I was so honoured to receive a phone call from the lovely Donna Williams from Stampin' Up! home office here in Australia and to be asked to do a new product showcase at the On Stage event in Sydney. I think I said "I would like to say yes" a bit nervously, to which Donna replied "then just say yes!" ... so I did and before I knew it was presenting in front of 600 of my closest demo friends ... and the CEO of the company!
My product showcase is the Sea Of Textures Bundle which includes 9 stamps and 8 Framelits which loosely coordinate. This means that the stamps and Framelits work beautifully together, but also look great used independently. I discovered that the fish-scale stamp added some beautiful texture to the framelits you can see what a difference it makes - not stamped on the middle panel and stamped with scales on the right. Just stamp the scales then line up your Framelit over the section you want to show on the final image.
I have posted this picture of me with my display board on another post, but couldn't resist posting again! Now to show you some of those projects close up:
One of the things that I shared about myself during my presentation was that when I was younger I lived on a yacht, making this bundle a really good fit for me. I was determined to do a scrapbook layout of some kind, and turned to Memories and More to achieve this. Page one of this two page layout is me sitting in the cockpit of Spindrift with a necklace of shells, much like sand dollars and drinking from a fresh coconut - before coconut milk was popular! I love how the Sea of Textures elements fit so well with this time in my life.
This second page was a little harder to photograph with the plastic sleeve, but it gives you an idea of a few more uses for this amazing bundle. I used the negative space from the sand dollar to create a mask, using this to sponge detail onto the journal card and the background of my photograph. You can see on the bottom picture how well the fish scales stamp gives texture to the starfish. This is probably my favourite photograph of me as a child and doing these two pages brought back so many happy memories.
I just love this card, it was one of the first I created as I had been playing with my Brusho and realised that this would make the perfect under the sea background. I loved playing with the textures on this card, layering up the coral and seaweed stamps and Framelit cut outs. The little school of fish I created by stamping with the fish scale stamp then running the Framelit through the Big Shot, without removing the fish from the die, I added a small amount of Tombow glue to each one and positioned the whole Framelit over my card then gently pressed each one onto the card with a toothpick. I added a few extra ones at the top of the card.
Carrying on with the Brusho theme I wanted to try out the octopus using white embossing powder, I really like how he turned out. The little net stamp gives some lovely texture behind the panel don't you think?
My next card is a bit more simple, and shows the versatility of this bundle. I wanted to keep this card more clean and simple. I used my sponge brayer to add some of the beautiful new Balmy Blue to some Whisper White before tearing the edge to create the "foam" on the waves. I love how the little star in the centre of the sand dollars make cute little star fish.
Speaking of Balmy Blue, I think this is my new faviourite blue, it is fresh and vibrant and I just love how it pairs so beautifully with a range of colours, here with Mossy Meadow, but also beautiful with Night of Navy, Berry Burst among many others. I stamped the background of this card with the bubbles from Playful Backgrounds, which I am happy to see is carrying over into the new Annual Catalogue. I like the idea of the octopus actually reaching out of the "Polaroid".
When I started to think about the Octopus I decided the tentacles would look great coming out of a cauldron. I stamped Lemon Lime Twist onto Whisper White, and then embossed White onto Lemon Lime Twist to get variants of the colours. I cut the tentacles apart to layer them in and around each other. The cauldron is made with a circle Framelit and strip of cardstock rounded on the edges for the rim. I am a bit sad that the Magical Day stamp set is retiring because it works so beautifully with this card. If you look closely I have also stamped additional tentacles on the background in Versamark so they add subtle interest to the otherwise plain background.
My final card is another one that shows the versatility of this set, I used my Stamparatus and the small coral stamp to create the background wreath. The sand dollar element makes the perfect "O" in Joy, making this a great bundle for Christmas too! The You is cut from the Celebrate You Framelits, trimming down the "U" to create the "J".
I hope you are enjoying seeing the wonderful new products showcased by some very talented stampers whom I am honoured to be among this year. Time to hop on over and see what the lovely
Suze created for her presentation in Utrecht, Netherlands.
Happy Stamping
Monique
