ESAD Blog Hop - Holiday Packaging

Well it's time for another ESAD Blog Hop to celebrate the start of the new Seasonal Catalogue in Australia and New Zealand.  Whether you have come from visiting Keryn's blog Keryn's Cards, or are starting here, just follow the link at the bottom of each post to hop around the wonderful creations with some of these new products.

I thought I would show you two of the new Gift Boxes available in the new catalogue, these are similar to the boxes available in the main catalogue but come in different sizes, and this first one, Decorative Window Gift Box (p36) comes with a built in window!  I have used DSP from the Winter Frost DSP Stack and the smallest snowflake from Festive Flurry stamp set.  These are so pretty and come with a matching set of Framelits, so no need for fussy cutting!!! In the centre of the snowflake is one of the most beautiful embellishments so far Frosted Finishes Embellishments.  I have added some seam binding and a couple of tags punched from That's the Ticket.

My second project is made using one of the Extra-Large Gift Boxes (p37), all of the boxes come flat and ready to assemble, which makes adjusting their size really easy.  For this project I cut the box into two separate pieces,  by doing this you get two boxes for the price of one! I have used the smaller box to make a gift set of Christmas cards and tags. By cutting the box 1" from the bottom and making a clear lid from Window Sheet I was able to fit in a set of 6 cards and about 14 tags.  The belly band is made using Winter Frost Specialty DSP with some added bling, and an embellishment using the Festive Flurry stamp and die.

This is the first card in the set, made using the sunburst technique to show off the pretty papers in the Winter Frost DSP stack. The embossing is from Northern Flurry embossing folder and the sentiment from Greetings of the Season which is part of the Autumn Winter Carryover List, check out some of the favourites from last Holiday Catalogue that are still available. 

 This next card is similar to one I made a few weeks ago, however this time I have kept with the monochromatic theme of the gift box, and also used the ornament from the new Very Merry Tags stamp set.  This is a great set with stamps that match a number of our punches (again no fussy cutting)!  I stamped two of the ornaments from two of the snowflakes from Festive Flurry, adding a little rhinestone to the centre of each.

 My final card in the set again uses Festive Flurry stamp and framelits combo, and this time paired with one of the pretty DSP sheets from the paper stack. These paper stacks are a great way to get card-sized sheets of DSP at a really economical price, you don't get as many patterns as in a pack of 12x12 DSP but the quality is just the same and you do get four different patterns so still have lots of options.  Again on this card I have used a Frosted Finishes Embellishment and a strip of silver glimmer paper.

Finally in the box are two sections that hold these cute little gift tags.  The tags are made with the Chalk Talk Framelits trimmed down on one end, punched through and some Baker's Twine added. Remember how I said Very Merry Tags matched a number of our punches?  Well these are just two of the stamps in the set, both of these are stamped in VersaMark then embossed with white (left) and silver (right) embossing powders.  In the Very Merry Tags there is also a cute "To:   From:" stamp that has been stamped on the inside of the tags.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my projects, I certainly enjoyed making them!  Time now to hop over to visit Amity's blog Stampinamity to see what she has created using some of the scrapbooking products available in the catalogue.

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 love what we do & love to share with our customers, friends, and wonderful blog visitors. We also share what we love in our ESAD Demonstrator community, through swaps, challenges, sharing knowledge, ideas & friendship, and we're always there to help and support each other.

So if you are a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand, then please feel free to leave me a comment with your email address and I'll contact you with information on how to join our wonderful group.

Happy Stamping

2013 Catalogue Launch

Don't you just love sharing new things with friends?  I had a great afternoon last weekend sharing the new Annual Catalogue with a group of friends.  

Part of the fun is the preparation and this year I had the help of my wonderful daughter who prepared a delishious afternoon tea.  She made salted caramel macarons and mini cupcakes.  You might notice on the top of each cupcake is a cute little flower - I made these out of white icing and the new Simply Pressed Mold.  I even tried to colour them to match some of the new In-Colours - they looked so cute.

I wanted to share a cute make n take with the ladies, and prepared this one as a sample.  Unfortunately we go so carried away with the amazing new products we didn't get to make them on the day!!!!  I was able to send the ladies home with a kit each so that they could make them up at home.  This card was inspired heavily from one Marelle Taylor had up on her blog ThinkSpot, I changed the colours a little and added some extra bling and DSP.  I loved the card because it shows of not only the beautiful Mosaic Madness stamp and matching punch, as well as Label Love set and punch.  

I hope you have your hands on our new catalogue, there are some truly great products in there, all of which are available to purchase through my online shop.  

Happy Stamping

ESAD Annual Catalogue Blog Hop

As usual with the release of a new catalogue comes an ESAD Blog Hop, 25 talented demonstrators sharing their creations with some of the exciting new products in the Annual Catalogue released today.  Whether you are starting from my blog, or have come from Chloe's blog Chlo's Craft Closet, all you need to do is follow the links at the bottom of each post to jump to the next blog.  So sit back and enjoy.

For my part I wanted to showcase Happy Day.  This is a cute set and I just knew that I could use it for a variety of card styles, so took the challenge and have created three quite different cards for you.

The first one is one that uses another couple of sets, Gorgeous Grunge and Tape It.  Washi Tape is so popular right now, and Stampin' Up! have made a stamp set of strips of washi tape.  The great thing about these is you can colour them to match perfectly with any project without having to own rolls and rolls of tape!!!  I wanted this card to have a bit of a grungy feel to it and have shadow stamped then fussy cut the sentiment before adding to the card.

My second creation is one CASEd off a card I saw on Pinterest (I will add a link when I find it again), I have kept the design very similar. The DSP used is from Modern Medley, and I added some extra colour by sponging Strawberry Slush (new In-Colour) on the fold backs of the DSP feature, and paired this with one of the Baroque Detail embellishments in the same colour.  The sentiment banner is made using the Mosaic Punch, threading the cardstock through the punch at one end before layering and repeating the process.   The pearls are simply coloured with a black permanent marker to match.

Finally I wanted to use the beautiful swirl patterned stamp, and noticed that it fits beautifully with the Labels Collection Framelits.  I used the emboss resist technique to add both Pool Party and Island Indigo to the framelits, and the Rock n Roll technique to colour the medallion.  The DSP on this card is from Quatrefancy Specialty DSP.

I hope you have enjoyed visiting, if you don't already have a demonstrator and would like to learn more about Stampin' Up! please don't hesitate to contact me.  Now it is time to hop on over to Christie's Creative Corner and see what the talented Christie has made to inspire us all.

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 love what we do & love to share with our customers, friends, and wonderful blog visitors. We also share what we love in our ESAD Demonstrator community, through swaps, challenges, sharing knowledge, ideas & friendship, and we're always there to help and support each other.

So if you are a Stampin' Up! demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand, then please feel free comment on one of the posts and ask for an invitation.

Happy Stamping

Mosaic Blues

I have been having fun recently playing with the products I recieved in the pre-order for the new Annual Catalogue to be released on 2nd July - that is just a week away.  That means only 1 more week to purchase items on the retirement list before they are gone for ever, visit my store now to pick up some last minute bargains.

I kept this card in monotones using Coastal Cabana and Bermuda Bay, I just love these two together. My daughter looked at this card and she said it reminded her of snowflakes.  I used the new embossing folder to match the Mosaic Madness stamps, but put it through the Big Shot with no tabs so that the impression was more subtle.  

No time to write more ... I am off to do some more creating!!!

Happy Stamping

Sympathy

Isn't it hard to make a sympathy card?  I always say I am going to have a few on hand for when they are needed, but never seem to make them.  This week one of the ladies I work with lost her mother to cancer, so I wanted to make a card for the team to send to her.  

I took a lot of inspiration from Lee Conry, you can see her original card here.  I added the sentiment from Loving Thoughts by stamping it on Vellum and cutting the ends with the new Mosaic Punch.  To do this thread the strip of vellum or card stock back through the bottom of the punch and line it up with the section you want.  I repeated this process with Basic Black to create the layer.

With the card being square I felt the top right hand needed 'something' so I stamped the small butterfly onto the card and again onto Vellum which I punched out and adhered so the wings would lift slightly.

On the inside I added a folded card to allow for more people to be able to sign the card.  I stamped the same image from the Serene Silhouettes onto the corner to tie it all together.

Addit: Still addINKtive have a "spot that stamp set" challenge with the Serene Silhouettes stamp set, pop over and see the other lovely creations with this set.

Happy Stamping

Annual Catalogue Sneak Peek

Don’t you just love new things?  I know I do.  Today my big brown box from Stampin’ Up!® arrived, yes on a Saturday!!!  I am especially excited because it was full of products from the new Annual Catalogue that goes live in the South Pacific Region on 2^nd July. 

I have used two of the new stamp sets on this card, the first one is Mosaic Madness and the second is Label Love.  As well has having some really cute images Mosaic Madness has a matching embossing folder and DSP, and both sets have a coordinating punch.  How cool is that – no fussy cutting!!! 

I have also used the brand new In-Colour Strawberry Slush (doesn’t that just sound yummy?), you can see it on the DSP and the striped mosaic.  

Happy Stamping