Merry Mojo

Just a short post tonight as I can't wait to get back to actually creating with my new items from the Holiday catalogue that is to be released on Saturday.  This card I have made to enter in the Mojo Monday challenge this week.

I kept it fairly simple, wanting the cute little gingerbread man to be the focal point.  I was pondering how to add a sentiment and decided it would be cute to make him a little flag to hold.

I used the Tiny Tags for the sentiment, needing something fairly small to fit into the flag that I cut with the Bitty Banners Framelits dies.  This is the smallest of the banners and so cute, I cut off one end and adhered to a tooth pick that I coloured with Early Espresso and chopped down to size.  A few rhinestones and a spray of shimmer mist adds a little bling.

Happy Stamping

Just a Quick One

Just a quick post tonight before I head off to bed.  I wanted to make a card tonight, something I don't often do mid-week as I am generally too tired, but wanted to distract myself by getting outside my comfort zone just a little bit.  What better way to do that than combine three challenges - sketch (Freshly Made Sketches), colour (Colour Throwdown) and theme (Stampin Royalty - use buttons).

I had a rough idea in my mind when I saw the sketch that I wanted to use the Bright Blossoms stamp set and the oval frame, but needed some colours.  I liked the brightness of the colours in the Colour Throwdown and knew I had ribbon, bakers twine and buttons to match.  For the bow I wrapped the first piece around the DSP and adhered on the back, I then cut the smaller piece and lay it over the top, securing in place with the twine ad button.  I did sneak a little glue dot behind it all to hold it in place before adding the tiny tags underneath..

Happy Stamping

Freshly Made Blossoms

Having some fun with my new toys!  This time I am using some DSP that I received at Convention, and the matching Bright Blossoms stamp set that is available in our current Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue.  I wasn't initially going to get this stamp set, but have slowly been falling in love with it seeing the beautiful creations made with it by other crafters, then with the new DSP in my hot little had I knew I just had to order it!

I am entering this card in two challenges, Freshly Made Sketches and Colour Q Challenge.  The thing I like about Bright Blossoms is that it is challenging me to use a brighter palette of colours, and the Colour Q Challenge is just the start!

I kept to the challenge but decided against using ribbon, instead I used my Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch, but didn't punch right the way to the edge. This let me slip the polka dot piece of DSP underneath. Instead of a bow I used a 3/4" circle punched out of Lucky Limeade with an In-Colour brad through the centre.  As a first attempt I was pretty happy with the finished product but had a feeling that it needed a little something else, so I decided to sleep on it.

After a good night's sleep I woke with a couple of ideas, firstly I carefully removed the top layer of the card and stamped one of the images from the Bright Blossoms stamp set over the base card with Lucky Limeade ink.  I re-adhered the DSP layers back onto the card, and then added a couple of little tags from the Tiny Tags stamp set and matching Jewellery Tag Punch.  Isn't it funny how a couple of little additions can give a project a lift!

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 

Paper Lovin' Gals

Knowing how I love my challenge blogs, imagine my excitement when I found out that there was a new one about to start up!  I found the link on my lovely friend Kasey's blog and was even more excited when I found out they are still looking for a few more Design Team members!  The challenge was to create a project taking inspiration from this picture ...

I quite like these types of challenges, they allow for lots of variation, you can take the colours, the layout, the theme, or anything really that inspires you.

I was inspired by the colours and by the lovely bright pink flowers.  I just knew I wanted to use my new Triple Layer Flower Punch for this one, and what better than yellow and orange brads to give them cute little centre.  I mixed it up a bit and used the blue of the jug as the inspiration for my Baja Blue background card and dsp, and the orange from the wall for my vase.  I made the vase out of the Ornament Punch with the bottom cut off and stamped with a small flourish from Tiny Tags stamp set.  Then it was simply layering the flowers in Rose Red and Melon Mambo.

I hope you like my creation, and entry into the design team, and are inspired to join in with this new challenge blog.  Pop over to Paper Lovin' Gals (don't you just love the name) and join in, or at the very least see what everyone else has created with this lively picture as inspiration.

Happy Stamping

ESAD Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue Blog Hop

Welcome to another Blog Hop organised by the lovely ladies at ESAD (Extra Special Australiasian Demonstrators).  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 have arrived here from Sharlene's blog Stamp With Sharlene, or you might just be starting here, it doesn't matter because the Blog Hop is a big loop, each blog will have a link to the next one, and you just hop around and enjoy our creatins.  The theme of this Blog Hop is the Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue, what a great edition this one is,  there truly is something for everyone Chocolate, Sewing, Nature, Birthday, and Masculine. Some great new punches to go with two of the new stamp sets, and of course what would a mini be without some new dies for the Big Shot.  In addition there are some new accessories, and today I am going to share with you some creations I have made using one of them, the Beveled Windowpanes.  These little beauties come in three sizes  2.5cm x 2.5cm, 2.5cmx 3.2cm, 3.8cmx5cm  (or for the imperial thinkers 1" x 1", 1" x 1¼", 2" x 1½"). 

This is my first project and shows one way to use the beautiful ribbon Stampin' Up! has to anchor the 2" x 1½" Beveled Windowpane to the card.  In this one I have used the ⅝" Old Olive Satin Ribbon which fits perfectly in the holes on the side.  Because this is the biggest and heaviest of the windowpanes, I have adhered the window pane to the image using Crystal Effects, ensuring a thin even layer without bubbles.  The flower highlighted in this card is from the Thanks for Caring stamp set, this set is a sympathy set, but as you can see here the images are quite versatile.

My second card is to show a different way of using ribbon with the 1" x 1" Beveled Windowpane, inspired by the great tutorial video I found on YouTube by FranceStamp.  This is such an easy way to use the windowpanes, and for this card I have used the 1"x1" window which fits perfectly with the Cute By The Inch hostess stamp set.  I was looking for a sentiment for this card and used the word block that comes with the Strength and Hope set, highlighting one word in a different ink and then using a masking technique highlighted it further with some sponging.

The next project was actually the first one I made for this blog hop.  I was inspired by some of the beautiful jewelry pieces Stampin' Up! have in their United States catalogue.  Not to be left out I decided that the 1" x 1¼" Beveled Windowpanes could be used to make a feature on a necklace - what do you think?  The necklace was a bit of a find in Kmart, I had been planning on making one from scratch (my other hobby), but when I found this one I was wrapped as it was just the sort of thing I had in mind.  The picture of the necklace isn't as good as I would have liked, I have had problems with lighting here today (no sunshine), I will try and post a better pick when I have some better pictures.

I used the Tiny Tags stamp set to decorate some Very Vanilla card stock before wrapping some Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon through the holes and adhering to the back using Crystal Effects.  To cover this up and provide some extra strength I added another layer of cardstock and then covered the entire back with Crystal Effects. 

My final project for this Blog Hop is another 3D item.  On 12th May the Stampin' Up! Convention starts in Melbourne, a great event for demonstrators and their guests, and I am getting so excited as I do the count down.  One of the great things is that the demonstrators who are part of ESAD are getting together for dinner on the Wednesday night, for many the first opportunity we have of meeting the ladies we blog and online chat with.   How does this relate to the Beveled Windowpane?  Well I decided to use the FranceStamp technique with the biggest windowpane and make myself a name tag for the event. I know I will be wearing my red jacket, so wanted something red and a bit vintage looking.  I found by threading a piece of the 1/8" Basic Black Taffeta Ribbon through with the 1-1/4" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon it gave it just the lift it needed.  I used a piece of Newsprint DSP stamped with one of the Tiny Tags stamps.  I printed out my name on Very Vanilla card stock and cut that out with the Word Window punch.  I have attached a basic clip to the back of the card (stitched onto the ribbon).  

I hope you have enjoyed my creations.  Please Hop on over to Lisa's Blog The Daffy Scrapper.  Don't forget to leave some comments as you go, we love getting feedback on our projects.

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Should you get lost the full list of the blogs is

Sharlene Torres - http://www.stampwithsharlene.com  

Monique Fielder - http://stamping-with-moni-q.blogspot.com/  you are here

Lisa Bullock - http://www.daffyscrapper.wordpress.com

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

Yvonne Walker - http://www.yvonnescreativecorner.blogspot.com 

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

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

Clare Mcilhatton - http://www.crafty-cow.com

Leonie Schroder - http://www.stamp-a-latte.com/

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

Richelle Fletcher - http://www.stampingwithrichelle.blogspot.com

Kayleigh Dowdeswell - http://www.theinkblot.weebly.com

Juliette Chapman - http://www.juleskraftikrafts.blogspot.com

Teresa Leggo - http://www.teresascreativecards.blogspot.com/

Pauline Bennetts - http://www.paulinebennetts.com/stamepde

Sonia Garbutt - http://www.stampinwithsonia.blogspot.com/

Happy Stamping