ESAD Seasonal Blog Hop 2013

Welcome to another Blog Hop brought to you by the talented ladies at ESAD, you might have started at my blog or you might have hopped on over from the talented Jenny at Stampin by the Seat of my Pants. To hop to the next blog just follow the link at the bottom of my post and enjoy the creations featuring items from the latest Seasonal catalogue.

For my creations I wanted to prepare a set of cards using the same basic elements and layout, but with some minor differences, the main feature in all of these cards is the a la carte stamps "Just Thinking" (p 21). I hope you enjoy my creations and are inspired to try some of these techniques yourself.

I love this stamp as it is really quite versatile.  In this card I have stamped onto another product in the new catalogue the white Canvas Creations (p 21), these sheets have a lovely textured surface and are just wonderful with this stamp.  After stamping with Early Espresso I allowed it to dry before colouring the outer textured portion with my Stampin' Write Markers, the canvas surface takes the colour really well.  I have also used the new Borders Scoring Plate (p 26) to create the scallop embossed images.

For the next three cards I have substituted the sentiment in the centre of the stamp with stamps from a range of different Stampin' Up! sets.  For this one I used the lovely flower branch from Elements of Style.  After stamping and colouring the image I then ran it through the Big Shot using the Square Lattice folder which gives it, and the other following images, a tapestry look that fits so beautifully with this stamp.

This card uses the same technique but with the stand of flowers from Just Believe.  I have also added to all of these cards one of the Delicate Doilies (p 5), they are so economical at just $4.95 for a packet of 24! I have used some distressing on both the doily and the base card to give a more aged look, I was very happy with the way this one turned out.  

 For my last card I have used Serene Silhouettes, again cutting the centre piece from Very Vanilla and running through the embossing folder. I have also used the Borders Scoring Plate on the top of this card, however this time I have used the 'valley' of the embossing and highlighted it with small pearls.  On all of the cards you might also have noticed the Flower Trim and added a pearl to the centre of each to give more of a vintage feel to them.  You may have noticed that the flower on the first card was smaller than the rest, this is achieved by using your heat tool on the flower to gently shrink it. Again this Flower Trim is very economical and very versatile as they come on a strip of netting that allows you to either use in a row or individually  the 1.8m of flowers gives you approximately 90 flowers for only $11.95 (p 5), with that many you will be adding them to all your projects!  They are also very easy to colour using markers or re-inkers to match any project. 

I hope you have enjoyed these creations if you don't have a current demonstrator and would like to purchase any of these, or other Stampin' Up! products you can do so through my on-line store by following the link on the top left of this blog.

Now it is time to hop on over to see what lovely creations Narelle has for you at Simply Stampin. Then keep hopping around all of the lovely creations the ESAD ladies have created to showcase the wonderful products in the Seasonal 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 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 contact me for an invitation to this wonderful group.

Happy Stamping

Ginger Jar

Time for another play with Apothecary Accents Framelits dies,  I CASEd this card from one Sharon at Created By You.  Sharon called this a "bell jar" but I know them as ginger jars, a friend of mine had a couple of them that she had turned into bedside light bases.  For my card I chose a base of Midnight Muse with an embossed layer of Bashful Blue.

Because these jars are made of ceramics I chose to use Glossy White card stock, and because of the more juicy nature of the new style ink pads I was able to use some clear embossing powder to give it a glossy look too.  The lid of the jar I stamped and embossed as well, the touch of pearls seemed to fit right for me, although the traditional ginger jars I know didn't have them.  

Happy Stamping

Luck of the Irish ...

Here we are again with another challenge at Paper Lovin' Gals, and this week there is a touch of the Irish in the inspirational picture. As always you can take inspiration from anything about this picture at all, initially I was going to go down the path of four leaf clovers and green and white, but then I read the sign and saw the date March 17th and my card choice was clear.

17th of March is actually my sister-in-law's birthday so this week I made her a birthday card.  To keep that little touch of the Irish about the card I did use Wild Wasabi! I also used two of the new framelits that are coming to Australia and New Zealand in the next mini catalogue on 1st April, I just love these shapes these are the second and third biggest in the set of 6 - which means over the last week I have shown projects with almost all of them!  There is a nice set of stamps to go with them but I chose to use Elements of Style, cutting the bird out separately and adhering to the main image so it's wings were over the edge to give it more of a look of swooping into grab the nectar out of the flowers.  You can also see some of the very cute pleated ribbon that is also making an appearance in our next mini catalogue!

Don't forget to pop over to the Paper Lovin' Gals blog to see what the other Design Team members have created to inspire you to join in this week.

Happy Stamping

Retirement Card

I don't know if you remember the card I put up on Sunday with the spotlighting technique on it, and I mentioned that I had thought of using the little bird from the set?  Well this is the card that the little bird ended up on!

I love water colouring this image, so stamped with StazOn ink onto Water Colour Paper, designed specifically for water colouring.  I stamped the background with the flourish from Creative Elements in Old Olive, and masked an area for the sentiment.  I then reverse masked the area and sponged it with Old Olive to make more of a frame around the sentiment.  I was thinking of making this a sympathy card, but ended up going with retirement instead.  

Happy Stamping

Beautiful Butterflies

This weekend I have the house to myself, which is something that almost never happens.  I started the day by doing a bit of housework, mostly to justify spending the rest of my day creating!  Unfortunately you will have to wait a little while to see most of my creations as I was working on projects for the ESAD Blog Hop to celebrate the start of Sale-A-Bration, so pop back on 24th to check them out.

I did get make a couple of other things that I can show you, the first of which was a card inspired by three challenge blogs - the colours are from the challenge at Colour Q, the sketch is from Freshly Made Sketches, and I am also joining in Stampin' Royalty's challenge to add fabric to a project.

I was a bit worried the Flirtatious fabric wouldn't go with the image, but after cutting some strips 1.5cm wide I frayed the edges and then added some pearls and I think it actually goes quite well.  The image of course is from Elements of Style which I stamped on water colour paper and coloured using my Aqua Painters.  I finished off with some butterflies and more pearls.  I have left a sentiment off this card it would be a good card for a number of occasions - Birthday, Thank You, Mother's Day, even a Sympathy card.

Happy Stamping

Silhouettes and Dresser Draws

Well it is definitely 2012, and it seems time is flying faster this year than last! Another week has gone by and so I have another inspirational picture from Paper Lovin' Gals for you.  

I love this old dresser, doesn't it have great character?  I was initially going to get very crafty and actually try and re-create a set of draws but I didn't quite have the time to do that, so I decided to utalise the draws on the dresser for inspiration.  Then I saw the challenge at City Crafter Challenge Blog which is to use a black silhouette image, and I knew which stamp I would use.

I recently used this stamp from Just Believe on another card and have decided I love it in silhouette, this time instead of little butterflies, I added some pearls to the centre of the flowers to give it some lift.  The little black brads are similar to the knobs on the draws and I like what they add to the card.  I also wanted to pick up some of the blue from the wall behind the dresser and so used Night of Navy ribbon and stamped the sentiment from Elements of style in it also.

I hope you have enjoyed my creation make sure you pop over to Paper Lovin' Gals and check out the creations the Design Team have come up with.  As usual you can use anything in the picture to inspire your creation, so let your creativity run wild and join us.

Happy Stamping

Bird of Friendship

Isn't this a cute picture?  It's the inspiratinal picture from Paper Lovin' Gals this week and I used it as well as the sketch from Stamping 411 for my card this week.  Come and play along taking anything from the picture you like to inspire your creativity.  It certainly wasn't the snow that inspired me as I sit here in the middle of an Australian summer with the air conditioner on lol.  But that is the great thing about having a picture, you can take whatever you like, layout, colours, theme, or a combination to inspire your creativity.

I was so excited when I saw the stamp set Language of Friendship in the 2011-12 Stampin' Up! catalogue, I just love my 2-Step Bird Punch and this set fits perfectly with him, there is even a stamp to give him legs!  In my card however I see him just taking off in flight from the vines, so he doesn't need legs.   I wanted a touch of the deep red of the berries so used Cherry Cobbler to colour in the flowers and the detail near the bird's eye.  The sentiment is also from the Language of Friendship set, and the vines are from Elements of Style.

Pop over to Paper Lovin' Gals to see what the rest of the design team have made to help inspire you this week then join in with us.

Happy Stamping

Vintage Mashup

When I submitted my entry for the Friday Mash Up challenge #38 I noticed that they were leaving the entries for challenge #37 open until next week!  I was a bit intrigued by this challenge which was to use chipboard or distressing techniques, or mash them up and make a card using both distressing and chipboard. I am also entering this card into the 4 Crafty Chics challenge to use something new - new DSP from the upcoming Sale-A-Bration event.

For this post I have taken a few photos to show off different aspects of this card., this first one shows the card completely closed. I knew I wanted to use some of the DSP that is going to be available as part of Sale-A-Bration 2012, there are so many colours in this paper stack but I chose to keep it fairly simple and use two that use Calypso Coral and Pool Party.  The smaller butterfly is cut from DSP adhered to chipboard and then put through the Big Shot, the larger butterfly has been cut using the same die but with DSP only.  I added the sentiment and Crochet Trim to keep with the vintage feel of the card.

I wanted to take a close up of the butterfly accent because it shows off the distressing that I did.  I have to say I struggled a bit with this because I don't usually use distressing techniques.  I decided to use two on this card, one was to crumple the big butterfly and then drag the Crumb Cake ink pad over the creases to highlight them - I was a bit nervous about this but was happy with how it turned out.  On both of the butterflies I sanded back the edges of the DSP to give it a worn look. 

Now to the card itself ...  This picture shows the card partially open.  This was such a fun card to make and was the tutorial by Patty Bombyk and is featured on Splitcoaststampers this week, I wanted to try something a bit different and this certainly fit the bill.  The top 2/3 of the card opens up and the bottom splits in half and opens sideways!  

Here is a picture of the inside to show both how it opens and the insert I made.  I don't usually make an insert for my cards, but this one just needed something on the inside.  I am not sure if it was the expanse of Calypso Coral, or the general vintage feel of the card, but it seemed bare, so I added a piece of Pool Party card stock sponged around the edges and used the image from Creative Elements to create a border at the top and bottom.

Happy Stamping

Treat Yourself ...

Paper Lovin' Girls  #4

This is my first creation as part of the Design Team for Paper Lovin' Gals, and what a great picture we have this week to inspire your creativity.  You can use the colours, lay out, or just pick one feature of the photo and use it to inspire your creation.  I just love all those balls hanging down and knew immediately they would be my inspiration and the focal point of  the card.

I made these balls from some of the DSP paper stacks, there was of course a limit to the number I could fit on the card, so I stopped at three!!!  The scene in the picture made me want a room just like this so that I could just spend the whole day in bed reading, dozing and nibbling on chocolate.  With this in mind I knew exactly which sentiment I wanted to put with this card "treat yourself like your own best company".  The bed cover reminded me of the new SU fabric from the Beau Chateau collection and I just had to re-create that centre cushion by using a button and pearl.

I hope you join us in this week's challenge, pop over to Paper Lovin' Gals blog and see what the other talented DT members have made to inspire you this week. 

Happy Stamping

Secret Sister Swap - Crafters Anonymous

Today I want to share the first of my Secret Sister gifts.  A Secret Sister Swap is one in which you make a card and/or gift for someone but they have no idea who you are until the end of the swap.  Some are done over three months and some are just a one item swap.  I am currently in 2 such swaps, one through Crafters Anonymous and one with a group of fellow demonstrators at Extra Special Australasian Stampin' Up! Demonstrators, and I will be sharing all my 'happy mail' with you.

These are from my Secret Sister in the Crafter's Anonymous swap, aren't they beautiful?  The little box on at the back has a beautiful scented candle in it the fragrance is Orchidberry, and is a similar colour to Rich Razzleberry so now I will always think of this scent when I see that colour!  The item at the back right is a covered 2012 calendar, a month to a page, so great to have in your handbag to keep track of special dates.  The two flowers are actually two magnet clips with the beautiful die-cut flowers adhered to the front.  Can you see the little glimmer brad in the centre of each flower? Aren't they so cute, I just have to own some now!

This was a one off swap, and so I now know who my SS was. It was the lovely Steph who is one of my on-line stamping buddies.  It was extra special to find out that it was made by a cyber friend!  I love the colours Steph has used, so soft and pretty.  

Happy Stamping

Creative Colour Sketch

I was looking around at my favourite challenge blogs, as I often do on a Friday, and found two that I thought would go well together.  Colour Q colour challenge and Stampin' Royalty sketch challenge. 

I have to say I loved the look of the colour combo but struggled a bit with putting it together myself, but decided to stick at it and I am very pleased I did.  I have to say that the sketch really helped me keep focus, I initially had the Soft Suede as the base card, but with using wrapped bakers twine I needed to add a layer, I think the Island Indigo as the base gives the card a lift, and ties the colours together.  I am LOVING the new In-Colours, I have only used two of the five on this card and can't wait to share the other three with you. 

Happy Stamping

2 Mash Ups And A Sketch

I have been trying to play along each week with the Friday Mash Up Challenges, partly because they chose me as a guest designer in May this year, but mostly because I really do enjoy them.  Last week was no exception, and I struggled a bit with it, but I forgot to post a picture and enter it!   One of the reasons was because I was hiding it from my husband, it is our 20th wedding anniversary at the end of the month so this challenge came at a great time!  Anyway here is the card, better late than never, and shhhh don't tell him what it looks like :)

Now onto this week ... 

This week the challenge was set by one of my favourite stampers and my friend Kasey!  Now if you know Kasey you only had to look at the challenge to know she was involved ...  Butterflies and Bling! and blues and purples!!!!!

Because Kasey set the challenge I just knew I wanted to do the mash up and I knew I wanted to use one of these butterflies on the card.  The only tricky thing was then choosing a layout, so off I went in search of inspiration and I found the sketch challenge at Just Add Ink!  Now this challenge was set by the lovely and talented Bronwyn Eastley, who I always think of when I see this particular butterfly die used because she has made the most beautiful easel cards with it  (I sometimes thing of her as Bronwyn Easeley!). I also took inspiration from a card Kasey had made in the past, not sucking up at all, lol.

I love the technique of layering the butterflies, we were shown at convention by Kirsty Brown, check out her blog for details, but basically you cut the big butterfly then re-position it to cut the next layer out and then add the smallest butterfly.  She also used the bleach to card stock method which I have used here (a sneaky way of getting an extra colour into a colour challenge lol).

 Here is a quick peek inside the card.  I used a masking technique so that stamps and sponging didn't get onto the area I want to write on.  I used the sentiment from Butterfly Prints as the font and words just seemed to fit well.  When I was finished I sat back and looked at my creation and it made me think of Kasey, so I figured I had done her challenge justice.

Please pop over to both Friday Mash Up and Just Add Ink to see the lovely creations by design teams and by the other entrants.

Happy Stamping

Another Challenge Project

I have a list of websites that do challenges each week, sometimes I play along, sometimes I just look at the great creations of others because who doesn't like looking at pretty things!  Yesterday while browsing the various challenges I saw two that looked nice but held no appeal for me.  That was until this morning when I got up early to watch the live feed of Angie Kenedy Juna over at Chic N Scratch, long story short I didn't get to see the live feed because due to day light savings it was 2 hours earlier than I expected, and no way I would get up at 5am anyway lol.  But ... I decided to watch the video of the stream and on it she made a cute box, up sizing a box she had previously featured in a tutorial - not sure of the name of it but it has a feature I really like (more on that later).  So I decided to give it a go, but went back to her original video of a smaller version.  From there I just went in a direction that encompassed both of the challenges, so ... here is my take on the Crazy 4 Challenges Vintage/Shabby Chic, and the Our Creative Corner 3D project with a Valentine Theme.  I have also entered it as my second entry into the Hand Stamped Sentiments add Hearts Challenge.

I started out with Blushing Bride cardstock, and then because I didn't have any DSP that was really "vintage" I stamped the branch of flowers from Elements of Style onto some Very Vanilla cardstock in Basic Gray, water colouring with Blushing Bride and Certainly Celery (a colour that I haven't used in quite some time).  I decided it needed another layer to make it stand out, and remembering why Kasey, my upline had said about Champagne Shimmer Mist on gray I decided a layer of that would frame my "dsp" nicely. 

I also wanted to add one of the pieces from my recently acquired Hodge Podge Hardware, so chose a sentiment that would fit inside one of these and added it to the top of my box.  The only thing left to do was add some hearts of course!  I had made the "clasp" for the box out of a 1/2" circle, but replaced it with a heart to keep with the theme, and it just looked so cute.  Then added some Blushing Bride and Basic Gray Hearts to the top of the box - Spritzed with Shimmer Most and punched out with my Heart Punch of course - and the project was finished.

Now the feature I love about this box ... if you don't adhere all the corners down it will lie flat!  How good is that if you want to send it in the post to someone special.  This is such a cute little box, I can see it filled with hand stamped mini cards, or a piece of jewelry, those nice coffee bags, or even some chocolates. Such a nice way to package a little gift for someone at Valentine's or any time.

Thanks for visiting my blog. 

JAI Colour Challenge 38

Well I did it again, did some more challenges this weekend.  This one is for the JAI challenge which honours the Cancer Council's national Pink Ribbon Day on 25th October. "One in every nine Australian women will be diagnosed with breast cancer by the age of 85. It could be a mother, sister, aunt, cousin, niece or friend. Whoever they are, one thing they have in common is that they will need our help and support... Pink Ribbon Day is your chance to help raise money and awareness for all Australian women affected by breast cancer."

So this week's challenge was to add Pink and Bling to a card.  I didn't struggle as much this week as last week, but pink is not normally my colour so it wasn't a walk in the park either.  I chose to use Blushing Bride, one of the new In-Colours. I like it as its a dusky pink rather than a girly girly pink!  I paired this with

Rich Razzleberry and Pear Pizazz and Old Olive.

I wanted to try something new as well so picked the small little roses I have seen on a number of cards, blissfully one had a link to Andrea's web site where she has been kind enough to include instructions.  I think they went well for a first attempt.

To add the bling I decided to apply some of my mix of Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds, I think I perhaps went a bit heavy handed, but overall was happy with the way the card turned out.