ESAD Blog Hop: Sending Off The 2020 Mini Catalogue

Welcome to another ESAD Blog Hop, can you believe it's time to say goodbye to our holiday favourites from the 2020 Mini Catalogue? To me it doesn't yet feel like Christmas so it doesn't seem time to see this catalogue finish up, although it is a sign that 2020 will soon be behind us.  Don't get me wrong there have been some great things happen this year, of which my favourite is the engagement of our daughter to the most wonderful guy.  

Anyway onto the creativity ... I decided that it has been a little while (three years!!) since I created a Christmas themed frame, and I had some requests from my regular customers for us to do another one this year.  I decided to base it on the Most Wonderful Time product medley that we had used in another class a couple of months ago. One thing 2020 has made me realise is that I need to use the products I have without just buying new ones for every project!

I used a similar layout to the frame I created in 2017 (you can find that post here), but instead of having 9 frames I designed it with 8 squares and then a feature in the centre.  Along side the Most Wonderful Time medley I have used some of the other products in the Mini Catalogue including Wrapped In Christmas stamp set, Poinsettia Dies, Christmas Gleaming Punches, Peace & Joy Bundle, Heartwarming Hugs DSP, Forever Gold Laser-Cut Specialty Paper, Banners Pick a Punch, Tasteful Labels Dies, Layering Circles Dies, Layering Squares Dies!  Don't be daunted though, you could create this using whatever you have on hand. 

My strategy for this frame was to create the 8 panels with a feature later 3"x 3" layered onto Soft Sea Foam measuring 3-1/4" x 3-1/4".  Once I had created 9 of these (I made a spare), I laid them out on Real Red or Old Olive squares measuring 3-1/2" x 3-1/2". By doing this without sticking down the Soft Seafoam layer it allowed me to move the squares around until I was happy with the overall layout, and I have to say that took longer than expected as I worked out a way to have the two squares with presents on them not together and the "Peace, Joy and Bright" layers separated in a sensible way!  I am however very happy with the overall result.

 

Here is a close up of the centre image, using the Poinsettia layer over the gold foil. The use of this gold piece was a bit of an accident that happened at the class as I was planning to use the more wreath like piece of gold, but one of my attendees picked this one off the sheet and it looked soooo much better!  The gem in the centre is a retired one but worked too well not to use. 

I also wanted to talk about this panel a little as I used the presents stamp from the product medley but only stamped the ribbon section onto DSP. If you look closely you can see that I trimmed off the presents to be more square and layered these onto embossed ribbons stamped on whisper white which gave the gifts a much more realistic look. I also used a white gel pen to add a touch of snow onto the tree.

I also wanted to show you this frame that my daughter made instead of the one the rest of the class did.  She has a themed Christmas each year, and this year it is themed around the Nightmare Before Christmas movie. The Magic In This Night suite was just perfect, right down to the pinstriped DSP in the pack which is very much like Jack's suit.  Samantha did sneak in a few more retired products, and based her frame more closely on the one we created in 2017 with a few very similar elements.  I love how different this is and how well it will go with her other decorations this year, and I can't wait to see what she does with the rest of the suite to decorate her home. 

  

So between Samantha and myself we have certainly done justice to many of the wonderful products in the 2020 August to December Mini Catalogue don't you think?  Now it's time to continue the hop and see what the other ESAD team members have created, the next stop is Shannon.

• Nicole Wilson
• Denise Buetler
• Cheryl Algie
• Narelle Fasulo
• Lou Kitzelman
• Libby Dyson
• Melissa Gifford
• Leonie Schroder
• Sue Vine
• Monique Fielder <--- you are here
• Shannon Kissane
• Maree McIntosh
• Kelly Kent
• Odette Kermode

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #293 - CASE A Card From Mini Catalogue Page 36

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where utilise the projects within the current Stampin' Up! catalogue to inspire our own projects each week. We also invite you to join with us in the challenge each week by using this inspiration in your own creations and uploading a photo to our Facebook page.

This week we are taking our inspiration from the cards on page 36 of the Mini Catalogue.

I was inspired by this image I love all the shades of blue and simple layout. 

You know I love my Boho Indigo Product Medley and the blues in the original card certainly pointed me in the direction of Boho.  I decided to use various pieces of the DSP in the medley and stamped the cup images onto them, then over colouring with Light Pool Party and fussy cut just the body of the cup and paper pieced it onto stamped images. I think it gives the cups a really retro look, enhanced by the little stamped stars, and love how it turned out. 

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use the samples on page 36 of the Mini Catalogue to inspire your creativity, then post a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

Time to hop on over and see what Julia has created this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #292 - CASE This Sketch

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where utilise the projects within the current Stampin' Up! catalogue to inspire our own projects each week. We also invite you to join with us in the challenge each week by using this inspiration in your own creations and uploading a photo to our Facebook page.

This week we are CASE-ing the sketch of the card on page 159.

For my Project I decided to take my inspiration from more than just the sketch for this card, I liked the die cut layers and the floral images of the original and used those for my inspiration as well. The lovely flowers are from Jar of Flowers stamp set, I love the size of these floral images and that they can be used independent of the jars! The sentiment comes from Happiest of Birthdays which has some great sentiments big enough to be a feature on projects, as usual I love the mixed font of this one.

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use the layout of the card on page 159 to inspire your creativity, then post a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

Time to hop on over and see what Rachel has created this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #291 - CASE a Mini Catalogue Bundle Project

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where utilise the projects within the current Stampin' Up! catalogue to inspire our own projects each week. We also invite you to join with us in the challenge each week by using this inspiration in your own creations and uploading a photo to our Facebook page.

This week we are taking our inspiration from the bundle projects on pages 71 to 75 of the Mini Catalogue. 

I was inspired by this image from page 75, I liked the simplicity of it.  If you have visited my blog much, especially around Christmas time, you will know that I like to create cards that are relatively simple and easy to make but still look great.  The simplicity of using a DSP background with a simply stamped sentiment meets this perfectly.  I did end up doing a little fussy cutting, to better match the sketch, but it would have looked great without these. 

My Project for this challenge uses one of my faviourite Christmas DSP packs for some time, I love how lush this looks with the copper foiling and it was this paper that made me fall in love with Pretty Peacock as a colour.  I decided to make this card even easier by punching out the sentiment rather than having to line it up or die cut. The sentiment is from Christmas Gleaming set, and with this one I actually took my scissors to the rubber and cut off the & at the start of the sentiment!  I don't do this often, but in this case it has made it far more versatile, and I can still line up the rubber on the block if I want to use it as intended in the future. 

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use the projects in the bundles section of the Mini Catalogue, pages 71 to 75, to inspire your creativity, then post a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

Time to hop on over and see what Lauren has created this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #290 - CASE The Colours of Plaid Tidings DSP

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where utilise the projects within the current Stampin' Up! catalogue to inspire our own projects each week. We also invite you to join with us in the challenge each week by using this inspiration in your own creations and uploading a photo to our Facebook page.

This week we are taking our inspiration from the amazing colours in the Plaid Tidings DSP. Now there are an amazing 16, yep sixteen, colours in this DSP!  But don't let that deter you as you don't have to use them all!  In some ways that is a good thing because you have a lot to choose from and I'll help by giving you a tip on my process when using colours which might be of use. The colours are Crumb Cake, Cinnamon Cider, Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler, Blackberry Bliss, Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Mango Melody, Bumble Bee, Shaded Spruce, Pretty Peacock, Misty Moonlight, Seaside Spray, Basic Black and Whisper White.

The first thing I do is usually pull out the stamp pads of each of the colours, but with this many I decided to start using 2" x 3" pieces of cardstock.  I like this much better than the ink pads as you can get more of a sense of how much of each colour you want to use by overlapping them.  The first thing I do with them is arrange them in rainbow order.

Next I take the pieces and group them in twos and threes of colours I like the look of together, I usually leave the neutrals aside as they will generally go with any of the other combinations.  In this grouping I played with having the Pumpkin Pie and Melon Mambo with the Shaded Spruce but liked it better this way (and by now I had decided on the combo I liked the best. Just keep playing with these colours until you find a combo you like the best. I decided to go with Cinnamon Cider, Pretty Peacock and Crumb Cake.

If you still aren't sure, another technique for picking colours is to look a the individual sheets of DSP and pick the colours that are in that single sheet.

I have just recently added the Nothing Better Than Bundle to my collection and so have been itching to ink it up.  While I was thinking about using the cocktails image, decided that the chocolate would work better with my chosen colours. In the making of the card I also decided to add some "flavour" to some of my chocolates so added some Mango Melody and Rich Razzleberry to my colour combo, I do wonder what a Razzleberry would taste like!

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just choose some of the colours from the Plaid Tidings DSP and use them in your project, then post a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

  

Time to hop on over and see what Peta has created this week.

Happy Stamping

Monique

CTC #289 - CASE A Halloween Project

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where utilise the projects within the current Stampin' Up! catalogue to inspire our own projects each week. We also invite you to join with us in the challenge each week by using this inspiration in your own creations and uploading a photo to our Facebook page.

This week we are taking our inspiration from the Halloween projects in the mini catalogue. I was actually inspired by the above image that we are using for our badge for this challenge, as soon as I saw it I wanted to re-create it. I think it helped that I have been cleansing my craft space and found a frame that I thought would be perfect. 

Instead of a Halloween project which would not get much use, I decided to use Boho Indigo DSP for the basis of this project, it went so well with the distressed frame. I wanted to replicate the general layout of the panels in the original project so went hunting for elements in my stash that would allow me to do this.  I think all of them are current except the sentiment on the top left panel, but as this was for my new craft space I am sure you can forgive me. It is a bit hard to see in this image but the bottom left panel I used the tall tree from Rooted in Nature embossed using clear embossing powder.

You can see it better in this photograph.  Very soon I will be moving out of my existing craft space and into the spare room to allow our daughter and her fiancé to move into what is now our craft/computer/lounge room and make it their little apartment while they save for a home of their own. This new frame will hang above my desk and I love that it has a couple of very relevant sentiments that should help keep me on track.

  

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use the Halloween samples to inspire your creativity, then post a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

  

Time to hop on over and see what Shannon has created this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #288 - CASE a Kit

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where utilise the projects within the current Stampin' Up! catalogue to inspire our own projects each week. We also invite you to join with us in the challenge each week by using this inspiration in your own creations and uploading a photo to our Facebook page.

This week we are taking our inspiration from the kits in either of the two catalogues.

I was inspired to keep on with my tags from the Tag Buffet Project Kit, and chose a different two tags from the original kit, the ornament on the left and the presents on the right of the above image from page 5 of the catalogue.  

For my Project for this challenge I created a different two of the tags from the project kit. The ornaments are from Christmas Gleaming stamp set, and while I didn't have any stamps with tall gifts suitable for these tags I decided to make my own from strips of DSP and coordinating ribbons. I think they work really well and were so easy to make. 

While I had the stamps out I decided to make a version of the ornament tag using the beautiful paper in the Boho Indigo Medley. I have paired the Night of Navy with Petal Pink which is one of my favourite colour combinations recently. 

  

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use the samples in any of the kits in either catalogue to inspire your creativity, then post a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

  

Time to hop on over and see what Rebecca has created this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #287 - CASE a Leaf/Tree Mini Project

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, where utilise the projects within the current Stampin' Up! catalogue to inspire our own projects each week. We also invite you to join with us in the challenge each week by using this inspiration in your own creations and uploading a photo to our Facebook page.

This week we are taking our inspiration from the leaf and tree projects in the Holiday Mini Catalogue.

I was inspired by the cute tags that are part of the Tag Buffet Project Kit on page 5.  I was really surprised how big these tags are and thought they would be fun to re-create with the products I have on hand. 

Here are my tags, what do you think?  I did sneak in a retired product with the holly framelits on the leafy tag but I couldn't resist the pop of sparkle that the glimmer paper added to these.  I also used a gold gel pen I had on hand to create the oval behind the Christmas tree.  The are even a good size for attaching a pocket for a gift card on the back!

Now do you remember my project from last week's challenge and how I said it would coordinate with this week's project?  Well here it is with my gift tags inside!  I think this is such a cute way to store these ready for Christmas wrapping, or to give as a gift.  I am certainly going to be making more in the coming weeks.  

  

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just use the tree and leaf samples in Mini Catalogue to inspire your creativity, then post a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

  

Time to hop on over and see what Rose has created this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique