Embellishments are like icing to a cake. I love icing ergo, I can never have enough of embellishments. The selection of the right embellishments and the correct use of them can add "oohmph" and "wow" to any page - INSTANTLY. It can save a near disastrous page to become a passable one and a good one to a contender to the Hall of Fame for scrapping. Scrapheads would understand this.

But newbies (those who are just beginning to scrap or develop a "sickness" for it) wouldn't. A beautifully crafted page with great embellishments would scare them or frustrate them, believe me. I have two friends who saw some great stuff and instead of inspiring them to try out scrapping it disheartened them so much to say "I will never be as good as THAT!" - their scrapping supplies remain shrinkwrapped to date.

Doing a demo for people whose passions are just starting is a delicate balancing act. As one of the two invited store demonstrators of SMILE during their SM Mall of Asia opening I forced myself to come up with very simple, near-to-zero unembellished but nevertheless "pretty" scrap pages that would encourage newbies to try out no-brainer tools as they develop their passion for the craft. *whew*. I wanted to show them a page or two they CAN do by themselves. I didn't want to scare them into thinking that scrapping is (1) difficult, (2) time consuming (3) too expensive a hobby.

Hence, I wanted to show them (1) its easy (2) effortless and (3) not as expensive as they think if they know how to use the "proper" tools that could get them by.

So I introduced them to the Coluzzel and the Dottariffic Pens - two no brainer tools that will NEVER scare anybody non-creative. :)

I worked on my chosen Rob and Bob paper design - the circles. My theme: A Circle is Forever (like a wedding band!) I made a Rob and Bob envelope using the Coluzzel (less than 30 seconds!) and even made a "matching" liner inside the envelope (another 30 seconds) to make it look "super" when you open it up instead of seeing just the paper's white side.

I cut two holes on the envelope - one at the flap and another at the bottom, ran two separate suede strips out of the holes (attaching the hidden end using a double sided tacky tape) BEFORE I adhered the liner to the envelope. I then merely inserted a mini Tags to Go at the top and one at the bottom to break the monotony and tied both ends in a ribbon. Viola! Purrrrty perfect! I made a matching Bazzil card for the envelope "decorated" by simple cut circles to match the envelope's design. Click the button below to see!

For my SMILE demo, I just had to do another simple page to show newbies that the Coluzzel is IT. For my Pocketful of Love page, I used the Coluzzel letter (script) template to cut-out the letters, another Coluzzel template to cut-out the flowers (which I embellished and mounted with brads) a Coluzzel template to cut a giant tag (the same one that goes with the flowers) and finally another Coluzzel template to cut pockets!

This one made use of just two Bazzil stocks (blue and green) , a scrap of yellow Bazzil for the tag and scraps of Rob and Bob papers for the pockets and the letters.

I made the bees "freehand" cutting an orange cardstock and cutting strips of black for the body. The wings are vellum cut-outs.

What does these layouts prove? That one doesn't have to have every scrap supply you can lay your eyes on in order to come up with a simple, "purrrty" page. Its a matter of having the right tools.

But of course, if you ask a certified scraphead or a hoarder (like Angela), scrapping "simply" like this is good every now and then but nothing beats scrapshopping and hoarding to "feed the scrapping soul!" :)

Grab your Coluzzel templates and your Dottariffics at the nearest SMILE branch.