Just had to share

Found this while I was "studying" and just had to share....

Check out the rest of the amazing and really cute illustrations here at MelonHeadz...

Great freebies too !

Happy New Year Everyone !

TFL, M x

Last minute Helmar Xmas fun

Hello all...

Michelle here in a sweltering hot Adelaide, South Australia.

Just a quick share as we set into the Christmas Cheer here.

We have been madly preparing everything for our Christmas get together here with some of our family.

The house has been scrubbed and buffed to a major shine and the Christmas table has been set up for our big Christmas lunch.

This year we have gone for a little different colour scheme for the table too. I wanted to use my big dinner set as we have quite a few of us here this year and then dinner set is very non traditional Christmas colours.. maroon, forest green, white and royal blue!

So to compliment it all I had to buy some maroon table clothes for the table....

and to tie it all together and personalise it a bit I had a little fun with some Helmar and made this little place cards.

and YES... all the holes in the white scalloped circle were individually punched out... bit of a glutton for punishment, but love the end result.

Job made super easy with a little help from my Helmar Tape Adhesive Runner

and a big dab of Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots!

Have to give a huge hug and kiss to my Darling Husband too..

He scrubbed up all the silver ware till it shined and then our two youngest girls dried it all for him!

We almost forgot about our Christmas table centre piece... was sitting in the shed wrapped up from last year. It lights up and makes the whole thing glow.

So myself and my family,

 I would like to wish

My fellow Helmar Hotties, Tracy, Mark, Helmar

and

our Helmar followers

a

VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS.

I hope that everyone has a safe and happy festive season.

Looking forward to the new year and continuing to spread the Helmar cheer.

SEASON'S GREETINGS !

Stay safe!

TFL, M x

MAS November Kit

Look what I got to play with from Mad about Scrappin....

Gorgeous Glitz Beautiful Dreamer Pattern Papers, Cardstock and Embellishments.

Was so much playing around with this kit... and there was so many goodies in it too that I could really mix it up.

Here's what I created

Whay not check it out here... there are four kits avaliable at $20 per kit.

WHAT A BARGAIN PRICE is all I can say!

Check it out.

TFL, M x

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas here

Oh my golly gosh.... think I am all Christmas crafted out....

Created 55 of these babies !!!!

In the name of keeping it simple for most of our family friends, I had my own little production line happening here.

My job was made easier thanks to these Fiskars tools

Fiskars Self Inking Stamp Press



Fiskars Squeeze Punch - XL Circle

Fiskars Shape Cutter

and lastly

Fiskars Shape Templates

Now off to address all the envelope to go with all these cards!

TFL, M x

December Challenge "Happy Helmar Holidays!"

WOW, it is December already!

2011 just flew by and we are excited for the Holiday's Helmar style!

Helmar Designer Lydell Quin has another great sketch to inspire you this Holiday month!:

Here's what I created from the very inspiring sketch....

I got down a dirty with an old piece of cardboard box, some Christmas napkins, Helmar Decoupage medium and LOTS of yummy Helmar Crackle medium to create my layout base.... all I can say is DON'T underestimate the humble cardboard box and Christmas napkins.. they can really create a very unique background.. I will definitely be trying this again as it was so much fun!
And we want to see those layouts about YOU! Pick up your favorite Helmar products and show us your Holidays........Helmar Style!!


What a great month December is going to be!

By taking our challenge and uploading a project you are automatically entered to win our random drawing for Helmar products!

Each month we pick a random winner to get some Helmar goodies!

What a fun way to play along! Ready, Set UPLOAD!

All you need to do to be eligible for the random draw is upload your project here!

We pick a random winner each month!

It is that easy to have a chance to win your favorite Helmar products!

Remember to take time for YOU in December and "Happy Helmar Holidays"!

TFL, M x

Getting crafting with the kids for Christmas

This year making cards has been a huge task due to family commitments, Volleyball trip interstate and study commitments adding to the normal hum drum of family life.

I had several bucket loads of cards to get make and time wasn't on our side this year so I enlisted the help of my kids to get them all done. Plus the fact that it was nice for them to be able to tell their friends that they had actually helped make them.

Every year my son give a card to everyone in his class and makes gingerbread people to give them. We made the gingerbread people this weekend and hope to get their button "stuck" on with royal icing through the week.. that is the gingerbread people survive the week with Miss Tarryn on the prowl... she LOVE gingerbread and consumes it like no one I have ever seen!

So.. I order to get Nate's cards all done in record time we decided to keep it simple. Some simple punching and inking and then it would all be done.

While I had precut the main pieces I set Nate to one side with a couple of Fiskars punches (XL Scalloped Circle Punch and L Round and Round Punch), and told him we need 26 of each. He had a jolly old time punching his little heart out!

Now I can tell you will all the stamping that was involved (tree for circle and greeting inside the card) I WAS NOT going to do it all with my little stamp blocks.. the job was made a lot easier by my son Nate being able to use my Fiskars Stamp Factory.. no mess and he was able to do it all by himself as it was a breeze for him to use.

We added a little bit of kindy glitz to the cards and then they were all done in a couple of hours!

And for the Calisthenics girls we went all girlie. Lots of pink, purple and sparkle... what Cali girl doesn't like sparkles!

I had to do these one's myself as Kiah and Tarryn weren't able to help quite as much with these.... they did however choose the papers, add the trees (with a little help) and SUPERVISE... hehehehehehe.

Must say that thanks to Fiskars my card making this year was made a lot easier! Was a breeze to get all these cards made in one day and I am glad to be hanging up my Christmas card making hat for the year!

Happy Festive Season Crafting, M x

Getting your glue on !

I love watermarking on card stock to create my very own background. I also love embossing on my card stock too.

The problem I have found though with watermarking on some card stocks is that it can be very hard to see.

Also the issues I have with embossing is that it ONLY embosses the area that has been inked.

Now that may not seem like much of a problem.. but on some of the darker card stock colours it can be very hard to see the fine detail in some stamped images.

Well... thanks to Helmar Acid Free Glue and a fine paint brush I have managed to solve this problem and create my own unique background.

I start by water marking the image onto my card stock base. Then I use my paint brush to "paint" my Helmar Acid Free Glue all over the stamped image (making sure to only paint the image stamped) I must say it was rather therapeutic!

Once the glue was dry I then highlighted the card stock base by rubbing the card stock with ink.

The glue areas resist water based inks and therefore have a glossy raised look almost like the embossed card stock you can buy.

Here's my finished layout with the glue "embossed" background

Close up of the glue "embossing"

I love this technique and thanks to Helmar Acid Free Glue it is such and easy thing to do.

Why not give it a try. Such a great technique to use when you have run out of embossing powder or for when you want that store bought embossed paper look.

Don't forget to head over to the Helmar Design Team Blog to see what everyone has been creating.
TFL, Mx