Paper. Scissors. Chocolate. Louise Williams

A perfect combination...

I created this layout with some gorgeous Prima combined with some of the amazingly detailled Twiddleybitz chipboard. Thought I'd give you a quick rundown on how I put it together too :)

Supplies:
Prima #843106 Londonderry - Parlor Games
Prima #841478 Flights of Fancy - Miss Pretty
Prima #843427 Romantique - Hilary
Prima #890735 Resin - Mini Windows
Prima #543358 Summer Carnation - Wisteria
Prima #548858 Corine Collection
Prima # bulk roses
Prima #551346 Say it in Crystals
Twiddleybitz BAS013 Bag of Love
Twiddleybitz GAR001 Garden Flower Tower
Twiddleybitz FRA006 Fancy Vine Frame
Twiddleybitz WOR039 Love Word
Twiddleybitz ALPHA005C Itty Bitty Alphabet - Chocolate
Digital frames downloaded from internet
Stickles
Dimensional Magic
Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam

Instructions:

1. Cut a 4" strip off the left and right edges of the Hilary paper and swap them over so that the border is running in the middle. Cut a 6" strip from the middle of the Parlor Games paper and punch the long edges using a decorative punch. Adhere using double sided tape to recreate a 12" square page.
2. Use paint or a Tim Holtz distress stain (in picket fence) the Twiddleybitz Garden Flower Tower and Fancy Vine Frame. Adhere the Garden Flower Tower into place in the middle of the strip.
3. Cut the Fancy Vine Frame in half and adhere into place with one piece at the top right and one at the lower left of the tower.
4. Adhere your digital frames and photos into place, using foam tape to raise the frames up from the photos.
5. Adhere the resin window into place at the top of the tower.
6. Adhere the vine into place.
7. Colour the hearts and the Love word with the Glimmer Glam, finish with dimensional magic and adhere into place when dry.
8. Create a banner out of the middle cutoff strip of the Hilary paper, folding the edges for dimension. Adhere into place and attach the lettering.
9. Adhere the other flowers into place. Cut out some butterflies from the Miss Pretty paper, fold and shape the wings for dimension and adhere. Finish with the Prima crystals and some kindyglitz on the roses.

Thanks for looking

L :)

 

 

It was indeed... an Indulgence...

Fabulous. That's really all I can say about the retreat. What a fabulous group of scrappers eating fabulous food with fabulous classes and such a positive, yep.. you guessed it... fabulous vibe all weekend. Thank you all who came and helped make it so successful.

Debbie did a phenomenal job with the catering - I have never eaten so well at a retreat and her buffet table at the creepy crop was just amazing... see what I mean?

We were also treated to a beautiful card buffet by Liz Hicks... stunning work and everyone loved helping themselves to the Prima!!

And I taught this layout class filled with Prima goodness:

Then during the creepy crop we had a mask competition... this was mine with yes, more Prima... lol

And there we go... we're already into full on planning for next year's "A Vintage Indulgence" and will be releasing the registration form and details as soon as I've confirmed the venue and dates. I'm expecting us to fill up fairly quickly next year judging by the feedback from this one so make sure you keep an eye out for updates.

Righto... onto other things...

Something super exciting is happening this weekend!!

 

Starting on Friday the 4th of November the Twiddleybitz DT are having a bloghop.
And not just any ol' run of the mill bloghop.....

oh no...
uh uh!!

We are having a  RAKAMANIA BLOG HOP!!

Each of the DT members are putting up a RAK for you to win and also showing you some gorgeous work on their blogs in the process.
It all starts on Friday November the 4th at 5pm (AEST)

So keep an eye out on the Ning for more details and the schedule, because that is where the

RAKamania Blog Hop will start!!

And not only will there be prizes from the DT members on the actual Hop, but there will also be prizes to be won on the Ning during the weekend and also on Facebook.

Like our page on Facebook to keep up to date with what is happening on the hop!!
Twiddleybitz on FaceBook

We also have prizes on offer for those of you going to the Paper Crafts Festival in Penrith on Sunday of that same weekend. Make sure to pop into the Ning to see how you can win some Twiddleybitz just for stopping by the Twiddleybitz booth at the Show and saying hello. :-)

We do hope you will join us for what we are sure will be a fun and inspiring and prize packed RAKamania Blog Hop...!

L x

crazy few weeks...

It's my busiest time of the year - Homeshow month - so I've been awol doing my real job and there's been soooo much to do this year. All good for the bank balance but I'm ready for a break. Oh well, off to the Homeshow this weekend to find and hopefully order a building for my new studio! Can't wait to get that space to myself and I'm hoping we can have it up for Christmas, if we don't then I have no idea where we'll put the Christmas tree in the house this year, there's no room with me scrapping in the lounge and working in the dining room. :/

Prima! there, got your attention! Tomorrow is my first Live with Prima class (be gentle)...  and you can find Primaflower on Ustream - it's starting at 10.30am NZ time. If you need a time conversion for where you are you can find one here: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html. Here's a sneak of the layout I'm recreating:

Hope to see you there...

I have a sick little boy at the moment too. Lukey has a horrible cough/cold and is getting me up umpteen times a night just for cuddles. He's fine in himself in the day but it seems to come on at night and I hear him coughing and spluttering. He went to the doc's last night and it's just a bad cold, no need for AB's which is good but I do wish it would hurry up and go - I totally need a decent nights sleep!

Next on the agenda is my class in Brisbane - make sure you book both classes (me and Janine Koczwara are teaching) and get free entry to the show as well! It's gonna be a lot of fun :)

We've had a couple of spots become available at the retreat if anyone else still wants to book - full payment is required on registration. I can't wait for October!!

Finally a quick share of a layout I did for Aussie Scrap Source

Back to your regular scheduled programming

L :)

ArtLab rundown

The ArtLab was on Saturday and it was an awesome day. Huge thanks to the amazing group who joined me and weren't afraid to get their hands dirty with a whole load of products and techniques to try!

So this was our group, Sarah, Lisa, me, June, Vicki, Esther, Shell, Julie, Robin and Natasha... and some peeks at what we were up to...

We did some rusting, played with texture paste and mists, mica powders, foiling, paperclay... the list goes on and on... Vicki and Sarah are playing with Shimmerz and modgepodge transfers...

These two were doing some serious creating... and check out the aprons they made especially for the day (see the logo?)... very clever, thanks Shell and Esther :)

Julie and June hard at work...

The lovely Vicki and Sarah, happy in their rusting and smelling like a takeaway (it's the vinegar)... lol

Natasha and Robin (check out Robin, working with both hands!)...

Lisa armed and dangerous with a hot glue gun...

And a big thanks to my mum for providing a yummy lunch (the soup went down rather well!) and keeping that side running so I could concentrate on the teaching! Love ya xx

Anyway it was a FABBO day so thank you all for coming!! I've had a fair few requests to do a rerun (a new set of techniques of course) next year and there were some latecomers that missed out this time around so if you're keen to join in Artlab 2012 then drop me a line and I'll put you on the list. :)

Soooo the Indulgence Retreat is filling up nicely!! We've got room for about 8 more people and that's it, I'm capping the numbers so we all have room to scrap so if you've been umming and aahing about it you'd better be in quick! Just download the registration form from the sidebar of this blog and send it in with your deposit asap, full payment is due by 1st September!

What else? ummm I'm off to Brissy to teach in September so if you're heading to the Papercrafts Festival make sure you book in for some yummy classes from myself, Janine Koczwara and Jane Clark!

Pencil in the 31st of August too for my live Prima class! Yep I'll be online creating this layout...

so hope to see you there! Kits will be available as always, and all the details will be given during the broadcast. Also make sure you're a fan of Prima over on facebook to make sure you're up to date with all the classes coming up.

Lots to do, lots of stuff coming up, thanks for visiting!

L x

Some blatant promotion and CHA shares

Ok, first the blatant promotion. We still have some spaces available for this:

28-30th October, 2011
Motu Moana Scout Camp, Blockhouse Bay, Auckland.

Cost: $230 all inclusive.

Take some time for yourself and indulge your need to create with a fun group of like-minded women. Learn something new with some amazing classes. Take a whole weekend to do what you want. Make what you want. Eat what you want.

Chocolate and inspiration provided. :)

Bookings are open now and a registration form is available on the sidebar of this blog.

The price includes:

• accommodation for Friday and Saturday nights
• 46 hours to scrap, chat and be inspired by your fellow scrappers
• a delicious breakfast, lunch and dinner on Saturday and breakfast and lunch on Sunday
• a gorgeous layout class taught by myself, full of goodies from the top brands to get you inspired
• a fabulous card buffet class taught by talented Stampin Up designer Liz Hicks - make 3-4 cards and help yourself to the goodies to make them with
• a Creepy Crop night
• a great shop to keep your supplies and motivation replenished throughout the weekend
• a welcome goodie bag
• giveaways, prizes and more!

Don't miss out, it's going to be AWESOME!

Next one...

Paper Crafts Festival in Brisbane on the weekend of September 9-11, 2011.

I'm joining the super talented Janine Koczwara and Jane Clark in teaching a mini album workshop in Aussie! the classes are:

Janine Koczwara (Australia)

Class Description:
Do you love the look of layer upon luscious layer of detail in a layout?  If you do, but struggle to pull it all together, this is a class you will love as Janine Koczwara (Prima Educator) takes you through creating a very feminine, multi-dimensional, layered layout.  While you are learning about layering you will also learn lots of new ways of incorporating Prima products on your page, with masking, misting, stamping, distressing, stitching and texturizing elements. To top it all off you will create an amazing floral cluster on your page, showcasing the beauty of Prima’s flowers on your layout.

Sneak Peek of Janine’s workshop

Janine’s blog

Louise Willams (New Zealand) (that'd be me)

Class Description:
Do you often scrap about your family, children and pets but neglect to tell your own story? Join Louise in creating a beautifully detailled “Growing Up Me” Twiddleybitz album. Decorated with beautiful Prima papers and flowers, Twiddleybitz chipboard and Shimmerz paints, this album is full of little tips and techniques you can easily transfer to your layout scrapbooking. Louise also adds her own custom embellishments to the mix to give you a unique keepsake to treasure for years to come.

Sneak Peek

and

Jane Clark (Australia)

Class description:
Learn how to create two beautiful cards using a technique that will have you producing a grungy but elegant style of Faux Tiling. In the class you will be using Gesso, embossing (wet and dry) and playing with the latest Tim Holtz Distress Stains to achieve this fantastic rustic look. This class will make you want to rush home and play with this simple but effective technique some more! This workshop is suited to all levels of cardmakers, new and experienced as clever tips will be shared along the way.

Sneak Peek

Jane’s blog

So as you can see we will be offering three AMAZING workshops at this show.

Each tutor will teach their workshop 4 times over the three days only and spots for each class are limited. You can pre-book by emailing [email protected] as well as getting full information on workshop times. The cost for each workshop will be $55 this includes all materials! Make sure you get in early!!! As a BONUS, if you book into any of the workshops you get THREE days entry for the price of ONE!!! You can see the schedule here!

So if you're planning on being in Brisbane in September make sure you get in on these workshops, they're all pretty gorgeous!

Ok, so now the shares. I was pretty excited to be sending some of my work to be displayed on the Prima stand at CHA this year. I've always dreamed of CHA and although, despite my repeated badgering, they declined my offer to hand deliver the items ;) I still had this acrylic album and layout there! woohoo!

This layout uses the new North Country line of papers and embellishments with some Printery and other Prima touches in there. It's a redo of a layout I did a year or so ago that I was never completely happy with and I adored the photo and title so wanted to give it another go. Don't you love the rubon snowflakes? too cute!

 

And the other item is my favourite. I LOVE acrylic albums and mixed and matched some Prima ones to create this one. I completely adore the new resin embellishments, the vintage birdy is to. die. for. Seriously need to stock up on more of these!

So there you go, thanks for looking

L :) x

A bit of steampunk and a video or 3...

I've been Shimmerzing with the new Enamelz and it's lurve...

For this layout I took a tonne of Twiddleybitz goodness and embossed my lil heart out with the new Enamelz and finished off with some touches of Prima and adhesive pearls and swirls from Flourish with a Bling. I've done a recent guest DT spot for FWAB and love their products - head over and take a look at their blog.

And even a video of how I created it...

On another note I've been rather excited to have my first items being shown on the Prima stand at CHA! I spotted them in a couple of video's of the new stuff and sooooo wish I could've seen the stand in real life, it looked amazing!

In this first one I have a christmas layout of Joshie on an easel rrrriiiggghhhht at the end JUST as the batteries ran out... I'll show the full layout on here as soon as I get the ok.

In this one you can see my clear acrylic album which obviously quite took her fancy as she went back to it again for a good look through it! yay!!

My little bit of excitement for the day. :)

Did I share these? I created them for Aussie Scrap Source recently and they were made for my mum (they made her cry when she got them)... we all got to do some awesome 7 Gypsies trays and memory jars and I love how different everyone's were... don't you love the picture of my mum (number 12) in the top left? I'm really happy with how this turned out - I used Pink Paislee papers and some gorgeous Twiddleybitz chippie embossed with, you guessed it, Shimmerz Enamelz. :D

And this is the matching memory jar. I handmade the cotton spools using rolled up paper and some punched out circles all glued together then wrapped with muslin and secured with some pins from Jillibean Soup. Easy and effective!

Saw an interesting thing on tv tonight about Fodmap's... it could definitely be the cause of many of the issues I have with my Crohn's disease especially when I eat right! It makes me so frustrated that I can't diet and exercise to lose weight like everyone else as when I start eating fruit and vegetables too regularly it sets it all off and I'm back to square one. It's looking like going gluten free and cutting out high fodmap foods could definitely help so I'll do a bit more research on it and give it a go. I miss having some energy and just feeling well. I'm not sick, I'm not suffering but I have had ongoing issues with my disease which has otherwise been in remission up until a few months ago, and with two young children and lots to do I refuse to spend my life sitting on the couch. Stay tuned...

ArtLab is in 2 weeks and I can't wait! I have boxes of goodies for everyone and it's all come together like a plan no less!! it's going to be so much fun, can't wait to share the photos afterwards.

There are places available for the retreat at the end of October too, make sure you register as it's going to be sooo much fun! I'm teaching a Prima class (with Twiddleybitz and Shimmerz) and Liz's card buffet is looking awesome. Roll on October.. but not too fast because of course in September I'll be in Brissy teaching at the Papercrafts Festival! Make sure you book in for all 3 workshops too (myself, Jane Clark and Janine Koczwara are teaching)... you don't want to miss out on these ones either.

Righto, that's enough for today :)

L :) x

A trip over the ditch...

I'm heading over to Brisbane to teach a gorgeous mini album at the Paper Crafts Festival show in September. A big box of Shimmerz goodness arrived this morning and you are going. to. LOVE the amazing altered page album from Twiddleybitz that I'm using as the base. Look at that window on the front!! and the scroll cut pages... oh be still my heart. Anyway if you're heading to Brissy for the show (and you really should!) then make sure you book in for all three AMAZING workshops on offer from myself, the incredibly talented Janine Koczwara and cardmaker extraordinnaire Jane Clark.

Each tutor will teach their workshop 4 times over the three days only and spots for each class are limited. You can pre-book by emailing [email protected] as well as getting full information on workshop times. The cost for each workshop will be $55 this includes all materials! Make sure you get in early!!! As a BONUS, if you book into any of the workshops you get THREE days entry for the price of ONE!!!  You can see the schedule here!

Anyway back to my class...

Class Description:  Do you often scrap about your family, children and pets but neglect to tell your own story? Join Louise in creating a beautifully detailled “Growing Up Me” Twiddleybitz album. Decorated with beautiful Prima papers and flowers, Twiddleybitz chipboard and Shimmerz paints, this album is full of little tips and techniques you can easily transfer to your layout scrapbooking. Louise also adds her own custom embellishments to the mix to give you a unique keepsake to treasure for years to come.

Places are filling up so make sure you book!!

L :)

A Style Lounge Challenge...

and you have to be in to win! Over on Aussie Scrap Source we've been running style challenges where you've been asked to create layouts in the style of each of the DT... this week is my turn and of course my inspiration is the uber talented Ingvild Bolme... these are the layouts I created for the challenge but check out the blog for the full details and don't forget to enter!!

Lots of layers, details and clusters on this one, including some of the new canvas mistables (love those!).

See the leaves? they're from the mistables sheet and I sprayed them with Shimmerz, then stamped them with staz-on before cutting them out... voila!

In true Ingvild style I used puff paint and gesso along the edges of the scroll - also from the canvas mistables. It adds dimension and a nice detail :)

And the second layout:

Lots of layers along with some Tim H details and a twiddleybitz butterfly frame.

Check it out over at ASS, I can't wait to see what you create!

L :) x

a LONG post... grab a coffee...

Well SENZ is over for another year and I'm still CRAZY busy with lots of shows, classes, videos and blog posts coming up!! eek how'd that all happen? :D

Anyhoo this is a Tim Holtz configurations box that popped up over on the Aussie Scrap Source blog the other day. (Oh and before I forget, head over and check it out for your chance to guest design for Jenni Bowlin!!). Back to the box... I used a tonne of Tim's fabulous designs on it as well as some of the amazing steampunkey Twiddleybitz chippie (and some gorgeous Prima) but I'm thinking it's not quite done. Oh and yes, that really is our bedroom wall colour (remember I told you we had a circus themed house?)... that WILL be changing. Seriously. How we manage to sleep in there I'll never know. It's not like there's anywhere else in the house we could sleep either, every wall is another shade of sunglasses-required. One thing at a time and anyway, I digress...

I covered the box in Tim's paper masking tape (love that stuff - it covers so easily!!) and arranged and hot glued the boxes so they didn't all lie flat. I inked all the edges (used a mixture of Distress Inks and Staz on) and added those gorgeous feet!

The gorgeous Twiddleybitz chippie was inked in two colours, layered on top of each other and hot glued into place with a door knob just because I could :). I finished that section off with some Prima, and layered a butterfly cut from Tim's paper on top of his metal wings for a really eyecatching finish.

I used the film strip a bit differently too - I hot glued one end into the gaps between a couple of the boxes then twisted it like ribbon before hot gluing the other end into place.

This is the bit that needs work I think, just doesn't work for me now (it did but now... not so much). It feels a bit empty to me still... I think it's one of those things I'll keep fiddling with for years to come (and the piccies are going to change)... stay tuned for updates on this one!!

Speaking of Prima (as I do) I got my Educators box yesterday and Oh. My. Seriously, be still my beating heart... the things they have for you at the upcoming CHA... *sigh*... I seriously {hearts} them and I'm still expecting an email to say sorry, wrong Louise can you please return your box of goodies... (and my answer would be "no, it's mine and kind of crumpled because I've been rolling around in it"). lol

Onto SENZ. This year I decided not to teach as the only time slots were the last couple of hours of the show and I figured everyone would be shopped/classed out by then and I was right. With 87 different classes to choose from (and many repeated multiple times over the weekend), it wouldn't have been worth the time involved to prepare the awesome class I had in mind but stay tuned as I'm thinking I might run it online instead... ;)

Sooo anyway (keep getting sidetracked), I was selling my jewellery at SENZ this year instead of doing anything scrappy and I really enjoyed it! I didn't make a huge amount of money and probably wouldn't do SENZ again as it's the wrong place for that kind of thing, but I did get to talk to a huge number of scrappers who thankfully took the time to come and say hi! Loved meeting you all and it was nice to put a real face to all our facebook comments! All the jewellery and headbands etc that I was selling at the show will be heading into my etsy shop shortly (once I get a second to breathe and load them) and if there's anything custom you'd like just drop me a line.

I spent a fair bit of time (as did my mum who is always an amazing help) preparing my wee table for the show. Mum's currently addicted to making flowers and has been producing the most beautiful paper flowers which we sold a tonne of at the show, as well as sewing this gorgeous table skirt for me!

I saw a picture online somewhere, sent it to her and voila! she's too clever and it made the table look gorgeous. I've also been collecting bits and pieces off trade me for the last few months including a big old tin box, complete with a bit of rust that looked perfect!

So there you go. Sold enough to keep me happy and got some custom orders, had a very long (but fun) weekend and got to finally have a coffee with the lovely and uber-talented Jilly G (been such a long time coming!). Can't wait to catch up again in Brissy in September! Speaking of Brissy, if you're over there then come and check out the Paper Crafts Festival. You can catch classes from me, Janine Koczwara and Jane Clark (and get discounted entry into the show) but bookings are strictly limited!

Ok... that's all for now, be back with some stuff to share as soon as I'm allowed!!

L x

Congratulations!

The new Prima Design Team has been announced and I'm so thrilled to see so many of my scrapping buddies' names on there! Here's the amazingly talented line up:

AnnaMarie Mondro: http://annamarie-mondro.blogspot.com/
Anna Dabrowski:  http://tworzysko.blogspot.com
Karola Witczak: http://www.karolakraftuje.blogspot.com/
Stacy Cohen: www.stacycohen.blogspot.com
Trina McClune:: www.trinamcclune.typepad.com
Leslie Ashe:  www.leslieashe.blogspot.com
Maiko Kosugi:  http://maimaipiano.blogspot.com/
Jamie Dougherty: http://www.jaylynnscraps.com/
Trudi Harrison:  http://www.scrappinwitht.blogspot.com/
Heidi Kelley:  http://seesterk.blogspot.com/
Anna-Marie Wolniak:  http://www.princi-made.blogspot.com/
Stacey Young:  www.staceyeyoung.blogspot.com
Hege Lundquist: www.hegeal.blogspot.com
Anne Jo Lexander: http://www.aniia.blogspot.com
Emeline Seet: www.scrapvilla.blogspot.com
Marie-Nicolas Alliot: http://www.ma-ni.creation.over-blog.com
Steph Devlin: www.stephdevlin.typepad.com

The Design Team is different from the Core Education Team that I'm lucky enough to be a member of. Basically the difference is that the DT will be bringing you inspiration to the Prima blog with sketches, challenges and competitions etc, where as the Education Team involves more teaching and travelling and spreading Prima goodness in person, on the Educator Blog  and on Prima's U-Stream channel. Make sure you add both the Prima Blog and the Educator Blog to your blogroll so you don't miss any of the amazing projects that are coming up!

L x