With all the negative news in the world today I thought we could look forward to the Olympics. AZZA has released a special Olympic stencil for the event and we will be running a competition in Australia during the month of July/August.

To enter as a client of AZZA, you need to create a page using the Barcelona stencil set released this month and at least one other new product released in the month of July. Forward your entries to your Consultant or to Deb Byrne at deborah.azza@gmail.com

Entries need to be in by Sunday, 15th August. Results will be announced in the August newsletter.

Keep an eye on the online shop during the Olympics as AZZA Australia will be having flash sales and bonuses.

The Barcelona stencil released this month has been such fun to work with. There are FOUR stencils in the set, 15cm x 30cm each. A single stencil can be used on the page, just flipping it to get a mirror image as seen on the lovely page below.

Or you can use one stencil on half your page and keep your photos almost uncut on the other half as Christine Houbrechts has shown on the page below.

Two different stencils can be used on the page, matching up the curves to get a flowing image on the page as seen below, a page by Sue Talbot in NSW. Sue has used stamps from the Architecture range and the texture stencil.

With the new concept of the 15 x 30cm stencils AZZA also released new XL Accordion sheets in two colours.

Once again Christine created the beautiful page below using an Accordion sheet with two panels attached to the normal 30 x 30cm scrapping page, opening both left and right.

Note how Christine has overlapped the two edges in the centre so that you remain with a 5mm gap and NOT a 1cm gap. This also allows for a perfect circle in the centre.

I created the page below based on Christine’s page, but included more photos on the page. I did not add the large circle in the centre.

The layouts above open as shown in this photo. Below, I have used the XL Accordion sheet but have only attached ONE panel to the page.

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These Accordion sheets are great to get your story on one page with lots of photos. Just remember they take a little planning as you need to check what is showing through from the back pages once the Accordion sheet is closed.

The AZZA double pages can also be used with the Barcelona set, as you can use 4 stencils across the double page. I loved this layout by Anne-Nathalie which also used the new Vellum papers released this month. She has used the Vellum paper with an embossing stencil.

Also released this month were products to create a mini album. As many of you know, I love making mini albums and often give them as gifts. If you purchase the punch, pages can be made to any size.

The album above is 15 x 30cm so that I could use the new Barcelona stencil set for the decoration. My album was based on an album Hilary created for the Consultant training session last month. As I said earlier, you can have such fun with this but is does take a little planning as you need to check what shows through on the back pages. Above you can see photos show through both above and to the right of my front page. My second and third page below to show you how I needed to make sure what was showing through was a decent image.

Below you can see a close up of my decoration using the Silicon stamp. The Silicon stamp allows you to flip your image on your page. I used the Swan stamp from the Frosty Lake stamp and die set. The decoration tells the story of the bridge which is over the Swan river in Perth.

The Silicon stamp pad comes in two sizes.

As you will see I also mixed the colours of the binding discs. The binding discs come in black and two colour combinations. Tip: When you receive your punch, do punch a few sheets of scrap paper to get rid of any grease that may mark your pages.

If you would like to put a mini album together before you purchase a punch and binding discs this month’s Mail Out will include 10 punched pages, 2 covers and 4 binding discs. It will also include papers from next month’s release to help you with your decoration. The lesson has a mini album layout you can follow, or you can use the decoration ideas with your own page design. Look for the Mini Album Mail Out next month or contact me at: lynholmes@rocketmail.com

Note how I have used my AZZA Alphabet dies to cut my heading out of a strip of paper. This is easiest done by placing the dies onto the strip of paper and sticking them down with a strip of re-positional tape so that they will not move when going through your cutting machine.

Mini albums can be made in any size and this 15cm x 15cm album is a great size if you don’t have many photos and it can be used with almost any AZZA stencil. Pick a stencil that has been sectioned into quarters and use the quarter of the stencil.

With Christmas not far away you need to think about what albums you would like to create – no I mean that, before you know it, it will be November and you will have run out of time! These would also be great little projects for the kids or grandchildren over the holidays. With the disc binding system pages can be added and moved about at any time.

Obviously the AZZA Card stencils and the AZZA Berlin Trio set would also be perfect for your 15 x 15 albums.

Another perfect size for an album is the Bombay stencil and cutting dies. I know many of you have them, so whip them out and create a mini album. Deb Byrne in Tassie created the one below. Deb has used one of our patterned plastic Album covers. Do go along to the shop and search for ‘Album covers’ and see the selection. Colours match the binding discs but there are a few clear options and these give you a sneak peek through to the first page of your album.

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A beautiful mini album, thanks for sharing Valerie. Whilst on Bombay I am still loving the layouts I have seen. This is such an easy stencil to work with. I thought I would share a few with you for inspiration. The first a very simple but striking layout by Valerie. Valerie has used the Texture stencil on Vellum as par of her decorations, show in a close-up. Perfect as the Vellum can be stuck down under the strip of embossed paper across the top of it.

Two layouts following a layout in the Bombay Studio by Marina Gentil but look quite different on the page. Jocelyne Heyne created the layout above and Francine the one below, both European Consultants.

I loved the simplicity of this layout from Jocelyne. The little Trawler micro stamp is still one of my favourites, note how she has changed it to suit her photos.

Jocelyne also shared this one with us. Very easy if you have the cutting dies too.

Lastly, a few layouts with older stencils I thought were quite lovely on the page.

The first, once again by Jocelyne was created using the Kyoto stencil.

Christelle has added a small circular photo to the Mineral stencil layout. Lovely on the page, she has used the Rising Sun texture stencil on the page.

This page from Catherine Lang is so serene on the page. I love the colour combination. Stamps used from the Universe theme – a very versatile set of stamps, and the beautiful little bird from the Silhouette theme.

The next Scrap & Moi has been released in Australia and is now in the shop, available for purchase. This is a special edition so has a lot more pages and ideas and comes with the Micro stamp featured on the front page. If you will not use the French writing it is easy to cut it off the stamp and replace it with an English sentiment or just leave it clear. Note there are samples of mini albums in this edition too.

Thank you to all the ladies who shared their pages so I could pass them on for inspiration.

Happy Scrappin’

Lyn