Hi - Lindsey here. Keeping it short and sweet today - no true confessions - no amusing anecdotes. Just a layout using those beautiful Authentique papers. They would be ideal for those of you who like making mini albums - which I don't usually do. As they are two-sided and superb quality, you could whip up an album in next to no time I reckon so quick-march over to the shop (or your computer screen) and see what they've got in stock.

Today's papers were just what I needed for this photo of "Grampy and Papa". I need to put a copy of this photo in each of my granddaughters' albums but haven't been able to find just the right colours and "feel" (I bet there's a proper technical term for "feel" in this context but I just can't think of it). Very happy now.

This page heavily influenced by a layout by the very talented Kelly Goree incidentally.

Thanks for stopping by.
Lindsey
x

Loud opening applause for .... Bret and Samantha - the owners of AUTHENTIQUE! They have kindly answered some questions about their fabulous, unique and growing company.

Don't forget you can see all their amazing products in the shop here. Keep your eye on the website - we are adding more and more collections every week!


1) Who is Authentique and how long have you been acting on the Crafting Stage?
Team Authentique has over 30 years of combined experience in the paper craft industry. We (Bret and Samantha) both have backgrounds in the hobby and craft industry and were contacted by former colleagues who wanted to start a new company centered around quality. Based on Bret’s experience as the former owner of My Mind’s Eye, combined with Sam's experience with training retailers in the industry, we believed people would respond to a new company with a focus on artisan quality and great merchandising. With an entrance back into the industry, we decided not to cut any corners and we were determined to be strong from the start. We love design and felt confident a fresh, new look would create some noise and grab everyone’s attention.



2) Please share with us a brief synopsis of the Authentique story and don't forget to tell us anything that sets you apart.
The word artisan describes the meaning behind our brand name, Authentique. The definition of an artisan states: 1. a person skilled in an applied art; a craftsperson. 2. a person or company that makes a high-quality, distinctive product in small quantities, usually by hand and using traditional methods.
Our paper is hand crafted by a fourth-generation family-owned mill and our papers are printed to the highest quality standards by a third-generation family-owned print shop. Our die-cutting technology is unique to us, and it creates maximum value on our accent sheets. When others are cutting back on quality, we have emerged with premium textures and finishes. Unlike the competition, the uncoated adhesive cardstock we use ensures richer, more vibrant colors, creating better coordination with papers. Finally, just 10 items per collection increases inventory turns and doesn’t overwhelm the retailer or consumer.

3) As owners, what part of your job gives you the most joy?
For us (Bret and Sam), there is no separation between work and home. We eat, drink and breathe our company. We put our heart and soul into every product we produce, and the greatest joy comes from seeing retailers sell through our products with ease and seeing the consumer create a project to preserve a moment they hold dear to their heart. The Authentique Paper approach allows the emotion of an event to speak louder than the event itself.

4) Where do you think the paper craft industry is heading and what major trends do you see developing for 2012?
We think the industry will continue to be strong, and with new crafters emerging every day, we are thrilled to be apart of this hart-felt industry. We don’t tend to follow others, and our experience as a group has been that we are the trend setters, not trend followers. For us, we think less is more and sometimes simple is better.

5) How do you use Social Media to keep your audience clapping?
Social Media is large part of business today. It’s admittedly overwhelming to keep up with the latest and greatest social media outlet, but we are learning new techniques everyday. We use social media to keep a pulse on the end user of our products and to stay in touch with our retail partners. Our primary customer base is retail stores all over the world but our fans help us to keep on top of which of our products they love, as well as what they want and need as crafters. If we provide our fans what they are looking for then the retail store will have good success with our lines, and in turn, we’ll all be more successful!


Thanks Authentique. Artfull Crafts are super excited to be partnering with you for the month of April. Keep your eye on our blog posts for daily inspiration, prizes, sketches, a layout kit designed by Authentique especially for us, and another questionaire from their product designer...

Hi Everyone. Lisa here. Today I have a sweet Little mini album to share. I have used Authentiques' fabulous 'Genuine' range.
For those of you in NZ I have sent this mini to Liz to display in store, so if your in the shop check it out!


This is the album all closed up neatly with a co-ordinating ribbon that is attached to the mini. Decorated with some bling.


When open the album has 8 pockets for tags or secret messages.


Luggage tags which I purchased from my local newsagents fit perfectly in to the pockets. You could certainly make your own. I die cut some hearts for extra tags & embellishing.


I had fun experimenting with my stamps on this project. I used white ink which comes up really well. The stamp set I used was Kaisercraft 'Tigerlilly'  - such a great set of butterflies & a flourish.


I embellished with scraps of paper, stickers from the sticker sheet, bling, seam binding & I even cut some quotes & the title 'Authentique' from the bar code section of the patterned paper!

This is such a quick and easy mini to make. You only require one sheet of 12 x 12 patterned paper!

I don't have a tutorial for this mini, but you can find plenty of tutorials online just search for mini tag album using 12 x12 paper. You'll be amazed what great ideas you can find when you start looking.


Have a great day!

Lisa

Hi there - Christine here with some male layouts for you!
This month at Artfull Crafts the Company Authentique is taking Centre Stage.
I have made these layouts with the Loyal papers and stickers.


 What I love about these papers is the quality and their name - Authentique! They have their name printed on that bottom strip that you cut off- well I then cut off their name and put it on my Layout! Can you spot it?  Also on that same strip they have added a quote and I just love quotes so I was able to use that on the other LO too!!

Supplies used:
The Authentique - Delightful Collection will be in store soon. Keep an eye out here.
Bakers Twine,     Rossette Die

TFL

Happy Creating!

Christine

Sandy posting my mini-album. It is inspired by Becky Higgins' Project Life style of scrapbooking  where photos are slipped into page protectors and paired with journal cards.


My album consists of four pockets, two on the front and two in the back. Each polaroid format photo is printed out with a caption on top. Journalling about the where and when is captured on the back.


Loyal is filled with versatile patterns like checks, circles, argyle and paisley which will work well on many types of projects, including this UK vacation mini-album I created with photos of my cousin's boy.


The finished album measures 6"x 3 3/4". I used Kraft cardstock to create the basic structure of the pockets. Then covered them with various patterned papers from a 6"x6" paper pad.




One with strong side-lighting, a lot happening in the foreground and background, I chose to print larger to go into the top pocket. 


I let the geometric patterns of Loyal do most of the work on this project and was rewarded with a mini-album that allowed the photos to be the main focus. Sometimes simple is better.


Authentique Supplies : Loyal (6"x6" bundle, elements stickers, details stickers) Celebrate (6"x6" bundle, elements stickers, details stickers)
Others : Kaisercraft Rhinestones black star, Bazzill Cardstock Helsinki, We R Memory Keepers Baker's Twine Neutral, Dymo embossing label
 

Has anyone else been glued to the TV these last couple of days watching the 2012 Masters Golf competition in Atlanta, Georgia? My darling husband has wasted valuable gardening time watching grown men attack a defenceless little white ball with a big stick. When he gets home, on goes the TV, feet go up onto the sofa and I know that I am going to have to listen to them droning on about eagles, birdies and bogeys for hours. Whilst I am bustling around the kitchen (or surfing around Pinterest!) I can hear the commentary and, because we are really lucky and have MySky, I can hear the same commentary two or three times. When he wakes up and realises that he’s slept through the last half an hour, he has a quick rewind and off we go again.

Hi Everyone - Lowri here

HAPPY EASTER! It is an amazing day here in Marlborough - we had lunch outside and are basking in the glorious late summer weather!

The Design Team have been posting fabulous projects all week using Authentique products - but today I am sharing some Kaisercraft Technologic projects that were featured in their magazine last month. If you want any more information you can click on the title of the project to be taken to the post on my blog.

Family Photo Frame

Robot Banner

Rocket Door Hanger

Magnet Board

Magnets

This is such a fun collection and you can see it all online in the shop here.

Any questions - please post a comment :-)

Hi Louise here with a layout to share with you.  This layout is about my son Angus finishing Kindy and celebrating his graduation.  All the children have a special party when they are going to school and Angus had his earlier this week as next term he starts at school.
I have called the layout "Part of the Process" as his kindy teacher Sam was a little upset about Angus finishing as she is pregnant and those lovely pregnancy hormones are rushing around, as they do.  She told Angus she would miss him and was a little sad about him leaving Kindy, Angus kindly patted her on the arm and said "It's Ok Sam, it's just part of the process".  I am sure she was cheered up considerably by that!lol.
So here is my layout..........


Hope you all have a lovely Easter and remember to give a little thanks to Jesus because if it wasn't for Jesus, we wouldn't be having a break.  Happy Easter!

Hi everyone it's Sandy . Our blog challenge theme this month is Celebrate and you are all invited to the party. Have you had a chance to check out Centre Stage ? All things Authentique are being featured there. Stay tuned as Liz has lots of exciting things planned for you this month. 


My project appropriately uses Authentique's Celebrate collection. Black cardstock dominates the front of my card. It allows me to build a little scene using image and phrase stickers. The inside is lined with striped and pokka dot patterned papers which just peeps out along the left edge.  


If you are celebrating something this month, share it with us by leaving a comment on this post.

Authentique Supplies : Celebrate (6"x6" bundle, details stickers, elements stickers, together paper) Others : Bazzill Raven cardstock, Cosmo Cricket Jewels (Social Club, Salt Air)

The Design Team at Artfull Crafts are so awesome - that there's never a free day on the blog schedule for me (Liz)!! LOL! However, more often than not I don't have anything to blog.

Today is different! I teach a cardmaking class every Wednesday at the shop and this week we launched the new theme of the month - Authentique and/or Celebrate. I decided to make my cards fit both themes!

We created cards with the new Celebrate line from Authentique and made cards that would be suitable for a birthday Celebration.


Each week we make 2 cards - one of them is always a shaped card of some description (easel, pop up etc) and the other is a plainer one. This week I found a very cool pop-up present card template from a Stampin' Up You Tube clip (found here) and added my own little twist to make it more interesting. When you open the card the 3-tiered gift pops out.

On the front of the card we've used the Tracks Embossing folder. It's on special in the shop for $5 and there aren't many left. I think it's awesome for male cards. I ran my black inkpad over the top to add the grungy effect.


The second card was made with the gift stamp from Rubbadubbadoo. It's one of the first stamps I purchased (all those years ago) and I still love it! I've stamped it with black Brilliance and then added Polysparkle embossing powder on top. Then I've stamped it again on a coloured piece of cardstock, embossed it, cut out the ribbon and mounting it with foam. It's an old and easy technique - but it's a goody!

HINT HINT! We thoroughly enjoyed Teresa Abajo's Copic Class last week and she reminded me that Copic Markers are great for more than just colouring stamped images. In this class we coloured our white ribbon red, our blue pearls black and we even coloured our Peelcraft Happy Birthday stickers black. (You didn't think you'd ever see me use Peelcraft did you...?!)

All the ladies commented on the amazing quality of the Authentique cardstock too. It's thick, textured and fabulous! Make sure you get your hands on some and enter our monthly challenge. There are prizes to be won!