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. 

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 Blog Hop - Big Shot

I hope you’re ready for the ESAD Big Shot 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 may have hopped over here from Jacinta's blog Jacinta's Creations, or you may be starting here, with a Blog Hop it doesn't really matter, just follow the link at the bottom of each post and it will take you to the next blog along, and eventually bring you back to the one you started at.

Now onto my creations for this hop.  I have loved my Big Shot ever since I bought it earlier this year, and now Stampin' Up! have so many new dies and embossing folders in the new Idea Book & Catalogue (p150- 155), over 40 in fact.  One of my biggest problems was that I want them all, and where to start???

Firstly I chose the Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder, and with some experimentation with my circle punch and a comment from my darling daughter (also affectionately known as my Blingologist!) "mum those look like snowflakes" I was inspired to create this card.

I embossed Whisper White card stock through the folder, and then sponged some Baja Breeze over the raised portions.  I punched out the "snowflakes" and adhered to a Baja Breeze card stock base card.  Then used the sentiment from Occasional Quotes stamped onto Vellum using Versamark and embossed with white. I finished off by using silver brads in the four corners of the card.  I think the use of the Vellum really matches the sentiment.

My second creation utilises one of the 7 available Embosslits dies in the Idea Book & Catalogue, these dies not only cut out the image but also emboss them at the same time.  All 7 in the IB&C are exclusive to Stampin' Up! which means you won't see them in craft stores, so if you are interested contact me or your own Stampin' Up! demonstrator.  I have been dying to get my hands on the Beautiful Wings Embosslit Die having seen it used so effectively in cards on US websites, the die cuts and embosses a total of 5 butterflies every time.

I paired the little butterflies with one of my favourite new stamp sets Just Believe, masking and sponging the background colours.  This card features some of the new In-Colours - base colour is Pear Pizzaz with a Concord Crush mat layer, then the butterflies are from a mix of Poppy Parade, Concord Crush and Peach Parfait.  I love the richness of these new colours and the way they go together so well.    

I hope you have enjoyed my creations, and come back and visit again soon.  Now it's onto visit the lovely creations that Jan McAnulty has created over at her blog Card Capers with Jan.

Don't forget that we all love to receive comments about our work and this time around your comments could earn you some blog candy!!! To qualify ....

* Blog Candy is only open to customers (ie. demonstrators do not qualify)

* To qualify you must visit every blog and leave a comment on each one

* Once you have commented on each blog you need to email Leonie at leonie@stamp-a-latte.com and advise her that you have done so.

* Its as easy as that!!!  Good luck.

The following is the list of all the blogs on the hop, just in case a link isn't working...

Nikki Sadler - http://www.inkyart.com.au

Angela Purdie - www.kintakards.webs.com

Richelle Fletcher - http://stampinwithrichelle.blogspot.com

Shirley McAvoy - http://stampingelephants.wordpress.com/

Carole Stedman - www.carolestamping.com

Carol-Ann Torrie - http://queen-of-scraps.blogspot.com

Sherylee Tutt - www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/sherylee/blog

Clare Mcilhatton - www.crafty-cow.com

Andrea Buckland - http://creatingcardswithandrea.blogspot.com/

Susan Joyce - http://www.catsinkcorporated.blogspot.com/

Ann Gerlach - www.discover-ink.blogspot.com

Dani Fender - http://danifender.blogspot.com

Bron Heslop - www.bronheslop.wordpress.com

Charmaine Black - http://www.l-ink-edtopaper.blogspot.com/

Pauline Bennetts - http://stampinovation.blogspot.com

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

Vicki Were - http://www.stampinvickistyle.blogspot.com/

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

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

Jane Norrish - Http://www.janenorrish.com

Jacinta Argent - http://jacintascreations.blogspot.com

Monique Fielder - http://stamping-with-moni-q.blogspot.com/   -    YOU ARE HERE

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

ESAD New Catalogue Blog Hop

I hope you’re ready for the ESAD New Catalogue Blog Hop! This may be your first blog or you may have come from browsing the creations over at Rhonda's blog, th....INK BIG with Rhonda.  The great thing with a blog hop it's like a big circle so no matter where you start just follow the links to the next one and you will hop your way right around all of the participating blogs. One of the things we all love are comments so please let us know what you think of our creations as you hop around. Comments are particularly important on this blog hop as there is some Blog Candy up for grabs - just comment on each of the pages in the blog hop and then email Leonie at leonie@stamp-a-latte.com, winners will be drawn on Tuesday 7th September.  Entry is open to all customers, sorry but demonstrators don't qualify.  Good luck and enjoy the hopping.

Now onto the creations I have to share with you.  I have chosen to do a variation on the mini magazine holder that I have seen on a number of blogs. My variation is to make a group of holders to help categorise my cards. 

The idea to do this came to me when I saw the Cute by the Inch level 2 hostess set.  I thought what great category tags they would make, and chose 4 for my mini magazine holders.  The patterned one is for miscellaneous cards.

I have used Certainly Celery and Pumpkin Pie card stock as they both seemed to go really well with the new DSP. I love the Daffodil Delight in this DSP and can't wait to get my hands on this and the other new colours. 

Now when you have such a lovely way to organise your cards, there is no excuse not to create a few to fill it.  That way when you have an unexpected birthday, thank you or just want to send off an "I'm thinking of you" card you will have some on hand ready to go.

Firstly my two "Thank You" cards, I have taken individual pictures of these. This first one is using the Greenhouse Gala DSP and the Perfect Punches for the sentiment.  This was then embellished with some Whisper White Ribbon and pearls.  I am loving how the Baja Breeze goes so beautifully with Whisper White for a clean elegant look.

This second card in my Thank You selection is using a base of Chocolate Chip with some textured Wild Wasabi card stock, the envelope is cut out of Greenhouse Gala DSP using the Scallop Envelope Die for the Big Shot.  The little thank you note is made out of Chocolate Chip and the sentiment is from the Occasional Quotes and embossed with gold.

These two cards from my Miscellaneous set are both with Artistic Etchings.  I was initially not a fan of this stamp set, having only seen the images stamped in black on a white page (part of the sneak peek we got as demonstrators).  I am lucky enough to have a great friend Cathy who has let me have a play with her set, and I am starting to fall in love with Paris!  Both of these cards use the new Newsprint DSP and team it with Real Red and Very Vanilla card stock. 

These are my two "Friends" cards, both using butterflies, though from different sets.  The card on the right uses Baja Breeze and Chocolate Chip with the Great Friends stamp set; the one on the right uses So Saffron and Pumpkin Pie with the Butterfly Prints and Flight of the Butterfly stamp sets. The butterflies in both Butterfly Prints and Flight of the Butterfly go with the Butterfly Punch. Both of these cards use DSP from the Greenhouse Gala set, I always find it interesting how different colours can give similar prints such a different look.

Finally my birthday cards, and better set than Party This Way? For both I have used Tempting Turquoise and Night of Navy.  The one on the the right I used Very Vanilla which gives a brighter effect to the use of Whisper White on the left. I have kept these fairly simple using a tag from the Lots of Tags Big Shot die on one and the Word Window Punch on the other. 

I hope you have enjoyed my creations for the ESAD New Catalogue 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.

Please head on over to see the lovely creations that Andrea has prepared for you, you can find them at Creating Cards With Andrea.

Here is a complete list of the blogs to visit:

Leonie Schroder

Keryn Campbell

Vicki Were

Aly Adcock 

Juliette Chapman

Kristine Thompson

Jo Weedon

Jan McAnulty 

Karen Southwell

Kim Conway

Jane Norrish 

Pauline Bennetts

Gemma Coumbe

Genelle Little

Sharlene Meyer

Susan Joyce

Rhonda Statham 

Monique Fielder --- YOU ARE HERE 

Andrea Buckland

Bev Watt

Lisa Ryder

Claire Mcilhatton

Mae Collins

Charmaine Black

Lynn Powell

2 More Sleeps ...

Only two more sleeps until the new Idea Book & Catalogue go live!  And only 2 more days to order items from the Last Chance List and from the Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue, contact me 0438260104 if you are interested in placing an order.

Its also only 2 more sleeps until the ESAD New Catalogue Blog Hop, so don't forget to pop back and visit anytime from 10am EST on Wednesday 1st September.

Now for today's card, I have seen a lot of cards using the Artistic Etchings stamp set and a lot of them (even mine) use Red, Black and Very Vanilla.  Well I wanted to try something a little different for this one, and I am happy with the results.

This is the first time I have tried an Emboss Resist - stamping the two images from Artistic Etchings onto Very Vanilla card stock, embossing with white embossing powder and then using sponges to colour over the top of them.  I paired this with a sheet of the Baja Breeze paper from the Greenhouse Gala Designer Series Paper.  I then cut a matching flower from the same patterned DSP in the Daffodil Delight colour and mounted on an Old Olive Oval. The sentiment comes from the Occasional Quotes level 3 hostess set.

Hope you are enjoying the daily updates and sneak peeks at what is to come in the new Idea Book & Catalogue, I am very excited about all the wonderful new products that are coming, and my chance to share them with you all.

CASE from 2010-11 Idea Book & Catalogue Part 2

Here is the second card I CASE'd from the new IB&C. It is a copy from yesterday's card but I wanted to show how the same layout can look quite different with a different bolder colour scheme.  Rich Razzleberry, Soft Suede and Melon Mambo for this one. 

I like this layout, its nice and simple and really good if you have bright colours but don't want them to overwhelm the card.  It's one of those cards that is very versatile depending on the sentiment used.  Imagine in blues and browns with the bolts from Lots of Bots, or in shades of pink with the Pony Party stamps. 

For the 1/2" circles on this one I used the Fast Flowers Wheel, again using Versamark on the three colours.

CASE from 2010-11 Idea Book & Catalogue Part 1

I decided to do a few cards that are CASE'd from the new IB&C to be released on 1st September.  CASE stands for Copy And Share Everything, so basically I looked through the new catalogue and found some cards that I liked the look of so have replicated them.

First one comes from Page 74 of the new catalogue and while I have kept to the layout and colour scheme for this one, I have changed both the stamps and sentiment.  The sentiment comes from the level 2 hostess set Occasional Quotes.

As you can see in this one I used the tiny little butterfly from the Oval All stamp set, previously available in one of the Mini Catalogues and now returning in the new catalogue.  I stamped it in Versamark on Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron and Riding Hood Red, then punched out with 1/2" circle punch.

Check back tomorrow for another card based on this layout but with a change in colours.

Sneak Peek

The exciting thing about being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator is that we get to have a sneak peek at the new Idea Book and Catalogue a month before it "goes live" as they say. As well as a peek in the IB&C we get a small range of stamps, DSP and other bits and pieces to purchase from starting 1st August. Well mine arrived on Thursday afternoon, and yesterday I had some fun with them, and would love to share what I created ....

This one was done with the big cupcake coming from the Party Hearty stamp set that is carrying on into the next IB&C, the little cupcakes came from "Cute By The Inch" a level 2 hostess set available from 1st Sept, and the sentiment is from Occasional Quotes level 3 hostess set.

Cute By The Inch is especially designed to fit inside a new punch that is to be released in the new IB&C. Unfortunately we didn't get to pre-order that but I was really happy with how versatile the stamp set was even without having the punch.

Colours: Melon Mambo, Chocolate Chip