Introducing our December guest Evelyn Wolff!

Do you all have your advent calendars ready? Its December 1st today! How fast did the end of the year sneak up? We have our new guest designer to introduce today but first I wanted to quickly mention our quiet blog over the month of November.
We want to thank all those who sent lovely messages wondering where we went and why we weren't posting. November proved pretty hectic for as we were side tracked with health issues and an international move between the two of us. We made sure that our limited time last month was allocated to getting your orders out and responding to your emails quick. We are now back in the blogging seat again and will resume our usual challenge and blogging schedule from here forward. We want to thank you all for your patience and understanding all last month.

With that said lets get on to all the excitement December holds starting with our wonderful fabulous guest designer Evelyn Wolff aka evelynlafleur! Here she is! We can't wait to see what she will create with us.

Hi everyone,

My name is Evelyn (evelynlafleur is used in galleries) and I live in Germany with my amazing husband and our furbaby.

I’ve started scrapbooking in 2012 because I love the idea of documenting all the special and even the everyday moments in our life.

When I’m not scrapbooking you could find me watching one of my favorite tv series with a big cup of hot white chocolate and my cat on the lap.

My non creative self is working as an accountant for an international trading company.

I’m beyond excited to be guest designing here at wonderful MeiLi Paperie.

My blog called Zauberhafte Welt: http://evelynlafleur.blogspot.de

Instagram: http://instagram.com/evelynlafleur

Introducing our October guest Caylee Grey!

We want to deeply apologize for the delay here over the past 2 weeks. As you may have seen on the news Hong Kong is at a pivotal point regarding our politics.. and due to the tight controls that our lovely neighbours prefer to have over such situations, internet services for sites such as Blogger have been very much delayed and at most points blocked completely. We really appreciate your patience as we work through these historical changes.. we are already noticing the restrictions easing back to the way it was so we hope things return back to normal soon.

So without further ado... we would love to announce our wonderful October guest designer, Caylee Grey. We have been long time admirers of her work. Her project life is simply stunning and her art journaling inspiring. Here is what Caylee has to say about herself:

I believe that adventures are created. I also believe in subtle magic. I treasure those casual magical, adventurous moments, and as such, collect them. I live in South Africa with my husband and fur baby / snowball sidekick. I work for myself which is the best because it means that pants are optional. I thrive on organisation, and getting things done. I throw glitter onto a page and leave the clean up worry until later.

Isnt her work fantastic?!? Make sure you check out her blog.. she is always posting great stuff there and on her instagram. 

Tutorial ~ Handcut titles with Kim Jeffress

Today I am going to share how I create my hand cut titles. Hand cut titles have been my favourite way of creating titles lately on my layouts.

First I will share my layout. I used a combination of papers from Pink Paislee Summer Solstice and Shimelle for American Crafts to create the base of my layout.

  

Now comes the fun part, adding my title and embellishments.

Step 1. To coordinate the colours in your title to the back ground, trim a square of pattern paper from the centre of your base pattern paper. Be sure to place the blade in the centre of your pattern paper not the edge to make your cut.

  

Step 2. Using a lead pencil draw the letters for your title on to the trimmed pattern paper. I prefer using capital letters because there are more straight lines which are easier to cut.

  

Step 3. Using a sharp pair of scissors cut your letters out. Erase any pencil lines still visible.

   

Step 4. For some added texture sand the edges of the letters.

    

Step 5. Add a small piece of adhesive to the middle of each letter and when dry machine stitch through each letter to complete.

 

Kim used: 

Pink Paislee Solstice Paper Trunk Bay

Shimelle Paper Haynes

Shimelle Paper Baxter

Heidi Swapp Project Life Core Kit Favorite Things

Heidi Swapp Project Life Embossing Folder Star

Chic Tags Cloud 9 Clips

Chic Tags Cloud 9 Label Stickers

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Title Stickers

BasicGrey Micro Mono Alpha Stickers Navy

  

September inspired by..... Challenge

How fun is this months Inspired by... image! Kim Jeffress asked if she could choose the inspiration piece and she chose well! This piece is so fun, from the graphics, to the colour palette, to the travel inspiration.. there are so many directions you can go can with this and we can't wait to see which way you choose! 

Here is how Kim was inspired.. 

So show us how Kims inspiration piece inspires you! Link your layout here by October 2nd and you could win an American Crafts Shimelle prize pack.. how perfect is this inspiration piece for that collection! 

Here is how to play along: 
- You can submit ANY kind of project that you were inspired to create such as layouts, cards, project life fillers
- The winner of the prize will be randomly drawn and our 3 favourite layouts be featured on the blog. 
- Our challenge will run until October 2nd at 11:55pm Hong Kong time. 
- Link your creation below by entering a link to your blog post or online gallery sharing your work.  Our InLinkz now has the ability to link your project from Instagram! so you can just snap a photo of your project and link while you share it on instagram.. so cool! 
- Please no back-linking.  This is for newly created projects only.  Any back-links will be be disqualified. 
- If you don't have a blog or online gallery, alternatively you can post a photo of your work on our facebook page. Please make sure you include " Mei Li September Inspired by... Challenge" somewhere in the post. 

Kim used: 

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Printed Alphas

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Title Stickers

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Frames

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Paper Kedzie

Chic Tags Cloud 9 Label Stickers

Chic Tags Cloud 9 Clips

Recap Your Summer Vacation with Rebecca Cross and Pink Paislee!

Happy Friday to everyone! Temps are starting to drop for autumn in some parts of the world... a bit too much in a few.. ahem Alberta Canada our sincere apologies on being overlooked for autumn by mother nature! We thought it was a great time to get those summer holiday memories scrapped while still fresh. We asked the wonderful Rebecca Cross from Pink Paislee to help bring you some inspiration and talk about the epicness that is the Solstice collection. 

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Hey Mei Lei Paperie blog readers..my name is Rebecca Cross and I am the Director of Brand Development for the Pink Paislee brand (I also manage the Heidi Swapp and Bazzill brands that you probably know and love too!) I have been involved in the scrapbook and paper crafting community since 2004 and once owned an online scrapbook store before launching Pink Paislee in 2007. I am a self confessed geek and I love all things tech and modern; yet somehow I still find time to shop thrift stores and vintage boutiques for unique treasures to add to my home and my craft projects!  You can learn more about me personally by visiting my blog HERE 

I am super thrilled to be able to speak to you directly about our latest summer collection called SOLSTICE. This collection is all about summer sunsets and chic coastal crafting! We added a ton of gold accents to this line and lots of glitter to make it feel super glamourous. Our paper lines have been expanded recently to 12 patterns front and back for a total of 24 patterns so if you love variety this one has it! The 6x6 paper pad is a must have for sure.

I just returned from a 5 day trip to San Diego California and I was so excited to return home to print my photos! I love summer photos. I love summer vacations. But most of all I love remembering how much fun we had when I look through my snapshots and take the time to preserve them into a few layouts. I will create 4-6 more layouts around the memories of this trip alone and I will enjoy every second of it. For me it is the best part.
The first layout includes a few photos of my son experimenting with the "boogie board" in the middle of the cold ocean. I wanted to create a really soft beach feel so I added some light blue acrylic paint under my photo mat area with a quick dry bristle brush technique. Then I got to work adding all the fun gold accents and elements to my page.  The 3D Gold Formed Stickers are really like metal stickers vs a puffy sticker so the title "summer" feels really substantial and sturdy. I just love how it looks like shiny metal but it slightly flexible like a regular sticker. Combine that with the foam foil stickers and go for the gold! You will love it!

The second layout features a quick photo of my son sitting beside the dunes at Coronado Beach.  He was quite exhausted at this moment after swimming for a few hours but I love the scenery and the background in this photo and I will treasure this day always.  It was such a relaxing afternoon.  On this layout I wanted to have fun with all the different patterned papers so I created a cluster under the photo and added just a few bits of ephemera here and there to reinforce the mood.  This one was quick and simple and incorporates more of the same gold elements I am completely in love with!  Even the ephemera has gold foil printed here and there!

Even though this collection is named SOLSTICE (aptly named after the longest day of the Summer) the patterns are versatile enough to be used for every crafting project and trust me you will NEED the gold foam and gold 3D stickers for yourself so grab those for sure!

For even more inspiration be sure to download our FREE e-book with step by step instructions on how you can create 20 designer layouts with these fun products...and don't forget to recap your summer vacations!

Thanks for inviting me to the blog today!  Live Pink! 

The Dimple with Kim Jeffress

Hello Kim here today sharing a layout created with some great goodies you can find here in the shop. 

This is my favourite photo of my youngest taken when he was just one.

I love how the pops of orange bring out the orange in the photo.

I created a cluster of elements across the middle of my layout for a fun effect, adhering my photo above the text on the Summer Solstice pattern paper. I then added some layers for extra dimension including the Chic Tags word stickers.  

I used one of the new Heidi Swapp 3x4 embossing folders to create some texture on the Favorite Things 3x4 Project Life card and used a stamp from my stash on top of the Heidi Swapp Water Colour Star tag.

To finish I added my son's initial using the cute Kelly Purkey Second City Printed Alphas over the Second City Frame.

Thanks for looking! 

Kim used: 

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Printed Alphas

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Title Stickers

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Frames

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Paper Kedzie

Pink Paislee Solstice Paper Daytona

Chic Tags Cloud 9 Label Stickers

Chic Tags Cloud 9 Clips

Heidi Swapp Project Life Core Kit Favorite Things

Heidi Swapp Project Life My Heart Stamp and Stencil Set

Heidi Swapp Color Magic Watercolour Tags: Stars

September colour challenge...

September! Many of you will probably think that with September comes autumn colour pallets and inspiration of pumpkins, leaves and back to school type stuff... but although Autumn is my fav time of the year.. and I would do anything to be able to have it in my life... it just doesn't happen in here in Hong Kong. Nor is it happening in Australia, where our guest designer Kim Jeffress is... its spring there. So, I made this for all you crafters in those non-autumn parts of the world or those who generally are just not ready to let summer go yet.  Enjoy!!!

I knew Kim would rock these colours!

So shows us how this inspired you! Link your layout here by September 18th and you could win an Echo Park Creative Agenda prize pack!

Here is how to play along: 

- You can submit ANY kind of project that you were inspired to create such as layouts, cards, project life fillers

- The winner of the prize will be randomly drawn and our 3 favourite layouts be featured on the blog. 

- Our challenge will run until September 18th at 11:55pm Hong Kong time. 

- Link your creation below by entering a link to your blog post or online gallery sharing your work.  Our InLinkz now has the ability to link your project from Instagram! so you can just snap a photo of your project and link while you share it on instagram.. so cool! 

- Please no back-linking.  This is for newly created projects only.  Any back-links will be be disqualified. 

- If you don't have a blog or online gallery, alternatively you can post a photo of your work on our facebook page. Please make sure you include " Mei Li September Colour Challenge" somewhere in the post. 

Kim used: 

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Paper Kedzie

BasicGrey Highline Paper Perfect

BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Second City Frames

Chic Tags Cloud 9 Clips

Chic Tags Cloud 9 Flair Buttons

Shimelle Paper Baxter

Heidi Swapp Project Life Love you Stamp and Stencil Set

Welcome our September Guest Designer Kim Jeffress...

We are excited to be welcoming the talented Kim Jeffress to the Mei Li team this month, not only because we love her bright, graphic and fun scrapbooking style but because this is our first guest designer joining us who we have had the pleasure of hanging out with in person! 

One of my favourite aspects of being in this industry are the connections we make all over the world, but the best part is when you get to meet those people you feel you already know well virtually in real life. Fiona and I had the pleasure of hang out with Kim in LA this past January, first with a few chats on the CHA floor but also during the Big Picture classes Play event afterwards. Her scraping style truly represents how she is in reality, fun, bright and bubbly. We look forward to having her here with us this month!

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Hi everyone I am very excited to be here at Mel Li Paperie this month.

I am waving hello from sunny Brisbane Australia where I live my husband and two boys aged 5 and 7. They are my main inspiration from my scrapbooking, I love to record the little everyday stories about their lives which one day would be forgotten.

I am honoured to be involved in the wider scrapbooking industry.  I would have to say though the pinnacle for me has been  designing for Heidi Swapp. Being on her team has been a dream come true, her generosity, enthusiasm and inspiration for Memory keeping is so infectious it drives me to keep improving my own scrapbooking everyday.

I can't wait to share more of my family's stories on the blog this month , see you soon.

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You can find out more about Kim and see more of her awesome work at her blog Glass Half Full or on any of these design teams: Heidi Swapp, Bella Blvd, Pebbles Inc, Greatest-view or Jot Magazine.

August colour challenge

Jen here.. I just wanted to post a quick apology for this going up a day late. We have been having intermittent internet and issues with our blogging platform the past few days and couldn't get our post to go live.... so without further ado here is the colour challenge with Lucia!

Hello girls! Lucia here today to share a page I made using the August color palette and some pretty

goodies from Mei Li Paperie store.

I think this is the second time in my scrapbooking “career” (lol) that I’m scrapping a picture of mine.

Life is amazingly awesome and I sometimes feel like scrapping an emotion or feeling. This picture

was taken on a Sunday afternoon, when me and a friend of mine went for a walk outside the city –

nothing but fresh air, wild flowers, berries and herbs, beautiful mountain in the background and a

silence of the forest. Perfect!

This page is a perfect example of my work : ) White background, sewn banners, tissue paper, layers.

Another thing I LOVE to use when crafting are things you usually throw away, like the bottom stripes

from a 12x12 pages or packaging. I think it makes a page look really original : )

So shows us how this inspired you! Link your layout here by August 17th and you could win an Websters Ocean Melody prize pack!

Here is how to play along: 

- You can submit ANY kind of project that you were inspired to create such as layouts, cards, project life fillers

- The winner of the prize will be randomly drawn and our 3 favourite layouts be featured on the blog. 

- Our challenge will run until August 17th at 11:55pm Hong Kong time. 

- Link your creation below by entering a link to your blog post or online gallery sharing your work.  Our InLinkz now has the ability to link your project from Instagram! so you can just snap a photo of your project and link while you share it on instagram.. so cool! 

- Please no back-linking.  This is for newly created projects only.  Any back-links will be be disqualified. 

- If you don't have a blog or online gallery, alternatively you can post a photo of your work on our facebook page. Please make sure you include " Mei Li August Colour Challenge" somewhere in the post. 

( We are currently experiencing some issue with our project linking system.. as of right now I just wanted to get this posted. This issue will be fixed in the next 24 hrs and probably before you are finished your project for this... please come back and link your project) 

Introducing our lovely August guest designer...

Anyone else feel that August just snuck right up? I honestly was shocked this morning sitting down at my desk looking at my to do list and realising it was the 1st of August today and the summer is half over already! But the 1st also means its time to introduce our next amazing and talented guest designer... so please welcome the wonderful Lucia Barabas!

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Hello everyone!

My name is Lucia and I’m beyond excited to be guest designing for the wonderful MeiLi Paperie!

I am a dream follower, pastel colors lover, crafter and graphic designer. My days are filled with

designing brand identities, blogs, sometimes patterns, crafting and scrapbooking and in between

giving cuddles to my bunny and kitty : )

My work takes almost all of my time, but if I manage to find some spare time, I love to read, hang

out with friends or enjoy a beautiful sunset with a glass of wine in my hand. : )

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You can find out more about Lucia and see more of here wonderful work at her blog Scrapbook. Design. Patterns by Lucia  or follow her on instagram @luciabarabas 

Thanks Eunyoung!

Hey everyone, Jen here! 

I just wanted to post a huge thanks to Eunyoung Lee for joining us as our guest designers this month. 

She has created amazing and inspiring projects, and we love that we could share them here with our readers.  I just gotta say again how awesome her video was! It makes me so happy! 

If you don't already make sure you follow Eunyoung on her blog or instagram to keep seeing her amazing work. 

You can find Eunyoung on her blog in English here  or on instagram @emeraldradio

We have another fab designer guesting here starting August 1st... here is a hint.. any guesses who it will be? 

Fancy Pants: Perfect Wedding Gift

Happy weekend to all! We have a special treat to bring you today! We are excited to have Jodi Sanford owner of Fancy Pants Designs joining us to share a beautiful wedding gift she created using one of their latest lines Burlap and Bouquet. 

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Hello Mei Li Paperie friends!
You could have the ideas already included or ask guests or family members to help you by adding one of their own ideas.  Here’s a few off the top of my head:  Buy her flowers for no reason at all; tell him how handsome he looks today; drop everything and go on a quick ice cream date….  you get the idea and you can totally customize this for the lucky couple! 
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little idea and look forward to hearing your thoughts on the line!

I’m Jodi Sanford, owner of Fancy Pants Designs  and I’m so happy to be here today sharing a little project I’ve been working on featuring our Burlap and Bouquets collection!  I adore this line for many reasons—first, it’s just a beautiful line with pretty patterns mixed with graphics that I love.  Second, it’s totally versatile for so many subjects, wedding, home decor, little girl, big girl and even boy with the bold graphic patterns.  And, third, it’s just filled with fun embellishments and sophisticated pieces that make the project beautiful with little effort!

So, for my project I created a little handmade wedding gift.  I thought this little project would make for a great wedding gift, but also a home decor and useful item for a newly married couple.  The card uses one of our Brag Cards from the line and says ‘Always Be Kind and True’  and the jar coordinates with the card because it’s a jar filled with little ideas (written on paper) of how you can be Kind and True to your spouse!  (You can explain the concept inside the card :))!  

So, for my project I created a little handmade wedding gift.  I thought this little project would make for a great wedding gift, but also a home decor and useful item for a newly married couple.  The card uses one of our Brag Cards from the line and says ‘Always Be Kind and True’  and the jar coordinates with the card because it’s a jar filled with little ideas (written on paper) of how you can be Kind and True to your spouse!  (You can explain the concept inside the card :))!  You could have the ideas already included or ask guests or family members to help you by adding one of their own ideas.  Here’s a few off the top of my head:  Buy her flowers for no reason at all; tell him how handsome he looks today; drop everything and go on a quick ice cream date….  you get the idea and you can totally customize this for the lucky couple!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little idea and look forward to hearing your thoughts on the line!

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I super love this idea, so many of my friends are getting married right now and its such a great gift to give.. I would have loved to receive one when I got married 2 years ago. I may have to make one for us.. maybe using date night ideas. You can check out more awesome things made with this line and more on Fancy Pants Designs blog plus grab some of this awesome line in our shop here. 
Thanks for stopping by today! Leave a comment on this post to be entered to win a Burlap & Bouquet collection pack. Additionally stop by our facebook page where comments & shares also count as extra entries.  A random commenter/sharer will be chosen on Tuesday (July 22)