I Spy Bags

These I Spy Bags are so much fun for little kids. They make a nice gift that parents are happy about too. I found the instructions for making them at this blog. As I was stuffing them with all kinds of fun trinkets, I started thinking about things around the house that would be fun to fill them with. Think you don't have anything to use? Think again! Use some of your scrapbooking embellishments.

Here are my embellishment recommendations:
• Bridgeport Chiplets & Petals
• Christmas Mint Designer Brads (Fold the metal ends back or break them off)
• WinterSong Chiplets
• En Route Metal Accents & Epoxy Stickers (Put 2 stickers together or put tissue on the back so they don't stick)
• Playday Fuzzies & Chiplets
• Black Orchid Buttons

Have you made any I Spy Bags? What do you put in your bags?

-Maria

3rd Thursday

Next month Club SEI will be featuring Sophia. This beautiful collection is currently only available to club members. Click here to see all the goodies included in the kit. The flocked papers have an amazing texture and the colors are cozy and inviting. Don't worry, if you aren't a club member, you can still sign up and receive this kit.



These projects were made using the click-n-prints available to club members on the club website with each kit. Just another reason to join today!

Elaine Teo + grab bag giveaway!

Wow! We love Elaine and are so glad you guys do too. She has such a unique and beautiful point of view on our products. We hope you guys got tons of inspiration like we did. Keep dropping by her blog and saying hello, she's a sweetheart!

Our two lucky winners, as chosen by random.org are:

congrats to Monika and Greta!


send us your mailing addresses at seiblog(at)shopsei(dot)com for some goodies. Thanks again to the wonderful Elaine for another fantastic week of guest blogging!

Giveaway Grab-bag!

This card is one of my all time favourites. I love everything about this card, and again I did not plan for the card to turn out this way - it just did! LOL

I used 2 cardstocks for this - an orange one for the base, and a brown one for matting the front.

I adore the Dill Blossoms collection - couldn't make myself to use the papers until much later. For this card, I cut out the beautiful images and bunched them together and adhered them onto the bottom left side of the card. I enjoy cutting out images from patterned papers these days - that saves the cost of buying embellishments, and somehow for me, cutting up paper is both therapeutic and calming! Do you feel the same way, or is it just me? :)

I also use stamps in almost all my cards. I love stamping - I love the crisp images that stamps give. I wish I could draw, but I can't draw to save my life, so stamping is the next best thing. The first stamp I bought was from Hero Arts, back in 2005, and I haven't looked back since.
Once I've gotten all my materials needed for the card, I'll move them around the card till I'm happy with the placements, and that's when I'll glue them down, and the card is finished! :)


I often get stuck with ideas when I create a layout - but somehow with this layout above, I didn't have any problems at all, eventhough I used different collections from SEI - that's just how versatile the collections are even when you mix them together.

For this layout, I used papers from En Route, Poppy, Park Buddies and Kitty's Place and I had loads of fun mixing them up.

I used the En Route patterned paper as this background for the layout - the images on the paper are subtle and it's about travel, which fits perfectly for the photo I used. Then I added a couple of strips of patterned papers at the back of my photo. After that, it was a matter of embellising around the photo before the layout is done.

The long stems of flowers on the left of the photo were cut out from the Sarong (pearl) patterned paper from the Poppy collection. The cluster of flowers on the bottom right side, and the butterflies on the top right side of the layout were all cut from Kitty's Background patterned paper, from the Kitty's Place collection. I'm totally in love with that patterned paper. :)

The dogs and fire hydrant were cut from Hot Dogs patterned paper, from the Park Buddies collection.

Then I added the journaling, brad and title and my layout was done! Super easy even with mixing different collections.

Thanks for a wonderful week Elaine! It's so nice to see a different sense of style inspired from another part of the world. We are having a grab bag give away with the products Elaine used to make the above projects, and then some extras! Just leave a comment by Sunday September 20th at midnight telling us which post was your favorite. We will be choosing 2 winners and announcing them Monday morning. Good luck!

My Cards

When I make cards, I try to use most of my supplies from one manufacturer, and from the same collection if possible - afterall, everything in that collection is well matched, so that takes the load off trying to match the elements used on the card.


I usually don't have a clue what my card will turn out like in the end - I'll just pick out the colors of my cardstock and patterned papers, and go from there.

For this card (above), I wanted to use the Chickadee line, so I pulled out those papers, some matching-colored cardstock, and worked from there.

I always mat the base of my card with a patterned paper that has subtle images or patterns on it. Then I'll search for another patterned paper that I could cut out the images from. In this case, it's those cute birds and flowers. I'll just cut a few first and play around with the placement of them.

I also love adding a journaling tag or a scalloped border to my card to give it added interest. After deciding the placements of the birds and flowers, I added the sentiment, paper flowers and ribbon to give some texture to the card. Once I'm happy with everything, I'll add a bit of Stickles glitter to make it a little prettier - if needed. I'm a glitter gal. :)


It took me less than 30 min. to finish altering this Ikea frame, mainly because almost everything I used to alter this frame are from the Dill Blossom range of papers.

First I measured and cut out the Carraway patterned paper to adhere to the outer part of the frame, then for the background, I used the Coriander paper, while the flowers were all cut out from the Coriander and Hyssop papers. Then I added a few punched out butterflies and gems, added the stamped sentiment and the frame was complete! It makes for a nice decor piece or something you can put on your office table perhaps. Love it!


I used the same method when I made this christmas card. I used all my supplies from the Christmas Mint collection, and everything fell into place really quickly, which is good for mothers like me who may not have so much free time on our hands, yet we yearn to make a card or two in that short span of time.

I used 3 patterned papers from this collection, namely Peppermint Bark for the background, Ribbon Candy for the strips and Butter Creams for the ornaments that I cut out. Also used some epoxy stickers. After finishing this card, I still had loads of left overs to make a few more cards - how cool is that right?

Making things using SEI papers is a synch as the papers come double sided, and that in itself is value for money, and the designs are always so beautiful and versatile. I love love love making cards, making anything for that matter, with SEI papers - if you haven't tried making one yet, go give it a try - I promise you'll love it!

Magazines, if you please...

There are days when I have this burst of energy and enthusiam to make a card or create a layout, so I head to my craft room, get ready with my scissors, cutter and papers, ready to do something, when my mind suddenly draws a complete blank! In the end, I'll just be staring at my supplies, not knowing what to do or where to start - it can be so frustrating sometimes.

And that is where I turn to my magazines, my main source of inspiration.


This one above - Country Living UK Edition - is my favourite, amongst all the favourites. :) I've been faithfully buying this magazine since 2005, and each month's issue has never disappointed me. It's a home decor magazine and it's always loaded with the most beautiful photos I have ever seen.




I recently made a Christmas card using the Winter Song collection,


and my inspiration for that card came from this (2-page) image above. I love the christmas colors of red, white and blue, splattered all over these 2 pages, giving them a wintry and homely feel - and the Winter Song collection was perfect as it had all these colors in it!

The colors, photos of the beautiful british scenery and other features of the magazine always leave me with some inspiration to scrap a layout, make a card or even sew a quilt. Totally love this magazine!!

And there you have it! Thank goodness for great magazines like these, isn't it? :)

Tutorial Anyone?

I always have loads of fun altering photo frames, especially the inexpensive wooden ones from Ikea. This frame that I had in mind is for a good friend - Karen, so I thought I'd make a simple frame with just the letter "K" and no photos on it.

The supplies I used for this frame aren't many:

a) The Ikea frame,
b) 3 sheets of SEI papers from the Oasis collection,
c) epoxy stickers from SEI,
d) glimmer mist from Tattered Angels,
e) chipboard "K" from Maya Road,
f) stickles from Ranger and
g) foam dots.

1) First, I covered the outer frame and the background with patterned papers. Then I sprayed glimmer mist onto the K chipboard and let it dry. I chose the color green to match the patterned papers.


2) Once the K was dry, I added faux stitching (using a black pen) to give the letter more emphasis as I thought it looked a bit bland. Then I set aside the letter as I wanted to embellish the background first before adhering the letter.


3) I cut out the circle motifs and used them to embellish the background. Once I was satisfied with the placement of the circles, I adhered the "K" in the centre of the background.



4) I decided to embellish the upper left corner, and the lower right corner of the frame, to give the frame added interest, so I cut out some more circles, and leaves from another Oasis patterned paper. I layered the placement of these circles and leaves - gave them a bit of dimension with foam dots and epoxy stickers and adhered all onto the frame.

5) After everything was done, I added a small butterfly, which I cut out from the paper, and adhered it onto the letter K, and also added glitter glue (stickles) onto all the circles and butterfly for some bling, and my frame was done!


I hope you will give this project a try as it's really easy to do and you don't have to use too many supplies to make on. Just use papers from one collection as you will be rest assured that everything will match, add a few other things like maybe a chipboard image or some flowers onto the sides of the frame, and you're done!

Thanks so much! :)

Hello from Singapore!

I thought I'd share with you some photos which I took recently when I went to a nearby wet market to buy breakfast. It was a Saturday morning at around 8am, and the market and food stalls were already bustling with people, buying their groceries and having their morning cuppa.



These are photos of a typical flat you'll see in Singapore. There are more flats than houses here as the land is scarce. I've been living in a flat all my life and I love it, eventhough the space in my flat is small.


This is a photo of a food court where you can find several stalls of local and sometimes western food. The food that you find in most food courts are affordable and they are mainly situated near housing estates. This one was packed that morning with people having their breakfast. Singaporeans love eating out - one of the local favourite pasttimes.





I'm so sorry but these photos had to be taken from a distance to the wet market, as generally stall owners don't like their photos taken. Camera-shy perhaps. A local wet market is where you will find fresh product like seafood, meat and vegetables, and this market starts its operations as early as 6am till about noon. I prefer to go in the mid-morning when the crowd has eased a little. My boys love to visit the market as they get to see a lot of more things at the wet market than at a supermarket, which is where I normally do my marketing.




These last 2 photos I have with me are food that I enjoy eating for breakfast. The first photo is roti prata - an Indian dish made out of dough and eaten with curry, while the second photo is an array of chinese "kueh" - small finger foods that are not too filling for a morning meal.

Hope you enjoyed reading about my morning trip to the market - thanks so much!

-Elaine

Guest Blogger, Elaine Teo

Next week we are thrilled to have our first international guest blogger, Elaine Teo. She lives in Singapore and is going to share her amazing talent for card making with us. Check out her blog for a hint of what's to come. This is one week you won't want to miss!

Here are some facts about me:

• Other than scrapping and cardmaking, I also enjoy sewing and watching tv whenever I can. 

• I totally enjoy crime shows such as the CSI series and the Law and Order series amongst others.

• I also read a lot of magazines - in particular scrapbooking and cardmaking magazines.

• I love tucking myself in with a good read before drifting off to sleep - that is what I look forward to each night after a long day.

NutMeg Paper Pad

Back in July we told you about some amazing paper pads we designed that Michaels has and showed you some projects with Zoo Pals. So, we decided it is about time to feature a project with NutMeg. It is perfect for autumn and includes varnish and foil accents. For now, you can only get these designs in the paper pads at Michaels.
I love the idea of having a computer desk area in your kitchen. You can have easy access to paper & pens, quickly look up recipes on the internet, spend more time around the whole family, and keep an eye on what your kids are doing on the internet. So I thought this project would be the perfect solution to accent this type of space or make into an album.

This project was inspired by something I saw in one of club sei's kits. To make it, cut out 5 pieces of 6 x 12 paper and 2 pieces of 6 x 6 paper. Fold the 6 x 12 pieces in half then attach the papers as shown and add strips of paper, words, pictures or whatever you want. I attached a recipe I would like to keep handy.
I hope you enjoy this project! It's fast and pretty. Let us know if you have any questions.

-Maria

Velvet Friends

I'm not sure how familiar you are with SEI's velvet paper, but today I'm wanting to put a little spotlight on it. When I first started working at SEI, I wasn't too familiar with how you could use velvet paper. I learned pretty quickly that you can use it just like card stock paper (duh) and other endless possibilities. The benefit of velvet paper is that it's really pliable, so it can be wrapped around odd shapes & cut into detailed shapes while maintaining it's simple elegance.

We have one customer in particular that we've fallen in love with over their velvet paper creations. They are Lehr & Black. They make announcements and invitations for A-list clients. Below are some of their invitations that have been created using our velvet paper, (pretty exciting). So if you thought velvet paper was outdated, we might be able to change your mind.

click image to enlarge

• First is a Sweet 16 invitation for Francis Cobain. I love the wrapping of the coffin in the midnight black velvet
• Brendan Frasiers' family Holiday Card. The chocolate velvet paper with that beautiful red hair is great.
• Shaquille O'Neal's Holiday party was also done using the chocolate velvet paper
• Gwen Stefani & Gavin Rossdale's wedding invitation used hints of the wine velvet paper

Sorry to brag, but we just had to share. There are so many amazing invitations, so be sure to look up Lehr & Black for some tantalizing eye candy. Have a great weekend!

Augusts' Tutorial Recap!

We had some wonderful posts this past month. We wanted to make sure that no one missed out on them. So here's an August recap for you. We'll try to make this a habit of recapping every month. And we're off:


• TTV Photography- Tara Anderson, from The Pink Couch, introduced us to TTV images (click here for a tutorial if you're still a bit confused)
• DIY Magnets- Tara also showed us how to create these fabulous magnets!
• Switch plates- made in under 10 minutes!