Kelly's Stamping Friends Happy Blog Hop

I am so blessed to call the lovely Kelly Kent one of my Stampin' friends, she is such a lovely, generous person and I was so happy that she asked me to be part of her anniversary Blog Hop.  You see this month marks her 5th Anniversary as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, something that makes us all happy. So "happy" was the criteria set for the hop. 

I chose the beautiful Happy Birthday Gorgeous bundle which really does live up to it's name and is gorgeous.  I have used the Happy from the Framelit, and the Birthday from one of the happy birthday sentiments.  The flowers and leaves in the background are also from this set and I have stamped using Fresh Fig, Sweet Sugarplum and Tranquil Tide. Stamping again onto coloured cardstock and fussy cutting out the flowers and leaves to decorate the centre piece. 

One of the things I love about photo-polymer stamps is the ability to cut them up!  You can see in this picture how I have cut very carefully between the two parts of the sentiment to make it easy to use them separately. By leaving them with the weird sort of shape (not trimming them neatly) it is really easy to position them back together on a clear block and use as intended.  

  

Time to hop along to see what Narelle has created with our happy theme.

List of Participants:

1. Kelly Kent
2. Angela Meiritz-Reid
3. Monique Fielder  --- You are here
4. Narelle Farrugia
5. Wendy Hodkinson
6. Deborah Harris
7. Nicole Wilson
8. Josie Dean
9. Elizabeth Gross
10. Rachel Palmieri
11. Cheryl Algie
12. Kristel Rimmer
13. Kathryn Mangelsdorf
14. Mandy Depiazzi
15. Fi Cobbin
16. Nicole Goding
17. Holly Stene
18. Claudia Ausborn
19. Julia Quinn
20. Jan McQueen
21. Sara Levin
22. Carolina Evans
23. Tamra Davis
24. Narelle Simm
25. Jenny Hall

Happy Stamping
Monique

ESAD Sneak Peek Blog Hop

Welcome to another ESAD Blog Hop, this time we are taking a quick sneak peek at the new Annual Catalogue which goes live on 1 June.  

These are not my usual style of cards, but I really like them and they are such a cute way of showing off the beautiful new In-Colours. I am using the Happy Birthday Gorgeous Bundle which has an amazing 32 stamps including sentiments, flowers, banner, and of course cute little balloons which I have used in both cards. Having made one card with these great colours and bundle, I couldn't help myself making a second! Which is your favourite?

Here is my first card, if you look closely you can see that I have used Shimmery White cardstock and sponged the new colours to make a rainbow background. I love how easy the Shimmery White makes sponging a background with it's slightly coated finish.  It also gives such a lovely shimmer which still shows through the sponged colours.  I was just going to use Lemon Lime Twist for the sentiment but it needed something to make it pop, easy fix ... adding a second sentiment in black to give it a shadow. The cute little balloons are from Happy Birthday Gorgeous stamp set, which coordinates with the Balloon Bouquet Punch.

For my second card I added a banner stamped with one of the happy birthday sentiments from the stamp set.  One of the things I love about photopolymer stamps is how easy they are to cut up!  That's right I cut the stamps up as I find this gives me more versatility, in this case I carefully cut between the Happy and the Birthday and can now use the stamps together as intended or separately as I have on this card.  In much the same way I have cut the framelit cut out to just have the "birthday" on the card, but this time cut it from Dazzling Diamond Glimmer paper which I then coloured with Lemon Lime Twist ink.

  

I hope you like my projects, it is now time to hop on over and see what my good friend Cathy has created to inspire you.

Blog Hop Participants:

1. Nicole Wilson

2. Lou Kitzelman

3. Kelly Kent

4. Libby Dyson

5. Rachael Lewsley

6. Josie Dean

7. Megan Lenske

8. Cheryl Algie

9. Leonie Schroder

10. Kristel Rimmer

11. Jenny Hayward

12. Carly Middleton

13. Rosalie Desmond

14. Tanya Bell

15. Renee Lynch

16. Violette De La Croix  

17. Sharon Dalton  

18. Kim Oliver

19. Peta Stephen

20. Sandra Mastello

21. Courtenay Heuston

22. Monique Fielder  --- You are here 

23. Cathy Pinchbeck

24. Richelle Fletcher

25. Maree McIntosh

26. Rebecca Jacovou

Happy Stamping

Monique

CI #10 - It's Autumn

Welcome to another Colour INKspiration challenge, 

Aren't the inspiration images for this week's challenge just divine, and quite fitting for the cooler weather we are experiencing here in the southern hemisphere. The colours for the challenge are

• Cajun Craze
• Island Indigo
• Smokey Slate
• Delightful Dijon

I love how these colours work together and were perfect for playing with some of my new products from the 2017/18 Annual Catalogue.  I have used the Colorful Seasons stamp set and coordinating framelits which are gorgeous and are perfect for use all year round.  I did use the little leaves from Perpetual Birthday Calendar  on the background, they were too perfect not to.

  

Time to hop on over and see what Elizabeth has created.

    

Don't forget to join in by adding a picture of your project to the CI Facebook Page.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #129 - Favourite Annual Catalogue Project

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Blog Hop, this week we are taking a last look at the projects in the Annual Catalogue for our inspiration. 

 I chose the above image on page 113, I love the softness of this project.

I decided to keep with the green theme from the original project, but wanted a darker look so chose Wild Wasabi instead. I have a friend at work who loves the colour green, so I am going to give her this for her desk, hopefully the lovely sentiment from Colorful Seasons will help on those stressful days!

  

We would love you to join in this week, just chose any project from the Annual Catalogue and use it to you inspire your creation, and as a photo of it to the #129 Album on the CTC Facebook Page.  

  

Time to hop on over and see what Kelly has been inspired to create this week.

Happy Stamping

Monique

CTC #128 - Inspirational Kits

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty, this week the team are taking inspiration from the many kits in either of the current catalogues. 

One of my favourite kits can be found on page 159 of the Annual Catalogue, the Perfectly Wrapped Kit. I loved the versatility of this kit with four different options for gift wrapping, and a great matching stamp set. I took particular inspiration from the gift box on the far left of the above image.

I didn't have any black striped cardstock or paper so I improvised with the Floral Boutique Designer Washi Tape with a 1cm spacing between the strips. For the flower used the retiring set Crazy About You alternating matching ink and Versamark on both Tangerine Tango and Peekaboo Peach to get the varying tones of colour. I added leaves punched from Emerald Envy using the Festive Flower Builder Punch.

  

I hope we have inspired you to join in the challenge this week, if so follow the link to the CTC Facebook page and add a picture of your project to this weeks album.

  

Time to hop on over and see what Mel has been inspired to create this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique

Winter is Coming

As a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator I am lucky enough to order and play with some of the new catalogue products before the catalogue goes live on 1 June.  The one I want to share with you today is the stamps, framelits and papers from the Colour Theory Suite of products.

This beach chair is one of the framelits in the set, and when I showed it to my hubby he looked at it and said that it reminded him of the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones.  Ever since then I have wanted to create a card with this in mind.

While not a perfect Iron Throne, I think I did a pretty good job of creating an image that a GOT fan would recognise. And my hubby thinks it looks great! The image on the medallion is something I found on the internet and just printed onto Whisper White cardstock before cutting it out with the Layering Circles framelits, and adding some coordinating Dapper Denim ribbon.  The background paper is from the Colour Theory DSP which I have stamped with two of the snowflakes from the Colourful Seasons stamp set.

Now to find the right occassion for this card!

Happy Stamping

Monique

CTC #127 - Favorite Retiring Product

Welcome to another CASEing the Catty Blog Hop, this week we are taking our inspiration from one of our favourite retiring products.  I have to say this was no easy task as there are quite a few products that are retiring that I am really going to miss.

I did however decide on the Serene Scenery DSP and Scenic Sayings stamp set, I think I chose these not because they are necessarily my favourite retiring product (I think that is Gorgeous Grunge), but because they are so beautiful and coordinate so well together. I also think that like many DSPs that I buy I avoid using them because they are so beautiful, I asked myself "If not now, when?".

I couldn't choose between the projects that inspired me on page 102 of the catlogue, so I decided to make 3 of them. I love the natural photo realistic images on the DSP and how well they coordinate with the less realistic reverse side of the papers.

My first card was inspired by a home decor item, but I think it is really cute as a card as well. Stamping directly onto the DSP is something many of us just don't think to do, but this sentiment really pops when it is heat embossed using White Embossing Powder. The faux washi tape is just small strips of one of the papers in the stack, I think this is a great way to use papers as well.

My second project was made using a Vellum bag cut from Vellum and the painted wood DSP adhered to a piece of cardstock that can be slid out with the message.  I think one of the things I love about these challenges is that not only do they make me look more closely at the catalogue, they make me look really closely at the images to see how the creative team have put a project together. Here a banner of DSP behind the focal sentiment adds a subtle layer to the project.

My final card makes me think of sunny days lying on grass at a park looking up through the leaves, what better image to use on a congratulations card particularly for someone who has just finished studies and now can kick back and enjoy their sunny days instead of having their head in a book! Again the use of small strips of DSP behind the main image adds texture in a fun sort of way. You will be seeing more of this from me in the future.

  

I hope you are inspired to join in with the team this week, just share a project inspired by one of your favourite retiring products and link it to the CTC Facebook page, don't forget to add your picture to this week's album. Not a member yet? Just ask to join and one of the admin will add you to the group.

  

Time to hop on over to see what Julia has been inspired to create this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique

ESAD - Eastern Palace Blog Hop

Welcome to the ESAD Eastern Palace Suite Blog Hop. This is an amazing suite of products from the 2017/18 Annual Catalogue but are available now to purchase in one of two bundles. Contact your local demonstrator or visit my store if you are interested in getting one of them for yourself.

This bundle is truly amazing, the images in the stamp set and the framelits coordinate so very well not only together as most bundles do, but also with each other, with stamps able to be used together to create some wonderfully intricate images as I am sure this blog hop will show.

 My first project is a gate fold card which I made after playing with some of the stamps to see how they would work together, building on the simple 6-sided flower image with the cute swirly image stamped on each petal and then the burst of dots nestles around the outside of the petals.   I wanted to pair this image with some of the Eastern Palace DSP but discovered the papers I wanted to use didn't have any of the Lemon Lime Twist, not to be discouraged I decided to add a stamped image to the centre of the circles on the left panel and dots to the centre of the flowers on the right panel. 

 My second project was so much fun to make, starting with the Window Box framelits that will be carrying over into the new catalogue. Once I had cut out the box parts I used two of the raised petal framelits on the sides and top of the box.  After cutting out the side panels I added the same swirl to the petals that I used in the first card.  A small circle of glimmer paper in the center of each little flower, and under the top of the box added some much needed sparkle.  The cut outs needed something else to make them pop and it was my hubby who suggested that I add some white  to the edges, which I did with Craft White ink, sponging just the edges.  I think it really added to the project. 

My final project started out as a completely different card, but by following what "looked right" I traveled down the path on which the flower reminded me of a Christmas poinsettia. After some playing around I decided upon a fairly simple layout, leaving a lot of open space on the card.

Here you can see a close up of the flower, I used one of the beautiful vinyl stickers on a piece of Cherry Cobbler cardstock before cutting it out with the flower and the coordinating petal Framelit that I used on the box above. I love how these stickers coordinate so well with the framelits. I also cut a solid flower and off-set it behind the vinyl cut out one.  For the leaves I chose one of the very intricate framelits from the Paisley Framelits.

  

Time to hop on over to see what Ellen has created with this amazing suite of products

Happy Stamping
Monique