A Different Kind of Challenge

Today my 'baby' turns 16 ... a challenge on so many levels!  

She is a great girl, and in herself not that much of a challenge, I am so proud of the young lady she is growing into.  The challenging part comes from the age and all that it brings - social expectations, a relaxing of rules while still maintaining boundaries, learning to drive (though that will primarily be hubby's challenge lol), and just the support needed for 16 year olds these days - maintaining that balance between mother and friend.  

Here is the card I made for her.  I used some of her favourite products, firstly the rose image from Fifth Avenue Floral, she loves this stamp set, particularly the rose.  Her other favourite on the card is the new In-Colour Island Indigo, which I paired with Pool Party, lastly is glitter - what girl doesn't like glitter!!!  I used my new alphabet die to cut out the letters and numbers and embossed them into the extended bookmark with the square lattice die.  The "16" I cut out of adhesive sheet and applied super fine glitter, ideally I would have used the new Sticky Sheets as they would have held the glitter better, but sadly had none on hand!  I hope she likes it and has a wonderful 16th Birthday.

Happy Stamping

Baby Card

My second sketch inspired card was inspired by my favourite challenge site Friday Mash Up but I only used the stitching part of the challenge as in Australia we are headed toward the end of the school year!  The colour came from Just Add Ink which was White and one other colour, and finally the sketch came from Utah Divas Saturday Sketch.

I made this card for a friend who has recently had a beautiful baby girl, and I knew when I got my hands on the new Stocking Punch that is going to be available for Australia and New Zealand customers from 1st October.  One of the benefits of being a demonstrator for Stampin' Up! is that you get sneak peeks, and pre-order for promotions, how good is that! While the traditional use for the punch is for Christmas, I have turned it into a pair of pretty pink booties. 

The idea for the Modern Label Punch came from Donna over at Butternut Sage Designs, isn't it cool! The mechanism of the punch is to cut from the outside so you just have to punch carefully and stop after it has cut only part of the shape.  Then slide a strip of ribbon under and there you have it, a cute little accent for your card. 

Happy Stamping

Three in One ...

Inspired by the Blog Hop yesterday I have had a surge of creativity making 3 cards, two I can show you today and the 3rd I will post tomorrow as it is a surprise for my daughter's birthday.  I went flicking through my usual challenge blogs and inspiration was just popping into my hear.  I decided to start with the Sketch from Saturday 411, the colours from Crazy for Challenges, and the theme from CAS-ual Fridays "Falling to Pieces".  

I have seen these cute little trees popping up all over the place since the release of the Doily Triple Layer Punch.  The trunk of the tree is a rectangle with ovals punched out of the sides, and one petal of the 5-Petal Flower Punch.   While the theme was Fall with paper piecing, here in Australia it is heading into spring, so while I kept to the theme, I did use the green as the primary colour on the card!

Happy Stamping

ESAD New IB&C Blog Hop

Wow what an exciting time it has been here in Australia, on 1st September the new Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalogue went live.  No one loves a new catalogue more than my fellow Stampin' Up! Demonstrators, and those of us at ESAD have put together a Blog Hop to share some of our favourites with you.  What is ESAD?  

ESAD stands for "Extra Special Australasian Demonstrators" and it is an on-line group just for Australian and New Zealand Stmapin' Up! Demonstrators.  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 cyber-stamps, and we are always there to help and support each other when it is needed.  So if you are a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand, then please feel free to leave me a message and I will invite you to our Facebook group.

You might have started here at my blog, or come from Sharlene's blog Magpie Creates, it doesn't really matter to play along all you need to do is follow the link at the end of each blog and it will hop you right on over to the next blog in the circle.  

Now onto the projects I have to show you, for this hop I have done 4 items.  The first one is a card using the Flower Fest stamp set and I managed to use 4 of the 5 new In-Colours on this card! Now if you have visited my blog before you might know that I am someone who loves stamps that have matching punches, well Flower Fest is one such set, of the eight stamps in the set, five of them have matching punches, how cool is that.  For this card I used the leaves on the background, then layered the largest flower in alternating Calypso Coral and Wisteria Wonder.  I finished them off with the new (and I have to say stunning) Designer Printed Brads that match the new In-Colours. The sentiment is from "It's Your Day" which is a set of two sentiments that are easy to miss because they are found with the Simply Sent kits on page 136 of the Catalogue.

 This next little project is a straight copy of one that I saw on Angie Kennedy Juda's blog Chic n Scratch.  I love her blog and having just this morning bought my first ever Hershey Nuggets just had to give this a go.  For my American visitors, Hershey Nuggets are not easily available in Australia, however Cost Co have just opened up a store where I live and they stock them, I had to buy almost 1.5kg of them, but I am sure I will find so many projects for them now!  I made the belly band for the nugget from Island Indigo and topped it with one of the flowers from the Language of Friendship (another set that matches our punches!!) and used the largest flower on the Boho Blossoms Punch then water coloured it with Calypso Coral.  The little nugget fits perfectly into the tiny purse, so very cute.

This next project is another one I got from Angie over at Chic n Scratch, she had made her's for Halloween, however I changed it up a bit and will use this as a special little thank you gift.  It is made from two of the tags from the new Big Shot Die "Two Tags". This one holds a Stampin' Spot, and it was an accident that I picked up my Taken with Teal from my old set of Spots!  Doesn't it match well??  Those who were sad to see Take With Teal retire, will be very happy with this new In-Colour as it is quite similar.  I have used the new Designer Frames Embossing Folder to get the frame image on my Lucky Limeade card stock, and then stamped an image from yet another punch friendly set, Tagtastic.  Tagtastic is one of the exclusive hostess sets available this catalogue.  I have emphasised the little flowers with my Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Write Marker to tie it in with the double piece of Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding.  I absolutely love how these three colours look together.  

My final project was going to be another card, but for some reason my mojo just would not go in the 2D direction!  I wanted to show you another use for the Two Tags die, so went searching for inspiration.  This cute little 3D Post-It Note holder fit the bill nicely.  The idea came from Holly Stampin Mania, I have made mine more simple and used the Four Frames stamp set - yes there is a theme here with stamps and matching punches - this stamp set has four beautiful frames that all go with the Designer Label punch and look amazing. I paired the Wisteria Wonder with Concord Crush and a touch of Lucky Limeade for the leaves.  Isn't it great that In-Colours last for 2 years now???  We get to keep last years colours for another 12 months.

I hope you have enjoyed my creations, I certainly had a great time making them, and will continue to post up lots of projects with the new products, so be sure to stop by from time to time and see what I have been up to.

We will be offering Blog Candy on this Blog Hop.  It is easy to get into the draw, simply leave a comment on each blog then email Sharlene and a winner will be drawn.  Sorry but only residents of Australia and New Zealand are eligible for the Blog Candy and one winner from each country will be drawn.  If you are a visitor from overseas we would love to hear your comments too :)

Now it's time to hop on over to Juliette Chapman's blog Jules Krafty Krafts and see her wonderful items.

Happy Stamping

Friday Mash Up #22

Just a quick post tonight as I am soooo tired.  I had made a card on Saturday but just couldn't seem to get myself organised to post it up!  So a bit of a rushed post to make sure I get it submitted in time.

This week's Friday Mash Up was to make a Gate Fold Card and/or use numbers on the card.  Well for me it was an easy decision not to do the mash up, as I realised I had no numbered stamps, or chipboard or anything really!  So straight into a Father's Day card for my husband.  I wanted to use his favourite colour Red, and because Cherry Cobbler goes so well with Not Quite Navy I chose that as my second colour.  Quite by accident ... I mean completely on purpose ... I discovered that by sanding the card stock it gives it a faux suede look and feel.  I embossed the Father's Day sentiment from the now retired Well Scripted set onto the side panels to give them some texture, and then used the same stamp as the feature on the gate.  I was happy with the result and think the antique brad sets it off nicely.  Hubby seemed pleased!

Happy Stamping