We got to meet Tim Holtz!!!!

Two Saturday’s ago the Dizzy Izzy girls set out for Sydney’s Quilt and Craft Show to seek out the amazingly talented Tim Holtz. We felt like groupies as we watched Tim showcasing his talents at the ‘Stamp-It’ stand and demonstrating several of the Tim Holtz branded Ranger products.

The hands of "The Scrap King!"

We have known for a while that he is the King of Scrapbooking  - we are continually awed by his amazing application of new and innovative techniques along with product development. He is the Man, who has designed blending markers that you can use without cross contaminating your colours. 

Demonstrating a very important technique!

We have even more praise for Tim who showed on the day that he was also a true gentleman who always  had a bright smile for “just one more photo op” or the signing of another autograph. If he got frustrated with being asked the same question over..... and over he never showed it.

Trace with "The King"

Of course, this overwhelming moment of meeting Tim and being caught up with all the amazing product and techniques etc did no favours to my bank balance – but we won’t tell Rob that J

In true Dizzy Izzy style I brought my camera along with me to the show, however managed to leave my SD memory card in my laptop and only realised when I was on the train. Thankfully Tracey came to the rescue so we can share some of our Tim moments with you!

I look like an excited school-girl - such a goofy pic of me!

If you want to check out the Tim Holtz blog then head to http://timholtz.com/   Tim Holtz in combination with Ranger (one of the company’s he design’s for) have spent a lot of time providing Ranger certification to people who wish to become educators in Ranger products.  I’ve been following for the last few weeks May Flaum’s Camp Scrap blog where she shares technique and inspiration daily. I was really impressed with her Tim Holtz adirondack ink tags – you can check out a video on how to make them here http://mayflaum.com/2012/06/14/tag-textured-foil-background/

So what more from the show? We learnt that Washi Tape is the ‘on trend’ item of this scrapping season,   Tiny Twine is also a hot product (its finer than regular twine) and kraft. Thankfully we do have a trendsetter on this team, and Trace had already picked up on all three trends last season!

Another highlight from the show is marvelling at the incredible creations, I really appreciate the time and effort and patience that have gone into the quilts. Many of which have had years of work – check out the winning entry and incredible attention to detail in this masterpiece.

This quilt is AMAZING!

I dragged my mum along as well (or wait, did she partially drag me?) - she was most impressed by the  knitted tea cosies..... of course we had to get the book showcasing the display with ready to go instructions and now I’ve challenged mum to make me a “Beatrice’s hat” tea-cosie.

Mum getting her tea-cosie book autographed!

Now..... a year’s wait until the next one J

Fleur x

Product Review - SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE

We have had our Prima and Pink Paislee resist products for a little while now and we absolutely love them.

By using ink, chalk or sprays on these products you reveal a beautiful resist product which you can colour to suit any project your working on.

Prima Resist Canvas

Prima have released a number of resist canvas designs with their last two CHA releases . My favourite are the butterflies - because,a butterfly goes with almost anything! They have also released shapes which compliment several of their paper ranges including Printery, Alla Prima and North Country designs.

I used Prima chalks to bring these butterflies to life. 

The resist products are made from canvas and are paper backed. The backing on the shapes is not an adhesive  rather is used to add support and strength to the resist product. You can adhere your resist shapes using a craft glue.

If you want to see a demo of the resist canvas check out this Live With Prima link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1URAtyIOkrY

Pink Paislee Mistables

We've been using the Pink Paislee Mistables paper and ribbon.

The paper comes in several designs which you can buy individually or as a pack. By using ink, chalk or spray the pattern underneath comes to life. I've found this project particularly suited to vintage layouts. Check out my layouts at the end of this post. Just remember to give them a little bit of drying time before adhering any photos.

Pink Paislee have also released their mistables ribbon. Their isn't a hidden pattern on these, however they are particularly useful when you don't have that perfect bit of ribbon to match your project, something that happens to me all the time despite my ever growing tub of ribbons.

Mistables two tone ribbon - I used Mr Huey's Plum Thumb
 and Heirloom Blue sprays. I made the bottle cap embellishment
as well which I will demo on the blog soon

A tip when using the mistables ribbon is to spread it out on a firm surface - attach some double sided table to hold it down , this will result in a more even spread or the ink/spray/mist that you are using.

I've sprayed the butterflies in this layout using
Mr Huey's Cameo mist, then lightly gone over with a white ink.

I've used a celadon and pinecone ink on the honeycomb
mistables paper to give it a vintage effect. this was from
our In the Fifties class at the May retreat.

Prima North Country Resist shapes -
I used dark calico, heirloom blue and  Calico Shine Mr Huey's sprays.

Fleur x

Dizzy Izzy May Retreat 2012

Well its already been ...... and gone. We held our second retreat last weekend at the beautiful Stanwell Tops Conference Centre - and endured the coldest of cold weather outside (yes I am a wimp when it comes to the cold). Luckily though we were able to figure out the heating inside and we spent a cozy weekend creating layouts, cards and off the page projects. By our calcs we estimate at least 400 layouts were created and completed over the weekend.

Kelly and Ruth with their goodie boxes



Our weekend had a handmade theme to it, starting from our goodie boxes, and sweet treats to each of our classes which involved the creation of some  handmade element or technique.

Tracey and Jodie made 40 of these sweet treat boxes,
and Rob assembled them for us. Love the colours!

We also had a number of great demo's including bottletop embellishments, and ribbon, resist, and twine flowers. It was great to see so many people use these embellishments in their work.



Twine flowers



Bottletop embellishments





A big Congratulations to all our Dizzy Competition winners - Mel C, Kelly, Annie W and Karen B. We had five categories of competitions with something for everyone. Our challenges were as follows 

1) SEW-WHAT - a challenge requiring stitching

2) TAG-IT - needed to include a tag

3) ABC Easy as 123 - for this challenge entrants had to create an alphabet themed page with a twist. The entry had to incorporate A - Alpha's, B- Bling or Buttons, C - Cardstock, D - Divine Twine and E - embellishments.

4) SKETCH Competition - entrants had to use a sketch designed by our chief sketch maker Tracey

5) FAVOURITE layout - entrants could enter their favourite sketch from the weekend.

Well done everyone who entered, and keep on entering as you have to be in it to win it! Check our Kelly's winning entry below.

Kelly's winning layout - from the Sew What challenge

Thankyou to all of the wonderful women who came along and helped make the event such a success. There would be no Dizzy Izzy without you! A special thankyou also to our army of helpers, Jodie, Rob, Matt, Michelle, Chelsea, Alyse, Diane, Cheryl, Kate and Jen.

Whats next for Dizzy Izzy?

Our next Scrap Days will be held on the 30th June and 1st September at the Port Hacking Community Centre. 10-10pm $30 pp

Our next retreats will be held 2-4 November 2012 and 30 May - 2 June 2013 (yes a 3 day retreat!)

We will also be joining the Rockdale Salvo's and Creative Crafts on the 3-4 August 2012 for their Scrap Marathon.

We look forward to scrapping with you soon.

Fleur and Trace x