Winter has arrived in Australia whilst I see it is a wonderful summer in the Northern Hemisphere!  In Australia, with the colder weather, we have a good excuse just to ‘rug-up’, stay indoors and scrap.  Further north, you are out and about enjoying the sunshine and taking lots of photos to scrap when your winter arrives.

A new stencil is about to hit our shores on 1st July – Orion.

The July Basket will consist of the Orion Studio Kit, the pre-cut pages and a book of ideas on ‘Window pages’.

The stencil can be purchased as part of the July Basket, Studio Kit or simply the stencil itself.

As you can see, this stencil comes with pre-cut pages, so a lot of extra ideas and fun.

An example from idscrap in Europe showing the use of the pre-cut pages.

An example from Les Scraps d’Yvette of the second stencil using the pre-cut pages.

You will see she has also used the delightful, new cutting die that has been brought out with Orion:  Orion Frames:

These Orion Frames will be so versatile as they can be used with so many of the AZZA Stencils.

Below Natalie has used it for her Title.

Above you can see the use of the new embossing stencil:

Floscrap of Europe has created a lovely title page and double page with the Orion stencil:

The Hula Hoop stencil was released in June.  It is a 25×25 stencil but can be used on the 30×30 pages as outside of the circles you can use 6×4 photos to increase the size of the layout created.

Lovely page created with the Hula Hoop stencil.

The new Theme of stamps released in Australia is ‘Weekend in the Country’.  They are lovely and can be used with so many themes.

This is my favourite:

The larger stamp set:

Do note that the frames do not always have to be used as a complete circle.  They can be cut to various sizes to fit your layout.  Below is a page by Christine Houbrechts, Europe.

Above, Christine has used a punched circle to ‘carry’ one of the titles, below I have used it to carry my decoration for the page.  I have also punched a circle from the paper that I have used with the AZZA Cutting Die – to balance the page.

A punched circle is an easy way to lift your decorations.  Below you can see a punched circle has been used in 3D on top of decorated paper and an AZZA die-cut strip to highlight the chillies and the oil.  The oil bottle is stamped and the chillies are lace figurines from the ‘Perfumes of the South’ range.

Below Celine has used both a scalloped circle and a plain, smaller circle which has been stamped.  Remember as with the above Orion Frames, circles do not always have to be whole, or cut in half, but can be cut to whatever size enhances your layout.

In the layout above by Marie, the semi-circle ‘carries’ the decoration above.

I love the small holes punched in this ‘cut circle’ with the lines running through.  Lovely decorative lines.

On the page above both semi-circles and full circles have been used.

Floscrap has used circles with the Essential stencil.  The higher circle has been embossed and coloured with inks and the lower one has been placed behind an AZZA wooden frame to highlight the decoration.  A lovely layout.

The AZZA Wooden frames are a great little addition to your products to pop on one of your pages where you want to highlight a photo or a decoration.  They are very reasonable at $13.00.  Found under decorating products in the catalogue.

On the page above I have used a wooden circle as part of my decoration.  I have coloured it with inks.

In the lovely layout above, Natalie has cut her circle and threaded the stamped strip through it.  Just another idea when using your punched circle for your decoration.

Don’t forget the ‘reverse’ – punch your circle out of your paper cut-out.  May take a few goes to get it in the right place!   This is great as you don’t have to look for a matching colour, if you punch through your paper, the background colour ‘shines’ through.

Here I have used the figurines from the nautical theme with my cut-outs.

On the page above I have used the Essentials stencil and have used my AZZA Scalloped punch to punch out part of a circle in my paper cutout and my embossed circle.  I have then used stamps within/on these punched circles.

Lastly, use you circles with you inks and chalks.

On the page above I have inked circles and then decorated within.  The inked circles create a ‘frame’ to hold the decoration.

I found this little decoration on Pinterest.  The circle in the stencil has been chalked and then the decoration has been created within the chalked circle.

Sabine Lebrun created this beautiful page with the same idea – you can hardly see the bottom circle is a decoration.  She has continued the lines of her photo through the decoration.

Lastly, I thought I would share my double page using the Marshmallow stencil.  I wanted  to show you that you do not have to use the ‘cloud’ shape of the stencil all the time, you can keep your photos larger.

Well, hope I have sent some inspiration your way.

Keep warm and keep scrapping.

Lyn