Playing with Pre-Order

One of the great things about being a Stampin' Up! demo is that I get to purchase select items from new catalogues a month before they "go live".   

There are three new items and three retiring items on this card!  The three retiring items are the Domestic Goddess DSP, the Poppy Parade card stock used as the base of the card and the Just For You sentiment from the hostess set Tagtastic.  The three new items are the cute frame in the centre from Apothecary Accents Framelits - this is a set of 4 frames of varying shapes and sizes, I can guarantee you will see these lots more on my cards in the future.  The second new item is one of the new In-Colour markers used to colour in the flowers in the sentiment, and finally, a bit harder to find, is the little triple flower stamp that I stamped in VersaMark on the base card.  I wanted something to give some life to the background card and realised that this little stamp was a great match for the flowers on the DSP.

Off to have more of a play with my new items!

Happy Stamping

Another SS Gift

I hope you liked the last lot of things my Secret Sister sent to me, I know I did :)  This time I want to share with you my October gift which completely blew me away.  Isn't she a clever lady! I want to show you each of them separately so you can see what work has gone into them.

 Firstly the little packet of thank you cards.  These are the ones I copied for my last workshop I was so taken by them.  My SS has used the Morning Mocha Speciality paper, why is it special? Because the black pattern is made from velvet, it feels amazing - I am quite tactile and just love the richness of these.  She has even stamped the bag topper with the matching stamp from Elements of Style set.

 The next part of the gift was a cute little soap in a tin, which my lovely SS has decorated with the same DSP. The soap is scented lightly with Grapefruit and Mandarin and smells so fresh, I think I will just take it out of the wrapper and leave it on my desk to add the soft citrus scent to the room.

Finally this is a beautiful 2012 diary which has been covered with the same amazing paper, it almost is too good to use ... almost!  But good news is I have been able to put my first workshop booking for 2012 in it already so the timing was great.  The ribbon on the front with the flower is actually a bookmark made from a length of ribbon, a hair elastic, and the beautiful flower.  I have been wanting to try one of these for a while (on my very very long to do list), they are so neat. The hair elastic allows some give in the book mark for when you are sliding it over the pages.

Here is a close up of the flower, you can see my SS has embossed it with the Petals-A-Plenty embossing folder, and cut the layers of the flower with the Fun Flowers Big Shot Die. You might not be able to see in the picture but she has actually cut them out of black leather, and then spritzed them to give that effect, they look so great in person, and the Antique Brad in the centre of the flower is a great finishing touch.

As you can imagine I feel pretty spoiled right now, I can't wait to find out who made these lovely gifts for me. We have the big reveal at the end of November so I don't have to wait too much longer.

Happy Stamping

Workshop Cards

I wanted to take some time out from challenges to share a couple of projects that I presented at two workshops I did recently.  I love doing workshops and sharing new techniques with people, because I know how much I love it when I get shown something new.

Belinda's Card

My Take on Belinda's Card

The first one is a card inspired by a fellow Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Belinda Neil, I kept most of the card identical to hers but changed the colours because I wanted to showcase the bleaching technique.  I used Baja Breeze for the base and Soft Suede for the embossed panel.  I just love the satin ribbon put on as a little feature.  I think the "Just For You" stamp from Tagtastic set is such a good stamp to show off the bleaching technique because of that lovely banner in the centre.

This is the project from the second workshop I did, also using the Tagtastic stamp set.  The cards were inspired by the lovely Secret Sister gift I received in October (I will post a picture of that in the next few days), and the little card holder was inspired by something we were shown at our Regional training day - I told you I love learning new things!  The little card holder is made from the Two Tags die and holds 4 little 3"x3" cards and envelopes.  I used the bleaching on the embossing as well on the stamp to highlight it.  

The little cards are quite easy to make, the embossed oval is the perfect size to hold a piece of DSP or even a stamped image punched out with the large oval punch.  For these ones I punched the flourish from one of the sheets in the Beau Château Designer Series Paper.

Happy Stamping