The newly released stencil is called Manaus. Manaus is a city in the heart of the Amazon so the decoration theme released at the same time just has to be Tropical Forest. Although most of us have not been to the Amazon, tropical forests are everywhere and who does not have a palm or fern in their garden. I think flowers and foliage can go with almost any theme on the page.

The first page I want to show you is my page with the Murano set of stencils I showed you last blog but without the decoration. I completed the page with the embossing folder from the Shadows theme and the rest of the decorations were created with products from the Tropical Forest theme. I used a stamp from the large set of stamps, coloured it in with an alcohol pen and combined it with some AZZA cord. The rest of the decoration was quite easy, an image off the Sketch sheet punched with a scalloped punch and mounted on a circle. This was completed with a Resin dot, AZZA sticker circles, a leaf die and white inking. This is perfect for an enlargement 6inches x 8inches or 15cm x 20cm size.

I also loved this Murano layout by Christelle, using the Tropical Forest themed products for decoration. These products combine beautifully with the recently released Pretty Birds theme. I loved the decoration below by Isabelle in Europe.

I wanted to create a title page for my album and had to use square photos, not quite sure how I managed to take square photos, but believe they are Instagram size. The top photo is of the sign giving information about the Silo Art Trail and the bottom right had more detailed information. I took two photos, as I have said before, I often take photos of signs like this for my journalling. The close up was of the bottom right-hand section of the larger sign. Remember the older interlocking method AZZA began with, well this was perfect to pop the close-up onto the page as a ‘close-up’ of the bottom corner of the sign. The decoration was then quick and easy, inked corners and an embossed image. I had given a class on AZZA embossing powder over the weekend and thought the lovely image off the Tropical Forest set of stamps would look striking on the page. I used my Versamark ink pad with white embossing powder and finished off the image with my silver AZZA Dot/writer pen. A tip which helps when embossing: with a very large brush or cloth dabbed in talcum powder, wipe the area of the page or paper you are working with to get rid of the static. This will stop the embossing powder sticking to the page or paper where there is no ink. When using your heat emboss tool, cover the photos. If you do not want to work on your page, work on paper or card then adhere it to the page.

The same stamp I used above was used in the layout below, it does look lovely on the page.

Although Manaus may look like a busy stencil, it can easily be used with one or two photos as show above. On the page above I have only used two photos in the centre of the stencil and completed the rectangle with paper that I stamped with a texture stamp and then embossed the rest. I want to show you that you do not always have to emboss the whole piece of paper or card. Again, this was a fairly quick and easy layout to do. I used AZZA Resin dots, Sticker circles and the lovely twine that goes so well with any nature theme. Another lovely use of the Resin dots and twine can be seen in the decoration below. The layout was created with the AZZA Brooklyn stencil.

Isabelle has used un-cropped photos in her layouts below and used the stencil itself for the background of the decoration. I love both pages.

Lastly a beautiful layout by Anita Day in Queensland who ran a class for the Consultants creating the page below.

The page I managed to create in the lesson is below. I used a double vertical page.

For the layout above and below, the stencil was placed diagonally on the page. This allows for a landscape photo to fit into the ‘petal’ either on the left or the right of the page. You cannot use both sides, unless you crop the two landscape photos as Sue has done on the layout below.

Each year I tell my Ladies we will begin making Christmas cards in July so that when Christmas arrives on our doorstep we will be organised. This year it has come to pass!! We made our first Christmas card using the Murano Stencil 2. We used the stencil to ink the shape then any combination of AZZA stamps can be used on the cards.

This beautiful set of stamps ‘Christmas Ambience’ is available in the online shop.

This month all the AZZA products that could be used for a Fathers Day card or project have been placed in the SALE section of the online shop. Browse through the products and see which you can add to your collection.

The AZZA ‘Back to Scrap’ boxes are about to be released in Europe. If you are interested in checking out the contents of this box please contact your Consultant. If you do not have a Consultant, contact enquiries@azzaworld.com.au. This box will not be available in the online shop. This box is all about bold decoration and perfect to create any masculine pages. Products can be used with any theme on the page.

Happy Scrappin’

Lyn