Butterfly Frames

Another week has passed so it's time for another Paper Lovin' Gals challenge, the design team have come up with some great creations to provide additional inspiration so please consider joining in with us.  All you need to do is to make a project taking some inspiration from the picture, for me it was the colour and the frames, and of course the butterfly.

Surprise, surprise, surprise ... I used the Fresh Vintage stamp set again!!!  This time however I chose to down play the floral image, and used the stamp image which I haven't used before.  Instead of cutting it out directly with the postage stamp punch I cut free hand and then mounted on a black postage stamp frame.  I kept to the main colours in the photo and used Naturals Ivory for the base, and then Very Vanilla, Cajun Craze and Basic Black.  The red colouring on the butterflies is actually Cajun Craze coloured with a blender pen, it brought out more of the red tones!

'Til Next Time ... Happy Stamping

Colours of Christmas

Don't you find that at this time of year time goes so fast!  It went so fast for me that I completely missed last week's challenge at Paper Lovin' Gals! This week there is a great inspirational photo to inspire creativity, a bit different to what you might see in an Aussie Christmas, although we have had some unseasonably cold weather lately.

I love inspirational photos because there is no limitations, whatever the photo inspires you to create is just fine, whether it is colours, layout, theme, or one element of the picture. Let this picture inspire you and join us in this week's challenge. I love the colours in this picture and it made me want to use my favourite Christmas colours, which just happens to be the challenge theme for Stampin Up Only Challenges. 

From the picture I was also quite taken with the windows, and wanted to recreate them in some way on my card.  I used the Lace Ribbon Border Punch to make the frame, I have seen this done with smaller border punches and just wanted to give it a go with this one.  You need to start with a 5" square piece of card stock and punch once in the middle of each side.  In the corners I have used the Postage Stamp Punch in Cherry Cobbler and then the 1" Square Punch in the centre of each.  Can you pick what I punched out?   It is the ornament punch in the Tags 'Til Christmas stamp set, isn't it cute? I also used this set to stamp the feature in the centre of the card, and backed this with a stamped doily from Delicate Doilies. I finished off with some Rhinestones to add a bit of bling.

Happy Stamping

ESAD Summer Mini Blog Hop

Today marks the release of the new Summer Mini Catalogue and my fellow demonstrators at ESAD have created some amazing items with some of the new products. 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 feel free to click here to join our wonderful group

You might have arrived here from Libby's blog LibbyStampz, or you may be starting here, either is fine, just follow the link at the bottom of each post to hop to the next blog.  There are 25 in all so grab a cuppa, sit back and enjoy the creativity.

I was so excited at Regional Training this year because I won a door prize which was the Pretty Postage stamp set, so I chose that to feature in my post for this hop.  In this card I paired it with the raspberry stamp from the Clearly For You stamp set, don't they go so well together?  I used another couple of the new products - the 1" Square Punch, and the Postage Stamp Punch, again they go really well together.  I have also used the Bevelled Window Pane as a feature with Crumb Cake Seam Binding.

Here is another stamp from the Pretty Postage set, I like the concept of having a friend 24-7, someone you can count on to be there for you no matter what, so I paired the 24-7 stamp with the friends from the Tiny Tags set and matching punch.  I think sometimes these special people in our lives deserve a reminder and I think this little gift box is just the thing.  I have also used the amazing Spice Cake DSP to create a feature strip on the box. 

My final project also uses the Spice Cake DSP, it matches the Triple Flower Stamp, for this I wanted to use the sheet that is covered with these beautiful little flowers, because I wanted to make a set of little cards.  I have made a set like this before, and again the idea came from our Regional Training day, I made the card holder using the two tag die.  These little sets are so quick and easy to make and are the perfect thing to either have on your desk to attach to a gift, or to give as a gift to someone special.  

That is it from me, please keep hopping to see the great projects that Joanne Kechagias has to show you on her blog Joanne's Stamping Creations. Don't forget to leave some comments as you hop around, a bit of blog love is always appreciated.

If you don't have a current Stampin' Up! Demonstrator and would like a copy of the new Summer Mini please send me an email.  I have added a link to an electronic version up on the left side bar if you want to  have a look through all the products.

Happy Stamping