approach that we wanted to showcase.

It wouldn't be a Embellees Workshop without our lovely Cassie McCumstie crafting a gorgeous handmade card.

The Hybrid approach was a great way to get us started with our 'handmade' Christmas cards. 

A beautiful digital image printed on white cardstock, finished with Kindy Glitz, a punched bird image (StampinUp punch and digital papers), bling, baker's twine and a beautiful stamped verse - truly just gorgeous and such a lovely colour option for this Chrissy season.










Cassie also showed how we could play with the same digital image and change the colour to produce a different look... check out the lovely options she came up with when printing the Christmas Tree image in black on Kraft cardstock, adding different bird images and finishing off with red & white baker's twine, pearls and rhinestones.





To finish up Cassie showed us how she used the image as the base to create another beautiful card using the left over leaf and branch punched pieces (StampinUp Bird Punch).  You have gotta just love how she 'repurposed' the leftovers and finished off another beautiful design!

One of the best things about our Embellees Workshops has been getting to know all our lovely Workshop regulars and welcoming new Workshop participants to our growing group - so welcome... Bronwen, Lyne, Jo and Mary. It was a pleasure meeting you ladies and thank you for the feedback on how much you enjoyed your first Embellees Workshop. We so look forward to you joining us again in 2012.

And to finish up this blog post we can't go without sharing a quick picture of our celebrations for the birthday girls in our group.  Lizzie was still recovering from her recent 50th birthday weekend away with the girls and, with the help of our lovely friend Dianne a beautiful cake appeared for us all to share and celebrate with Lexie, Cassie, Alex (aka standin for Deb) and Lizzie - happy birthday girls!!!



 
Don't forget to check us out on our Facebook Fan Page for more updates.

We look forward to catching up with you again soon!

Lisa and Lizzie

We Just Love Hybrid Scrapping!

The countdown is on, the kits are packed and the projects look fabulous for our last workshop for 2011 - Hybrid Scrapping.

We promised some 'sneaky peeks'... in advance of the Workshop and we wouldn't want to disappoint.

On 30 October we have all our workshop lovelies working on 2 beautiful layouts, a fabulous off-the-page project and a gorgeous Christmas Card designed by our lovely friend Cassie McCumstie. Yes, that's right all this on one day of 'jam packed scrapping'.



Lizzie has been busy with some gorgeous digital papers, combined with lots of traditional scrapping techniques to create this layout...

We will be getting out the embossing folders and punches, adding some Kindy Glitz and a stamp or two...

Miss Lisa has had lots of fun with digital alphas and tags to produce a very 'male' inspired layout... now this wouldn't be a Miss Lisa (aka Lisa Greedy) layout without some paint and mixed media .....here is a 'sneaky' just to get the creative juices flowing!!









And .... well it wouldn't be an Embellees Workshop without an off-the-page project as part of our day.

Lizzie was inspired by a gorgeous project the lovely Kim Archer featured in a recent newsletter and well with some adaptation it helped bring our digital project to a stunning finish.... this will make a lovely addition to your scrapping table or a great gift.



We hope you have enjoyed our 'sneakies' and we look forward to seeing lots of familiar faces at our Hybrid Workshop and welcoming some lovely new ladies to the group.

See you on the 30th ladies!

Lizzie and Lisa

Let's visit our Mixed Media Workshop

On Sunday 11 September we had the pleasure of presenting our first Mixed Media Workshop and, what a fabulous day we had with all our workshop lovelies. 

The day started with a some gorgeous kits and samples to show off the projects along with some other ideas to get the 'mojo' flowing.

Don't you love our Owl he was our inspiration for one of our projects!!!

 

  

Miss Lisa out did herself with the beautiful hand stamped name tags on our kit boxes.  Nothing like a beautiful Suzy Blu stamp to get us started.  Now anyone who has been to one of our Workshops knows that our kit packaging more often than not becomes part of a project - nothing like repurposing ... so those gorgeous boxes and calico ties were destined for more....

We started working on our gorgeous Owl Notebooks - nothing like a bit of mixed media on a fabric covered notebook and such a practical project.  We just loved that our Workshop Lovelies took to our original 'recipe' and added their own interpretation - the finished projects around our workshop room were just fab! 

 

Check out the lovely Cassie McCumstie's beautiful interpretation of our mixed media owl notebook - well done Cassie we just love it to bits (Jessica  (Lizzie's 9 yr old DD) is still asking when she can scraplift this for her own).

We started our notebooks with paint and modeling paste spread over some punchinello (sequin waste) to give a great effect... we added some stamps, rubons, woodgrain contact paper, twine, antique book paper, hessian, buttons and trim that made up our beautiful handmade owl (notice that calico).  We finished off using some great alpha diecuts from Stampin Up to add a title - there really is nothing like raiding your stash and playing with paint and paste to start a workshop day!


We finished up with a gorgeous mixed media canvas to display a favourite photo and again we loved the way our Workshop Lovelies took up the 'freestyle' challenge... check out these lovely samples by Aliesha and Janelle - just gorgeous girls!

Lots of painting, stamping, mod podge, dressmaking pattern paper, gorgeous Basic Grey papers, tags, muslin, rubons, antique dictionary paper, doilies, notepaper - the kits just had such a great eclectic mix.

The idea behind our first mixed media workshop was to get our Workshop Lovelies comfortable with the basic techniques and to adopt that freestyle approach that is such a refreshing part of this 'art scrapping'.  Everyone seemed to enjoy all the new techniques and how they easily incorporated so much we already have in our scrapping stash.

Here are our lovely friends Jen Hall and Cassie McCumstie getting 'down and dirty' with their projects on the day.... thanks for attending girls, we love having you at all our Workshops!

And to finish up our day, Miss Lisa (aka Lisa Greedy) put together a beautiful bonus kit that incorporated all the new mixed media techniques to create this stunning scrapbook layout... nothing like a layout done on the lid of a Pizza Box.... told you we love to repurpose our kits.



Well we hope you have enjoyed our latest workshop 'wrap-up'.  We will be back soon with updates on our final Workshop for 2011 - our "Hybrid Workshop" to be held on 30 October 2011. 

Ooooh but wait there is more.... if you are interested in a Mixed Media kits @ $40 each (this will include our bonus layout kit - but excludes postage costs) from our Workshop - we have a couple of extras that we would be happy to sell, so please email us at Embellees@bigpond.com and we can sort something out for you.  All kits come with full instructions and the majority of products to complete your projects (no stamps, rubons or modelling paste).

Be back soon.

Lizzie and Lisa



Mixed Media Update

The countdown is on and we are only a week out to our Mixed Media Workshop being held on
11 September 2011.

We are really enjoying getting stuck into the new techniques we have been experimenting with and, are so looking forward to sharing these with all of our Workshop Lovelies!





The Embellees Team have a reputation for making sure our Workshop Days are full of great projects, along with introducing new techniques and kits full of lots of different products and goodies to please even the die hard crafting enthusiast in all of us.

As you will see above, I (Lizzie) have been busy playing with some mixed media techniques and products we have been sourcing for future workshops.  As most of our regulars know I have a real thing about all things dress forms and have done for sometime now... so check out the gorgeous laser cut image I included on this fun project.  Just love how this $3.00 notebook from Target has been transformed.


As promised we also wanted to show some sneaky peaks for our Workshop next weekend.  In our Mixed Media Workshop we will be exploring some great techniques on a beautiful canvas project that Miss Lisa has designed, along with a fun notebook cover.  Miss Lisa has also been busy with a gorgeous 'bonus' layout kit that will see our Workshop Lovelies being able to adapt the techniques taught in the Workshop to complete a fabulous layout with the most gorgeous mixed media background.

If you are interested in joining us for our Mixed Media Workshop here in Newcastle, NSW next weekend we have a couple of spots that have opened up (sadly the cold and flu season are upon us and some regulars are not very well). 

Just drop us an email at:
Embellees@bigpond.com
or send us a message via our Facebook Fan Page. 




If you want to check out more about our Workshops, just check out the Workshop Tab above. 

We will be back soon with lots of other projects and updates.

Lizzie and Lisa

From Budgewoi to Cows -What I Hear You Say?

Last weekend the Embellees Team (Miss Lisa and Lizzie) had the best weekend away at the ScrapAlley Retreat at Lakeside Guest House - Summerland Point (Just south of our lovely hometown Newcastle NSW).

Thanks to the lovely Alex and Georgina and their ever trusty side-kick, the very vivacious Deb - all of the 30 ladies had a great weekend.  The atmosphere was fun, friendly and everyone got their 'mojo' on and there was absolutely beautiful work being done in every corner of the large and comfortable scrap area.   The weekend was topped off with:  beautiful home cooked meals, lots of giveaways and gifts (just like Christmas when you woke up every morning to a new little goodie parcel on your scrap table) and who could forget the stunning location (right on the shores of beautiful Lake Macquarie).

We can't reveal why we have called this post 'From Budgewoi to Cows', as they say..."what happens at scrap camp, stays at scrap camp".  Let's just say Miss Lisa was known as Miss Budgewoi for the weekend for her 'not so keen' navigating skills and we still get the giggles when we talk about, 'shaving calfs/calves, Legends and Eileen' (I can see the girls all laughing  as they read this post).  So you need to join us when ScrapAlley announce the next Retreat to be in the know - it was so much fun and the best retreat in a very long time!!

So what did we create - or in Miss Lisa and Lizzie case - 'play with'.......

Miss Lisa got busy playing with her texture paste and stencils - experimenting for our new class we are are designing: Plaster, Paint, Paste and Paper (try saying that after a few pink bubbles - we couldn't).  Everyone just loved this gorgeous little canvas that Miss Lisa 'whipped' up on Friday night for our lovely friend Diane to put in her new creative space.  She even managed to re-purpose her gorgeous retreat name tag before day 2 (see the lovely fabric and tulle yo-yo flower).  The background was all about paste and pan pastels... simply gorgeous and obviously a hit cause lots of lovely ladies had their cameras out taking 'snaps' and visiting our scrap table asking to sign-up for the next Embellees Workshop - thank you all so much for the great feedback!

It wouldn't be a retreat without a 'challenge' or two... so Miss Lisa got busy with her retreat gifts and had fun 'repurposing' her packaging for this gorgeous layout incorporating mixed media techniques.  Paper napkins, paint, stamps, rub-ons - it was so gorgeous to see this lovely layout of my DD finished.  It is taking pride of place in my creative space this week (thank you Miss Lisa - Jessie just loves it)!

We often find that retreats are the perfect place to play with a technique we have been wanting to experiment with - well Lizzie (aka me writing this) - got our lovely friends Diane and Natalie convinced they should come play with the technique I was getting stuck into. Might I say if we ever see a heart punch again it might be tooo soooonnnnn!!!  But you have to love the results on the layouts that we got underway.  Miss Natalie painstakingly finished hers with hand sewing - I am still to get the machine out and do the final touches - but heck time to show the work in progress...

And, then there was the lovely Natalie's blue version (complete with hand sewing - good on ya Nat!).

Yes each flower is made out of heart punches - it took us most of Saturday afternoon and evening to finish off these lovelies and, it was a unanimous decision - this is not going to be an Embellees class..... maybe an on-line tutorial in the making...

Sunday morning saw Miss Lisa and Lizzie (yes it is true that I was the second 'camper' up and at the scrap table and even though showered I was still in my PJs for lunch... now that is a 'real retreat' if I do say so myself!) playing with the finishing touches to one of the projects for the Mixed Media Workshop for September.  Here are some sneaky peeks of our gorgeous Owl (just for you Diedi Di)... not the finished product - couldn't give it all away - but enough to show our lovely workshop ladies what we have planned as one of our two major projects on the day! 

Remember if you are interested in attending our Workshops you can register by emailing us at: Embellees@bigpond.com

We hope you have enjoyed our catch-up and we look forward to you joining us again soon!

Off to scrap (it's Sunday and lots to get done)....

Lizzie and Lisa

Sneaky Peek - Mixed Media Workshop

Let's get our

Mixed Media on!!!

We are so looking forward to our Mixed Media Workshop on
11 September 2011 and, so must all our lovely customers as we are already booked out!

But please don't despair we are taking names for our 'wait list' as we would be keen to run this again if the numbers 'stack up'.



So, please don't hesitate to contact us at:  Embellees@bigpond.com

Miss Lisa has having a 'love affair' with mixed media for sometime now and just keeps coming up with the most beautiful creations. 

You will have seen in one of our recent blog posts, the gorgeous canvas --------------------------------->
that she whipped up at a retreat weekend we attended.

I also have been 'dabbling' and, what we love is that our approach and styles can be so different - that's why our collaboration as the Embellees Team is so refreshing. 

My recent piece was about reinventing some of my stash and anyone who knows me, knows I have a love affair with birdcages (much on par with my love affair with dressforms).  Check out the great big  birdcage, I added to this Mixed Media Canvas... a wall art sticker from Kmart... (gotta love a pack of 4 styles for $10).... this came up a treat and I was so happy playing with paints and stamps and rubons and anything else I could put my hands on in my stash......

At our retreat weekend in June with the girls from Scrapboutique, one lovely lady sat next to me at lunch on the last day and said:  "I have to blame you girls for my not getting through all my layouts... I was so busy watching you girls that I lost track of time... I am now excited and am looking at signing up for your Workshop ... watching what you have been doing has made me want to step out of my comfort zone and have a play".  This was a huge compliment, especially as this was the last person I thought would even want to 'dabble' in this very popular trend we are embracing at the moment.

Our Workshop is about getting your head around the techniques.  We are still playing with our final kits as we have so many ideas and samples that Miss Lisa is 'reeling me in' and reminding me (as she frequently has to) that we need to  'trim them down' for the day and make sure we are comfortable with the pace.  We always have a laugh about 'me and my grand ideas'.

Check out this gorgeous canvas that Miss Lisa is playing with in preparation for the Workshop. She is still keen to have our Workshop lovelies produce something that includes a photo ... some people get too nervous about the 'arty' side of mixed media and having to draw faces and figures... so we want to ensure that we stay with some of the 'traditional' scrapbooking elements.

We can't wait to get our 'Mixed Media' on and share all this fun ... so stay tuned as we update the blog and FB page with more 'sneaky peeks' in the lead up to our Workshop date.

Be back soon!
Lizzie & Lisa

Christmas in July - Wrap Up

Oh, how slack!!

We have not blogged for such a long time... so our apologies, but we are not sure where July went... if you have any ideas, please let us know!!! 

While Embellees is very important to us, there are times that our family lives just get hectic and, well we all know families - can't predict what might be the priority on the agenda at any given time!  Enough excuses ... let's talk about what we have been up to creatively and get back into the 'swing of things'.

On 3 July we hosted our big 'Christmas in July' Workshop with all our lovely ladies... and what a great day.  Now I (Lizzie) didn't start the day off too well and everyone had a great laugh when I arrived with my car literally bursting with kits... yes it is very hard to fit 30 bags full of large canvas frames and all the other goodies + workshop necessities, oh and yes my 9 year old DD in 'Roxy the Red Rocket Mazda' .  My DD thought it was such an adventure as I had to let her sit in the front seat (much to my distress) for the first time and then still piled stuff around her... she laughed all the way from home to the workshop venue (some 40 minutes).  Bad planning on my part and wasn't at all sure how I didn't think about this earlier ... why I ever thought I would fit all that in my car still confounds me.... sadly we did not have a camera on hand to give you the visual image... so you just have to picture it ....which I know any dedicated 'scrapper' can!

We had a great day and, thanks to everyone who contributed to the 'secret santa' ... so many generous gifts under our very much 'coveted' (yes, Miss Debbie we know it was you who tried to sneak it out) Christmas Tree.

Just take a look at our beautiful advent calendar we got stuck into (not including the gorgeous layout we also did on the day).

We just love how our Workshop participants interpret our ideas and go with their own versions.  There were so many great ideas from those that used their canvas in full and are attaching their tags with brads, to those that followed our ideas and cut, distressed, inked and stamped onto the canvas frame.  And, there were some other creative lovelies who stripped the canvas back to the bare frame and inked and stamped the wood - they all look fabulous lined up around the walls of our Workshop room!!!

If you look carefully (see below) you will see that we used a large canvas (long and elongated for that contemporary feel). We then cut the canvas away and used the back of the canvas frame - the idea was to have a 'shabby/vintage' look with the staples showing. 

We then got stuck into inking and stamping, distressing the bits of canvas to give it that authentic 'vintage/shabby chic' look.

Then we measured and used cotton twine and fabric to create our 'rungs' to attach our gorgeous numbered tags to ( by cute tiny wooden pegs).  We made sure the string and fabric stayed securely in place by pulling out the staple gun and voila... the frames were complete.

We then worked through 25 individual tags... we gave everyone ideas to follow and our kits had all the bits and pieces ready from; stamped images and words, embossed tags to ink, hybrid embellishments to cut and embellish, diecuts to add, fabric to tie and cut, crochet doilies, organza flowers, ribbon, sequin waste strips and  the very popular bakers twine to wrap around.  And to finish it off a gorgeous felt diecut rocking horse (you can see him on the right here).... nothing like having 60 of these lovelies in my stash (Lizzie)!

We loved the finished look in  a vintage inspired colour scheme to compliment our Christmas 2011 theme ... lots of bookpaper, kraft cardstock (Ala - natural), red, black, white and a of obligatory bit of bling to liven up the creation.

We encouraged everyone to use up their 'stash' of sticker numbers and some letters to finish off the countdown idea.

We looked at theme(ing) tags to suit Christmas activities like:

* Santa photos

* Christmas Tree Trimming

* Visiting the Christmas Lights

* New Christmas Outfit (see our gorgeous bling diecut dressform on number 14 above)

While our day was full with lots of laughter, another finished layout (more pics to come of this) and the inspiration for our 'December Daily' in the workshop kits... time was at a premium ... we left with so much creative inspiration from all our lovelies that attended - so thank you! 

We promise to add some extra photos to our Workshop Photos tab shortly so that we can make sure everyone gets a feel for the great atmosphere we have at an Embellees Workshop!

 

For now... 'Merry Christmas in July' from

Lisa & Lizzie