CHA - Bow Challenged? Not with these tools

Before I left for CHA, I promised to post about all the cool stuff I saw. I had a technical hitch whilst I was there and I wasn't able to get many photos from the show floor and since returning home I've been working long into the night to meet some upcoming deadlines. So, it has had to wait until now to tell you all about CHA. There were a couple of cool tools for tying bows. The first one is the Bow-it-All from Zutter which was being demonstrated by it's inventor, Stacy Nicholas. I watched closely as she created a very full bow from a continuous length of ribbon by firstly wrapping the ribbon around the outside pegs of the tool and then the inside pegs, then the outside and then the inside again. She had a nifty little technique for tying it off so that the bow never came undone which I didn't catch on camera but check out the video in the link below to see how it's done. With this easy to use tool, she quickly created a beautiful 6 loop bow for me. ......

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Monogrammed Napkin Rings

Over the next week or so I'll be sharing some projects with you that were made for a special couple for their engagement celebration but with some minor tweaking you could easily make them into Valentine's Day projects. The happy couple is a no nonsense couple but even still, it was nice to decorate to make the occasion even more memorable. First things, first. We needed a theme to work with. The bride and groom's favourite colours of red and blue combined with their initials was a good starting point. Red and Blue on their own don't exactly conjure up a romantic mood but with the addition of some white and a bit of hessian (burlap) we were heading in the right direction. The bride (and the groom!) got involved and stamped up the monograms and then punched them out whilst I was away at CHA. It was great to have this job already done when I got home. Neither of them has ever stamped or paper crafted before. Didn't they do an amazing job? The stamp set is......

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Fifty Shades of Red

After last weekend's torrential rains in Brisbane and predictions of further rain and storms all week long I was concerned that today's resin workshop would have to be postponed until less humid weather. But when I woke up this morning and found the sun shining and no rain in sight, I knew the resin gods were smiling down on my little group of students today! With low humidity we were able to resin away to our heart's content. I love that this workshop allows me to make the class projects too - here's what I added to my collection today. Those of you who read my blog regularly would know that my favourite colour is purple and it has been the dominant colour in my wardrobe for a number of years. It certainly makes accessorising an outfit easy because everything goes together.  But this year I've found touches of red creeping into my wardrobe. It started with a pair of really cute Dorothy-esque shoes which I just adore! And then came a red blouse and i......

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