Natalie's Team Training - 21st January 2018

Hello, Crafters.

I hope you've enjoyed a lovely weekend. Yesterday I went to Natalie's Team Training with one of thelocal ladies in my team, Amanda. This was the first training of 2018, and was held in a new venue - the Loft, which is a large room in the Hawth Theatre. Apparently it's not far from the school we used to meet in.

The new venue is a lovely size to hold all twenty-eight of us, and there was a lovely atmosphere about the place. This is going to be our permanent new home!

As everyone was arriving, deciding where they were going to sit, chatting, catching up, etc., Natalie was handing out pink envelopes to some people including me. I put it on top of my bits, and didn't think to open it until I arrived home, such was the lovely atmosphere in the room.

I opened my pink envelope when I arrived home, and I found two congratulations certificates - one for being in the top ten for sales, and the other one for recruiting new team members - both of these awards refer to December 2017. I also received a packet of the self adhesive sequins, and a packet of wooden embellishments called Touches of Nature Elements. 

 
This is my favourite swap that I received yesterday,  and was made by Fiona Whitten. Unfortunately my photographs don't do Fiona's card justice, but the 3D effect with the parcel is amazing - it really does look like the parcel can be opened! The way Fiona achieved this is, she first stamped the parcel from the Cake Soiree Stamp Set, and then stamped a second image on another piece of Whisper White Cardstock (CS). After she had coloured the second image, using Stampin' Blends, she cut it out using the line of the cord that goes up the left-hand side of the parcel and through the middle, as the edge.

 
Next Fiona adhered it onto the complete image using Dimentionals. Fiona used Berry Burst CS as the base for her card front. For the next layer, she used a piece of Whisper White CS, and she dry-embossed a strip across the top half using the flowery embossing folder in the Petal Pair Embossing Folders. This is a pack of two narrow embossing folders which measure approximately 2" wide by 6.5" long. The Whisper White CS with the parcel on, was die cut using a square die from the Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies. This was adhered, with dimensionals, onto a larger scalloped Berry Burst CS square that had been die cut using the Layering Squares Framelits Dies. Fiona atached a small piece of folded Berry Burst 3/8" Metallic-Edge Ribbon, and adhered the square to the card front base, using Dimensionals. The final steps were to stamp the sentiment, which is also fron the Cake Soiree Stamp set, and painting the deoartion on the parcel using Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Pen.

That's about it for today. Until tomorrow, happy crafting,

JanB.