Spring Flowers

Lori is back again with two more Couture projects, as promised. The first Lori describes as, "a very simple layout documenting my tulip love in the spring time and how I love to bring them in the house this time of year for a little SPRING inside!"

How did she do it? She "used samples from the paper collection to piece together to form a quilt together.... Love all of the colours in this line... so pretty and soft and perfect for spring layouts."

"I made my flower by accordion folding my paper and then layering it on top of a die cut accent and then adding some of the pretty embellishments from the Couture Sundries."

The second project for today, from Lori, are these pretty altered flowers. She says, I "made this flower bouquet from an altered kit I had from years ago. Just coverd some chipboard flowers with scraps of paper and then used all of the pretty buttons and brads as the centers. A very simple project but so much fun to make! I used my paper crimper to crimp my scraps and used them to fill the bucket."

"It is a perfect gift for mothers day as an extra splash of colour and the perfect type of flowers to give - the ones that won't die!!"

Thanks for the reminder, Lori! Mother's Day is a week from tomorrow. Is anyone making a gift this year? What is it? We'd love to hear your ideas!

Keeping It Real

I love that Will and Kate drove themselves from the reception.  It's the first time it has been done and it was a lovely touch.  It will come as no surprise that Harry was in charge of decorating the car!  The front even has a learner plate.

Will drove Charles's Austin Martin from the reception at Buckingham Palace to Clarence House where they changed for the party.

20 Years

This beautiful layout is the first of three Couture projects Lori created for you this month. We love all the tumble dye misting and painting techniques she used on this layout.

Lori says "This layout is featuring 2 quick photo's that were snapped of my DH and I on our family vacation in Florida last summer - just a month before our 20th anniversary... so I used them to document our anniversary together."

"I love the look of mist and paint on all of my layouts and I love that this paper had it already done for me!! I played a lot with the purple dye that was provided to me and used it on the canvas heart (with acrylic paint) and on my tags and journalling strips."

"I also experimented with the mist and sprayed the SEI acrylic letters... spread it around with my fingers and then let them dry overnight and it became a marble effect on the letters.. LOVE how cool they turned out!!"

Check back tomorrow for two more lovely projects by Lori. They are sure to get you excited about spring!

Just Perfect

Kate Middleton's bridal day look

Kate Middleton's bridal day look is stunning and timeless. Her Sarah Burton dress, lace embellished veil and tiara are a perfect ensemble.

Photo credits: Getty via CBS

Complete your own bridal look fit for a princess with a Twigs & Honey Silk tulle with lace trim veil Style 053:

Photo credits: Lisa Warninger

Double band golden tiara Style 147

Photo credits: Elizabeth Messina

Congrats to Prince William and Kate!

Not Long Now...

Hope you have a great weekend.  I am one of those looking forward to the Royal Wedding which is only hours away.  I am about to head home to immerse myself in the coverage!  I can't wait to see her dress!  See you next week...

image via this is glamorous blog

Link Party #8

Let's get this party started! It's time to link up any project(s) you have created using SEI product. This is the perfect time to show off your layout for our sketch challenge too. If you haven't made anything lately, that's ok. You have a couple days to create a project or complete the challenge. The party will end April 30th at 11:59 pm.

Don't forget to...
1. Add a link to your SEI project on our blog by clicking on the button at the bottom of this post. Your project must use at least one SEI product to participate.
2. Link back to us by adding this button to the bottom of your blog post.

<a href="http://seilifestyle.blogspot.com"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlR7quLjN9iN8OC8w8B8tTFu5yU1GUhAdCmViVbK2Xkspb-edZPBn16GYl06KdCd11DDU17iOXiYNPSykJ7LCINz-BuowuZqO5-_eBOEKgrNJBXeSE3o09EVw_CJHO03F01M-G5qQfwOA/s1600/link.jpg" /></a>3. Check each other's projects out & leave comments.

New Things

We've had another influx of new things at Black & Spiro this week.  The new blue and white inlay chest of drawers which we have placed in our front window with the butterfly fabric is very beautiful.  We also have new pale pink cockatoo lamps which we've had custom made for our store, lots of new cushions in fabrics I bought when we were overseas earlier this year, a pair of antique armchairs and yet another delivery of our special blue and white ginger jars. 

It certainly has been a busy week getting all of our new things into the shop.  Here are a couple of photos I thought you might like to see.  The colourful, mismatched and at times very wild style we seem to be known for is very noticeable in these pictures.

I can't believe it's Friday tomorrow already and another long weekend.  I don't know about you but I'm finding it hard to fit everything I need to do into these short weeks!!

How to Tie Dye

Ever wonder how to tie dye? You may be surprised how easy it is with tumble dye. For those who aren't familiar with tumble dye, it is a ready-to-use water-based craft and fabric dye. Check out our new YouTube videos to find out how make awesome, personalized projects!

Fun with Flowers

Audrey has two double-page layouts to share today. When choosing which papers to use on her layouts, she carefully considers the colors in her photos and uses papers that will compliment them. We hope you enjoy reading her thought-process in the papers and accents she chose.

FUN WITH FLOWERS

"There were so many busy colors in my photos that I needed to use a background that was dull so that the photos would stand out. I used some greys from Couture and some greens from Corinne. But to highlight what was going on in my photos, I used a lot of bright colored accents."

DELIGHTFUL DANDELIONS

"When I do pages, I usually use papers that are oppisite in color of my photos so that my photos pop off the page. But in this case, the colors of Sunny Day just matched my photos so perfectly that I had to use them, and my photos still stand out! I stamped a flower image with some grey ink on my background cardstock, and used some swirly metal accents and a pearl gem for the middle to add some 'movement' to the flowers."

Next time you are creating a scrapbook layout, don't forget to consider the photos you are putting on your page. Thanks for your insights, Audrey!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

It's been a week for birthdays which I'll tell you about later but for now let me celebrate the 34th birthday of one of my 'Laminated List' - Mr Tom Welling.
It's nice to have a reason to post some photos of you!

Sunny Day Cards

Lisa's Sunny Day cards make us so happy! We hope they will bring a little sunshine to your Monday.

She created a little scene using the Sunny Day die-cuts. The swirly rhinestone pattern looks like wind rustling in the trees.

This card was made especially for Lisa's daughter's birthday. Maybe you wouldn't think to mix craft paper with the bright flowers in the Sunny Day collection, but the contrast really makes the flowers pop.

The cut-out numbers really make the statement...This is a big birthday!

The last card is not only pretty, it also has a great quote from the die-cut accents on it. It's from Mother Teresa and reads "We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do".

Now that Lisa has brightened our day with her cards, we can brighten someone else's day with a smile. Happy Monday!

Happy Easter

The anticipation is building in our household for the Easter Bunny's arrival tonight and for what he might bring.  Today Harry made this large, colourful card for the Easter Bunny which we will leave out tonight along with some carrots and some milk.  It is so fun watching the innocence of young children at times like these.  I am looking forward to our annual Easter Egg hunt in the garden tomorrow morning which I have been preparing for over the last few days.  I hope everyone is enjoying special times with family and friends.  Happy Easter!!

The 2 of Us

Although Julie used the Couture collection for this layout, it isn't too feminine at all. She did this by choosing patterned papers that work great for either gender. She created a great color combo by accenting the neutral gray papers with splashes of green.

Thanks, Julie. Happy weekend everyone!

Experiments with color

Hand dyed feathers for a special bride's custom piece.

NYC recap and Ann Taylor windows

Matt and I went on a last, last minute trip to NYC earlier in the week/weekend and had a great time. We've both never been so everything was new. :) It was mostly meetings and business, but we did get to squeeze in some great meals and sightseeing.

Visiting Lovely Bridal Shop. It was so great to meet Lanie and the ladies at Lovely! Such a gorgeous shop - brides - you should check them out!

The lovely Elizabeth Dye - West coast on the east coast. :)

Dining at Momofuku - delish pork buns.

Chocolate french toast at Norma's - layers of sliced loaf chocolate cake, cooked like french toast, with pan seared strawberries, pistachios, chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Yum!

Flowers blooming in Chelsea

Walking on Highline Park

My new skirt from Ann Taylor. ;)

Lights at night

The flowers Twigs & Honey was commissioned to design and create for Ann Taylor

3 windows of flowers at the Flatiron store

In-store display of our flowers

Me being a dork.
We look forward to visiting NYC again in the future! I hope you enjoyed this lengthy photo post. :)