ESAD Retired List Blog Hop

Welcome to the ESAD Retiring Products Blog Hop, whether you have arrived from Sherylee Tutt's Stampin' Up! Blog or are starting out here, please enjoy this blog hop by following the links at the bottom of each post.

This is a very exciting time of year for Stampin' Up! as the release of the new Idea Book & Catalogue is just around the corner, and to clear room for some amazing new products a number of products in the current IB&C are retired.  This is a bitter sweet time as often we have to say good bye to some old favourites for ever - Yes forever.  Once they are gone they are gone :-(  I know there are a few sets going this year that I will really miss.  A number of us over at ESAD wanted to do a blog hop as a chance to showcase some of these retiring items before they are gone for good.  If you would like to order any make sure you get in quick as once they are sold out they won't be restocking.

What is ESAD?

ESAD stands for "Extra Special Australasian Demonstrators" and it is an on-line group just for Australian and New Zealand Stampin' 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 cyberstamps, 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 fee free to click here to join our wonderful group

I chose to base my blog entry around Eastern Blooms, this was one of the stamps I got in my starter kit when I joined up as a demonstrator, and I have to say it was my favourite set for a long time.  I did a card similar to this when I first got the set, so thought I would do a farewell version now.  I chose Pretty in Pink, Early Espresso and Regal Rose as my base colours, I just love how the pinks go so well with the Espresso. I used a rock n roll technique on the big flowers, with the small ones on the background I inked up the stamp on the stamp pad and then coloured the centre of the flowers with my Stampin' Write Marker.  The sentiment is from Basic Phrases, another set I got in my starter kit, and another that is retiring at the end of the month. I also used a couple of 5/8" Jumbo Brads in the centre of the main flowers (but they aren't retiring thank goodness!).

For this next card I was inspired to team Eastern Blooms with the Elegant Soiree DSP, making a feature panel from stamps in the set and then stamping the main flower in VersaMark and then embossing with Gold Embossing Powder straight onto Soft Suede card stock.  3/8" Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon gives it a more feminine feel and this ribbon, along with many others, is also on the retiring products list.  Again the sentiment is done using Basic Phrases.

My final card was a bit of a fun one to do, I started off with a concept in my head but then it took on a life of it's own as I kept finding more retiring products to use on this card!  Firstly the Designer Label Punch is about to leave us, this one has always reminded me of trains - I am not sure if the shape of it reminds me of the front of a train or the station signs across London!!!  I have stamped the small flowers and punched them out with the 1" Circle Punch (not retiring), I used small metal eyelets (retiring) to attach them to the punch out shapes.  I wanted a band of colour along the bottom so used the 5/8" Certainly Celery Grosgrain ribbon (retiring) over a strip of Soft Suede.  Another retiring product is the Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware, now 40% off, and I have used this to frame the sentiment from the Great Friends set, which is another favourite of mine and also retiring.  To tie in the Certainly Celery I stamped over the sentiment with the large stamp in the Fresh Cuts retiring stamp set, this is easier to see if you enlarge the picture of the card. 

I hope you have enjoyed my creations as much as I did making them. From here visit Juliette Chapman's Blog - Jules Krafti Krafts - to see what she has created.  Don't forget to leave some comments as you pop around visiting the blogs, we all love to hear what you think of our creations.

Just in case there are any missing posts, or issues with links here is a list of all the participants.

1. Keryn Campbell – http://www.kerynscards.blogspot.com/

2. Michelle Martin – http://www.ministamper.com/

3. Richelle Fletcher – http://www.stampingwithrichelle.blogspot.com/

4. Sharlene Meyer – http://www.magpiecreates.com/

5. Karen Southwell – http://kareniescrafts.blogspot.com/

6. Carole Stedman – http://www.carolestamping.com/

7. Sherylee Tutt – http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/sherylee/blog

8. Monique Fielder – http://stamping-with-moni-q.blogspot.com/

9. Juliette Chapman – http://www.juleskraftikrafts.blogspot.com/

10. Rebecca Scurr – http://www.stampinwithrebecca.wordpress.com/

11. Yvonne Walker – http://www.yvonnescreativecorner.blogspot.com/

12. Karen Rogers – http://www.karenstampz.co.nz/

13. Dani Fender – http://www.danifender.blogspot.com/

14. Cathy Clark – http://www.cathyclark.com.au/

15. Tanya Bell – http://www.stampingt.com.au/

16. Kelly Nelson – http://www.kellysstampinspot.wordpress.com/

17. Sharlene Torres – http://www.stampwithsharlene.com/

18. Kari Hughes – http://www.karigail.wordpress.com/

19. Mel Sharp – http://www.astampaddiction.blogspot.com/

20. Christie Kunkel – http://www.christiescreativecorner.blogspot.com/

21. Debbie Lamb – http://debstampinstyle.blogspot.com/

22. Clare McIlhatton – http://www.crafty-cow.com/

23. Michelle Halling – http://michellehcreations.blogspot.com/

24. Nicole VanSteelandt Derendorf –

http://www.stampingdownunder.wordpress.com/

25. Elizabeth Dyson - http://www.libbystampz.blogspot.com/

26. Joanne Kechagias – http://www.joannekechagias.blogspot.com/

Happy Stamping

A Mashup and Mateship

The Friday Mashup this week is to do Black and White, and/or Square.  I wasn't really sure what I was going to do for this card, as I usually don't do black and white cards, but when I was tidying off my desk I found my Elegant Lines embossing folder and it all just came to me.  I also had in the back of my mind the Just Add Ink challenge this week, to celebrate ANZAC Day by adding Mateship or Friendship to the project. 

"ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. ANZAC Day is held on April 25 and is the anniversary of the first major military action by Australian and New Zealand forces in the 1915 Gallipoli campaign during WW1. Over 8,000 Australian soldiers died in the Gallipoli campaign, and even though the campaign was a failure, the ANZAC legend was formed. Australia was a young nation and the courage and character shown by Australians at Gallipoli was quickly recognised and honored back home.

 

The ANZAC spirit of mateship, courage and sacrifice is a very important aspect of our national identity. Many Australians who lost their lives in war weren't thinking they could save the world or defeat evil regimes.  As in the trenches of France, and the patrols in Vietnam, or on the Kokoda Track, Australians were looking after their mates alongside them.  Many Australian veterans march on ANZAC Day in memory of their mates left behind, and the ones that have passed on before them." - Peter Barnes

A few years ago I had the honor of marching with my mum and my daughter in memory of my grandfather who fought with the group of soldiers known as the Rats of Tobruk, ANZAC Day has taken on extra special meaning since then.

I wanted to give the embossed black cardstock a bit of a lift so spritzed with Champagne Shimmer Mist, and then added the butterflies and the pearls.  The sentiment was easy on this one, and comes from the Great Friend stamp set (one of my first ever Stampin' Up! sets). 

Happy Stamping

1 More Sleep ...

Well down to the wire now, this will be my last post before the Idea Book & Catalogue 2010-11 goes "live" tomorrow.  As soon as I am able I will change the links on the side of the blog to take you to the new catalogue for you to all have a browse through. 

As well as the New IB&C tomorrow is the start of the ESAD Blog Hop - a group of 25 demonstrators have been working hard on a variety of projects all from the new IB&C, and tomorrow all of us will be posting these up on our blogs and websites and they will be linked so that when you finish looking at one, you click on the link to the next blog to visit.  Eventually you will "hop" around all 25 of the blogs and get to see a range of projects using all types of techniques, sets, and layouts.  So get yourself a cuppa and sit back and enjoy. 

But that's tomorrow ... today you have a look at the last of my sneak peek leading up to catalogue launch projects.

This one is done using the level 3 hostess set "Playful Pieces", its a great set as it has 30 individual stamps in it, many of these are fairly small images but when put together you can use them to creat any number of things. For this one I have used Soft Suede for the base of the card and Tangerine Tango for the ink and matting for my butterflies, the DSP comes from the Greenhouse Gala DSP and shows the new colour Daffodil Delight.  The butterflies are stamped using 3 of the Playful Pieces, the upper wing, lower wing and body, the small flowers in the bottom left of the card are also from the set, and the sentiment comes from Great Friends stamp set.