Stay At Home With Emilie Chamel Workshop

Hello everybody!

Do you remember the workshop I had organised in Penrith Cumbria back in November? I know, it seems like forever ago! Well, the result of it is that Karen (KJJC) who attended with her friend Michelle asked me if I would like to come to teach for an entire weekend to her Crop group in Manchester. As I am never one to turn down a good moment of fun between scrappy friends I jumped at the opportunity and said yes! I designed two classes: a first one using patterned papers to focus on how to use different style of photographs on our layouts and make them stand out but also how to take inspiration from other layouts and making them your own.
The second class was all about my favourite: Stamp only layout and how to create your own patterned papers using a variety of stamps, inks and techniques.

I was also able to enrol quite a few amazing sponsors who gave all the "students" a wonderful bag of goodies each: Merly Impressions gave two packets of blooms, Sarah's Cards gave an amazing packet of Studio Calico Paper Clips as well as a discount voucher, Sarah Hurley gave a goody pouch including journalling cards, badge, stamp and a discount voucher, Stash Panache gave a pouch of six badges (buttons), and last but not least, German brand Scrapperin gave a stamp set and a magazine! Wow! So everybody had their kits worth over £40 for both days plus a sponsor goodie bag worth over £40! That was quite amazing and everybody seemed so pleased! Mission accomplished!

I decided to share with you those layouts I designed for the classes here with you. Let's start with one of my Stamp Only Layout!

I used the amazing stamps from Scrapperin to create this layout along with the arrow stamps from Sarah Hurley. I also embellished the layout with the gorgeous blooms given by Merly Impressions in Coral and Black. The layout above is the example I went to the class with and the one below is the layout I created there while explaining the techniques and process.

I mainly followed my previous design but decided to add extra journalling to show everybody how it could be done without compromising the general design.

Join me in the next few days for part two! And if you are interested by my classes, I am willing to travel and you can contact me for information at info(at)emiliechamel.com

I hope this inspired you!

Emilie xxx

Merly Impressions Design Team Call

We are looking for some very talented ladies (and gents) to join our expanding Design Team! Do you want a monthly goodie box filled with yummy coordinating Kaisercraft products and embellishments galore?? Do you have a love of paper crafting, challenges and sharing your talent?

So this your chance to show us what you’ve got!! 

We are looking for Scrapbookers and Card-makers based in the UK

Here’s how to be part of this new team….

Deadline: May the 15th midnight

How to Apply

Please email us at designs(at)emiliechamel.com with the following information (copy and paste into an email):

1. First, tell us about you. Give us a short bio.
2. Link to your blog and/or online gallery. We’d also love to know if you are on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and/or Twitter.
3. Send us samples…  Scan/photograph and send us: 3 Layouts if you are applying for the Scrapbooker position or 3 Cards and a layout if you are applying for the Card-making design team. Be sure to send us your strongest creations!!
4. What do you consider your specialty (favourite techniques, products,…)?
5. Tell us about the CRAFTY you…Link to your scrapbook resume if you have one? Do you teach? Have you been published? Do you or have you ever worked at a craft store?
6. What other Design Teams are you part of and when does their term end? (Note: No previous DT experience is required, we are just curious.)
7. Tell us about YOU….what do you love about scrapbooking? What do you love about Kaisercraft products and how do you think your style fits with the products we sell. Why do you want to be on our design team?

All Design Team applications must be received by May 15th midnight to be considered. If selected you will be notified via email and the new team will be announced here on our blog.

Design Team Requirements

1. You will be required to submit 3 projects per month for the Scrapbooking Team and 4 projects for the Card-making team. You will be asked to create one tutorial per month (photo or video) and to take part in the monthly challenge.
2. Team members are asked to repost their projects on two different sites minimum (those can include UKScrapper, Pinterest, your Blog and/or your Facebook) and tag or link to Merly Impressions.
3. Design Team term will be for a six month period, Jul. 2013 to Dec. 2013, renewable.

Questions, email us at designs(at)emiliechamel.com

Emilie xx

Waltzing Mouse Stamps Flower Show!

Hi everybody and welcome to the Waltzing Mouse Stamps Flower Show!

A little while ago I received an amazing e-mail from Lynn Mercurio of the Waltzing Mouse Stamps Design Team asking me if I wanted to take part in their Flower Show Blog Hop. I was so honoured that I wouldn't have been able to reply "yes" quicker if I had tried! I absolutely LOVE the Waltzing Mouse Stamps brand and have been using them for years! The owner Claire Brennan is always willing to help and her blog is full of amazing inspiration on how to use her stamps.

We were asked to create a project using flower stamps of our choice from the brand and I fell in love with the brand new Folk Art Medallion set so decided to use that one to create one of my "Stamp only layout".

I love those automnal colours! I created my background with some Faded Jeans and Vintage Photograph Distress inks. I also stamped my favourite stamp ever Text It as a base behind my photograph to visually support all the layering I was going to build-up and then started playing with the Folk Art Medallion set. I stamped leaves and flowers on a piece of card-stock and then cut them out to use as embellishments around my photograph. I finished off with my title and my journalling and Voilà!
Here are a few close-ups:

 But as it is, I loved this stamp set so much that I decided to also create a card with it!

This time I wanted to use very bright colours and decided to push the contrast even further by contouring each little design of the stamp with my black pen! I love the result! So funky!!! Here are a few close-ups too:

Isn't this set gorgeous?! I love all the possibilities!
As this is a hop, you should have arrived from the amazing Kimberly Crawford's blog and your next step is to visit the gorgeous blog of Pauline Pollington! So please keep visiting everybody's blog and don't forget to leave a comment on Claire's blog to tell her which project was your favourite as well as take part in a CASE competition, you could win 5 sets of your choice! Yes! 5!!!!! Wow!

So I hope that this inspired you and please do play along!

Emilie xxx

Product Focus Part 3

Welcome to the last part of this month's product focus! I really loved playing with this Ribbon Roses and the gorgeous 75 cents collection!

To finish off this session, I decided to conclude with a card.

I pressed my bottle of Tea Dye Distress Stain onto my card in an horizontal line and then helped it drip down. I quickly dried it with my heat gun to avoid the paper fibres absorbing and spreading the ink. I then traced around the patch of ink with a black pen and layered paper tape, die-cuts from the paper pad, collectable, ribbon and blooms onto my card with a single rose from the Ribbon Roses. You know the feeling when you have completed a project and just love everything about how it turned out? Well this card is just "it" for me! I just LOVE it! I even have it on display in my craft room!

Anyway, I hope this series inspired you and that you'll be using your Ribbon Roses in a whole lot of creative ways!

Emilie xxx

Product Focus Part 2

Hello and welcome back to this second part of my product focus on those gorgeous Ribbon Roses!

I told you in this first part of this Product Focus that I am not the most comfortable at using ribbons in my scrapbooking and that it was the reason why I decided, in a masochist kind of way, to create three projects using this ribbon. I thought though that I had taken it easy with my first layout as I only had used one small piece and that therefor, to really push myself, I should go full on with this second layout and make those gorgeous fabric blooms the main feature of my page.

In order to create a layout with a lot a ribbon but without actually out-staging the photograph I decided to go for a strong image with a lot of contrast. This is a photo of my brother and his girlfriend and I loved how it was framed and treated. The subject are in very close focus and the colours have a bit of a vintage feel. There is a lot of contrast too so I knew I would be able to go for a heavy background with plenty of embellishments without loosing the subject. The chevron paper "Tuppence" is perfect for this image as it is young but yet with that vintage feel that the photo has. I added some Tea Dye Distress Stains in the middle of the sheet letting it drip down to add even more "rust" to the general feel. I then layered some papers from thepaper pad onto which I mounted my photograph followed by a few collectables. A cluster of paper blooms in Terracotta and Ruby as well as a little bit of paper tape for an extra "je-ne-sais-quoi" and it was time for my Ribbon Roses. I decided to use a whole length as "support" for my photograph but helped it merge with the rest of the embellishments by covering the link with a butterfly from the collectables pack. I also balanced the design by adding a single rose in the top right corner of my photo with another butterfly. I decided to create my title by stamping the words Precious Memories from the Botanical Odyssey stamp set onto some paper from the paper pad.

I am pleased with how this layout turned out! It is very different from what I usually do and I don't think anyone would easily recognise it as one of mine as there isn't any of my usual "trademarks" i.e. small photograph, stamped journalling, etc... but it felt good to get out of my comfort zone!

I hope this inspired you try new things! See you on the third and last instalment!

Emilie xxx

Product Focus Part1- March

You know me, I love flowers and blooms but I am not really one to use ribbons in my scrapbooking. It is not that I don't like them, I simply don't really know how to incorporate them in my designs except in very small touches. So when I opened my goody box this month and saw the gorgeous Ribbon Roses, I was at first a bit taken aback... How could I use it? The fact that I had to ask myself this question pushed me to take the decision to use the Ribbon Roses as my Product Focus for this month.

Like many of you I fell head over hills in love with the 75 cent collection and I decided to use my Mint Rose Ribbon in association with this gorgeous collection. Here I mounted different layers of papers from the paper pad onto this gorgeous background paper "Penny" that has an amazing textured look. I followed by adding my photograph to then layer my title, a few Collectables and some paper blooms in Ruby and Honey. So where does my ribbon come into play  hear you say... Well, the great thing about this ribbon is that you can either use it as a whole strip or you can also cut it in order to just use one flower at a time, which is what I did here! I love the extra texture it add to my layout!

I hope this inspired you and to see for the next part of this product focus!

Emilie xxx

Merly Impressions Monthly Challenge - March

Hello everybody! I know I repeat myself every month but I can't believe it is that time already!

I have been scratching my head long and hard to find an idea for this challenge and it was hard to find something new! After some pondering I thought that I would push you a little bit further into my world. This month's theme is:

GET INKY!!!

I want you to use some ink in some ways on your layout: through stamping, sponges, misting, drawing, painting, etc...It is free! I don't mind how you add the ink or how much of it you use, I just want to see some of it! And to get your inspiration flowing I made a layout using a wide range of inky techniques:

I wanted to show you that you could use a patterned background as a base by using the gorgeous Sixpence sheet from the 75 cent collection. I then used a mister to ink the background with this amazing Chevron stencil. I stamped the Arty Texture clear stamp to create a base for my photograph to sit on and then layered some gorgeous paper blooms in Grape, Buttercream and Sage. I also decided to create my own little inky embellishments by inking some butterflies with some distress stains inFeathered Peacock, Squeezed Lemonade and Spiced Marmalade. I finished them off by stamping on them with the Arty texture stamp I used earlier.

So I hope that this example inspired you to get inky! Please feel free to spread the word about this challenge! The more the merrier!

Emilie xxx