The end of the year is nigh and I am sure many of us cannot wait to see what 2021 brings. Sadly, there is still so much uncertainty in our lives, but hey, we still need to live each day to its fullest.

December always brings that feeling of excitement and ‘bling’ to bring the year to an end. Most of you will have started on your Christmas cards, those going far afield will certainly need to be on their way by now if they are to get there by Christmas, but you still have time to make those for the folks closer to home.

Cathy at Eclectic Images has created 2 more images for AZZA Australia and they are in our shop today.

This beautiful Wreath can be used for Christmas and throughout the year. Many of us have friends and family overseas, so ‘Greetings from Australia’ will come in handy. The Wreath can be used both on cards and on your scrapping page.

We couldn’t resist having the Flying Aussie Sleigh in our collection too!

The set of Tiny words above are a collection of words that we felt would cover card making throughout the year.

Hilary has created the following collection of AZZA cards:

Hilary also made the cards above from AZZA Christmas products still available. She has featured the Die/Stamp sets: Silent night and the Deer Head.

Hilary also used them on little Gift boxes.

Being the 1st of December and the first day of all the Advent calendars I just had to share this beautiful Advent Calendar created by Christine Caparros in Europe using AZZA products.

These small gift boxes are perfect for your Advent Calendar.

AZZA has Square, Rectangle, Cushion and Carry Bag box dies. They can also be used on your Christmas table with a few chocolates to finish off your festive meal. Hilary has been very busy with this year’s Christmas products to show you.

Anita has also been busy, she has used the Nutcracker Suite stamps/dies and the Cushion die for her little gift boxes:

I had my first Christmas celebration over the weekend and made these little gift boxes for the table. I used the Carry bag die above and the new Cushion die. All the decoration dies are available in the shop.

The Heritage die released last month is lovely, you can cut either a frame or a solid shape from the dies and even use the piece of paper you have used for the die too, as seen below.

If you are wanting the thin frame all you do is cut both the frames together as in the image above.

These can be used on Cards, Gift boxes, Name tags and on your Scrapping page.

The dies can be used on the AZZA Self-adhesive Linen sheets too.

I have used them on my page above, using both the plaque and the frame. I used a Pom Pom with Copper ink to colour the inside of my frame to make it look like a label.

I have also been using the NEW AZZA brushes used for inking. This does not mean you need to throw away your daubers, sponges and brushes. They all give a different effect on your page – but for beautiful, smooth, easy inking over a small or large area the brushes are amazing.

At the moment we have a local set of brushes available but will be ordering in the AZZA Brush set in the new year. With the COVID complications AZZA Europe had a backorder of 4000 brushes to cope with! We will also have single brushes available in the online shop shortly.

The Ladies who receive the AZZA Mail Out will be receiving a selection of brushes this month together with a lesson on how to best use them.

The one thing you will need to remember is that you need either two strips of re-positional tape to work off, or you can ensure the back side of the tape is onto your Reference mat. The brushes are worked in a circular motion, off the tape onto the page collecting the ink dabbed onto the tape, this is why you need a greater area to work off.

As you can see, the brushes give you a very smooth finish and a nice crisp edge.

The smaller brushes are good for adding a second colour, Alphabet stencil or smaller spaces.

A tip for inking Titles, place a strip of re-pos tape onto the page instead of marking your page with a pencil line you will have to rub out later, you could smudge your inking!

Once I had inked the title I used a larger brush with very little ink in light, circular movements with the Materials and Texture stencil to create a background for my Title to sit upon.

I used the small brush again for the smaller decoration either side of the numbers.

A second page using the smaller brush for the Title of the page and a very light hand inking the background.

I like to use this Azza stencil when I need a larger Title to fill a decent size space.

The brushes also give you a smooth finish when using your texture stencils with AZZA inks. The amount of ink you place on your brush and the pressure you apply will give you different results. It will pay to spend a bit of time learning the feel of the brushes in a practise session before you begin to work on a page. Contact your Consultant if you would like to attend a class to try out the new brushes.

Even used directly off the stencil, the brushes still give a nice crisp finish.

With Christmas around the corner and School holidays coming up – a few ‘Off the page’ fun ideas:

Celine has decorated her Advent candles with various AZZA dies and figures. She has used the new AZZA Number dies now available. The Alphabet dies are also available but only on Special order so do get hold of your Consultant if you are interested.

They can also be used for and Advent Calendar boxes and of course, Birthday cards.

With the Festive season upon us this is a lovely idea to dress up the ‘Gift’ you may be taking along to a party. Patricia has used the AZZA Autumn products, but the Christmas products will look just as classy! Make sure you didn’t miss this set of Autumn Leaves die released last month.

They are beautiful on the Scrapping page too. Beautiful samples from pages by our AZZA Ladies in Europe.

I loved these little table Place settings made with the AZZA Christmas Magic Theme kit, the Crown die and the new Christmas papers made by one of the very creative Ladies in Europe.

This would be a fun project to do with the family.

Lastly, a beautiful AZZA card created by Sylvie, inspired by Lavina stamps.

Plenty more to show you but I leave you with this for now,

Happy Scrappin’

Lyn