ESAD Blog Hop: Sending Off The 2020 Mini Catalogue

Welcome to another ESAD Blog Hop, can you believe it's time to say goodbye to our holiday favourites from the 2020 Mini Catalogue? To me it doesn't yet feel like Christmas so it doesn't seem time to see this catalogue finish up, although it is a sign that 2020 will soon be behind us.  Don't get me wrong there have been some great things happen this year, of which my favourite is the engagement of our daughter to the most wonderful guy.  

Anyway onto the creativity ... I decided that it has been a little while (three years!!) since I created a Christmas themed frame, and I had some requests from my regular customers for us to do another one this year.  I decided to base it on the Most Wonderful Time product medley that we had used in another class a couple of months ago. One thing 2020 has made me realise is that I need to use the products I have without just buying new ones for every project!

I used a similar layout to the frame I created in 2017 (you can find that post here), but instead of having 9 frames I designed it with 8 squares and then a feature in the centre.  Along side the Most Wonderful Time medley I have used some of the other products in the Mini Catalogue including Wrapped In Christmas stamp set, Poinsettia Dies, Christmas Gleaming Punches, Peace & Joy Bundle, Heartwarming Hugs DSP, Forever Gold Laser-Cut Specialty Paper, Banners Pick a Punch, Tasteful Labels Dies, Layering Circles Dies, Layering Squares Dies!  Don't be daunted though, you could create this using whatever you have on hand. 

My strategy for this frame was to create the 8 panels with a feature later 3"x 3" layered onto Soft Sea Foam measuring 3-1/4" x 3-1/4".  Once I had created 9 of these (I made a spare), I laid them out on Real Red or Old Olive squares measuring 3-1/2" x 3-1/2". By doing this without sticking down the Soft Seafoam layer it allowed me to move the squares around until I was happy with the overall layout, and I have to say that took longer than expected as I worked out a way to have the two squares with presents on them not together and the "Peace, Joy and Bright" layers separated in a sensible way!  I am however very happy with the overall result.

 

Here is a close up of the centre image, using the Poinsettia layer over the gold foil. The use of this gold piece was a bit of an accident that happened at the class as I was planning to use the more wreath like piece of gold, but one of my attendees picked this one off the sheet and it looked soooo much better!  The gem in the centre is a retired one but worked too well not to use. 

I also wanted to talk about this panel a little as I used the presents stamp from the product medley but only stamped the ribbon section onto DSP. If you look closely you can see that I trimmed off the presents to be more square and layered these onto embossed ribbons stamped on whisper white which gave the gifts a much more realistic look. I also used a white gel pen to add a touch of snow onto the tree.

I also wanted to show you this frame that my daughter made instead of the one the rest of the class did.  She has a themed Christmas each year, and this year it is themed around the Nightmare Before Christmas movie. The Magic In This Night suite was just perfect, right down to the pinstriped DSP in the pack which is very much like Jack's suit.  Samantha did sneak in a few more retired products, and based her frame more closely on the one we created in 2017 with a few very similar elements.  I love how different this is and how well it will go with her other decorations this year, and I can't wait to see what she does with the rest of the suite to decorate her home. 

  

So between Samantha and myself we have certainly done justice to many of the wonderful products in the 2020 August to December Mini Catalogue don't you think?  Now it's time to continue the hop and see what the other ESAD team members have created, the next stop is Shannon.

• Nicole Wilson
• Denise Buetler
• Cheryl Algie
• Narelle Fasulo
• Lou Kitzelman
• Libby Dyson
• Melissa Gifford
• Leonie Schroder
• Sue Vine
• Monique Fielder <--- you are here
• Shannon Kissane
• Maree McIntosh
• Kelly Kent
• Odette Kermode

Happy Stamping
Monique