Hi Everyone
Some FANTASTIC entries again this month and thank-you SO much to Sketches in Thyme for allowing us to use their amazing sketches for our Challenge.

Thanks for the lovely entries ladies. Have a look to see if you're a winner!

Christine

Sharon Dimes

Clarissa

Yoko

Brenda

Fiona

Teryl

And we have some Favourite Colour entries too:

Viv

Viv

Viv

Viv

Viv

WINNERS
First Time Entry - Brenda McKay
Brenda - we loved this great photo and the awesome way you have used the red color as an accent

Sketch Entries - Christine
We love the way you've picked a fun progression of piccies and adapted the sketch where necessary.

Overall Entry - Sharon Dines 
Sharon - your simple yet very well executed layout really shines with the colors and bold patterns AWESOME job!! (This was also Sharon's first time entering!!)

Please email the shop at at info@artfullcrafts.co.nz and let them know you've won the challenge and your address. The girls at the shop will package up your prize and will send it off to you.

We have another Challenge again next month - really broad again so Anything Goes....Keep your eye out for that launch tomorrow.

We will be loading all these images into our Gallery over the next couple of days too :-) 
Thanks again for joining in.

And don't forget to send us your DESIGN TEAM APPLICATIONS by this Friday 3rd August! Click here for more details.

Betsy here this morning to share some more cards with my favourite colours.
It is rather hard to define " favourite", as I must admit, I do have a few!! Anyway ladies, here goes and hope you enjoy and do get some inspiration for your next projects.



Now, who could bypass the lovely Graphic 45, A Ladies Dairy?! I absolutely LOVE it and of course it has the mint colour as well. Suits me just fine! This card was made for an order as no doubt you will see. Optic Martha Stewart punch was used for the border.



This is one of my very favourite cards - it is a pattern from Sara, at Cardmaking Paradise and I did teach it at SENZ. In this case, it is made with Kaisercraft's, Madame Boutique - again brown and mint. The flowers are hand made using Tim Holtz's, Tattered Florals die.



Still have the mint but have added purple as a change. I think this colour combination is lovely as well.
It is made with one of Kaisercraft's older ranges, Gypsy Sisters Collection. I cut it out using my Grand Calibur, found a painting on the computer and ruffled the organza ribbon as a change. Do hope Robyn likes it. Stick pins are very much in vogue at the moment for cards, so have added one here.
All today - hope you all enjoy seeing our favourite colour combinations and remember the challenges at Artfull Crafts. Love seeing all your work.

Have a happy crafting day and many blessings,

Betsy.

We are so fortunate at Artfull Crafts to have an active, talented Design Team. For a whole year we have enjoyed the variety from papercrafters across NZ and the world. This week is the final week for the current team - and next week there will be a day dedicated to each member that we are farewelling.

We will say goodbye to Louise Forsyth, Lindsey March and Lisa Skinner. We are so grateful for their contribution and know that they will be keeping in touch with us. These girls have worked hard and we wish them all the best for their craft careers!


Besty and Christine will stay on the team as they form part of a local teaching unit that we intend to expand. Sandy is also staying on as a Design Team member who will continue to feature on Manufacturer's blogs as part of our monthly Centre Stage promotions. Lowri will continue to be the DT Marketing Manager. We appreciate the effort everyone puts in and look forward to their contributions for another year.

So that leaves a few available spaces for YOU! We have been receiving some wonderful submissions and feel honoured that you want to partner with us. The applications close on midnight August 3rd. Click here to read more about the Design Team Callout. We will look over the submissions, and will make contact over the following 7-10 days to let applicants know whether they have been successful. Then we'll make the announcement and launch the new Gallery after that.

Next week, be sure to tune in to our farewells, as there will be some chances to win prizes!
We'll also be announcing the July Challenge winners and the new Challenge for August in the next couple of days.

Have a great week watching the Olympics!

Hi Louise here to share a cute, quick and easy project with washi tape and a cheapo note book.

I started with this cheap pen and notebook from our local discount store


I sealed the notebook with modge podge, once it was dry I painted the notebook white with acrylic paint.  When it was dry I covered with strips of washi tape, I also wound another design of tape around the pen.
 On the inside I stuck down white card to hide the ripped ends of the tape.
To finish I cut a banner with spellbinders a Ribbon banners die and fussy cut a balloon from one of the papers in the 6x6 Basic Grey "What's Up" paper pad.

And there you have it a quick and cute gift for a friend or just something cute for yourself.

Good morning all - Betsy here to share some cards made with my favourite colours. Brown and egg shell blue or mint would be one of them, as no doubt my friends would tell you!



Well, don't you agree the combination is lovely!?
This card was made for an order, cut out with my grand calibur, spellbinders beaded ovals die and a Martha Stewart punch, to punch out the border. The flowers are Kaisercraft's paper flowers, crunched together and them glimmer misted. I think the cameo is a Webster's pages but I can now make my own, as my new toy is silicone moulds with a resin mix - absolutely love it!! Thanks to Nic Howard at SENZ.



Again bringing in the mint colour. I love this trellis die from Marianne, have stitched over it for a different look
This was made using Kaisercraft's Madame Boutique.



Another order, of course made with mint colours. The papers are from DCWV, Coral Couture. The die is another Marianne die - I really enjoy using all the different dies that are on the market at the moment. Well, wait 'til the new ones come out from the CHA show - I'll have to find more storage!!
Have just about got back to normal after my trips away - a great time was had by all, but it is nice to be back in routine again!
Off to Timaru now, so happy crafting to all and many blessings,

Betsy.

Hi Everyone. Lisa here - today I am sharing a fun little project I made using Kaisercrafts' Check In range.
I loved this range as soon as I saw it... that is the case for me for most of Kaisercrafts' ranges!
I also new as soon as I saw it that I was going to make a suitcase. You know how sometimes paper just screams a certain project at you. Gosh, I hope you know what I'm talking about...lol


I made the suitcase from an A5 card. I made the template up & it was extremely simple to come up with just with a ruler & pencil working with 1inch edges then going from there.
This for me is a purely decorative piece. It would be an ideal gift for someone going away as a farewell gift.



I used papers from the 6 1/2 inch paper pad to decorate the case. I inked all the edges to give it a finished & worn look. The handle was made from a scrap of the A5 card. I embellished with some pearls, a tag & a cute little pewter aeroplane charm I had in my stash.



Some close ups of what's inside....
I filled the suitcase with some collectables, some letters, maps & boarding passes etc from the paper pad, a little folder I cut using a die for the itinerary, some flowers, a cameo, a shell, some ribbon,a stamped camera, a key, a coin. Basically lots of little bits & pieces - to make it look like a traveller has collected treasures along the way.


This project is quite apt for me, as it will be one of my last posts for Artfull Crafts. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time on the DT with a fabulous group of ladies. BTP projects are a particular favourite of mine - as are lots of little bits and pieces. So, a suitcase full of sweet little bits and pieces bidding farewell.

Lisa :-)

Hi everyone. Liz here. I haven't quite fallen off the planet - but if you keep reading you'll find out what the Artfull Crafts Team has been up to. SENZ is the NZ Paper Craft Expo and we had a wonderful weekend running classes, selling product at our stall and catching up with customers.

SENZ is a HUGE exercise for us. In reality it's one weekend - but practically for us it's a 3 1/2 week event! So here's a little look at what it takes for stores to participate in SENZ.

Back in May we had to design the classes that we wanted to run. This involves deciding on tutors, choosing new products and coming up with original class ideas. After creating the prototype we write inviting descriptions, load them on the SENZ website and then on our own site. Then we pretty much sit at the computer for the next 4 days while the classes steadily fill up! We print them, record them and try hard to keep track that we don't oversell them!! (Ladies - you only turn 21 once...)

A month out from SENZ it's time to order the class products. We ran 8 full classes this year and so we had hundreds of packs to make up. The classroom became a whirlwind of activity. I was fortunate to have Tanya (a local) give up hours and hours of her time to pack the kits. It was just as well as I felt ill with a throat and chest infection and needed a few days off work! After the products were kitted up, I took all the photos, created instructions, tutorials and templates and popped them in the kits.

Then it was time to collect all the tools and products to share for the classes, write lists, name the products and pack them together. This took a whole day!
By now we've spent upwards of a hundred hours in prep for classes!
Our attention then turned to the stall design. Betsy and I had been away for the weekend at the Kaisercraft retailer event and arrived home on Tuesday night 3rd July. (Were we mad going away so close to SENZ?!).

On the plane I was busy designing the stall on paper. No time to sleep on that flight! I got home at 9pm and by 9:30pm Graham and I were down at the shop setting up a mock stall! It's such an important thing to set it up first so that you don't waste space taking extra pieces of furniture. It's just as well we did it too. I totally underestimated how little space we had this year. We opted for a 6m stall - which isn't exactly big...


Wednesday morning was spent making sure all the kits, class tools etc were packed and ready to go. And organising last minute things - flights, accommodation, car hire, eftpos, till hire and the list goes on! Wednesday night was a quick dinner and back to the shop for a late night. It was time to get the stall fittings packed onto the pallets.

Thursday - the clock is ticking! Juanita and I swing into action, packing up products for the stall. We had to keep in mind that the shop back home was still open and so we couldn't really take eeeeeverything...! We pulled all the banana boxes out from the back room and worked hard all day packing the pallets perfectly. You have to make use of every spare little bit of space.

The foyer and classroom looked like a BOMB site! After a quick dinner Graham and I returned to work to do the final shrinkwrapping of the 3 pallets.

Friday morning - a week before SENZ. The freight company arrive to pick up the 3 pallets. After a problem (of my making) they got all the pallets out the door without having to repack them! I had put the bookcase the wrong direction and it was too wide for the door.. So after some forklift use, spinning and 30 mins of effort we had success! I was only slightly nervous... The pallets got loaded onto the truck and headed off for a train ride to Hamilton.
After a few more hours of work Graham and I headed home to pack our suitcases. All the hard work was done (for a few days) so and so it was time to go on holiday! We have two lots of friends up in Thames and Auckland and it was nice to rest up for a day or three.

Wednesday arrived and the staff and helpers arrived in an hour late from their Jet Star flight. We stopped off for Miss Besty's first ever McDonalds, drove straight to Hamilton, picked up more product that we had shipped directly there, priced it up and collapsed in bed very late...


Thursday the mayhem started. It's a whole day job to set the stall up. And it didn't help that only 2 of our pallets were delivered to the venue by 9am... The one pallet they didn't bring until 11am was the one with the stall fittings on it. BRILLIANT!! So we did the best we could - but it's really best if the stands arrive first! We worked tirelessly until 7pm to set up the stall and classroom. Tiring stuff indeed.



Friday it ALL started! At 9am the customers came running through the door for their first bit of shopping before classes start at 9:30am. Juanita was in charge of the stall, Ella and Lindsey were her able assistants, Graham was the gopher (go for...), while Betsy and I were in charge of the classroom with help from Aimee.


We got a phone call at 9:10am to say our house in ChCh had confirmed as being sold. We jumped for joy - then promptly forgot about it! From then on until Sunday evening we barely sat down. Classes were fun and busy, the stall was full of lovely customers (old and new) and I got the chance to wander around a few times saying hello to the other retailers. There are some lovely shop owners at the show and we loved catching up with them.

Friday night we were invited to Paper Zone's shop for drinks and nibbles. What a treat and a lovely night was spent with them.

On Saturday night there was a dinner and quiz night and we sat with the Scrapaholics girls. Well, okay, some of our team sat with Paper Zone and they got a better score than us in the quiz. No more mention of that!!
At the end of Sunday, we had an hour to clean up and pack up the classroom products. And then it was time to tackle the stall. At this point everyone was exhausted and I wasn't sure where I was going to get the energy from! But with Miss Betsy supervising we couldn't afford to slacken off!



2 hours of high octane effort, and we were done. The pallets were wrapped and we were ready to collapse at home!


The next day we headed into Auckland for a look around the outlets before our flights and the 2 hours drive back to Timaru.

By Tuesday and Juanita and I were in at work by 9am! Tuesday night I was planning the next day's card class and by Thursday the pallets were delivered back into the store. Tanya came back to help us unpack. It's now Friday night and my eyes are drooping to the floor! My back and legs are aching. I've been up and down the stairs with boxes for 2 days and I just can't bring myself to finish off the last of the unpacking. So I'll be back in tomorrow...!
I can't quite believe it was over 2 weeks ago that we first packed up the pallets, and now SENZ is over for another year...
Hope to see you at next year's event. It will be in Auckland at the beginning of July. Plan on being there!

I am here today to share one of my favourite colour combinations of the latest 6x6 paper releases in the shop.  I am currently very smitten with the new basic grey releases, What's Up & Shine On.  They both have a gorgeous spring/summer feel and I am definitely feeling like some warmth in my life at the moment.

For my card I have used the What's Up paper pad with the lovely pink and blue combo.
Butterfly (LR0113).  Thanks loads for coming and checking out my card and I hope you like the papers :)