ESAD Christmas Blog Hop

I hope you’re ready for another ESAD Christmas Blog Hop!

What is ESAD?

ESAD stands for Extra Special Australasian Demonstrators and it is an online group just for Australian and New Zealand demonstrators for Stampin’ Up! We so love what we do and not only do we love to share it with our customers, friends, and wonderful blog visitors but we share our love for what we do with each other as Demonstrators. We run swaps, challenges, tutorials, product know how and cyberstamps and we are always there to help and support each other when its needed.

So if you are a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand then please feel free to click here to join our wonderful group.

You might be starting here or you might have come from looking at Tanya Bell's lovely creations, the beauty of a blog hop is that it doesn't matter where you start, just follow the links at the end of each post to hop to the next blog along.  All of the ladies on this blog hop have put in a lot of work so if you like what you see please leave a comment to let them know!

Now onto my creations ...  I wanted to do something a little different and that started with the card.  Having just started with Stampin' Up! this year I haven't had any Christmas stamps, so I started looking at my other stamp sets to see what could be made Christmassy and who would have thought Extreme Elements would have caught my eye! 

I used the Fleur de Lis and the Wings stamps to make the wreath and was really happy with the way it came out.  The wonderful new adhesive rhinestones gave it a nice touch of bling and the Organza ribbon tops of the wreath beautifully.

The majority of my creations are actually Christmas Decorations - so I decided to dive into the shed and pull out the Christmas Tree to show them off!  They look so lovely on the tree, I don't want to take them down, but I guess I have to as its just a smidge early for Christmas. 

 These two you might have seen before, these are made with 6-8 punch outs from the Ornament Punch.  The one on the left is punched from DSP from the Simply Scrappin' Kit alternated with Baja Breeze card stock, the one on the left is from the Jolly Holiday DSP.  These can be made with any shape punch as long as it is symmetrical.

The design for these I developed myself, I wanted something made from acetate filled with Christmas M&Ms. These little boxes are made using the Petal Card Extra-Large Double punch, the unique thing about this punch is that it not only cuts out but scores the card stock at the same time.  It goes perfectly with the Cute by the Inch set, but here I have used them to make a top and base for each tube.  A small strip of Jolly Holiday DSP has the double task of creating a delicate trim and a way to secure the top and base.  The bottom is adhered with 4 glue dots, the piece of ribbon goes through the bottom of the box, up through its middle and out the top.  To get the lollies out just slide the lid up the ribbon! 

These cone decorations are also something I designed myself, almost by accident!  They are made from the Scallop Circle Die for the Big Shot.  I thought they would make great ornaments and then when I saw the numbers stickers in the Simply Scrappin' Kit I knew they would make great advent ornaments!  Made from Jolly Holiday DSP (left) or card stock highlighted with Shimmer Paint (right), and filled with little bags of Christmas M&Ms they make a perfect Advent treat.

This little one I made following the directions by Becky Roberts as part of her 12 days of Christmas tutorial.  Hers were slightly smaller as she lives in America and has different sized chocolates!  I re-sized these to holy one of my favourites snack size bars - Snickers.  The Snickers I then wrapped in matching DSP (this one from Simply Scrappin' Kit), again these would make great Advent decorations.

I hope you have enjoyed my creations, I certainly enjoyed making them, and will be making more in the lead up to Christmas.  Now off to see some more wonderful creations, so hop on over to Julie Fette's blog and see what Christmas treats she has in store.

If you get "lost" here is a full list of the blogs involved in this hop.

Sharlene Torres - http://www.stampwithsharlene.com/

Kim Conway - http://www.kimconwaycards.blogspot.com/

Andrea Lowcock - http://www.andrealowcock.wordpress.com/

Jo Weedon - http://www.scrapandstampin.blogspot.com/

Narelle Hodges - http://www.stampwithnarelle.blogspot.com/

Leonie Schroder - http://www.stamp-a-latte.com/

Pauline Bennetts - http://www.paulinebennetts.com/stampede

Aly Adcock - http://www.inkyaly.blogspot.com/

Tanya Bell - http://www.stampingt.wordpress.com/
*** Monique Fielder - http://www.stamping-with-moni-q.blogspot.com/ ***
Julie Fettes - http://blog.stampwithjulie.com.au/?p=237

Jane Norrish - http://janenorrish.com/

Keryn Campbell - http://kerynscards.blogspot.com/

Bev Watt - http://stampinovation.blogspot.com/

Jan McAnulty - http://cardcaperswithjan.wordpress.com/

Stamping 411 Saturday Sketch #172

I once again did the Stamping 411 Saturday Sketch challenge, I made some alterations to the original layout as the image I stamped didn't fit neatly with the sentiment I wanted. But I think I have kept enough to the design for it to count.

For this one I used Blushing Bride as the base and made Rich Razzleberry the secondary colour - I had them both out on the desk from doing the JAI challenge!

I haven't used the Flower Fancy stamp set in a while, but enjoyed doing the Rock and Roll technique with the flowers as well as masking to give the layered effect.  A nice simple card but very pretty, hope you enjoy.

JAI Colour Challenge 38

Well I did it again, did some more challenges this weekend.  This one is for the JAI challenge which honours the Cancer Council's national Pink Ribbon Day on 25th October. "One in every nine Australian women will be diagnosed with breast cancer by the age of 85. It could be a mother, sister, aunt, cousin, niece or friend. Whoever they are, one thing they have in common is that they will need our help and support... Pink Ribbon Day is your chance to help raise money and awareness for all Australian women affected by breast cancer."

So this week's challenge was to add Pink and Bling to a card.  I didn't struggle as much this week as last week, but pink is not normally my colour so it wasn't a walk in the park either.  I chose to use Blushing Bride, one of the new In-Colours. I like it as its a dusky pink rather than a girly girly pink!  I paired this with

Rich Razzleberry and Pear Pizazz and Old Olive.

I wanted to try something new as well so picked the small little roses I have seen on a number of cards, blissfully one had a link to Andrea's web site where she has been kind enough to include instructions.  I think they went well for a first attempt.

To add the bling I decided to apply some of my mix of Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds, I think I perhaps went a bit heavy handed, but overall was happy with the way the card turned out. 

Appetiser for the Blog Hop

On the 23rd October ESAD are having another Blog Hop with a Christmas theme so today I thought I would provide a little appetiser to the main course!  I also wanted to share a wonderful new product that's available in the current Idea Book & Catalogue - Shimmer Paint.  It comes in three colours and is a great for so very many things. I have had my Platinum Shimmer Paint for only 24hours and have absolutely fallen in love with it.

Firstly let me send a thanks to Michelle Reynolds who gave me the idea for this technique of a puffy ornament. In her sample Michelle used Waffle Paper, which unfortunately in our Australian catalogue we don't have, so I had to improvise.  After looking around for options (one being silver tissue paper only to find I didn't have any) I decided to use the brown packing paper that comes in our orders.  Now I didn't want the drab brown colour to come through so decided to try colouring it with ... you guessed it Platinum Shimmer Paint!  I used a Sponge Dauber to apply the Shimmer Paint and got a nice even layer.  When it had dried,  sped along with my heat tool, I cut a piece and scrunched it up, then stuck it over a cotton ball adhering it at the edges.  Over this I placed the Concord Crush card stock with the ornament punched out of it so the silver popped through.

I stamped one of the ornaments in Delightful Decorations stamp set in Concord Crush onto Whisper White card stock and then punched it out with the matching ornament punch. I added some bling with the self adhesive rhinestones also available in the new catalogue.  I didn't want the white border around the ornament, so grabbed a small paint brush, dipped it into the Shimmer Paint and painted around the edge of the punch out!  While I was onto a good thing I decided to liven up the centre of the stamp by using the Shimmer Paint to paint in some of the detail.

 

Finding yet another use for the Shimmer paint I sponged around the edge of the Concord Crush card stock, and used the end of a blunt pencil to dip into the Shimmer Paint and used it to dot onto the corners of the card stock to make some faux silver brads.  The sentiment is from the Four the Holidays stamp set, which has four lovely Christmas sentiments "Peace on Earth" "Seasons Greetings" "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays" so it suits a wide range of recipients.  

One final use for the Shimmer Paint that I have used (but decided not to add to this card) is to use the sponge dauber to add the Shimmer Paint directly onto a stamp and then stamp onto coloured card stock.  It can be used to cover the whole stamp or even around the edges of an already inked up image.

Hope you got some ideas from this, if you are interested in buying Shimmer Paint for yourself, or want to book a workshop to try some of these techniques out with your friends (and earn great products) give me a call. 

Stamping 411 - Saturday Sketch Challenge #171

In the spirit of challenging myself, and having done a "hard" challenge, I decided to do a sketch challenge from Stampin 411 which was a little easier as I could choose my own colour scheme. This is the sketch we had to go off ...

For my colours I chose to go with Very Vanilla and a new favourite Cherry Cobbler. Stamp set was Punch Potpourri which I absolutely love as it goes perfectly with a number of Stampin' Up! punches so you don't have to cut things out.  You can earn this stamp set really easily by hosting a workshop so contact me if you are interested in learning how.  I used the flowers stamp and lined them up with my Stamp-a-ma-jig on the three panels.

I have such a long wish list from the new Idea Book and Catalogue and still haven't bought myself any of the lovely brads, so with necessity as the mother of invention (as my own mother used to always tell me) I punched out some Cherry Cobbler with a small punch 1/8" I think, then used some Crystal Effects mixed with Dazzling Diamonds to make my own brads!

I wanted to finish off with something instead of the bow, so used the heart stamp from the same stamp set and sponged the edges in Cherry Cobbler, and finished of the card with a layered strip of Cherry Cobbler and Very Vanilla with the sentiment from the Occasional Quotes stamp set. 

I really enjoyed making this card for the challenge, and am planning on doing more challenges in the future.

ESAD - Secret Sister

Since joining ESAD - Extra Special Australasian Demonstrators - I have met some lovely people and been exposed to some great inspiration.  One of the lovely things that is organised is a Secret Sister, which is run over 3 months.  For each of the first two months you send off 2 cards and a small gift, and for the final month 2 cards and a larger gift.  Because its done in a circle, with each participant sending off to one person you also receive these things too. And while you do know who you are sending too, the secret part is that you don't know who is sending you things until the very end.  I am really enjoying this as its the first Secret Sister I have been involved in, and I thought it about time I linked some of the things my SS has sent me so far.

This is a lovely card made with the Sense of Time and Artistic Etchings stamp sets and the new DSP Newsprint.  I liked the way the images were double stamped in two colours to give a blurred effect, and the antique feel to the card.

This is the second card my SS sent me, I had written in my list of likes the Baroque Motifs set and my SS chose to use it on this card for me.  I like the softness of this, I usually use bolder colours so its nice to receive work from someone else that's different.  There is a simple elegance to Baroque Motifs that is really lovely.

 This lovely little gift came in the mail for me at the end of August and included the corner bookmark on the left, using the Vintage Vogue friends stamp, and the slider box on the right.  I love the little embellishment on the slider box, and the tiny tag and clip.  Inside was a coffee bag and a chocolate two things I love.

This beautiful card was the first one I received in September and I love love love the simplicity of it.  I love the use of a splash of colour with the new Cherry Cobbler (this was my first look in person at this great new colour), I love the use of ribbon, and also love that my SS used the new Platinum Shimmer Paint to stamp the 3 Cute By The Inch images.  While I love all my SS cards so far this is probably my favourite!

 This next one I took two pictures of as the inside was as impressive as the outside.  Again my SS has used Artistic Etchings stamp set and the Newsprint DSP, but in this one has done some tricky punching and folding to create a little window that looks through onto a stamped image behind. I love the effect of this and will be trying my own version out very soon I think.

So those are my SS cards and gift so far.  I will post the rest at the end of October and will then be able to reveal who my talented SS is!

Just Add Ink Challenge #37

I have decided that I need to challenge myself a bit more, and one of the ways I have decided to do this is to join in challenges set by other websites.  The first one I chose was Just Add Ink colour challenge 37.  For this challenge the four colours I had to use on the card were - Rose Red, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie and Always Artichoke.

When I first looked at this challenge I thought that I wouldn't be able to join in, as I only own Old Olive in a Classic Stampin' Pad, but when I shuffled through my Stampin' Write Markers I found I also had Rose Red and Pumpkin Pie.  So lack of colours was no excuse not to join in. 

While I decided what to do I decided to get a piece of off-cut card stock in each colour and just lay them on my desk shuffling them around until inspiration struck.  Here is my resulting card, which interestingly enough has 3 of the pieces of off-cuts on it lol ...

I was happy to be able to use my new stamp set Elements of Style, as well as my new Scallop Border Trim Punch which I love to bits. While these are not colours I would normally put together, I was happy with the result, and felt suitably challenged by it!